"We each get to be in the world a time. And I've had mine. It can be tough. It can be ugly. But I'm grateful for the journey and what I've stumbled across along the way. I found faith. I found family."

Oh, wow. Someone is out to break my heart.
And it worked.

I, and everyone else in the Firefly-fandom I reckon, love Shepherd Book. He is, aside from being a wonderful character, also the type of religious person I wish we saw more of. The type who found peace and strength with God, someone who doesn't try to convert you, but try to help you find peace as well.
And how did he become this person? This character we love so much? What happened to make him so patient, so understanding, so mysteriously good at kicking people's kneecaps in?
You will soon know.

This book does an amazing job with his story. Anyone who watched Firefly wondered what it was about Shepherd Book. WHO he really was. And this answers all those questions in a more than satisfactory manner. You needn't have worried, Zack - this is perfect (seriously, you manage to do all of that convincingly in 56 pages = skills).

It made me cry, too. Not a lot, but a little.
Of all the characters, he is probably the one with the greatest burden. And it makes everything that comes later - his time with the Serenity-crew - much more moving; to think that this man, who has been so lost, so utterly alone, finally found a place he could belong.

I might be fortunate, though, because I never made up any definitive background story for Shepherd Book on my own (mostly because that never ends well when something like this comes out). So where others might get disappointed, I only relished in finally knowing. Good for me!

Shepherd was dear to me before, but he's even more dear to me now.
I loved this.