The Price of Freedom (Wing Commander)

Rating:
Summary: The Price of Novelization
Review: (...)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.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty sad, but it's still Wing Commander...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Oh the humanity! Why?
Review: Fans of the Wing Commander Saga, don't waste your time with this sloppy and uninspiring story. I waited anxiously for this book for months, since I enjoyed the PC game so much. I was hoping that it would fill some of the holes in the story the way Heart of the Tiger did. You can't imagine my disappointment. Blair, the great war hero of the game, is now a pathetic and cowardly loser with one foot in a bottle, and the other in the grave. He jumps at the chance to fly again, (who wouldn't?), and from there begins a staid adventure that is nowhere near as exciting as the game. The book also goes off on tangents that the game never pursued. As others have already stated... #1. A romance with Sosa? Where did this garbage come from? #2. While not a major character in the game, I missed Catscratch. #3. In the more popular version of the game, Vagabond plays a vital role. The book ignores him completely. #4. Blair becoming an Admiral was one option of the game, but according to devotees of the game, not the true ending. William Forstchen has told many great tales of the Kilrathi war in other books, but it seems to me he just hurried this one along because he was under contract or something. I wouldn't recommend this book to any serious fan of the game. You're better off ignoring it.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Wing Commander Book I Have Read!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Play the game, avoid the book!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Major Shake-Off
Review: Hardly to believe! The plot and story was quite based on the WC4 game, but the Border Worlders flying outdated crafts? Quite ridiculous and inconsistent with the game, such as the Avenger and Banshee-class fighters don't appear in the novel. I would say the story is good (including the unnecessary romance between Blair and Sosa), but the fighters' details are all wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Editing has a purpose
Review: I have to say, after Reading the Price of Freedom, that I understand why the origin people decided against putting much of this in their game. I do not agree with the Romance with Sosa(We all know she was Catscratch's gal, hence her appreciation when you save him), or his vagrant appearance. Heart of the Tiger showed the true Blair, A patriot, not at slob. I was very unhappy with vagabonds cameo..but everyone knows Blair was an idiot and stayed with Confed until the last minute. However, the author is articulate in pretty well everything else. I recommend this rather highly!

Rating:
Summary: Hey Hey!!!!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Hey Hey!!!!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Wing Commander universe, more vivid than a game.
Review: If any of you have read my review of "Wing Comman- der: The heart of tiger", you'll know by now that in order to lay criticism on a book based on a PC game, you have to know if the book is presented prior or after the game. The only exception is of "The Dig" which is a novelisation of the game. In "The price of freedom" we'll have to say that if the book was presented after the game, then that's how you take a good to very good game and make it an excellent book: more psychology to characterise the heroes, more back- and side story aspect (especially for Tolwyn and PALLADIN), a great romance insert for Christopher Blair and a narration type that matches Wilbur Smith and Jona- than Kellerman (picturous, direct and in full de- tail). Greater drama is presented by omitting cer- tain scenes from the game and making them either adventurous flight runs (e.g the hunt with SEETH- ER) or render them useless since they were nothing more than chatter. The other aspect says that if the book was pre- sented before the game, then the great work of the authors gave place to a game with less gameplay and more multimedia. Buy the book then and weep to how the game should be.