Spoilers PIC: Firewall by David Mack Review Thread

[David Mack]

I am pleased to share the news that this past Friday, July 26, 2024, Star Trek: Picard – Firewall was honored with a Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers for “Best Original Novel, Speculative.”

It was a hotly contested category, as always, and I feel deeply honored that the judges ultimately voted to bestow the award upon Firewall.

In addition, I received a second Scribe Award on Friday, in the category of “Best Short Fiction,” for “Lost and Founder,” my Star Trek: Deep Space Nine short story in issue 8 of Star Trek Explorer magazine. I was told that this category, which was more crowded than the “Best Original Novel, Speculative” category, was even more hotly contested, and that my story just barely squeaked to a first-place finish.

For those keeping score at home, I have now won four Scribe Awards and been nominated for ten, and I have been the recipient of their Faust Award, which honors me as a grandmaster in the field of media tie-in writing.

I offer my gratitude to the Scribe Award judges, my congratulations to this year’s other Scribe Award winners, and my respect to my fellow nominees for Best Original Novel, Speculative, and Best Short Fiction. They all did superlative work, and but for a quirk of fate any of them might well have taken home these awards instead of me.

 

[Elwro]

Congratulations!

 

[Kertrats47]

Getting caught up on the actual reviews on my Trek book review site has been slow going, but I finally published my review of Firewall. Loved this novel, it is very much deserving of the Scribe Award! Congrats, David!

 

[Christopher]

Just finished this one, which I bought direct from Dave at Shore Leave. After rereading these comments, I wish I'd remembered that he envisioned Jessica Henwick as Ellory -- that would've been cool. The one role I cast in my head was Keon Harper, whom I imagined as Paul Sun-Heung Lee.

It's weird to see a Trek novel dealing so heavily with capitalism and money. Even though we know such things are still common outside the Federation, they generally don't come up too heavily in the fiction outside of Ferengi stories. It was odd that Tazgul/Mardani, a Federation official, was so motivated by greed for money along with all the non-UFP characters. Why would he need it? But then, I've often felt that hunger for money must be a form of addiction, given that the richest people are the ones most desperate to gain even more money by any means necessary. Maybe dealing with capitalists outside the UFP gave him a taste for money and he got hooked.

The Prodigy elements did lead to a strange quirk in the way I visualized things: For most of the book I imagined events as if they were live-action, but for all the scenes set on the Dauntless, my imagination switched to Prodigy-style animation. Not sure what to make of that... Perhaps it's because Mr. Mack captured the voices of Tysses and Noum so well that it just evoked an episode of Prodigy.

I did exactly the same, with Admiral Janeway as well as Tysess and Noum.

I found it a little surprising that Janeway had been in command of the Dauntless as early as 2381. I sort of had the impression from Prodigy season 1 that she only took command of the ship to search for Chakotay.

 

[David Mack]

Just finished this one, which I bought direct from Dave at Shore Leave. After rereading these comments, I wish I'd remembered that he envisioned Jessica Henwick as Ellory -- that would've been cool. The one role I cast in my head was Keon Harper, whom I imagined as Paul Sun-Heung Lee.

Whereas I envisioned Jeff Bridges. To each their own.

It's weird to see a Trek novel dealing so heavily with capitalism and money. Even though we know such things are still common outside the Federation, they generally don't come up too heavily in the fiction outside of Ferengi stories.

Capitalist concerns came up fairly frequently on Star Trek: Picard, especially among those depicted as being part of the criminal element with ties to Freecloud.

It was odd that Tazgul/Mardani, a Federation official, was so motivated by greed for money along with all the non-UFP characters. Why would he need it? But then, I've often felt that hunger for money must be a form of addiction, given that the richest people are the ones most desperate to gain even more money by any means necessary. Maybe dealing with capitalists outside the UFP gave him a taste for money and he got hooked.

