Customer Reviews

The Price of Freedom: A Wing Commander Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is my favorite war book. I loved the games and the movie. It took me a while before I found out that there was a book series. I picked this book up and did not put it down until the third time through.

YOU MUST BUY THIS!!!

I remember playing the game with my Uncle back in '96. I remember thinking to myself then-"Hey wait this is the Admiral T. he can't betray the Confederation!!" Now I realize that this is what made the game better. The big bad leader of the human fleets has greed and ambition. As for the book I think it is the 2nd best wingcommander book with the exception of Action Stations. It really helped tie up some lose ends left in the game.

The one thing I never understood in the WC Universe was the portrayl of Tolwyn in the game versus the portrayl of the books. This is especially true for Price of Freedom, where in the game you find out something amazing about his character. I thought the book explained it a little better. Sure the game wins hands down for being more stimulating, but it's a good novel nonetheless. Most people want to see heros as unthinking patroits with no depth. But Blair's brooding and drinking is more than appropriate for a man who has seen so many die for so long but still accepting what must be done. I think people talking about the change to the Border Worlds in the novel is quick and uneventful forget how fast Blair put on a BW suit in the game without mention. And as for Sosa, I liked that she and Blair got together. Catscratch wasn't very appealing in the game, and just dropped off the universe when you save him. And I am glad Vagabond wasn't in the book much, because I hated to see him die in the game. Plus, the book brings more reality to the game as to the smaller resources and other problems of the Border Worlds rather than just letting you change over and destroy Confed fleets at will. Anyway, this is leaps better than any Pilgrim(can we say Use the Force, Luke) novel or WC movie, and is the last good WC book (until I read False Colors that is.)

Improved greatly over the WC3 novel. It has a superb beginning in the portrayal and history the Confed. But the excitement goes down when Blair walks matter-of-factedly into the realm of the Border Worlds with apathy as if switching college roommates. The lack of surprising element in Blair and the other crewmembers especially troubled me when the star port vet and Towyn were brought onboard without foreknowledge. Major inconsistencies with the game, such as the elimination of Vagabond and Catscrach as major characters, and the very unnatural romance between Blair and Sosa reduces the enjoyment a bit. The novel still brings you unexpected adventures, and I recommend it as an excellent companion to the game.

(...)This book is really great because it is somthing that us as readers can somewhat relate to. From "To Kill A Mockingbird" Atticus said that you never no someone until you get into their shoes and walk around in them. That's what this is like, if you play the game and then read the book then you begin to see yourself as Blair when you read the book and it isn't really Blair it's you who is doing all the action. In the book you can read what Blair is thinking and not just watch and see what he does which makes it a lot better. The novelization of a game can never be exact and I think that the auther did a good job because he made it exciting and he made it more relistic for the Wing Commander Universe that is based off of both the games and the books. If it really happened you would most likly not fly that many missions. I reccomend the book.

This book simply butchers the story. Blair was a hero and a tough guy, not some weakling, who just about gets killed at the beginning. Furthermore, the idea of a full Colonel, who is over forty, having some sort of romance with a Lieutenant, who is not only his subordinate but about half his age, is simply disgusting, not to mention having nothing to do with the actual story. Avoid this book, if you have any concern for accuracy in the Wing Commander universe.

As mentioned before, there were a lot of things wrong with this book. Blair was a weak old man, getting beat up in bars, Vagabond and Catscratch weren't even there, and the character of Decker, in my own opinion, was all wrong. Some things were a tad unbelievable, such as fighter pilots flipping through an actual book in the cockpit instead of looking at a computer or something. After all, it is the twenty-seventh century! Sure, this book has some major problems, but it is still Wing Commander and a decent read nonetheless.

This book is superb! A real gem in the wing commander saga. -Collin Hoffman Silver Moon Online Books

This novel is the best no matter what the others said if you just read the novel it is good I had truble putting it down

For the first time ever, the "based on" material is far, far better than the novelization. Whereas Wing Commander IV (a tour-de-force game, one of the best in the series, IMHO) grippingly portrayed an ailing Confederation and told the story of betrayal and loyalty in a tight, well-done package with side-stories (Sosa/Catscratch, Panther/Hawk, Maniac/Dekker, to name a few) that made sense and added to the overall theme, this awful novelization consistently gets the characters all wrong and changes or avoids major plot points (I won't spoil them here, but anyone who had played the game knows that I mean). I had problems with Blair's portrayal in Forstchen's Wing III novel; here it is downright disgusting. Forstchen's Blair is hardly a hero, let alone the savior of the Confederation. Read it as an example of how _NOT_ to novelize a wonderful "multimedia" story; otherwise, avoid it like a Kilrathi fighter squadron.