Firefly: The Magnificent Nine is a 2019 novel by James Lovegrove set in Firefly franchise. It is second in a series set between the events of Firefly and Serenity.
The crew of Serenity are going about business as usual. . . or rather, not going about business as usual since usual business is getting harder to come by. Then they get a wave from someone requesting Jayne Cobb's help. Well, this someone must certainly be desperate to call on Jayne for help, so despite his misgivings, Mal lets the rest of his crew pressure him into providing assistance. The crew soon finds themselves embroiled in a much bigger mess than they anticipated, a right hairy situation even by their hair-raising standards. And Jayne's old friend has a not-so-little surprise for him. . .
This Novel includes examples of the following tropes:
- Bad Boss: Elias Vandal makes sure his Scourers know to stay loyal and obedient. His standard method for dealing with those who aren't appears to be to cut out their tongues, gouge out their eyes, then flay them to death.
- Bar Brawl: Naturally. The chapter in which it occurs, titled after one of Zoe's musings, even calls it "The Inevitable Bar Brawl."
- Battle Boomerang: Elias Vandal uses a "boomerblade," a semi-circular knife that returns to him when thrown.
- Call-Forward: It's mentioned that Inara has announced her intention to leave the ship soon, and Shepherd Book muses that he feels his own time aboard Serenity is running short. Both will have left the ship by the time the film Serenity starts.
- Child by Rape: It's ultimately revealed that Jane is not Jayne's daughter, but Elias Vandal's, after he raped Temperance around the time she parted ways with Jayne. This is actually why she left Jayne, feeling he'd try and get justice for Temperance out of Elias Randal (as he was called then), and die in the attempt.
- Clean Cut: Vandal and his boomerblade do this. When one of the citizens gets ornery about not letting the Scourers take control, Elias throws his boomerblade, which returns to his hand. Then the man's head slides off.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Vandal claims he used to be a Reaver, and fantastical as that claim is, it's hard to dismiss given his behavior. He's really good at and greatly enjoys making people suffer, especially if they give him a reason to. Flaying his own Scourers for disobedience, forcing towns who put up too much resistance to slowly die of thirst, and locking Temperance in a wooden cage with a neck trap, forcing her to stand on tiptoe as long as she can before the nails pierce her neck and kill her slowly, the man seems to live to inflict suffering on as many people as possible.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Temperance Jones decided to set herself up on Thetis and call herself Temperance MacLeod to get away from her past and raise her daughter. Elias Vandal came to Thetis as well, and eventually to Temperance's town, and when the two meet they realize that Temperance gave Elias his burn scar back when he was Elias Randal and they both knew each other on Belerophon, which is also where Temperance was running cons with Jayne Cobb.
- When Inara and Kaylee go out to buy parts to fix up Serenity, they stop for dinner. One of the diners makes some belligerent comments about Companions, following them into the street. Passing by on the street hearing this happens to be a wealthy businessman friend of Inara's, who not only has an interest in Thetis but private security contracts he can, at Inara's urging, assemble to help deal with the Scourer problem.
- A Day in the Limelight: The story focuses mostly on Jayne, expanding his backstory and giving him the greatest connection to the events playing out.
- Duel to the Death: Though Mal would prefer it not to be. Simon suggests that Vandal sounds like a grand-scale bully, and bullies tend to fold if someone stands up to them. So Mal decides to challenge Vandal to a fight, the winner to dictate terms to the loser. Vandal is initially inclined to refuse, but as Inara often notes, Mal has a natural affinity for pissing people off.
- Ephebophile: Vandal, and by extension the rest of Scourers, are this, at least the men are. They have "needs," and prefer if possible to take them out on teenage girls. When a Scourer spying on Serenity sees Jane (thirteen years old) and River, getting those girls becomes the Scourers main goal, with killing, neutralizing, or driving off the rest of the crew a secondary concern, to the point of offering peace in exchange for them.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the book, River tells Jayne "She isn't yours. She was never yours. But you should treat her like she is." Jayne comes to think this is referring to Temperance, that she was never "his woman," but he should still treat her well. Ultimately, it's revealed River was talking about Jane, that she was never his daughter, but he should — and did — treat her like she was.
- "Hey, You!" Haymaker: After Mal and Vandal agree to their duel, Jayne gets Mal's attention. Mal, thinking Jayne is going to offer some advice or well wishes, turns into Jayne's fist, as Jayne has decided he's going to fight Vandal.
- I Shall Taunt You: Mal goads Vandal into accepting his gentleman's duel by calling him a coward.
- Luke, You Are My Father: When Jayne meets Temperance again, she introduces him to her approximately thirteen year old daughter, named Jane. Despite sharing his blue eyes, practically sharing his name, and it having been about thirteen years since he last saw Temperance, Jayne fails to put the clues together. Mal and the rest of the crew are not so slow on the uptake, and get much mirth out of Jayne not being able to figure it out, until Mal spits it out the following day. Except Jane isn't actually Jayne's daughter, but Elias Vandal's.
- Mama Bear: Temperance will do anything to protect her daughter Jane. This includes giving herself to Vandal to be tortured to death to get him to leave the Serenity crew alone, so they'll look after Jane. It also includes not correcting the assumption that Jayne is Jane's father, giving the Serenity crew a personal stake in the fight.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: When Simon informs Mal that Jayne is missing:Mal: The one we all like, or the male one?
- Papa Wolf: Upon (finally) figuring out Jane is his daughter, Jayne immediately becomes one of these.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Vandal's claim to have once been a Reaver is supported by his commitment to their "values." His Scourers Pillage the water rights from towns who desperately need their water on arid Thetis, they kidnap and Rape young women (very young women) to both slake their own lusts and add another level of control to the towns under their thumb, and if a town resists, they Burn (well, blow up the wells to make the town slowly die of thirst, but close enough).
- Signature Headgear: Jayne's very fine hat his mother knitted for him is once again important to the plot.
- Surprise Incest: Narrowly averted. When he learns Temperance has a daughter, and that she's right at the start of what he considers "old enough," Vandal states his intention to kidnap Jane and use her up, then give her to the other Scourers to really use up. Vandal is thankfully defeated before he can make good on the threat, and never learns that Jane is actually his daughter. Though it's difficult to say if that knowledge would have mattered to him. Hell, given his other predilections, he might consider it a bonus.
- Thirsty Desert: The whole planet of Thetis. Water is more precious than gold, with the wells that supply people and their farms water being vital resources. This is the cornerstone of Vandal's plan: convince towns to "sell" their water to the Scourers for zero credits, then the Scourers will sell their own water back to them for a "fair" price.
- The Worf Effect: Jayne takes Mal's place in the duel against Vandal, and Vandal quickly wins, nearly killing Jayne with his boomerblade. Even after getting Jayne back to Serenity and operating on him, Simon isn't sure if he'll make it. Establishing Vandal as someone who can take down Serenity's Heavy with almost no effort. And this supremely dangerous individual has an entire army of Scourers at his back, very effectively raising the stakes sky-high.
