Firefox (novel)

infobox Book |
name = Firefox
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Craig Thomas
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Techno-thriller novel
publisher = Michael Joseph (UK) & Holt, Rinehart and Winston (USA)
release_date = 8 August 1977
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 288 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0-03-020791-6 (first edition, hardback) & ISBN 0-7181-1570-8 (UK hardback edition)
preceded_by = Rat Trap
followed_by = Wolfsbane

"Firefox" is a thriller novel written by Craig Thomas, published in 1977. It is the novel that brought success to its author largely through the film adaptation of it in 1982 featuring Clint Eastwood who directed, produced, and played Mitchell Gant. It also features a fictional MiG (soviet fighter aircraft) making it a precursor to the techno-thriller novel.

Plot summary

The book focuses on a fictional "MiG-31 Firefox" aircraft supposedly developed by the USSR during the Cold War. It is not to be confused with the real MiG 31 developed some time later.

The fictional Firefox includes various advanced capabilities; most notably a form of stealth technology which makes it completely undetectable to radar; it is capable of attaining speeds of Mach five or more; its weapons are controlled by the thought impulses of the pilot, allowing them to be very rapidly aimed and fired. Less emphasised but equally impressive is the aircraft's three thousand mile range.

Faced with an aircraft which will give the Soviet Union the ability to completely dominate the skies, the CIA and MI6 launch a mission to steal one of the two Firefox prototype aircraft. The first section of the book details how fighter pilot Mitchell Gant covertly travels to Russia. With the help of a network of dissidents and sympathisers he makes his way to the Bilyarsk air base on which the two prototype aircraft are being developed. With the assistance of some of the scientists working on the project he is able to penetrate the base and successfully steal a MiG-31. This section of the novel depicts such intelligence work as a grim, frightening and stressful experience, a marked contrast to the more adventurous "Bond-type" thrillers.

The second section of the book deals with Gant's flight. Here the novel is notable for its focus on military technology and tactics. First heading east towards the Ural, then north to the Barents Sea, Gant narrowly escapes a Soviet fighter plane and frigate, exchanging fire on both occasions. Touching down on an ice floe, a submarine serves as his refueling point, before he continues his flight towards friendly air space. There, he is scrambled by the second Firefox prototype, which was sent in pursuit. Gant decides the duel in his favor, and continues towards his home destination.

Characters in "Firefox"

*Mitchell Gant – American fighter pilot and spy, protagonist
*Kenneth Aubrey – British spy master
*Colonel Kontarsky – Soviet head of counterintelligence at the Bilyarsk air base
*Dmitri Priabin – Soviet intelligence officer serving under Colonel Kontarsky at the Bilyarsk air base.
*Peter Shelly – British agent
*Charles Buckholtz – American agent with the CIA
*General Med Vladimirov – Soviet Air Force general tasked with stopping Gant.
*Air Marshal Kutuzov – Soviet Air Force chief
*Yuri Andropov – Head of the KGB (as he was when the novel was written in the mid-1970s)

Literary significance & criticism

Firefox is regarded by many as being one of the very first examples of the Techno-thriller, a genre which was further popularised with Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October" seven years later.

Allusions/references from other works

Firefox and "Firefox Down" also seem to be the inspiration for two missions in the game Hidden & Dangerous, in which the player must steal a top-secret revolutionary German bomber and fly it to safety. Once it is shot down, the player must defend the crash site from German Fallschirmjäger until the essential parts of the aircraft are ready to be moved.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

The novels were written some time after the real MiG-25 "Foxbat" was produced and the author not only correctly followed the Soviet OKB System of designating their fighter aircraft with successive odd numbers, but the "fox" portion of his name was probably inspired the "Foxbat" NATO reporting name of the MiG-25. Since the Firefox novels were written, a real life MiG-31 "Foxhound" has been produced. As may be expected, it has little in common with its fictional counterpart. The fact that the NATO reporting name again includes "fox" is because the MiG-31 was based on the earlier MiG-25 that used the name "Foxbat" so that "Foxhound" and "Foxbat" also informally shows this relationship. It therefore was not based on or alluded to the fictional "Firefox".

It should be noted that when NATO intelligence groups discovered the development of a new fighter, known then as the Ye-155MP, many believed that it was indeed a superfighter with unmatched maneuverability and top speed. This idea proved to be false, in the instance, since the prototype was an 'evolutionary' one, aimed at producing successor to the tried Foxbat.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

"Firefox" was made into a movie by Warner Brothers based on the novel and released in 1982. Clint Eastwood was the director, producer, and played Mitchell Gant. Although many details of the novel are changed, the movie was on the whole considered by fans to be a faithful interpretation of the book. Interestingly, the MiG-31 design produced for the movie is styled in a way which is somewhat similar to real life stealthy aircraft which appeared many years later.

equels

The novel "Firefox Down" is a continuation of the story of "Firefox".

Many of the characters of "Firefox" and "Firefox Down" return for the novel "Winter Hawk" (1987) and "A Different War" (1997), both set significantly after the events of "Firefox". These stories do not feature the "Firefox" but depict the further adventures of Gant.

Further reading

For fans of the movie "Firefox" there's a highly detailed online resource focusing on the technical and design aspects of this fictional aircraft located at http://www.thinkinrussian.org/

Release details

*1977, USA, Holt Rinehart and Winston ISBN 0-03-020791-6, Pub date 1 August 1977, hardback (First edition)
*1977, UK, Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-1570-8, Pub date 8 August 1977, hardback
*1978, UK, Sphere ISBN 0-7221-0445-6, Pub date 27 July 1978, paperback
*1978, USA, Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-11820-X, Pub date ? ? 1978, paperback
*1988, USA, Time Warner ISBN 0-7515-1138-2, Pub date 1 January 1988, paperback (reissue)
*1992, USA, Chivers Audio Books ISBN 0-7451-4096-3, Pub date ? December 1992, Audio book cassette (narrated by Stephen Thorne)