The Ghost Machine (Firefly, #3)
by
James Lovegrove
My rating: 5 of 5
The third book in the series is a real banger!
(There will be some very be minor spoilers ahead so don’t mind it too much, I won’t spoil anything good, I promise.)
Set post the end of the original series, this story sees our favourite Firefly having de-boarded Inarra and Shepherd Book; a change of dynamic amongst the inhabitants that is having effects on the harmony of those still on board, Mal perhaps most of all, though he would be loathe to ever admit such a thing.
Once again, the crew of Serenity are on a job from Badger: carry a sealed crate from a disreputable local big-shot-wannabe on the border planet Canterbury to Badger and get a nice pay-day. Easy as lyin’, as the saying goes. But then Mal has a bit of a twinge about the Blue-Sun stamped sealed cargo crate, something in his gut tells him to leave it behind. Things go a bit sideways, Mal does what he does, Jayne and him butt-heads and long-story short, there is a crate secreted aboard the ship.
But unbeknownst to everyone – except River – there is something in the crate, something reaching out from within that quietly slithers into the minds of everyone on board.
Soon, the crew is incapacitated and each one is alone and isolated in a dreamworld that seems to be tailored to perfection to give them everything they could have ever wanted in life – but we all know two things: (1) there is such a thing as too good to be true and (2) entities like the Alliance and Blue Sun are not exactly known to be developing safe and happy things on isolated fringe planets in secretive facilities.
With this third novel I have to say, it feels like Lovegrove has really hit a fantastic groove with these books. I was just a shade above lukewarm with Big Damn Heroes (book 1) and The Magnificent Nine (book 2) was a big step up in better balanced story-telling and overall a better reading experience. This time around, some excellent choices continued to be made, keeping each book distinct, not making it all feel like a continuing saga (so to speak) and it really felt like a story that could have just been an episode of the original show set sometime during a second season, much like its predecessor, and all three books have a different feel to the plot, i.e, the first one was a gritty and deeply personal story for mainly Mal alone, the second was very Jayne-centric and explored his character while telling a story that felt much like an old-fashioned Western adventure – this time however we are solidly in science-fiction fantasy territory with a bit of a psychological thriller edge to it as the seemingly perfect dreams of each person play out.
Nothing felt overly derivative or boring. The book started nice and snappy and as the overarching story began unfolding, I found it more and more engrossing and engaging and it really gave a good amount of time to each character, it was especially enjoyable seeing this side of River. Nothing was over the top or overly pandering or felt like shock-value or such.
I would recommend it as a good, solid sci-fi book and definitely loved it as an entry in the franchise.
My reviews of other books in the series:
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One Happy Monk 
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