Firefly: The Gorramn Shiniest Dictionary and Phrasebook in the ‘Verse by Monica Valentinelli

It’s pretty much a definite thing when asked in the Hobbit household what our favourite TV genre series is. Firefly is usually near the top, outvoting Battlestar Galactica, The X Files, Star Trek and Millennium. (Fringe comes pretty close to the top, actually.)

So this lovely looking book took a bit of prising from other’s hands in order to review it. And whilst it may not persuade non-devotees to take up the series, I think that fans will get a lot from it.

Nominally it’s as the title suggests – a dictionary/phrasebook of all those words created and amalgamated into the language of the TV series. For those who don’t know, Firefly is a future Western series set in the year 2517, where the language used by Joss Whedon’s characters is a mash-up of English and Mandarin Chinese.

So if you were wondering what words like ‘gorramn’ meant, then here’s the place to look them up. *

The writer, Monica Valentinelli , has a wealth of background that she draws on for this book. She worked on and became the lead developer and writer for the Firefly Role-Playing Game, and it is this that informs her work here. She has also had access to the original TV scripts.

On the practical side of things, it’s A5 in size and lavishly produced on shiny full colour stock, with colour pictures throughout. There’s a liberal sprinkling of photos of the cast and the accoutrements of the series, from spaceships to places to clothing and weapons. Each of the main cast members are given a full page summary to describe their character, but more importantly, explain their speech mannerisms and reasons for their dialogue.

“The words people speak reflect more than their ability to hold a conversation or convey information; they also indicate where people are from, what their culture is, and, in some cases, what their beliefs and personalities are like, too.”

All of this I would pretty much expect and it is done pretty well, though there’s the odd word included that I’m not sure needs defining – for example, alert, ambulance and beans.

But what I really liked was the added extras. There’s some nice quotes from key scenes in the series throughout, illustrating the skill of the writers in using dialogue as a key component of the programme. At the back of the book there’s an illuminating interview with Jenny Lynn, the linguistic expert given the challenge of integrating PinYin Chinese with English for the series, and making it sound natural. At the back of the book there’s also a list of key dialogue for each episode (all 13 of them.) It’s a nice thoughtful touch.

If I had any complaint with this book it would be that the book doesn’t include details from the movie or the comics, which is a bit of a shame. (Fans who have seen it know of the major events that transpire in the film.)  Monica does explain the reasons for all of this in an interview at the back of the book, and it must be said that there are discrepancies between the film and the TV version. Monica’s brief was to focus on the TV series, which she does.

In summary, the household’s general impression of the book was that this was a nice-looking object that they learned something from and gave them a better understanding of the series. Don’t think I can add much more to that, other than to point out that, as a result of reading this, the Bluray boxset has been taken away to be pored over again…

*For reference, gorramn is a swear word. It’s in the book.

Firefly: The Gorramn Shiniest Dictionary and Phrasebook in the ‘Verse

By Monica Valentinelli

Published by Titan Books, April 2016

162 pages

ISBN: 978 178 329 8617

Review by Mark Yon

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