CHAPTER 1
The novel opens in the some years in the past, in an alley behind the shuttered Scatter Shot
tavern in Patrick, the capital city of Valentine. Valentine is a
planet in the White Star system. This is it's first mention in
the 'Verse.
Lyle Horne refers to Henry Evans (the later to become Shepherd
Book) as "Hevans".
On page 9, Lyle refers to another Patrick tavern called the
Crooked Rose.
On page 10, the data card Lyle says he pickpocketed off an
Alliance officer has a Blue Sun logo on it.
Blue Sun is the wealthiest and most well-connected corporation
in the 'Verse, and often seems to have its fingers in political
and possibly illicit activities as well.
Page 10 states that, among other things
like clean socks, the scent of rosemary, watching the sunrise,
the sound of a city asleep, and fruit, Henry likes soup.
The Shepherd's Tale
later tells how Henry Evans found God in a bowl of soup.
When Lyle asks Henry on page 16, whether he trusts him, Henry's
answer comes like a Pavlovian response, "Yes."
This is a reference to the conditioning experiments performed on
dogs by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936).
Page 16 describes the first time
Henry Evans/Shepherd Book prayed.
CHAPTER 2
In the present time of the 'Verse, when Kaylee accepts payment from their latest job in the form of
a gaggle of nine geese, Wash remarks that's one for each of the
crew and says he'll take the one with the spot on its nose and
maybe grow back his mustache to match it. He
was seen to have a mustache when Zoe first met him aboard Serenity in
the flashback scenes of "Out
of Gas".
Seeing the geese in the cargo hold,
Mal is reminded of the time they transported cattle for Sir
Warwick Harrow. This refers to events in
"Safe" and "Shindig".
Page 18 reveals Serenity is currently on the Whittier
moon of Brome in the Kalidasa system.
Page 18 also reveals that
Arvin Helios' ship is a Knorr-class cargo freighter.
River reveals that the geese are of the Sebastopol breed,
developed on Earth-That-Was in the 19th Century. This is an
actual breed of goose.
Pages 18-19 mention a job pulled by the crew on Ariel and a
recent run-in with Adelai Niska in which Mal almost lost his
ear. These are references to "Ariel" and
"War Stories".
CHAPTER 3
Page 23 reveals that the cargo Serenity had
carried to Brome was a few crates of computer parts from
Beaumonde. Beaumonde was previously mentioned in
"Serenity",
"Our Mrs. Reynolds", and
"Bad Company".
On page 24, the Cortex is the 'Verse's version of the worldwide
web.
On page 27, Mal muses on Shepherd Book's mysterious background,
noting that when the man had been shot in the chest on Jiangyin,
the Alliance had come to his aid. This refers to events in
"Safe".
Pages 27-28 refer to Simon's bad luck at times, getting
kidnapped and almost getting apprehended by the Alliance. These
are references to events in "Safe" and
"Ariel".
CHAPTER 4
No notes.
CHAPTER 5
Wash's incident on Niska's space station mentioned on page 43 is
another reference to "War Stories".
CHAPTER 6
On page 44, Sihnon is the world of House Madrassa, the home
of the Companions Guild house of Inara.
On page 46, philanthropist
Jenessa Leon is said to have donated for an orphanage on Oberon,
desalination technology on New Melbourne, and a high speed train
on Meridian.
In the aquamarine gown Inara has loaned her, River moves her
arms in a graceful pattern in a port de bras. Port
de bras is French for "carriage of arms" and is an
exercise in ballet for movement of the arms to various
positions. Actress Summer Glau, who played River in the
Firefly TV series and Serenity movie, was trained
in ballet herself from her childhood years.
CHAPTER 7
On page 52, Jayne remarks that he likes Blue Sun's protein bars
and shirts. He was seen wearing a Blue Sun tank top in
"Bushwhacked" and
"Ariel".
CHAPTER 8
On page 61, Wash mentions Scylla and Charybdis. The Greek myth
of Scylla and Charybdis is of two "sea monsters", rationalized
as a rock shoal and a whirlpool in the Strait of Messina, which
threatened ships that went through it. If a ship tried to avoid
one, it fell victim to the other. Other similar idioms are
"choosing between the lesser of two evils" and "between a rock
and a hard place".
CHAPTER 9
On page 66, Jayne thinks back to times when Mal handled some
nasty folks with finesse, such as Badger, Patience, Atherton
Wing, and Saffron. These four villains appeared in episodes of
the TV series.
On page 70, the reference to Jayne's betrayal of Simon and River
took place in
"Ariel".
CHAPTER 10
On page 72, Penglai is a protostar in the Kalidasa system. This
is its first mention in a story.
