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Loading... Firefox (1977)by Craig Thomas
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Belongs to SeriesMitchell Gant (1) Is contained inHas the adaptation
The Soviet Mig-31 is the deadliest warplane ever built. Codenamed FIREFOX by NATO, it can fly over 4,000 m.p.h., is invulnerable to radar - and has a lethally sophisticated weapons system that its pilot can control by thought impulses. There's only one way for the West to fight the greatest threat since the Second World War - Hijack the Firefox! No library descriptions found. |
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It’s that fighter plane that gives ‘Firefox’ its draw, and title. It’s a secret new Mig being developed by the Soviets which is, we are told, a decade ahead of anything NATO has. The plot revolves around Mitchell Gant, an ace fighter pilot who flew in Vietnam, going to Russia to steal the plane from under the noses of the KGB. For all the importance of Firefox (the codename the West have given the plane), it takes Gant half the book to actually get to it.
This is a Cold War thriller, through and through, and the first half is a fairly slow, but suitably gripping, account of him sneaking into Russia and hundreds of miles cross country. There are wily policemen and KGB agents, heroic rebels and Gant himself, a suitably damaged hero plagued by crippling flashbacks.
Once he gets to the airfield where Firefox is hangered, the book clicks into a much higher gear and becomes a breakneck action thriller filled with aerial combat and adventure. It’s just as cool as 10 year old me thought it would be, even if the build up feels a bit like low rent Le Carre.
Overall, ‘Firefox’ reminded me a lot of Tom Clancy’s later ‘The Hunt for Red October’. It has a similar mix of commie-bashing, tech-fetishism and expertly handled tension. If you like that kind of thing this is a blast.
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