James Lovegrove has shepherded “Firefly” into books, writing four of the first five. Books six, seven and the upcoming eighth, though, are by different authors. Does book five, “Life Signs” (2021), mark the end of his run? If so, he goes out with his best novel.
Injecting long-awaited continuity
Lovegrove has mastered the Western-plus-Chinese-swearing speech rhythms and what makes for a good “Firefly” plot as well as the TV show’s writing team. Even more impressively for continuity buffs, “Life Signs” at long last tackles the syringe mystery. Joss Whedon’s writing staff had planned a plotline wherein Inara – shown injecting herself, perhaps with medicine, in the pilot episode – has a terminal illness.
The writers had played this fact close to the vest through the years – although Morena Baccarin somewhat spilled the beans in 2008 — since there was the possibility the story could be told in spinoff fiction. In “Life Signs,” it is. Of course, because this story is set before the movie, we know Inara will turn out fine. Still, Mal’s love for Inara is crystalized when he sees her withering away from cancer and will do anything to save her.
“Life Signs” (2021)
Author: James Lovegrove
Series: “Firefly” No. 5
Setting: Between “The Ghost Machine” (book No. 3) and the movie, on snowy prison planet Atata
While Lovegrove delivers this long-sought bit of continuity, and while the page-by-page readability is top-shelf, “Life Signs” isn’t quite perfect. Lovegrove forgets that “No Power in the ‘Verse” takes place after this book, and mistakenly references that comic’s thread wherein Mal is angry at Inara for having ratted out Browncoats to the Alliance during the war. Luckily, that is quickly brushed over.
And in an interesting editing error, Simon makes sure to not tell Dr. Weng his last name upon their first meeting, but later Weng calls Simon “Dr. Tam.” This made me suspicious of Weng, which is a compelling add-on, but it turns out to be accidental.
On the other hand, Lovegrove writes the nine Serenity members (Book and Inara have departed the crew, but briefly appear in the story) wonderfully, giving each of them at least a small arc. The best belongs to River, who learns to fly the ship — a skill that will be important in the film. Lovegrove lets us into her mind, but not in the scary way of most stories; after all, her psychological makeup has positives along with the negatives. Here, we explore her ability to sense current and near-future events.
Meadowlark isn’t a lemon
And Lovegrove creates an excellent new character, Meadowlark Deane, who somewhat resembles Kaylee; Jayne has fun teasing Simon about this. She immediately attaches herself to Simon on the prison planet Atata. Lovegrove perhaps had been reading the Dark Horse comics recently, because the structure of the Alliance prison planet – wherein the prisoners have free rein – calls to mind “Leaves on the Wind” (wherein Zoe is imprisoned). This time, Weng — whose experiments with nanobots could save Inara — is the rescue target of Mal, Zoe, Jayne and Simon.
And Bea, a perky freedom fighter similar to Meadowlark, is also introduced in “Leaves on the Wind.” Despite being broadly familiar, Meadowlark is fascinating because she seems too good to be true. I felt bad for mistrusting her, since – strictly looking at what’s on the page – she does nothing other than be a friend and ally to Simon. Lovegrove ends up giving her fascinating buried traits – and explores the morality of honesty — in the climactic chapters on frigid, snow-covered Atata.
While the plot is straightforward in that Western way, Lovegrove adds wrinkles to keep us on our toes. At multiple points – both on Atata and in space, wherein River and Kaylee are dogged by Alliance patrol ships (Wash has been knocked unconscious) — a dramatic event occurs, then the next chapter flashes back to mere minutes prior and we see the scene in its complete light. The author risks redundancy, but pulls it off because every twist is smart.
Although Titan Books promotes Whedon as “consulting editor” and puts his name in larger type than the author’s, I’m suspicious of how much he actually has his hand in these books – especially given the mild continuity errors that find their way into this one. I assume he merely signs off on the general outline. Still, we can trust that “Life Signs” is the definitive story of Inara’s (no longer) mysterious medical condition. And it’s a good one – the best “Firefly” novel up to this point.