Firefox

Mitchell Gant #1

by Craig Thomas

Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.

THE MACHINE: The Soviet Mig-31, codenamed Firefox. A thought-controlled, terrifyingly lethal warplane capable of ruling the Western skies.

THE MAN: His name is Gant, an obsessed renegade American pilot. His Control: Kenneth Aubrey of Great Britain. His plan: infiltrate the shadowy worldwide KGB network and make his way into the Soviet Union. His job: steal Firefox.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Espionage, Military Fiction, Suspense, Action

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

David Craig Owen Thomas was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series.

The son of the Western Mail rugby union writer, JBG Thomas, Craig was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. Thomas became an English Teacher, working in various grammar schools in the West Midlands, and was Head of English at the Shire Oak School, Walsall Wood.

After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio, Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thriller genre, which although invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, many feel that Thomas was its true originator. Most of Thomas's novels are set within MI.6 and feature the characters of Sir Kenneth Aubrey and Patrick Hyde.

His best-known novel which brought him to global prominence, Firefox became a successful Hollywood film, both directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After writing his third novel, 1960s Cold War espionage thriller Wolfsbane, he left teaching altogether in 1977. His later books include Snow Falcon and A Different War. Shortly before his death he finished a two-volume commentary on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Thomas and his wife Jill had lived near Lichfield, Staffordshire, but moved to Somerset in 2010. He died on April 4, 2011 from pneumonia, following a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia. He was 68.

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember my birthday in 1982 for 2 main reasons - as a 14 year old I was dismayed to find out that I would have to wait until Christmas to see E.T. - and that the much anticipated 'Firefox' premiere missed my birthday by a month. Then my Father pulled out a surprise present - and encouraged me to take it up the garden to open on my own (usually an indication of it being something my mother would disapprove of). There - in the dappled sunlight under the willow tree - I unwrapped Craig Thomas' Firefox. And read it spellbound until the fading light would allow me no more. I finished the book the next day under the same tree - and instantly started reading it again. It was my first spy / espionage / 'techno thriller'. The jack-hammer pace of unfolding events coupled with the brilliantly researched hardware - convincing characters with surprising depth (for the speed with which they are introduced) was spellbinding. A truly flawed hero whose weaknesses are intricately linked to his strengths - in my eyes a stroke of genius. I've re- read it many times - along with the several follow up books - each time my heart racing at the perils encountered by Mr Gant. A true classic.

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I do not like the main character. He's initially sold as a "tough guy" who cured himself of his own PTSD by being "tough." Not like those pansy, know-nothing, "fat-assed" (he uses that phrase in the book), psychologists. What do they know about trauma and PTSD? No, the obvious cure for trauma caused by violence and war is more violence and war.

This story is about a Vietnam Veteran who is barely keeping it together, muddling his way through the Soviet Union, accidentally killing a few KGB agents in a panic, and being shepherded to his goal by people who are far more caring, dedicated, and passionate than himself. He only succeeds because the people around him do all of the heavy-lifting. Now, I'm not saying that I need a Mary Sue, Do-Everything hero...I don't want that, at all. But Gant is kind of an asshole. He doesn't even really care that all of these people are dying...well, except when he does and considers himself to be a massive failure because all of these people are dying for him to be able to complete a mission and he doesn't know if he can and doesn't even really seem to care if he can.

I'm not even sure what the author's intent was. Clearly Gant is supposed to be this expert, ace pilot, best of the best, cream of the crop...but he is constantly sweating, panicking, about to shit himself, and always nauseous. It's almost like he didn't really "cure" himself of that PTSD, isn't it? And in the end, he doesn't even "win" the duel with the enemy pilot. Spoiler alert, but in his attempt to evade the other Firefox he gets stuck in a flat spin, and while trying to recover, he ejects a flare to decoy an enemy missile, and the other Firefox apparently flew right into the flare and sucked it up into it's own air intake and explodes...

I mean...this story is like if a John Q Everyman was the actual hero and not expert, ace Veteran Pilot Mitchell Gant. Hell, it would probably be a better story if a bumbling, everyman was the protagonist. You wouldn't even have to change the events.

