Book Recommendation

M

MoreBoomBoom

Captain
Hey all,
I've followed these forums on and off for years now, checking in on what's new in WC world, but have never posted before. I want to start reading some of the WC novels out there but I dont know exactly where I should start. I was thinking about "Action Stations" which I believe is the beginning of the Kilrathi War. What ya think?
 
Reading the Baen books in chronological, not publishing, order is fine. Action Stations does show the start of the Kilrathi War and is a good place to start.

Then it goes:

Freedom Flight
End Run
Fleet Action
Heart of the Tiger
False Colors
The Price of Freedom
 
Well what do you know, I on't even have to post the question and wait for the answer, it's all here already :)

Thanks both!
 
Wait! Read them in publication order, starting with Freedom Flight or End Run. Action Stations is first in the timeline, but it relies on knowing characters introduced in the earlier books.
 
Eh, I'm not sure reading them in publishing order is critical to getting Tolwyn/Richards/Kruger in AS. The AS prologue might be odd since there are a lot of name drops in there that won't make sense without the other novels, but otherwise should be alright.
 
You have to remember that someone who isn't familiar with the books is missing a lot of concepts Action Stations takes for granted... things like what the Landreich even is. But more than that, it's written as a prequel: a lot of the things that happen have a certain weight to them because Dr. Forstchen expects the reader to know that particular characters are important later. Kruger, Tolwyn and Richards going on an adventure together doesn't have quite the same meaning if you don't know what about their older selves it's paralleling.
 
Ok thats fine. Between freedom flight and Endrun where would you start? I planned on buying the whole series anyway. Might just go ahead and get them all at the same time
 
Hard to say! I would start with Freedom Flight, but go into it with the understanding that it has a very different style than the rest of the books. So if you don't like it, don't worry... and if you do, sorry. It does introduce some characters who reappear starting in book three (Fleet Action) but it sort of a warmer and fuzzier version of Wing Commander compared to the more serious military sci-fi of the later novels.
 
Perhaps it's been so long since these books were fresh to me I'm taking all that for granted.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Hard to say! I would start with Freedom Flight, but go into it with the understanding that it has a very different style than the rest of the books.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with that. End Run is where the "formula" starts for the novels.

We also need to mention Peter Telep's books for the movie and the two follow-ups: Pilgrim Stars and Pilgrim Truth!
 
Yes, I might have said it more than often but I think that the novelisation of the movie is far better than the movie itself in my opinion.
 
The movie novelization is based on the shooting script, so it includes all of the plot that was cut for budgetary reasons... so, it makes a lot more sense, anyway.
 
MoreBoomBoom, I would go with LOAF's advice, especially if you're even a fraction as analytic as I am. Even when I reread the whole series a couple years back, I found myself thumbing through later books to refresh my memory as I was going through AS.

I highly recommend these books; they do a good job of explaining some of the psyche of the Kilrathi, are entertaining to read even if you've never played WC, and make you appreciate the games even more when you have.
 
Hello again !

I'm digging up this thread as my question is already discussed here :)

I've read recently that the third movie novelization was now available so I figured now would be a good time to start doing some WC reading :)

From what I gather from the above discussion here's the publishing order that is suggested by some as a good reading order:

Freedom Flight
End Run
Action Stations
Fleet Action
Heart of the Tiger
False Colors
The Price of Freedom

Is this correct? If so, where would the movie novelization fit in the above?

Thanks in advance!
 
I think that you can read the movie novels without reading the Baen Books ones.

Also, the publishing order is actually like this:
Freedom Flight
End Run
Fleet Action
Heart of the Tiger
The Price of Freedom
Action Stations
False Colors

:)
 
Thanks for the fast answer and for correcting my mistake :)

I'll just consider the movie novels separately and try to fit them in more or less chronologically.

That and the animated series that I will maybe soon have (at long last :))

This being said, would anyone recommend a place to purchase any of the books knowing that I'm in Belgium ?

I must say I wouldn't mind a physical copy over an ebook version :)
 
You're welcome. :)

When I bought the WC Novels, I bought them on Amazon. You still can get them there for between 1-6€ (used).
 
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