Review: Horseshoe Nail Series

According to FanFiction.net, Dyce hasn’t posted since June 11, 2008. A check of other places on the web indicates that she last updated her AO3 account in 2021 and she last updated her original fiction blog in 2024.

That’s sometimes the nature of fandom, and of writing as a whole. Individuals drift in and out of the community over time; some, multiple times, and others only once. But the legacies often live on in the form of the written works themselves, and that’s what’s happened with Dyce’s Horseshoe Nail (fan fiction for Firefly) series. It consists of five stories:

• Two Gorram Days (10K words), a delightful canon-adjacent tale that features Jayne having to look after River for two days while the rest of the Serenity crew are off the ship for various reasons.
• Kinship (33K words), which uses a similar River/Jayne-based lens to explore Inara’s departure from — and return to — Serenity. This is the point where the series veers away from canon, although it never strays very far.
• Bank Job (23K words), a retelling of the book Serenity: Those Left Behind through the same River/Jayne focused lens as the previous two stories.
• Miranda (125K words), which retells the Serenity movie along the same lines as the previous stories.
• Prodigal (45K words), which while not being marked “Complete,” does reach a resolution point in its current form. This story serves as an epilogue as the crew begin to deal with the fallout from the events of the movie.

I’ve noted before that I got turned off of Firefly a few years back, due to some of Joss Whedon’s shenanigans. But the truth is, my disillusionment began when I first saw Serenity, which was missing some of the best parts of the series in addition to having some notable — and grating — mischaracterizations. Even when in my heydey as a Browncoat, though, I was never much of a Rayne shipper (i.e., someone who supports a romantic relationship between River and Jayne).

Dyce’s Horseshoe Nail series converted me.

Unlike Serenity, which utterly failed to explain the alterations in the characters, Dyce carefully develops the characters of both River and Jayne in a direction that makes a Rayne relationship seem not only plausible, but likely and even inevitable. She does this by developing River from a scarred and damaged young girl into a strong and capable woman, and it happens directly as a result of Jayne’s actions. In turn, Dyce develops Jayne from his one-note “tough guy” character into a complex person with a layered past and motivations, which River gradually reveals.

While Jayne and River are the featured characters in Horseshoe Nail, Dyce doesn’t give the other characters short shrift. She includes several fix-its that are enormously popular with the fans, such as Inara’s eventual departure from the life of a Companion and the survival of Wash and Book following Serenity. She also takes time to explore the interpersonal dynamics of those characters as well, weaving in bits and pieces of lore that feel as though they’ve been taken from the show and movie themselves.

While the series does feel as though it didn’t start out that way (Two Gorram Days has all the hallmarks of a standalone story), there’s a reason it has become one of the most highly-rated fan fiction series out there for Firefly. Dyce’s skill with characterization and setting are the reasons why, and I was not surprised at all to find out she has apparently put out some successful original fiction.

I’m still not completely converted to Rayne, but that’s because River as seen at the end of the canonical Serenity and River as seen at the end of Dyce’s Miranda are notably different characters. The same can be said for Jayne. I am converted to Dyce’s versions of the characters. It’s worth noting that, while River and Jayne are different, they’re still both quite recognizable — and the alterations are logically drawn from the altered events. That is not an easy line to walk, but Dyce makes it seem effortless.

The series is rated for Teen Audiences due to some of the thematic material and references*, but it contains no gratuitous sex or violence. It’s appropriate for anyone over the age of twelve, which is the same rating as the canon series. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s familiar with the Firefly universe and who is interested in a slightly altered version that is much more serialized and character-driven.

* Bank Job is rated M for some violent imagery, but it’s handled with a light touch and does not dwell on the details.