Also, like "The Hunt For Red October" and "Future War," this book falls into the realm of the Soviet Union having some super-secret-better-than-anyone-else-tech-that-will-win-them-the-war alarmism, pushed by the CIA so that Americans would be properly afraid of "the enemy." Funnily enough, it even mentions that MiG-25 Affair, which proved that to be so objectively not the case. A little background, when the CIA first saw the MiG-25, they crapped all over themselves that the Russians had made the bestest, fastest, scariest, coolest, most awesome-est fighter ever, so we hit the bricks and made the F-15 in response (which, at the time, was all of those things - as well as hideously expensive). And then a Russian piloted defected and landed his MiG-25 in Japan. And we took it apart. And it was none of the things the CIA said it was. It was essentially a cockpit strapped onto a couple of rocket engines. Yes, it was fast...but it was barely capable and made out of nothing high-tech or space-aged.

And yet, knowing this, Mr. Thomas writes this novel, and even bases the super-awesome better than anything with freaking mind-controlled weapons MiG-31 on the -25. I am curious about those mind-controlled weapons though. Does the computer know the difference between intention versus the hypothetical. Like if I was just really mad at my squadron-leader that day and just thought about how satisfying it would be to shove a missile up his jet's ass, would it shoot one off?

Oh, also also...if you've seen the movie - the whole "You Must Think In Russian" thing...yah, that's not a thing.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-En su estilo y en su tiempo, una pequeña joya. Aunque ha llovido desde entonces.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción (aunque sea por poco).

Lo que nos cuenta. Cuando la URSS desarrolla un cazabombardero invisible al radar, que supera Match 5 y que tiene un sistema de armamento guiado por impulsos neuronales, los servicios de inteligencia occidentales más potentes son conscientes del desequilibrio de fuerzas que supone el nuevo avión y trazan un plan para hacerse con uno de los dos prototipos existentes, infiltrando al experimentado piloto Mitchell Grant en territorio hostil.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jim Norris]

The terrifying true story behind a popular web browser.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-En su estilo y en su tiempo, una pequeña joya. Aunque ha llovido desde entonces.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción (aunque sea por poco).

Lo que nos cuenta. Cuando la URSS desarrolla un cazabombardero invisible al radar, que supera Match 5 y que tiene un sistema de armamento guiado por impulsos neuronales, los servicios de inteligencia occidentales más potentes son conscientes del desequilibrio de fuerzas que supone el nuevo avión y trazan un plan para hacerse con uno de los dos prototipos existentes, infiltrando al experimentado piloto Mitchell Grant en territorio hostil.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is suspenseful in parts, but surprisingly slow in others. Characters are predictably stereotypical and there’s a lot of “telling, not showing” going on. I’m sure I saw the movie and probably more than once, but I can’t remember anything about it amazingly enough.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a kid when I read this book and am giving it 4 stars because being a young naïve child of the Cold War, it was exciting and certainly showed us putting on over on the "bad guys". Those to young to remember need to recall this was in the bad old USSR days before Gorby and Glasnost - the time of the show The Americans. I suppose if I reread it now, it would sink into ignominy like the other books I read as a young reactionary WASP growing up in the slowing latinified Miami of the TV show Miami Vice and all (all that Tom Clancy Republican propagandistic crap, etc.). Admittedly, I also LOVED the movie with Clint Eastwood. Well, let me keep my childhood memories of this and feel snobbishly comfortable knowing I grew up since then and my reading taste improved infinitely and the world changed since then (well, unfortunately not all that much...)

[Eugene Edynak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author has a great imagination. Most thrillers I read are possible and reasonable. Good read but really kind of impossible.

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember watching the movie Firefox, the political action/thriller about an American pilot being sent into Russia to steal the top secret Soviet fighter jet when I was very young. It starred Clint Eastwood, and it was right at the beginning of when Hollywood was using Soviet Russia as the bad guy and the US as the white knight protagonist. The movie was cool to a youngster that cut his teeth on James Bond villains, and I appreciated the more realistic and tension-filled storytelling. In the middle of the Cold War, the thought of the USSR having a weapon like this sent chills down our young spines. So the premise of Firefox hit a chord, so much so, that 40 some years later when I stumbled on the paperback at a used bookstore, I felt compelled to snatch it up.

