Despite an entire set of comics from Dark Horse to expand upon the Firefly franchise as well as the ongoing BOOM! Studios series, Titan has been publishing proper novels for this beloved franchise as well. Fortunately, having read all 8 that have been published until the time of writing, I can report that just about any Browncoat will be rewarded immensely to dive into the series. While each book may have its share of relatively minor flaws, some of which are easily overlooked, and the feel of characters, their fidelty through their dialogue and actions, may vary due to authors' styles, the overall genuine portrayal of everyone is quite wonderful.

The most common assessment for these novels is that they feel like new episodes, and they do. So far, each book occurs either within the timeline of the original show, or after the last episode of the show but before the events of the film Serenity.

Big Damn Hero was no exception. One of the great characteristics of the show was the depth of all nine characters aboard the Serenity and exploring their identities: their histories, their personalities, their influence and presence on the ship. In this novel, Mal falls into the role of the victim, which was not really done aside from the episode War Stories. The story is quite intriguing given that his captors are fellow Browncoats rather than the Alliance as one would intuitively predict, or even a vengeful contact sour over a job gone wrong.

This novel also explores so much of Mal's character regarding his history, which I felt was a bold move by the author, and greatly contributes to the appreciation of this story especially in the context of being considered a new episode in its entirety. It is difficult to comment further without spoiling something in particular; nonetheless I can say this was a smashing success in my opinion, a fantastic start to what will hopefully be a rich and long series of new stories.