Major nerd alert!

Long ago, I wrote a post about one of the best television shows ever, Firefly. You may or may not have gone out and bought it (you should have). And then you may or may not have seen the feature film, Serenity (you should have). And then, to curb your desire for more, you may or may not have read the comic series, hoping for more answers to some of the questions that never got answered (you should have if you're as nerdy as me, but otherwise I'll let this one slide).

But after doing all these things, you were still left with questions, right? Questions like what the heck is in that syringe of Inara's, anyway? What was on the Shepherd's identity card? How many flavors of protein can there really be? What are the rules to that crazy space basketball game? And were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?

Well, Dark Horse Comics' newest installment, Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, won't answer all of those questions, but---actually, it won't answer any of those questions. But it will give you the background of one of the series' most intriguing and mysterious characters, Shepherd Book.

You can read the whole thing in about ten minutes, and once you do, I suggest you read it again, backwards, because it's written in little chunks that take you backward in time bit by bit, until you find yourself face to face with little pre-pubescent Book. (Aww, isn't he cute?) Some of the story is familiar. Some of it is weird. Some of it is sad. And some of it might make you go, "Wait, what??" But in the end, you'll know more about Shepherd Book than you did before. That's a guarantee.

Whether you'll be satisfied with what you learn or not is not for me to say. When I received this little gem on Christmas day, I read it, then my sister, then my mom, and then my dad. We all had different reactions to it, some of us liking it, some of us not so much. But now we know...at least some of it!

So if you're curious (and what nerd isn't?), I recommend you pick this up for your own nerdy collection. Now let's hope they make one about Inara, because I really do want to know about that syringe! After I learn about protein, of course.