Craig Thomas wasn’t an author on my espionage/thriller radar, so all I had going in was vague memories of the movie version of the story. He’s a capable, if not unremarkable writer. Firefox is definitely a slow-burn thriller that was common back in the 70s and 80s. While I didn’t hate the protagonist, Gant, I can’t really say I was rooting for him, either, not in your Arnold Schwartzenegger/Sly Stallone/Clint Eastwood way. Looking back, what I’ll remember most is how much he perspired. Not exactly the trait you’re looking for in your hero, but the guy seemed to mop the sweat off his brow every couple of pages every time the KGB confronted him. I get Thomas was trying to show how dangerous it was to have an American spy sneaking around Russia, but the character never inspired confidence or even sympathy from the reader. He really was a vanilla-kind of character.

The rest of the book had similar moments. The military didn’t really talk or act like the military. At one point, a submarine captain is out wandering around doing work instead of ordering of his crew to do it. A few times, the British author had Russians and Americans saying uniquely British words, like bloody this and bloody that. The Russians helping Gant infiltrate the secret military installation that housed the Firefox seemed at ease to the fact that, if caught, they were surely going to die a painful death. That seemed somewhat unrealistic and odd to me.

All in all, not horrible and not great. I’d only recommend Firefox to fans of the movie or the slow-burn 70s genre. If you’re looking for non-stop action, keep moving.

3 Forged Security Papers out of 5

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah this takes me back to my youth (yes I know back in the days when the world was black and white and sepia and scratchy down the edges) but seriously this book has a lot of history with me - back in the early days of my reading I was still exploring what I could read and what I enjoyed reading. - Now my father used to have the Readers Digest condensed editions and I remember flicking through them. They used to have colour pictures in them to entice readers to them and I remember stumbling across one by Craig Thomas. Well this was about the time of the film with Clint Eastwood and well one thing led to another and I remember reading this book in record time. Now years later I have found my Craig Thomas stash (ok it found me when some of my book stacks collapsed and revealed my collection)
So I sat down with Firefox and remembered not just the aeroplane but also the cold war espionage and intrigue - this book really was from another world, the days of the cold war and constant secret wars of trying to out do the opposition (never went quite as far as calling them the enemy). Now with Modern Russia this world seems so far away - I guess a little nostalgia and on my part ignorance of what really went on maybe has romanticised this a little but still the book is a thrilling read and of course this is only the start of the journey of Mitchell Gant

[Michael R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It must have been the cover that sold me on this book, because it wasn't my usual cup of tea. I was still an Agatha Christie mystery reader for the most part, back then.

But I loved this book. Back when the US was still in the Cold War with the USSR, the idea that Russia had an aircraft so far superior to anything we had or could possibly conceive of, and could blast any plane we had out of the sky... was a scary and realistic thought.

The idea to sneak a pilot into the Russia base, and steal the aircraft by flying it back to the US, was written very suspensfully. That the one and only pilot the USould find who had the capability to fly this jet fighter, was also on the verge of a mental breakdown, only added to the thiller.

I didn't think the movie did the book justice.

[Naja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig Thomas is only scantly mentioned when people talk about the techno-thriller genre, but he definitely should be mentioned along side the likes of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy. Firefox is written in a very particular, almost staccato, style that can be a little hard to follow at first, but it has a way of instilling you with a sense of the frustration the characters are feeling. Well worth a read if you enjoy Cold War era thrillers.

[William Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty decent read, one of the techno spy thrillers.

[Rafeeq O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig Thomas's 1977 Firefox is a Cold War technothriller of the 3.5- to 4-star variety. The novel is dark and tense, though sometimes disbelief has to be suspended a tad more than I would prefer, and style and mechanics have some quicks that grate for me as well.

In a way, Firefox presages Tom Clancy's 1984 The Hunt for Red October: A technological advance--a combination of them, actually--has leapfrogged over what the West has fielded militarily, and NATO needs to acquire the new goodies or be completely vulnerable to possible attack. Although... Well, this twin-engined jet whose monstrous powerplants can drive it at an astonishing Mach 5, whose special paint absorbs and also redirects radar to make the plane impossible to detect except by lucky random visual or infrared or aural glimpse, and whose thought-activated air-to-air missiles and cannons and electronic countermeasures are more quickly deployed than that of any opponent is a fighter.

