"After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and colonized. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided all the planets had to join under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies; a ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying."

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Age: 54
Born: 2460
(actor: Ron Glass)
(aka. Henry Evans -birthname)

After running away from home and his abusive father, the young Henry Evans falls into a life of crime, then is recruited into the Independence movement. As tensions between the Independents and the ruling Alliance increase, Evans volunteers to infiltrate the Alliance military and spy on them using a video transmitter implanted in his eye. After killing a man named Derrial Book and stealing his identity, Evans joins a law enforcement agency, from where his ambition and drive attract the attention of the military. When war breaks out, Evans/Book attempts to orchestrate a simultaneous six-planet strike to end the war "in one day", but instead presides over a massacre of Alliance forces, including the loss of the starship IAV Alexander and the 4,000 aboard. Book is discharged and dumped on a nearby planet by escape pod. Several years later, Book wakes up in a homeless shelter after being beaten by Alliance soldiers for his role in the Alexander disaster, and has a spiritual revelation while eating a bowl of soup, which prompts him to join the church and train as a Shepherd. Ten years later, he leaves the church as a missionary, and takes passage on the transport Serenity (as seen in the episode of the same name).

Is a Shepherd (equivalent to a priest, minister, or pastor). Although presented as a devout Christian man, Book demonstrates a depth of knowledge about the activities of criminals (in "Our Mrs. Reynolds") and corrupt police (in "The Message"). He is also proficient in hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. When questioned on his non-Biblical intentions during the rescue in "War Stories", Book replies somewhat ironically that while the Bible is quite specific about killing, it's "somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps." In "Safe," he was shown to have sufficient status in the Alliance to receive medical treatment from the military with no questions asked. Book represents Mal's guide, conscience, and lost spirituality, while his hidden backstory was to have been gradually revealed, had the series continued.  Except for Book being absent from "Ariel", with the explanation that he was meditating at an abbey, the nine regular characters appear in every episode.