Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly: A Traveler's Companion to the 'Verse

Hidden Universe Travel Guides #4

by Marc Sumerak, Livio Ramondelli (Illustrator)

Dive into the vast Firefly ’Verse—from the Central Planets out to the Rim and beyond—with the guidance of the Serenity crew.

Want to know where Reavers roam, the best places to hide out from Alliance patrols, or the shiniest spot for a friendly bar brawl on Unification Day? This truthsome travel guide will help you navigate your way through the Black, from Core planets such as Ariel to the outlaw badlands of the Rim worlds. Featuring a mighty amount of insight on the history, geography, and culture of these far-flung worlds, Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly: A Traveler's Companion to the ’Verse takes fans on a whirlwind tour of the many worlds visited by the intrepid crew of Serenity.

With in-depth information on each known world in the ’Verse, in addition to annotations by Captain Malcolm Reynolds and the rest of the crew, this informative guide is also lavishly illustrated with concept art, original illustrations, and images from the show. Comprehensive, informative, and hugely entertaining, Hidden Universe Travel Guides: Firefly: The ’Verse is the ultimate companion to the entire gorramn ’Verse. 

Firefly TM & © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2018

About the author

About Marc Steven Sumerak

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting look at the world building behind the Firefly TV show. It devolved into a lot of 'this entire planet is this one thing', and even though they've all been terrformed I'm not sure that's how planet work. The whole book is designed like a travel guide, with 'handwritten' comments by the crew of Serenity. Those comments get really old, really quick. Overall, for me it was worth it to see behind the scenes of the show.

[Colleen Villasenor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun little book. It's written like an alliance-approved travel guide and says something about each of the five systems in the 'Verse. One of the most fun parts was the inclusion of notes by the Firefly crew about each place. Some were quotes from the show and some were just comments typical of what that character might say. The banter between Mal and Inara was included in the annotations. Each note was in a font representative of the character that would have written it. It was like reading a book that the crew had read and written notes in the margins of. Some notes harked back to episodes at that location, and some were just opinions. I really liked the part where Mal got so outraged about the Alliance spin on the Unification War connected to one of the locations. You could tell what each character was like just by the annotations they had "written." It made me want to watch the whole series all over again

[C.L. Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat for fans of the show! I learned so much that I didn't know about the 'verse! The crew commentary was priceless and I found myself laughing out loud several times!

[Book Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think there's now officially more Firefly in books than there ever was on tv.

This book gives a brief(very brief) summary of every planet in the 'Verse and some information on their stars and moons.
I'm sure we all wish there was more than a page or two per planet but they do cover 74 planets and it's the most detail we've gotten about the Firefly universe by far.
One bad thing is that it heavily uses the sci-fi trope of single use planets, making each planet seem like barely a city.

But it's still really interesting and a must-have for Firefly fans.

[Milan Pohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Po nedávné příručce k lodi třídy Firefly vychází druhá "in-universe" publikace z téhož seriálového světa, tentokrát koncipovaná jako turistický průvodce po univerzu Firefly/Serenity (a opět doprovázená vpiskami posádky Serenity).

Plusy:
+ Jedná se zatím o nejdetailnější vhled do univerza Firefly/Serenity, jakého se nám dostalo. Číselných informací (jaký průměr má ta která planeta, jak jsou od sebe daleko, jakou mají populaci) je tu pomálu, zato je tu charakteristika všech hlavních světů ze seriálu, dokonce včetně několika z komiksů. Někdy včetně doporučeného ubytování či turistických zajímavostí.
+ Kniha je doprovázena skutečně velkým množstvím ilustrací, mnohdy poskytujících vůbec první vizuální ztvárnění toho kterého světa.

Mínusy:
- Obrázky nemají popisky (to platí dokonce i pro dvoustrany s náhledem dílčích soustav univerza Firefly/Serenity, takže z nich není na pohled poznat, která planeta je která).
- V publikaci jsou některé prvky, které iluzi "in-universe" turistického průvodce narušují. Především je to sazba, která jako by záměrně ponechávala mezi některými odstavci volné řádky pro vpisky členů posádky. Dále zarazí velmi viditelně "zcenzurovaná" Miranda - opravdu by Aliance ve 26. století prováděla cenzuru tímto neohrabaným způsobem, po němž by v podstatě bylo nadále vidět, co bylo zcenzurováno?

Kniha rozvíjí kosmologii univerza Firefly s terraformovanými "desítkami planet a stovkami měsíců" v duchu původního seriálu, se všemi výhodami a úskalími, které to přináší, navíc při plném respektování dosavadních publikací. Prospělo by jí více mapek a faktografických údajů, ovšem nádherné ilustrace a kulturní a historické informace tento nedostatek bohatě vynahrazují.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not only a great glimpse into the worldbuilding and lore created by the show and movie, it’s also extremely helpful for helping run the Serenity RPG! I’ve used a lot of what I learned from reading this book to build my campaign sessions. There aren’t many resources available for the TTRPG system, so this book was invaluable in that regard. I also loved Book’s afterword at the end.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong, but wound up feeling rushed towards the end and fell in to the old trap of single purpose planets. Why would you terraform a world just to make it a prison planet? Also the binding of my book was poorly glued and the book was nearly falling apart by the time I finished, and I'm not tough on books, as a rule

[Eric Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is fairly useful to put into the context where the crew of the Serenity has gone through the television series, film, comics, and novels. It's been helpful in me guessing more accurately when the comics from Boom Studios have occurred during season one of "Firefly".

[Valerie Sells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another masterpiece by Marc Sumerak! A wonderful addition to all the Firefly/Serenity related books that I've read. It's informative, it's humorous, it's a must for any Browncoat who loves the 'Verse.

I can only hope I enjoy Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Complete Marvel Cosmos: With Notes by the Guardians of the Galaxy as much, since it looks very similar in style and is by the same author.