You may have seen listings pop up at your favorite online comics store for “Serenity: Dark Mirror,” with a description of the first original Serenity novel. My advice: don’t get your hopes up.
I’ve seen it this week at Forbidden Planet, Wizard Universe, and TFAW.com, among others, drawn from the datafeed from Diamond Comics Distributor. So what the heck is it? Read on for more info:
The listing at Forbidden Planet is the most complete, and reads:
Five hundred years in the future Captain Mal Reynolds, a hardened veteran on the losing side of the civil war, leads a ragtag team of mercenaries through the universe on their old Firefly-class transport ship, Serenity, eking out a living by pulling of small jobs (and often crimes) or otherwise trading their skills and travel for cash while trying to stay below the Alliance’s radar. This is the first original novel based on Joss Whedon’s cracking film Serenity and the popular but short lived Firefly series.
Simons & Schuster, paperback, 304 pages, published July 2006
Author: Keith R.A. DeCandido
Release Date : Monday 31 July, 2006.
TFAW.com even has a cover posted (see above). The Diamond Previews for June lists it as such:
Page 384
JUN06 3652 SERENITY DARK MIRROR MMPB (C: 0-1-2) SRP: $7.99 = $
So what is it? Most likely it’s another phantom book like the “Mirror Image” Serenity book listed last year in Amazon as a placeholder for a planned future book from Pocket Books that doesn’t actually exist. Here’s the word from Mr. DeCandido himself:
“*beats head against wall repeatedly*
“There’s no book. I don’t know where the =hell= these people are getting their info, but there are =NO= original SERENITY novels in the transom…”
Reportedly the book proposals are still waiting for a Joss yea or no, but apart from Steven Brust’s completed manuscript none of them were developed past the proposal stage. DeCandido pointed out that Simon and Schuster did release an X-Men novel called “Dark Mirror” earlier this year and an Angel novel by the same name previously, and there was a Star trek “Dark Mirror”… Maybe someone figured every licensed series should have its own “Dark Mirror” novel?
Damn. Got my hopes up again and everything… But what I’m curious about is, how did it migrate from being a nonexistent book called “Mirror Image” to being a nonexistent book called “Dark Mirror”? And where did the cover come from? Anyone got a guess?
You’re welcome to pre-order, of course, if you want to hedge your bets. TFAW has said they’ll keep customers posted on the existence of the book. You won’t be charged unless the item actually ships.
This stuff is everywhere! I guess with the internet any rumor is picked up, reported and packaged as truth. 🙁 We can always hope though