Pilgrim Truth Released (August 11, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Eleven years ago, HarperCollins angered Wing Commander fans everywhere by cancelling the third movie 'continuity novel', Pilgrim Truth. For more than a decade the manuscript written to bring closure to the Pilgrim storyline and the 'movie world' sat unread and unreleased. Today, we are proud to announce that it is now available.

Thanks to the efforts of Electronic Arts and the dedication of author Peter Telep, we are now allowed to release the text of the book for WingNuts everywhere to read. At the request of the author, the already-impressive book now includes all new artwork by NinjaLA. We've done our best to format the book like the great Wing Commanders of yesteryear--of which, of course, it is. You can start the adventure here.

Pay close attention to the end of the book, too--you'll find the answer to a question Wing Commander fans have been asking since 1997...


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Original update published on August 11, 2011
 
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Not a criticism by any means, but I noticed a typo on the rear cover, second line: '...Pilgrim plot [to] destroy Earth...' Might be something worth correcting at some point.

Could also try using interpolation when reducing the full-resolution image, to avoid all the nasty aliasing effects on the text. Just a suggestion.
 
Why no regular PDF version, only HTML and EBOOK? Also any updates/news/... regarding seeng this as a printed book, be that print on demand or somesuch?
 
There is a PDF of the original manuscript at the Pilgrim Truth page. If someone wants to lay it all out with the art... go right ahead!

No chance we will ever be publishing actual books. That would require money for both EA and Peter Telep, who kindly let us do this gratis.
 
ordered my copies of Peter Telep's Wing Commander and Pilgrim Stars...wanted to read those first before reading Pilgrim Truth...already got the mobil version on the ipad
 
Cff, I did try making a PDF version of my MOBI/ePub at the time but for some reason the PDF output lost all formatting and images. I'll try and give it another fiddle over the coming days.
 
I admit I've only recently started reading this. Just wondering: how was the book published? From an electronic source or did it have to be manually typed from the print-outs I recall seeing in an article many months before this release? I ask because I'm only up to Chapter 4, but I've spotted a couple of glaring grammatical errors, and I thought it would be worth correcting them at some point. I could even compile a list as I go a long, but it'd only be worth it if someone is willing to make the corrections. I know a lot of novels go to print with numerous spelling any grammar errors, but since this is an electronic publication, it'd be easier to change, wouldn't it? Too, I recall a similar process for Jetlag's transcription of the End Run novel, although I'll grant that that was an unofficial effort and not a formal publication like this one.

Anyway, on with the reading...
 
It comes from an electronic manuscript. A lot of the errors are because it never went through the final copy edit at HarperCollins.

I am happy to make corrections to the web version on a case-by-case basis, so if you make a list I will go through it.

(My philosophy is generally to fix obvious errors but to leave more obscure, WC-specific ones in--so I didn't change "Robert's Quadrant" to "Roberts' Quadrant," for example.)
 
Oh, I was thinking of obvious, universal errors, not stuff that's WC-specific. I'm only reading a chapter or two a day, so I'll probably be done in a few weeks.
 
I wish I could get a printed copy of this since I vastly prefer having a real book to reading a book off a screen but oh well I'm sure I'll love it anyways.
 
Well that was an interesting read. I find it difficult to reconcile the hugely different personalities of the characters as portrayed in the games, the novels set during the game time-period, and the movie + movie-related novels. But maybe that's just me.

I hope this isn't really a spoiler (since the whole novel is freely available to read), but regarding that 'answer to a question Wing Commander fans have been asking since 1997'...

Pilgrim Truth said:
And one day, people will think that you’re dead. But you won’t be. You’ll live to see this.
Click to expand...
So... decades later Blair revives his Pilgrim heritage and goes through the Kilrah wormhole to... Pilgram-land? Well, it's a cute tie-in, I suppose. He must be able to stick around for some time, if Pilgrims eventually come back to bomb Earth. Or the US, at least.

Pilgrim Truth said:
I got a feeling that pretty soon, it’ll all be back to normal. The Kilrathi will try to expand their empire and we’ll force them back... the Border Worlds will hassle us... a few more traitors will pop up and have to be dealt with... just business as usual.
Click to expand...
I like this other quote - it must be the shortest summary of WC1-4 I've ever seen.

Now, for the typos I found. Hopefully, they'll be of some use if you or anyone else is willing to make corrections, LOAF.

Chapter 4

Bellegarde and Tolwyn had been sitting in the map room all morning and had already [pored] over holographs of Vega Sector...

Where are those two extrakinetic Pilgrims you conscripted? I read your special order, but [their] assignments hadn’t been posted at the time.

...its ability to exchange information with its pilot and create a [symbiosis?] between human and machine.
(Not sure about this one. Simbology seems to be about the study of symbols, so it looks like the word that should be used in this context is symbiosis. But I can't say for certain.)

Chapter 6

The Dralthi to port turned on a wing to evade, but one of [its] talons gave Santyana’s missile a love tap...

Chapter 10

You’re close to where Ivar Chu McDaniel and his followers ascended to a higher [plane].

I hope it didn’t ascend to a higher [plane], too.