CHAPTER 11
On page 78, River thinks the phrase two by two, hands of
blue. This is a phrase she used cryptically to describe two
agents (believed to work for Blue Sun) often referred to as the
Hands of Blue.
On page 81, the complete faith Mal has in Kaylee to see Serenity
through anything, as sensed by River, could be seen as a
foreshadowing of Kaylee becoming captain of the ship, as seen in
later years in many of the storylines produced for the comics
published by BOOM! Studios.
CHAPTER 12
No notes.
CHAPTER 13
No notes.
CHAPTER 14
No notes.
CHAPTER 15
Inara and Simon masquerade as Mrs. and Mr. Adaline and Roland
Gale, an actual married couple from Londinium, during their
visit to the Governess. Londinium is the capital planet of the
Alliance and is the most like Earth-That-Was.
On page 100, the Governess has kintsugi pottery displayed in the
middle of a long banquet table. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of
repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold,
silver, or platinum to highlight the cracks instead of hiding them, making the object's breakage a unique part of its
history.
The Governess points out that the banquet table is made from
Bellerophon oak. The world of Bellerophon has been seen or
mentioned in previous adventures.
CHAPTER 16
Seeing the Governess' soaring glass base of operations on page
107, Mal vaguely recalls that there is some parable about glass
houses. All he knows now is he wishes he could throw a stone at
it. The parable, of course, which is more of an idiom, is: "Those who live
in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
CHAPTER 17
On page 113, Kaylee's memory of River killing three people with
a gun and saying, "No power in the 'verse can stop me," is from
events in "War Stories".
CHAPTER 18
No notes.
CHAPTER 19
No notes.
CHAPTER 20
No notes.
CHAPTER 21
Agate and her teenage crew commandeer Serenity and help
themselves to several of Jayne's guns, including a machine gun
called Lux, the rainstick he'd picked up on Triumph, and Vera,
the Callahan full-bore auto-lock. This is the first appearance
of Lux in the chronology thus far, but it is later seen in use
by Jayne in "Living Weapon". The
rainstick (literally a long hollow tube of dried cactus or
bamboo filled with pebbles that makes a rain-like sound) was
given to Jayne during a celebration on the planet Triumph in
"Our Mrs. Reynolds". Vera has
been seen and wielded a number of times, the first being in
"Our Mrs. Reynolds".
CHAPTER 22
No notes.
CHAPTER 23
On page 157, Mal reveals that it was after Simon patched him up
from a stabbing on Persephone that he started trusting the
doctor. This is a reference to the sword duel with
Atherton Wing
in
"Shindig".
CHAPTER 24
The reference to Higgins' Moon is to events in
"Jaynestown".
CHAPTER 25
On page 168, Jayne thinks of a few places he never wanted to see
again, the aforementioned Higgins' Moon, Whitefall, and Silverhold. Whitefall is a
moon of Athens and seen to be the home of Patience in
"Government Goods". Silverhold was mentioned in
"The Message".
Horne's office at the refinery has a display of old guns and
grenades, including a
Colt
handgun.
CHAPTER 26
No notes.
CHAPTER 27
On page 181, "Dobson" refers to Lawrence Dobson, the Alliance
agent who was tracking Simon and River in
"Serenity",
"Government Goods", and "Those Left Behind" Parts
2 and
3.
Mal also recalls the particularly
nasty Sheriff Bundy on page 181. He was a local law enforcement
agent on Mal's homeworld of Shadow, as seen in flashback in
Big Damn Hero, in
Life Signs, and possibly was
the unnamed sheriff in flashback in
"The Outlaw Ma Reynolds".
CHAPTER 28
On page 187, Book reflects that he'd sooner worship the flying
spaghetti monster than let anyone go up against Lyle Horne
without him. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of the
satirical religious movement called
Pastafarianism, originating in 2005.
CHAPTER 29
No notes.
CHAPTER 30
No notes.
CHAPTER 31
Page 205 mentions that Jayne sends money home to his mother.
This is also remarked upon in
"The Message".
Page 206 reveals that Jayne calls his LeMat percussion revolver
by the name of Boo.
CHAPTER 32
On page 212, Wash's reference to Jayne having been a hero refers
to
"Jaynestown".
CHAPTER 33
No notes.
CHAPTER 34
Zoe remembers when Saffron had gotten the drop on them and
thinking that was one woman she would be glad never to see
again. Saffron's first appearance was in
"Our Mrs. Reynolds". Despite
Zoe's wishes here, the crew will encounter her again very soon in
"Trash".
On page 222, Zoe and Inara discover a drawerful of file folders
with single names on them like Victoria, Varley, Valentine,
Charity, Conrad, Covenant, Barr, Betty, and Brome and they
realize they are all names of moons in the 'Verse. These are all
named moons in the document
"The Verse in Numbers".
CHAPTER 35
No notes.