That is, the Firefox would make a fine bomber-killer, and apparently it can dogfight to defeat other fighters, but never is there the suggestion that this technology could be applied to produce a deep-penetration nuclear bomber, or even that the existing aircraft would be useful for tactical ground attack on the battlefield. Yes, of course the American way of war is to prefer air supremacy, such that lacking it during any potential Soviet invasion into Western Europe would be devastating, but why doesn't Thomas say this? And why doesn't he suggest the possibility of an unstoppable super-bomber either? As it is, the need for the almost literally incredible mission at the focus of the book--to sneak a crack pilot into the heart of the USSR and steal the revolutionary new MiG by flying it out--is simply taken for granted.

Mentioning this bold plan, by the way, is no spoiler: My 1978 Bantam paperback with Lou Feck cover art, after all, already gives it away on the back blurb and also in the blurb on the two-page illustration inside the front cover. There are, of course, plenty of things the plot will obscure until the time is right. How will Mitchell Gant, former USAF fighter ace over Vietnam and now contractor for the CIA, a washed-out loner with tantalizing nightmares and yet the almost pathological drive to prove himself the very best flyer, ever get in to the heavily guarded airfield where the Firefox is about to take the first of its test flights to include full weapon load? Once there, how will he gain access to the ship? If he can get away, how and where can he refuel, undetected even as the Red Air Force and Red Navy search for him, so that he can bring his prize home? And what about the second Firefox prototype that his dissident Soviet accomplices need to disable? We shall see...

Despite the twists and turns, though, and the uncertainty regarding the alternatively shaky and then coolly confident Gant, noticeable things occasionally have to be overlooked by the reader. Working on the Firefox project, for example, and preparing it for the test of its weapons systems, are three skilled technicians who have been smuggling information to the British SIS...and the KBG knows about it. It is, according to the KGB security officer--another character who vacillates between overconfidence and foreboding dread--essentially "the devil ya know." That is, he can keep an eye on these three and supposedly can keep their intelligence leaks under control, whereas he is afraid of new, less detectable agents infiltrating. But come on... Yes, these semi-secret dissidents are good, but they're no Oppenheimer, Teller, and Kistiakowski at Los Alamos--they are replaceable. Without this over-confident KGB dingus leaving the project's enemies in place, however, we don't have a chance of getting Gant to the Firefox.

When the distracting fire at the hangar blazes up but doesn't work quite as planned, we have to hold our objections again, as the three dissidents, armed, are surrounded by a "semi-circle of closing guards," and when one of the three shoots, making "a guard drop, and another lurch sideways" (page 145), somehow the soldiers do not shoot. Whaaaaat...? And it's not as if the dissidents are standing in front of one of the aircraft either, and hence can't be shot at--they aren't. But apparently for some reason the author wants a standoff so he can make the commander can give a dramatic "Drop your weapons, or I shall order them to open fire!" (page 145)...which obviously is ridiculous, as no group of soldiers ever will hold fire after someone has started shooting at them point blank. Ever.

Once Gant gets away with the Firefox--you know he will, right? or else the book would end with a sudden clunk--there are other incongruent oddities. First, in the getaway itself, Thomas tells us that Gant is "[u]sing the rudder and differential braking" in "turn[ing] onto the runway" (page 150). No. No, definitely not. As one learns in ground school, the rudder has zero effect at taxiing speed; steering a non-multi-engined aircraft on the ground is controlled solely by differential braking, meaning pushing the brake pedal on the side one wants to turn. Later, though, after Gant's crucial refueling in an icy location, Thomas tells us that "he couldn't use brakes to steer on the ice" and that "[t]he rudder would not operate effectively until he reached a speed of eighty-five knots. At the moment he was at a little more than fifty" (pages 282-83). Whether the author has just learned this or just remembered the fact, it is odd that neither he nor the editors compared the different places.

Once aloft, the aircraft responds just as in the simulator Gant trained on...but it is very, very difficult to believe that anyone could slip out enough data to predict the handling characteristics of a brand-new Mach 5 fighter this precisely. And yes, ex-Major Gant has his paralyzing flashback dreams sometimes, but despite his psychological fragility, he still is an absolutely top pilot. So when he knows he needs to stretch his fuel consumption, would he really have those moments of panic--two of them, even--where he throttles up to profligately wasteful high-speed dashes that shorten his range to his unknown refueling point? Hard to believe. And since the Firefox is invisible to radar, why does it have its own radar activated...which somehow no one can track? The Wild Weasel missions over Vietnam homed in on enemy radar, after all; surely someone should think of that here.