It wasn’t Tazgül/Mardani who was obsessed with money — it was General Kohgish. He needed the capital to acquire a black-market used Talarian warship to reinforce his hold over the Qiris sector. Mardani/Tazgül was concerned with the money only inasmuch as it was a necessary asset for Kohgish, who he was cultivating as an unofficial military asset against the Romulans. In addition, Mardani wasn't a “Federation official,” he was a disavowed former spymaster for the Federation Security Agency (similar to the FBI).

I did exactly the same, with Admiral Janeway as well as Tysess and Noum.

I found it a little surprising that Janeway had been in command of the Dauntless as early as 2381. I sort of had the impression from Prodigy season 1 that she only took command of the ship to search for Chakotay.

I didn’t see the Dauntless as being under Janeway’s permanent command at that point, but rather just an available vessel that fit her needs and which she commandeered out of necessity and proximity. The fact that it later became her ship and that she formed a significant bond with its senior personnel likely occurred subsequent to the events of Firewall.

 

[Christopher]

Whereas I envisioned Jeff Bridges. To each their own.

I saw "pilot with white beard" and an image of Carson Teva popped into my head, so I went with it. And Keon can be a Korean name, as well as a Gaelic or Persian one. My most recent exposure to Bridges was rewatching Starman, and I haven't seen much of his later work, so he never would've occurred to me.

It wasn’t Tazgül/Mardani who was obsessed with money — it was General Kohgish. He needed the capital to acquire a black-market used Talarian warship to reinforce his hold over the Qiris sector. Mardani/Tazgül was concerned with the money only inasmuch as it was a necessary asset for Kohgish, who he was cultivating as an unofficial military asset against the Romulans. In addition, Mardani wasn't a “Federation official,” he was a disavowed former spymaster for the Federation Security Agency (similar to the FBI).

But didn't you say that the reason he was a former spymaster was because he had embezzled Federation funds? So even when he was living in the UFP, he was committing crimes whose goal was to acquire monetary wealth. Compared to a normal Federation citizen's disinterest in money, a willingness to commit crimes for it seems anomalous, even obsessive.

Now, I'm willing to believe the Federation isn't literally moneyless, just that it has an economy where money isn't required for survival, where capitalism is more an optional pursuit or a hobby than an absolute need. And presumably the UFP government has a treasury it can use for dealings with other nations that do still use money. So that would probably be what he was embezzling from. But the crime of embezzlement is probably extremely rare within the Federation, since most UFP citizens wouldn't see the point.

I didn’t see the Dauntless as being under Janeway’s permanent command at that point, but rather just an available vessel that fit her needs and which she commandeered out of necessity and proximity. The fact that it later became her ship and that she formed a significant bond with its senior personnel likely occurred subsequent to the events of Firewall.

Hmm, okay. Maybe she chose the ship then because she already had a history with its crew thanks to these events.

Anyway, chronology aside, I like the blending of elements from both Picard and Prodigy, tying the 2380s together in much the way PRO season 2 did. I would've liked to see some more Lower Decks elements as well, but I guess 2381 is a bit ahead of that show's timeline, or overlapping with the upcoming season, so it was probably best to tiptoe around that.

 

[David Mack]

I saw "pilot with white beard" and an image of Carson Teva popped into my head, so I went with it. And Keon can be a Korean name, as well as a Gaelic or Persian one. My most recent exposure to Bridges was rewatching Starman, and I haven't seen much of his later work, so he never would've occurred to me.

My inspiration re: Jeff Bridges as Keon Harper was the FX series The Old Man.

But didn't you say that the reason he was a former spymaster was because he had embezzled Federation funds? So even when he was living in the UFP, he was committing crimes whose goal was to acquire monetary wealth. Compared to a normal Federation citizen's disinterest in money, a willingness to commit crimes for it seems anomalous, even obsessive.

Embezzled funds, yes. But you’re misunderstanding his motive. For Tazgül, it wasn’t about enriching himself, but about amassing the resources he believed he would need to recruit and control rogue military elements along the UFP/Romulan border. For Tazgül, the embezzled funds were merely a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. Conversely, for Kohgish, his stated aim of "securing control of the Qiris sector" was really about enriching himself at the expense of others. Tazgül wasn’t in this scheme to get rich; he saw himself as a patriot who was doing what was necessary to protect the Federation while providing it with complete deniability (as a means of preventing escalation to open war when things inevitably go wrong).

