A pretty amazing collection of essays talking about the short-lived, but wonderful, Firefly, Joss Whedon’s “space western”.

The essays range from praise for the powerful female characters through analysis of the western influences on the plots to a detailed glossary of the Chinese used in the series. And there’s humor, too—a comparison between The Tick and Firefly, and an especially funny imagined crossover between Enterprise and Firefly.

It’s not all completely positive, though—there are some criticisms of Joss and the show’s premise that help to put the show in perspective.

Firefly was an excellent show cancelled far too soon by a short-sighted network known for cancelling intelligent, complex shows in favor of reality TV and vulgar sitcoms. The movie, Serenity, due out from Universal in September, 2005, shows that there’s enough here for other media conglomerates to see. Watch the show. See the movie. Read this book!