And why is the feel of the novel so British? Yes, I know the author is British, and I don't meant the narrative voice in general--that is appropriate. I mean the speech and interior monologues of characters of other nationalities. I really, really doubt that Soviet officers would use the word "bloody" as a curse, just as I know an American pilot thinks of the transparent plexiglas humped over a fighter's cockpit as a "canopy" rather than a "hood," and I really, really doubt than an American would ask, "Have we x?" rather than "Do we have x?" I'm rather iffy, too, on the British-seeming affirmative response to a superior officer with the crisp "Sir" rather than "Yes, sir." A Brit, yes. A Russian...doubtful, though I could be wrong. An American serviceman?--I don't believe so.

Oh, and commas as odd, too. Many are the times where a sentence starts with "But," or some other construction that doesn't need a comma...and yet the author just loves to put one there.

As I read back through these quibbles, it seems as if I must be giving a 2-star review. I'm not. Craig Thomas's Firefox is pretty good, and pretty fun. Shakespeare it ain't; even Tom Clancy it ain't. Clancy is Shakespeare compared to this. But so long as one can shrug at the occasional oddity, the book is decently entertaining escapism from the Cold War way back in the 1970s, almost a decade and a half before the fall of the seemingly impervious Soviet empire.

[rachid idjiou · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this spy book very much, Firefox is an amazing thriller novel. When I first started reading the first chapter I thought I was watching a James Bond movie, it took me back to the cold war to understand more about the arms race between the Soviet Union and the west. Firefox is an impenetrable Aeroplane, anti-radar the most serious threat to the security of the West since the development of Nuclear Weapons by the Soviet Union.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firefox by Craig Thomas is a high-stakes Cold War thriller that immerses readers in a daring mission to steal a revolutionary Soviet jet fighter. Packed with suspense, technical detail, and political intrigue, Thomas crafts a fast-paced narrative that keeps the tension sky-high. A classic espionage tale for thriller enthusiasts!

[Emme Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Firefox' by Craig Thomas is amazing. Wow, what a tense, gripping ride!

Craig Thomas delivers a Cold War thriller packed with suspense, high stakes, and edge-of-your-seat action. The premise itself is electrifying: the Soviet Union has developed a next-generation fighter jet, the MiG-31, capable of outmatching anything in the West. The only way to stop it? Steal it.

Enter Mitchell Gant, a former pilot with a troubled past, tasked with infiltrating Soviet territory to hijack the Firefox. The novel unfolds like a slow-burning fuse, packed with nerve-wracking tension as Gant navigates a world of double agents, KGB surveillance, and brutal Soviet winters. The final act, with its breathtaking aerial chase, had me hooked until the very last page.

Thomas’s writing makes the espionage feel incredibly real, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. If you love Cold War thrillers filled with taut suspense and white-knuckle action, *Firefox* is a must-read!

[Lel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn’t for me. I didn’t find myself caught up in the tension of stealing a plane, the characters weren’t very fleshed out and the action scenes just seemed flat to me.

[Y. Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Better than The Hunt for Red October.

[Abir Yeasar · Rating 5 out of 5]

অসাধারণ একটা টেকনো থ্রিলার! বিমান চালানোর টেকনিক্যাল দিকগুলো অনেক ডিটেইলে লেখা হয়েছে। সঙ্গে শ্বাসরুদ্ধকর কিছু টুইস্ট।
মোহাম্মদ নাজিম উদ্দিন সুন্দর অনুবাদ করেছেন।
মাসুদ রানা সিরিজের চারিদিকে শত্রু এখান থে���ে নকল করা। ওই বইটা কারও হাতে দেখলে ছিঁড়ে ফেলে এই বইটি তুলে দিন।

[Arthur Chappell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a half decent Cold War Techno Thriller. A US pilot is sent to Russia on a mission to steal a new state of the art high tech fighter jet. The Firefox, described like a Star Wars X-Wing fighter. It has telepathic controls in touch with the pilot through his helmet. He just has to think what he wants the plane to do, and it does, but he has to think in Russian.

Most of the book is about Gant even getting near the plane, and only the last quarter or so deals with its audacious theft.

