Shepherd Book was, for a variety of reasons, one of my favorite characters on Firefly. A deeply philosophical and gentle man, his professed monastic life had some mysterious inconsistencies in it over the course of the tragically short-lived series, hinting at a much dark, violent, and significant past.
Mal: It’s of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.
Book: I wasn’t born a shepherd, Mal.
Mal: You have to tell me about that sometime.
Book: [pause] No, I don’t.
We never found out in Firefly (or Serenity) what Book’s actual background was. But … next up in the Firefly comic miniseries from Dark Horse, we’re going to finally learn about it. I’m not going to quote from the interview with Scott Allie since there are a few (tiny) spoilers. My only concern is that it will be anticlimactic once we do find out — but I certainly plan on picking it up anyway (no release date yet).
Joss is on as writer and plotter, by the bye.
(via Les)
I’ll put $5 on Book’s former life as a GAO-equivalent auditor. 😉
Gads! No wonder the Alliance treated him with kid gloves!