Warning: Spoilers abound in this review

I didn't want to read this graphic novel. I, like most fans of Firefly, was always quite intrigued by the character of Book. Some great hints, some subtle, some not, that all was certainly not as it seemed with this normally mild-mannered wandering religious man were scattered throughout the series. After hearing that the movie Serenity was green-lit, I, and many others, thought that perhaps we would get some answers. Instead, we saw his answer-free death (complete with the cry of "Nooo!!!" from many a fan, and you can be assured that said cry was more authentic and heartfelt than any provided by Darth Vader in Episode III).

At first, this caused yet more disappointment, because it seemed certain we would not get the answers we wanted. But the more I thought about it, the more I was okay with that. It was fun to speculate, particularly with the main antagonist of the movie being a super-secret-agent known only as "The Operative". Was Book perhaps a former operative himself? Or the nemesis of the operatives? Someone even higher-up in the Alliance, perhaps? Possibilities seemed endless, and gave yet more for fans to discuss for years to come ('cause that's what good fans do!).

And then this graphic novel came out, and I feared what I would find inside. It had been long enough since the series and movie that I wondered if any backstory for Book would be good enough, or if the speculation on Book's background had reached a point that anything less than discovering him being the leader of all Operatives and founder of the Companion Academy and the reason the Reavers were what they were and, I dunno, the sole cause of the destruction of Earth-That-Was would be the cause of much displeasure, distress, and discontent.

Alas, various "dis" words it is. Book was not the secret power behind all things in the 'Verse. Okay, I didn't really expect that he would be, but was still rather disappointed with the actual truth displayed within the pages of The Shepherd's Tale.

The graphic novel reads as a series of flashbacks, each showing important scenes of Book's life, starting from the attack that led to his death in Serenity, jumping back several years at a time until eventually reaching his original home life and the reasons he started out on his journey to begin with.

So what is the big hidden secret that fans had been clamoring to know? Book (not his real name, as it turns out) was a mole for the rebellion within the Alliance who had risen up in the officer ranks to some unknown level where he was able to orchestrate the loss of an entire Alliance cruiser. Doing so caused him to be discharged from the Alliance where he stumbled along in life before finding religion. That's it. Woo. I mean, the story is fine, I guess, but it seems so... generic. It doesn't feel like there’s a big "ah-HA!" moment or anything, other than perhaps the fact he was a mole for the rebellion. I don't believe we ever heard about this great Browncoat victory/Massacre of the Alliance, so it wasn't like we could be all "Oh, that was him?!".

On one hand, I suppose the back story works well enough, providing motivation and answers. We find an abused teenager who leaves home, runs into trouble with the law, and finds an outlet for his anger by joining the rebels. He causes a lot of deaths in doing his duty, and eventually turns to religion to, I guess, make amends.

The problem is that it doesn't quite seem to fit what little we did know of his character. For instance (and I'm going to get all geeky and specific here), in the Firefly episode "Safe" (01.05), Book is shot and the crew have to turn to the Alliance for medical help. The Alliance officers refuse to help until they scan Book's ID card, and then immediately jump to help (one of the better "oooh, what's up with that?!" moments for Book's character on the show). If he was kicked out of the Alliance as seen in this graphic novel, it doesn't make much sense to me why the crew of the cruiser would have leapt to help him upon discovering his identity. Oh well.

As a graphic novel in general -- the illustration is fine, with a styling and coloring that fits the show and atmosphere well enough. The writing leaves a little to be desired, though, which is disappointing considering not one but two Whedon's were involved. The dialogue is mostly story-driven and thus nothing special. The few scenes that have the crew of Serenity are done well, and what little dialogue they all have fits the characters well. But overall there isn't nearly enough wit and clever writing as one would expect from a Whedon-written comic.

Bottom line... this isn't a bad graphic novel. It's just disappointing, and could have been so much more. Perhaps someone who hadn't built up his/her own mental backstory for Shepherd Book due to extreme Firefly-addiction might end up with a more positive outlook on this novel, though. If that sounds like you, then by all means, give it a shot.
 
  -- K. Burtt