Serenity Volume 3: The Shepherd's Tale

This short book (only 48 pages of story) does what it sets out to, it's a prequel to the Serenity movie, filling in Shepherd Book's mysterious background in a series of short flashbacks taking us in stages backwards from the Serenity movie back to his childhood. This obviously means that the rest of the Firefly crew barely appear, but then this is Shepherd's story, not a Firefly episode. While Book's back-story is something viewers have been waiting for for a long time it's presented here as a series of events rather than as a story, so rather than a tale in which we learn about Book's dark past, instead we get his life flashing before him, which may have worked beautifully within the context of a larger story, but her it feels a bit like reading a resume.The artwork is lovely inky brushwork by Chris Samnee, with colour by Dave Stewart, reminding me a lot of Batman Year One. The art's nice & clear & easy to follow (unlike a lot of modern comics) & Samnee nicely captures Book's likeness (the brief cameos of the other Firefly characters fare less well, relying on clothes & hair colour to identify them, but it's still clear who's who).The story by Zack Whedon is based on an outline by Joss Whedon (judging by comments in Zack's Afterword Joss' outline was probably extremely sparse), so don't expect anything recognizable as Joss Whedon's work (no funny bits or quirky language, not even any imaginative cursing in Chinese).Overall this is a nice read with excellent art, that fills us in on the backstory that the TV series never got a chance to tell, but the brevity of the book means that this feels more like information than entertainment. This is not the way the story would've been told if it had been told in the Firefly series, but it's the only option we've got. So 5 stars for finally giving us the backstory we've been waiting for, but cut back to 3 for not feeling like a lost episode of Firefly.Maybe it would've worked better as an audio adventure read by Ron Glass (Book in the series), similair to the Doctor Who audios.

I spent every episode of 'Firefly' wondering who Shepherd Book really was; he obviously had skills beyond those expected of a preacher. I loved the way that this graphic novel peels back the layers to show not only how he found God in a bowl of soup, but how he gained all those skills we catch glimpses of, how he came to have the I.D. that gained top class medical treatment from the Alliance.To go with the well constructed storyline, this novel offers some excellent art-work that is worth taking your time over. Although it takes us back in time to reveal how Book came to be, it stays true to the characters created by Whedon.A thoroughly excellent read that I would recommend to anyone.

I'm a bit of a secret sci-fi fan - I don't enjoy all of it, and I prefer fantasy, but I love Serenity and Firefly. It helps that my other half likes it too, and it's nice to have something we both enjoy. I am a comic book and graphic novel fan too, and when I saw this for a very reasonable price, I had to get it. It's a fantastically written little bio of Shep, and I couldn't put it down. The only down side is that it's not very long, but on the flip side, this does allow for your imagination to fill in the gaps without having to make too much up for yourself. Definitely worth reading, but if you're not a collector, I'd see if you can borrow it from someone

Tells the story of Shepard before he meets the rest of the crew through beautiful illustrations.Not a long story, can finish it within 10 -30 mins depending on how fast you can read.A must get for anyone who's a fan of the show and film.

The artwork is fantastic and the story is well written and fills in a lot of the blanks and answers questions about shepherd book's past. Additionally Dorian's Day France the seller I bought from was very helpful whenever I had questions.