Steven Brust’s Firefly Fanfic

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 26, 2010

I’m really not into fanfic (“Fan Fiction”), so I’m not exactly the guy to talk about it much. But I do know that, like Rodney Dangerfield, it gets no respect. It’s despised by some. However, for a lot of amateur writers, it’s about the only way to find an audience. Write a quality short story set in a unique urban fantasy world, and only friends and paid editors will read it. Write a short story of equally high quality set in the Harry Potter, Buffy, or Supernatural universe, and there’s a pre-built audience that may be hungry for what you are making.

Some professional writers, particularly SF&F, got their start effectively writing fanfic.

And apparently, some professional writers can’t resist taking a dive into those particular waters, either. In this case, popular fantasy author Steven Brust.

His subject? The short-lived (but totally awesome) Joss Whedon series, Firefly.

It’s been out a couple of years, so I’m a little slow picking up on it. But for the sake of other clueless folk like me, I figured I’d link to it now.  It’s free, under the Creative Commons license. I’m only a couple of chapters in, so I can’t vouch for its quality. But so far he seems to have a pretty good handle on the characters and language – though it’s a little odd seeing things from River’s perspective in a few spots. It takes place after the end of the series, but before the movie, Serenity. Anyway, for those of us who still miss the series after all these years, it’s cool to find another professionally-produced adventure – even if unofficial and completely non-canon.

Steven Brust’s My Own Kind of Freedom, a Firefly novel

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