(I'm assuming a higher 'plain' of existence isn't yet another special Pilgrim spelling. This error occurs in other chapters listed below.)

Chapter 12

So Ivar Chu really did ascend to a higher [plane].

Chapter 14

And from that sweeping tableau emerged a grand fleet of ships [that] stole Blair’s breath.

Chapter 15

In [its] place hung a blunt cone jammed to the gills with enhanced scanners and extra fuel tanks.

Chapter 16

“Stand down now,” Mango shouted. “Last warning.[”]

Chapter 17

...impel him to do everything within his power to boot the two pilots [off] his ship...

He looked around the cell and knew that if [he] didn’t grow up soon...

Chapter 20

[C]ommodore Bellegarde, Space Marshal Gregarov, and the two Marines...

Chapter 22

Pilots [fly?] manually, with no warning of enemy locks.
(This sentence made no sense to me in its context. Perhaps someone with a better understanding of what Peter was trying to say can have a look at this.)

Chapter 24

They said you and the others ascended to a higher [plane] of existence.
 
I finished it on Thursday the 15th of September and I have to say, I'm rather disappointed. But the disappointment isn't severe, or recent.
(SOME SPOILERS AND ADULT SITUATIONS :) )
So let me explain:
The Movie Novelization was very good and makes a fine addition to the Baen series. We get a a grand battle with the Kilrathi viewed from both sides of the conflict and sure there's the Pilgrim special abilities but they're not overt but little more than hinted at. The Pilgrim element also served to give Blair a stigma to overcome and a potential point of division between him and his sworn duty to the military. ****

Then Pilgrim Stars comes along and the Kilrathi get pushed aside and Blair suddenly seems to turn into a Jedi Knight. He can move things with his mind and talk to people across the galaxy through some sort of astral projection. This stripped away what I really enjoy about the Wing Commander books, they were not Star Wars they were more like Flight Of The Intruder in space, all military no super powers. ***

Now we have Pilgrim Truth and the Pilgrim storyline is fully center stage. There were some good insider references and a couple of jokes but by and large the whole book was rather unsatisfying. I don't hold any marks against it for any structural errors, after all we knew going in that it would not be a final draft ready for print, but this book in particular makes the three seem like Mr. Telep had a whole different Science Fiction story outlined and then it got shoehorned into WC for convenience. **.5

So that's my two cents, I'll keep reading the Movie novel but it's unlikely I'll go through PS and PT much more than once again.
 
I haven't finished Pilgrim Truth, Shaggy but to me, the Telep "Pilgrim" books (to me) prove the rule by being the exceptions to it. It would be much worse and much easier if he had written two books that had nothing to do with the Pilgrims instead of giving us fans closure of some sort on the subject.

I really like them because they're different, they have a different feel than the Forstchen novels, and so they should. And once that whole Pilgrim storyline is tied-up at the end, the rest of the series is exactly as you said it is.
 
Ehh I'm not sure it's "tied-up." It just takes them out of the way...and in a unsatisfying way. (I'm guessing the Pilgrims are hanging with Sheridan, Valen, Lorien and the other First Ones from B5)

I wasn't thrilled with PT after having read PS.

It does seem like Telep had another SciFi in mind when writing, and is there really a need to for over-descriptive sex scenes every 10 pages?

The book has some alright moments, but for the most part I found it lacking when compared to other WC literature. It was just a bit too far out of the norm for my own tastes.
 
LeHah said:
I haven't finished Pilgrim Truth, Shaggy but to me, the Telep "Pilgrim" books (to me) prove the rule by being the exceptions to it. It would be much worse and much easier if he had written two books that had nothing to do with the Pilgrims instead of giving us fans closure of some sort on the subject.

I really like them because they're different, they have a different feel than the Forstchen novels, and so they should. And once that whole Pilgrim storyline is tied-up at the end, the rest of the series is exactly as you said it is.
Click to expand...
At the end of the movie and the novelization the Pilgrim bigotry was fairly well closed up and the Pilgrim threat was pretty much contained, done better in the book than the movie for obvious reasons. It's not until Pilgrim Stars that the new and more potent threat appears and then the Kilrathi war just seems to get put on hold and superpowers begin to appear. The whole Aristee thing wasn't the main issue I had with the story, it was a little off what I was expecting but it was fine. It was Blair's superpowers that irked me the most.
It's like with Star Wars. I never really identified much with the Jedis. Sure the lightsaber fights were cool, especially in the prequel trilogy when they got faster and more acrobatic, but once you again use a little wave of your hand to knock out an opponent with a chandelier or make him think he's a duck, then the hero becomes too powerful and there's no sense of struggle to overcome a foe. This was exploded into a much bigger issue in Truth on both sides of the issue so (SPOILER ALERT) the Pilgrims show up with a massive thought fleet and basically make absolute fools of the Confed and Kilrathi fleets without directly killing a soul. Then they just up and leave with their local brethren. It is the epitome of Deus Ex Machina and within Truth it creates a situation where there are no heroes and no villians, beyond of course Mango who isn't really directly dealt with. That's what makes it unsatisfying.
 
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