CHAPTER 36
No notes.
CHAPTER 37
No notes.
CHAPTER 38
The "train job" mentioned on page 245 refers to the crew having
robbed a train on Regina, but the crates they stole turn out to
be full of medicine needed in a nearby town to treat a
degenerative disease and Mal shows his heart by deciding to turn the cargo over to
the town. This all occurred in "The
Train Job".
On page 246, St. Albans is one of the planets of the Red Sun
system.
CHAPTER 39
No notes.
CHAPTER 40
Page 257 mentions that, after the war, Mal had shed the cross he'd
once worn around
his neck. This was seen in
"Serenity".
CHAPTER 41
The incident when Mal almost shot Jayne out an airlock occurred
after Jayne had betrayed Simon and River in
"Ariel".
Jayne's homeworld of Sycorax, mentioned here, is seen most
prominently in The Ghost
Machine, "A Christmas
Cobb", and
The Gospel According to Jayne.
CHAPTER 42
No notes.
CHAPTER 43
No notes.
CHAPTER 44
No notes.
|
Chinese translations |
|
Page # |
Chinese |
English |
|
12 |
Lyle remarks that he was hoping the shuai
young officer he stole the data card from would
come looking for it himself. |
shuai=handsome |
|
14 |
Lyle calls Henry hun dan. |
hun dan roughly means "bastard" or
similar insult |
|
14 |
Lyle shouts, "Zao gao!" |
"Shit!" |
|
17 |
niu fen |
niu fen=bullshit |
|
20 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
35 |
Simon mentions, "patching up this jing chang
mei yong de crew" |
jing chang mei yong de=ordinarily
useless |
|
39 |
Zoe says, "Wei," to the bartender. |
wei=hello |
|
42 |
Kaylee says, "Aiya!" |
Aiya is a Chinese exclamation of
surprise or dismay. |
|
42 |
Wash says, "Ta ma de!" |
Essentially means, "Oh, fuck!" |
|
44 |
Inara refers to River as mei mei. |
mei mei is an affectionate term
for "little sister" |
|
47 |
Inara refers to River as mei mei. |
mei mei is an affectionate term
for "little sister" |
|
54 |
Simon refers to River as mei mei. |
mei mei is an affectionate term
for "little sister" |
|
54 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
73 |
Mal remarks, "It's hotter than fei fei de pi
yan out here." |
fei fei de pi yan=baboon's ass crack |
|
77 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
81 |
Jayne says, "Cai bu shi." |
"No way." |
|
84 |
Jayne says to Wash, "Qù ni de." |
"Get lost." |
|
96 |
Horne says to Jayne, "I bet you're a ge zhen
de hun dan." |
ge zhen de hun dan=a real bastard |
|
111 |
Dina refers to Horne as hun dan. |
hun dan roughly means "bastard" or
similar insult |
|
119 |
Dina says Horne is "a no-good, rotten qing
wa cao de liu mang" |
"frog-humping son of a bitch" |
|
119 |
zheng qi de gu shi dui |
"neat pile of shit" |
|
122 |
Zoe says, "Wo men wan le." |
"We're in big trouble." |
|
134 |
Wash says, "Aiya!" |
Aiya is a Chinese exclamation of
surprise or dismay. |
|
139 |
Mal says, "Aiya." |
Aiya is a Chinese exclamation of
surprise or dismay. |
|
157 |
Mal refers to Atherton Wing as a "pompous,
spoiled, ben tian sheng de yi dui rou" |
"stupid, inbred sack of meat" |
|
169 |
Jayne refers to the liquor he and Horne are
drinking at the town's tavern as xiong mao
niao. |
xiong mao niao=panda piss |
|
175 |
Mal says, "Lao tian ye!" |
"Oh my god!" |
|
175 |
Simon refers to River as mei mei. |
mei mei is an affectionate term
for "little sister" |
|
184 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
192 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
209 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
210 |
"Gu yang zhong de gu yang!" |
"Motherless goat of all motherless goats!" |
|
211 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
212 |
Mal tells Wash, "Bi zui." |
"Shut up." |
|
214 |
dong ma |
dong ma=understand |
|
233 |
An enforcer shouts, "Zao gao!" |
"Shit!" |
|
233 |
The enforcer mutters, "Ta ma de, hun dan." |
"Damn it, you bastard." |
|
236 |
River refers to Kaylee as mei mei. |
mei mei is an affectionate term
for "little sister" |
|
245 |
Mal refers to Horne and the Governess as bu
hui hen de po fu |
"remorseless harridan" |
|
245 |
chui niu |
to boast |
|
249 |
Horne shouts at the Governess' departing
shuttle, "Ben tian sheng de yi dui rou!" |
"Stupid, inbred sack of meat!" |
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