Spoiler alerts as the book is left open to a sequel when a near miss with a heat seeking missile makes Gant swear in American English, causing the plane to switch off and crash into the Arctic ice. This led to Firefox Down about a race against the Russians to salvage the plane and rescue Gant.

Firefox was filmed with Clint Eastwood as Gant, The thought of Eastwood failing in his mission was unthinkable to the movie producers so he successfully takes the Firefox into US airspace and any hope of a movie sequel was dashed.

Arthur Chappell

[Jacob Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm frequently enticed to try to read political thrillers but they almost always disappoint. This book gained my attention after catching the Clint Eastwood movie based on it. As far as political thrillers go, this book is in the top tier. The characters are fairly interesting and except for a few traits of the title character (the Russian jet), it lacks the gross exaggerations that most political thrillers overflow with. It makes it a rather relaxing read for me, while maintaining the intrigue and suspense that these stories should have. It is well worth the read, and the movie isn't bad either, for what that's worth.

[Hassan Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

...

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: his name is Gant, a renegade American pilot. He's out to steal a Soviet MIG named, Firefox. Clint Eastwood starred.

[Dominic · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the Cold War, the US and Britain learned of a breakthrough Soviet fighter jet, the MiG-31, codenamed "Firefox." This plane is far ahead of anything in the West, featuring technology that did not exist at the time: stealth capabilities, hypersonic speed, and a thought-controlled weapons system. Fearing the shift in global power, this aircraft leapfrogs the West's best planes; they plan a daring mission: to have an American pilot steal the Firefox from a Soviet airbase. Mitchell Gant, a Vietnam veteran with psychological scars and Russian language skills, is chosen for the task. He infiltrates the Soviet Union, aided by a network of dissidents, and faces numerous challenges in his attempt to reach the Firefox and fly it to the West. Along the way, all of the people who help Grant are killed. Talking to Marcus is the worst part.

Key Themes:
1) Cold War tensions and paranoia: The story is deeply rooted in the fear and mistrust between the superpowers. The KGB, MI6/SIS, and CIA really were constantly messing in real life with each other trying to get a foot up so it is a natural extension to see it in the book.

2) Technological advancement and its dangers: Firefox represents the potential for technology to be used for destructive purposes and how it can tip the balance of power as a disruptive force. I think it is ironic that the US and Britain are the ones stealing the technology. Usually, as Westerners, we hear it being Russia or China doing the dirty work to catch up.

3) Individual courage and resilience (+ morally gray attributes): Gant's mission requires immense physical and psychological strength. I am not a doctor, but he has some serious ethical issues. He knows the people who are helping him are going to be tortured and killed ‒ slowly and quickly, respectively ‒ yet he is single-minded in his approach and willingness to continue.

4) Espionage and betrayal: The plot is driven by secrets, deception, and shifting alliances. It is a time-bound game of 'cat and mouse.' No action was taken to save the assets that helped Grant along the way. They knew they were going to die but felt the cause was worth it. This knowledge was evident to me when each person helping him asked Grant if he could actually fly the thing -- if they did not believe him, they would not risk their lives.

[Mark Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining book that the movie closely followed with a few changes in the movie that I think was for the better. Gant is sent to steal the Firefox from the USSR. This book was published in 1977. About 12 years before the fall of the USSR and before the revelation that the US had the F-117 Stealth Fighter. (A side note it was the existence of the F-117 Stealth Fighter that the B-1 Lancer had been cancelled by President Carter. Also because the B-1 relied on flying close to the ground to avoid radar but by then there was look down radar that negated flying close to the ground.) The Firefox is an advanced fighter that is very fast and stealthy. It is completely invisible to radar and only the heat from the jet engines make it possible to locate it. There are a few differences between the movie and the book but a lot of the dialog is almost verbatim. Gant is suffering from what is now called PTSD but I believe was called Shell Shock back then and has episodes where he breaks down like in the movie. Some of the characters in the book die before finding out Gant is successful in stealing the Firefox. The Soviets knew about all the ones that end up helping Gant and in the book was planning on killing them when the Firefox was ready. Gant actually kills the Firefox pilot in the book instead of just knocking him out in the movie and another pilot flies the second prototype after Gant in the book. The rear defense pod just fires out flares in the book, in the movie it fires rockets. There is a video display in the movie but only rear view mirrors in the book. In the end I found Firefox to be an enjoyable book.