Now, I'm willing to believe the Federation isn't literally moneyless, just that it has an economy where money isn't required for survival, where capitalism is more an optional pursuit or a hobby than an absolute need. And presumably the UFP government has a treasury it can use for dealings with other nations that do still use money. So that would probably be what he was embezzling from. But the crime of embezzlement is probably extremely rare within the Federation, since most UFP citizens wouldn't see the point.

See above. He wasn't in it to get rich. He needed resources with which to control foreign assets.

And I agree that the Federation isn’t without some means of virtual currency, some way of trading with foreign powers, etc. The overwhelming abundance of canon evidence supports this view, while the notion of a moneyless Federation comes predominantly from one misinterpreted line in Star Trek IV. (I always took the meaning of the Taylor/Kirk exchange about there being no money in the 23rd century to mean they no longer used cash that would be recognized in the 20th-century United States.) After all, TOS is replete with references to "earning your pay," Starfleet personnel buying items from merchants, and, in the movies, Scotty’s reference to having "bought a boat."

I imagine that in the UFP there is a UBI (universal basic income) for all citizens and legal residents; probably universally free medical and psychiatric care of all kinds; and subsidized housing plus free mass transit. Maybe even free transit between planets in the same star system, at least in the core systems.

But once one leaves the comfortable confines of UFP space … all bets are off.

Hmm, okay. Maybe she chose the ship then because she already had a history with its crew thanks to these events.

Anyway, chronology aside, I like the blending of elements from both Picard and Prodigy, tying the 2380s together in much the way PRO season 2 did. I would've liked to see some more Lower Decks elements as well, but I guess 2381 is a bit ahead of that show's timeline, or overlapping with the upcoming season, so it was probably best to tiptoe around that.

Thanks, I enjoyed including the Dauntless and giving props to Prodigy. I didn't have much use for Lower Decks references, however, because I felt that the tone of Lower Decks would have been a jarring mismatch with that of Firewall.

 

[Christopher]

Embezzled funds, yes. But you’re misunderstanding his motive. For Tazgül, it wasn’t about enriching himself, but about amassing the resources he believed he would need to recruit and control rogue military elements along the UFP/Romulan border. For Tazgül, the embezzled funds were merely a means to an end, not an end in and of itself.

Okay, that makes sense, but I feel it could've been clearer in the text itself.

And I agree that the Federation isn’t without some means of virtual currency, some way of trading with foreign powers, etc. The overwhelming abundance of canon evidence supports this view, while the notion of a moneyless Federation comes predominantly from one misinterpreted line in Star Trek IV. (I always took the meaning of the Taylor/Kirk exchange about there being no money in the 23rd century to mean they no longer used cash that would be recognized in the 20th-century United States.) After all, TOS is replete with references to "earning your pay," Starfleet personnel buying items from merchants, and, in the movies, Scotty’s reference to having "bought a boat."

Sure, but there's also the fact that a replicator-based society is post-scarcity. You can get anything you want with the press of a button. Since transporter-based replicators didn't come into use until after TOS, I assume that's the reason the economy changed from Kirk saying "You've earned your pay for the week" in TOS to Jake saying "We don't use money" in DS9.

Thanks, I enjoyed including the Dauntless and giving props to Prodigy. I didn't have much use for Lower Decks references, however, because I felt that the tone of Lower Decks would have been a jarring mismatch with that of Firewall.

I dunno... if LD can take a concept from a serious episode like "Symbiosis" or "Tuvix" and turn it into a comedy, it should be possible to take elements or characters treated comedically in LD and present them in a serious context. And I just like the idea of it all being a single whole, and exploring how contemporaneous elements from the different shows would interact and affect each other.

 

[The Wormhole]

IIRC, there is a tiny Lower Decks reference in the novel, a mention is made to Starfleet ships which have crew berthing in the corridors.