m. c. de marco: To invent new life and new civilizations...

Via FireflyFans.net: Steven Brust has braved the lawyers to post his free Firefly novel, My Own Kind of Freedom, online. You can find some details in his livejournal or group blog, and a positive review at io9.

I did some digging to find out when the novel is set (a piece of information most fanfic writers would have put right up front): between the TV series and the movie.