[Image Credit: waterstones.com]
This book is new. As in, really new. It was published on the 15th April 2016. It's a fairly nice size at around 160 pages with some incredible photos, sketches and quotes that bring the pages to life. Here's the blurb:
Insult your enemies in magnificent style and learn brand new declarations of love! This comprehensive Firefly dictionary and phrasebook takes in both the history of language in the 'Verse and modern usage. Explore all the terminology used in the show, be it spacefaring-speak, medical jargon or frontier phrases. Plus, get the inside scoop from the show's language consultant. A must-have for all Browncoats.
It largely reads as a dictionary should, you know, in alphabetical order. The main idea (I imagine) was to create a definitive source for definitions of the Firefly-specific terms, such as Alliance terminology, 'verse slang and Browncoat banter. However you get much more than just this. Quite normal words have their place in this little book, words like 'strawberries'. These 'normal' words are sometimes explained in the most basic sense, but more often their meaning is described in regards to the show. As fans will know, strawberries are a super rare and delicious treat (as is most fresh produce) and Kaylee especially has a cute strawberry moment in the first episode, after Shepherd Book partially pays for his ship fare with a box of the sweet fruits. The entry for 'strawberry' reads:
Strawberry, n. Fresh berry enjoyed by Kaylee in "Serentity". The fruit is rare and hard to come by for travelers.
But this isn't just a dictionary, oh no Sir. So what else can we expect? Well, to start, language biographies for each of the main characters (Captain Mal, Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, River, Shepherd Book, Simon, Wash & Zoe) take a page each in their respective alphabetical place in the dictionary. This explains a little about how the characters talk and how their language is influenced by their upbringing, history and surroundings.
Kaylee does subtlety [Image Credit: buzzfeed]
The books has a forward entitled 'Language use in the 'Verse' before the main dictionary begins. One of my favourite bits of this book is toward the end. There's an interview with Jenny Lynn, who was a translator for the Chinese usage in the show (including some hilarious stories about translating curse words). Following this is 'keys to understanding Pinyin' before Pinyin translations of the Chinese used in the show in episodic order. So remember when you first watched Firefly and a Chinese phrase was flung at you and you were left like 'wait what?' (my DVD copy did not grace me with subtitles). Well this explains it alllll. Ending the book is a FAQ section with the author of the book (who btw also worked on the Firefly RPG).
I haven't even finished the whole thing yet, but I think any proud 'fly fans out there will love love love this book. I've already started re-watching the series because it made me remember how incredible this show is, not only for its very Whedon-esque linguistic edge, but just for its absolute ability to make you fall in love after the first episode with all the characters (even Jayne).
We <3 Jayne and his hat. [Image Credit: Pintrest]
Considering this isn't even a proper review, it's getting a bit lengthy, so i'll quit rambling. Basically, if you loved Firefly, buy this book. Or I'll lend it to you if I'm feeling nice. If you have no idea what Firefly is, congrats for making it this far down the post without dying of boredom, and you should go now and binge-watch Firefly with all your might. Because hey, there's only one season (don't get me started).
Over and out.
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