You have your “technically a bad guy” independent space captain who is also a degenerate coward fighting a shadow war against a large government/corporate entity. You’ve got the “more skilled than anyone else” second in command who also pulls double duty at the ship’s whore who somehow “classes the place up”. So we have a Mal/Jayne combo and a Zoe/Inara combo.
Then there is the mysterious “synth” character, who is mentally broken and also an illegal government/corporate project, so there is our River character. Except instead of having a protective brother, the captain has ties to her instead.
There is even a bounty hunter/traitor that comes aboard for the “mentally special” government experiment girl in the first chapter as a passenger…just like in the first episode of Firefly.
In place of deep symbolism like in Firefly, however, the book is peppered with gratuitous sexual urges and descriptions if urges and fantasies.
If you’re looking for an alternative Firefly knockoff that is quick, dirty, and filled with male power/sexual fantasies…give it a read. If not, I’d look elsewhere. Though the Narrator does do a fantastic job, which is why this is a higher rating than my above description would normally warrant.