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Spoilers PIC: Firewall by David Mack Review Thread

Rate PIC: Firewall

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    Votes: 13 44.8%
  • Above Average

    Votes: 9 31.0%
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    Votes: 6 20.7%
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    Votes: 1 3.4%
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(Wait, what are the half you identified? January, April, May, June, August... and what?)

Oops, you're right. I was thinking of April through June and then August, and my mind glossed over the fact that July was in there too and didn't count as a name. So, okay, it's half the year including March but not July. (Although July is Julio in Esperanto and Julius in Hungarian, so it's borderline. It's named after Julius Caesar, of course, as August is named after Augustus Caesar.)
 
When Star Trek Picard first started a lot of people were turned off by the direction the Federation had gone in since Nemesis, but I found the journey of watching them find their way back overall satisfying. Whilst I enjoyed the later seasons I do wonder where the show would have gone had Michael Chabon stayed.

So it was interesting to jump into Firewall off the back of rewatching Season 3 and to see Seven at her lowest point and see her start on the journey to who she is in Absolute Candor.

I enjoyed all the espionage in this book and General Kohgish was a despicable villain, but one with clear motives.

It was great how David Mack took a few lines of dialogue and gave us a book that felt like exactly what happened off-screen.
 
I found it better than average. Not certain why. Perhaps it was due to Mr. Mack? Perhaps due to the unknown locations and no hero SF ship as it's focus?
 
I did catch that Seven's first mission as a Ranger trainee was to the Valen colony. And, a couple pages later, the line about how shameless people in positions of power can act with impunity because no one knows how to stop them was... pointed. I appreciated the scene where the FSA director made it very explicit why some people would be downright angry at Seven refusing to be called Annika in a way that I hoped would've been done in PIC itself instead of leaving us to speculate on Shaw's motivations rather than having him stand up for them (the whole through-line reminded me of a part near the end of the third Imperial Radch book, where a character who had been through a mindwipe talked about undoing a frivolous cosmetic procedure her prior persona had done, because she felt like it didn't belong to her; another character offered that of course it was hers; she was born with it). In the early part of the book when Seven was trying to break out of her shell, I did have to wonder what "queer" means in the open and liberated 2380s. Maybe in that context, it's less about what you're doing and who you're doing it with and instead is about how you do it.

There was one line I think might've been a typo. In chapter 17, when the Rangers are discussion how they need to move the money they recover, they mention that Kohgish and Mardani also us the bank on Voll. Seven never told anyone in the Rangers about Mardani, and I don't think anyone else in the Rangers would've had any idea who he was, never mind that he was Kohgish's boss.

Finally, it wasn't until the end of the framing story (and wondering if Seven's evil-ex (huh) was ever going to show up) that I really considered how much time everything took. Seven was in the Fenris Rangers for almost twenty years! It's the majority of her life, by a lot! She's already getting disillusioned in '86, and she's less than halfway through. It just keeps escaping me that there's almost a decade and a half between the nova and PIC, since most of the storytelling (both in canon and in the good old days) was outside of that gap.
 
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There was one line I think might've been a typo. In chapter 17, when the Rangers are discussion how they need to move the money they recover, they mention that Kohgish and Mardani also us the bank on Voll. Seven never told anyone in the Rangers about Mardani, and I don't think anyone else in the Rangers would've had any idea who he was, never mind that he was Kohgish's boss.
The relationship between Kohgish and Mardani would have been part of the information exposed by the hack of the metadata the Rangers acquired in the Alta heist. The transfers of sums from FSA-related NGOs to Kohgish were arranged by Mardani as part of his embezzlement scheme. Or we can assume that at some point Seven clued them in to Mardani's role as a middleman backing Kohgish. At worst an ellision requiring a bit of consideration, but not a typo or a plot hole.
 
I don't usually like buying books online, because I get picky about the condition of the covers. But in this case, I ended up getting this one online, because Chapters was offering it online for almost $10 off cover price. Can't really pass up that kind of savings!

As mentioned, it now goes to the top of the reading pile. Now I just need to find the time to actually read it! :brickwall:
 
^ I did manage to carve out a bit of time to start it tonight. :)

I'm only a few chapters in so far, but I have to admit, I wasn't expecting a Frozen reference! :lol:
 
I’ve never seen Frozen, so any perceived allusion is purely coincidental.
Even if you don't feel like watching an entire movie, I recommend checking out the songs "Let It Go" and "Into the Unknown" for their musical and animation merits. The latter is also a pleasant variation on the Dies Irae theme.
 
Even if you don't feel like watching an entire movie, I recommend checking out the songs "Let It Go" and "Into the Unknown" for their musical and animation merits. The latter is also a pleasant variation on the Dies Irae theme.

No Lost in the Woods for its pitch perfect Eighties Power Ballad homage?
 
I’ve never seen Frozen, so any perceived allusion is purely coincidental.

Ah, sorry for reading too much into it then. I just assumed the city of Arendel was a reference to the kingdom of Arendelle. I guess I shouldn't expect any movie homages when they actually arrive there, then. :)
 
Ah, sorry for reading too much into it then. I just assumed the city of Arendel was a reference to the kingdom of Arendelle. I guess I shouldn't expect any movie homages when they actually arrive there, then. :)
Arendel is a real place in Norway. Most of the place names in Firewall were derived by looking at a map of Norway until I found a name that felt right for whatever I needed at the moment. Examples: Starheim, Utsira, Otroya, Valen, Soroya, etc.
 
I’ve never seen Frozen, so any perceived allusion is purely coincidental.
I hadn't either (I think the last Disney animated feature I saw in a first-run theatre was The Lion King), until last year, when the pastor at one of my churches (The Rev'd Dr. Sarah Halverson-Cano, at Irvine UCC) was doing a summer sermon series on religious connections in Disney animated features, and did one on Frozen. On the strength of her sermon and her recommendation, I ordered the DVD out of Alibris. Good movie.
 
Arendel is a real place in Norway. Most of the place names in Firewall were derived by looking at a map of Norway until I found a name that felt right for whatever I needed at the moment. Examples: Starheim, Utsira, Otroya, Valen, Soroya, etc.

Interesting! Thank you for the background information. My knowledge of Norwegian geography is admittedly pretty abysmal. :)
 
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