Firefly: The official companion, volume one (5/5)

Series: Firefly companions, #1

Cover:

Genre: Series companions

This is the book for you if you like:

Firefly and reading scripts

Summary: (from book)

Exclusive new intereviews with Joss Whedon, the cast, executive producer Tim Minear and many other writers and crewmembers.

Full, uncut shooting scripts for the episodes ‘Serenity’, ‘The Train Job’, ‘Bushwacked’, ‘Shindig’, ‘Safe’ and ‘Our Mrs. Reynolds’, annotated with comments from the cast and crew.

Scores of rare and previously unpublished images, including behind-the-scenes shots, production art, and original Firefly props and costumes photographed especially for this book.

Thoughts on covers:

It’s Firefly!

Title:

It’s Firefly!

Characters & Setting:

N/A

General opinion:

I’ve read a lot of companions and every one of them is different. I really, really like this one. It’s informative and also really, really pretty.

This is basically the shooting scripts of the first seven episodes. If you don’t like reading scripts, this is not the book for you. Of the 175 pages, 129 pages are scripts. I really liked reading these. For one, the book includes the original shooting scripts, so there are scenes in there that have never made it to the screen. Secondly, every script is littered with comments from cast and crew about things that happened during filming.

If you’re intrigued by the costume and props department, this book is awesome. Most of the non-script pages focus on this aspect of the series, as do quite a lot of the comments on the scripts.

There are also one-page interviews with everyone of the main cast and an eight-page interview with Joss Whedon.

This companion is definitely worth your time!

Will I read the other instalments in this series?

I’ve got the next one lined up!

Overall rating: 5/5

Cath Crowley – Graffiti Moon (5/5)

Cover:

Genre: YA Romance

This is the book for you if you like:

- Graffiti as art

- Books with switching POV’s

Summary: (from author’s website)

It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

Thoughts on covers:

The covers are, in order, the Australian cover, the American cover, the Dutch cover. I like all of them for different reasons. I like the Australian cover for the tag-line-y addition of “an artist, a dreamer, a long, mean, night”. I like the American cover because it’s just so pretty. I like the Dutch cover because it emphasizes the differences between Lucy and Ed. If I had to chose, I’d pick the American, though.

Title:

I like the title. It grabbed my attention at first, and, moreover, it’s also a perfect rendition of the book: after all, it describes one night in which graffiti is the central point.

Characters:

I liked the characters. Because it’s in alternating first person POV, you learn a lot about both Ed and Lucy. Lucy is a dreamer; she’s got this whole image of who Shadow is and who he could be for her. Ed is the more realistic – pessimistic – one; life has been hard on him.

Setting:

One of the things that’s pretty special about this book is that all its events take place in one night. While there are a lot of flashbacks to earlier events, the book starts at late midday and ends at dawn.

General story:

(I read this book in Dutch translation)

Graffiti Moon is a love story. It’s a story about two people connecting against their own expectations. Lucy wants to find Shadow and finds Ed. Ed wants to reconcile with Beth and finds Lucy. It’s this intricate pull that makes the story so special; it’s in their love for art and the way they connect in their feelings about it. I love the way the book is written. While it’s based on a misunderstanding of some sorts (Lucy doesn’t know Ed is Shadow and Ed is too afraid to tell her), the situation never becomes annoying. It’s a very natural progress, no doubt partly due to the fact that it’s only one night until it is resolved.

This book has won several awards and it really deserves all of them.

Will I read other books from this author?

I’ll definitely try and find some more books by her!

Overall rating: 5/5