[Philip Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book that launched a Clint Eastwood film, an internet browser and the author's career. Four stars might be a bit generous but this has such a cool premise: the Soviets have a new super Mig fighter that's way ahead of the West. Let's steal it! The early passages drag a bit as our boy, Mitchell Gant, is spirited from Moscow into the top secret airbase. Even Craig Thomas fans like myself wouldn't claim he was a great stylist, but the story really "takes flight" when it gets airborne. Surface to air missiles, enemy fighters, low on fuel - it's pretty tense stuff.

Gant is an odd hero. The "battle scarred Vietnam vet" was a bit of a staple for 70s & 80s thrillers and he has all the usual PTSD flashbacks. He's scared most of time, pale, sweaty and throws up. Yet he's also super arrogant when it comes to his aerial ability and kills two Russians with his bare hands. Brit spy master Aubrey pops up again as do actual Russian leaders of the day, including Andropov before he briefly got the big job.

I like classic Cold War thrillers as it's easy to spot the villains (ie. The Brutal Police state, not the currently trending Rogue CIA Elements) There's a sense of important matters at stake too, rather than just "when will we catch the serial killer"? The Sphere paperback edition with the Chris Moore illustration (strongly resembling the fighter design from the film) is a nice book to own. More of the same next up with "Snow Falcon".

[Michael Keene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read Firefox when I was at school in the early '80s and enjoyed it then. Reading it now I enjoyed it but the passing years have made it less plausible as we all know the Russians were not as advanced with technology as we thought.

The plot focuses on the Russian development of the Firefox plane, the most advanced plane of its type, Kenneth Aubrey, Head of SIS Department 'C' who conceives of a plan for an experienced pilot to travel to Russia, locate Firefox, steal it and fly it out of Russia.

Wonderful idea! Well executed novel. Mitchell Gant is the hero, damaged from his time in Vietnam, with post-traumatic stress disorder. The book is full of very real characters whose motivations are genuinely understandable. One of the earliest techno-thrillers, Firefox follows Gant, a man who is damaged, undertaking a mission due to his love of flying and desire to fly this incredible piece of technology but naive enough to panic while he is travelling across Russia and almost not to be aware of the dangers he would face getting to fly the aircraft.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys techno-thrillers and edge-of-your-seat thrillers with realistic characters. Just don't expect it to be too realistic!

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Clancy fan, Firefox offers me quite a few new experiences:

- In Clancy books, especially modern ones, Russia/the other country is typically on the offensive (usually doing something illegal) and America is on the defensive. It's the other way around here: NATO / America is trying to steal tech and Russia is on the defense.

- Because of the above, the Clancy experience is usually the other country being the lone wolf and US being the well-supported / bureaucratic yet methodical one. Seeing Russia being methodical is also a breath of fresh air.

- The final act in Clancy books is usually around the 3/4th mark, leaving room for denouement / "debriefing." Firefox is all action at the end, perhaps a sign that the final duel is indeed the decisive battle.

Otherwise, common Cold Era tropes still exist. America is still employing ballsy tactics, and Russia continues to be bogged down by political moves. The book is a solid read, the MC is an expert at what he does and yet has bouts of weakness, and the characters are, well, as deep as you would expect out of a thriller, but they serve their purpose well.

And apparently this is just part one. Maybe I'll hunt down part two....

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining cold war thriller with the fantastic edge of a James Bond adventure. Worried about the technological advance of Russia's new Mig-31 (NATO code Firefox) the west take the unlikely move of sending in a lone pilot Mitchell Gant, to steal it just before the prototype undergoes it's first weapons trials. The book is in essence in 2 parts, Gant's journey to the test site and then his attempt to avoid the Soviet forces as he tries to escape with his prize.
It is a story that moves along a good pace and there is a nice blend of detail not only of the plane but of the trade craft needed to get Gant to the test site and action scenes as he strives to complete his mission. I wouldn't describe the characterisation as first rate, since Gant is the only character to which any depth is really provided with the rest just seemingly along for the ride. I have no idea about aside from novels about life for dissidents in the old Soviet Union, and as such found the scientists fatalistic attitude to their own deaths providing they helped Gant escape with the plan not quite believable.
Still a good story, looking forward to the next instalment