FLEET ACTION by William R. Forstchen

Book review by Joshua E. Randall

Ever since I first saw the game "Wing Commander" on a friend's 386SX-16 way back when, I have been an ardent fan. Indeed, I recall writing in all caps that Wing Commander is THE BEST COMPUTER GAME EVER MADE. I still believe this, and so it was with great expectations that I purchased the book "Fleet Action".

While the maxim "You can't judge a book by its cover" may be true, you CAN, in this case, judge this book by its title. Make no mistake; "Fleet Action" lives up to its name. There is negligible fighter combat. This is a shame, because it was the exciting dogfights which made Wing Commander such a gripping experience.

If "Fleet Action" doesn't have furious fighter combat to make it fly, then does it stand on its own merits? Sadly, the answer must be NO. "Fleet Action" wants very much to be a serious story of the Terran Confederation's struggles with the vicious Kilrathi Empire. However, the poor writing and contrived ending made it more laughable than anything else.

The premise behind the plot of "Fleet Action" is an interesting one. The Confederation has been harrassing the Kilrathi's supply lines to such an extent that it seems they are making real progress. The Kilrathi are forced to have their ships return all the way to the home planet in order to re-supply. Because of this, the Confederation has, for the first time in the war, achieved parity in terms of capital ships.

Concurrently, thought, the Kilrathi are just finishing development of their "super carriers", or Hakaga, with which they hope to smash the Confederation Fleet and drive on Earth itself. Thus, the dilemma: how can the Kilrathi buy time until their secret weapon is ready?

They settle upon a suitably devious strategy: sue for peace, and lull the Confederation with hopes of an end to the war, then strike when least expected. However, not all in the Confederation are taken in by this strategem. Some remain on their guard, notably the main characters of the book: Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn and Captain Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky. (Interestingly, the hero persona controlled by the player in the game is not only absent, but not even mentioned.)

Players of Wing Commander II will remember Admiral Tolwyn as the foil for the hero, the one who demanded his resignation, and, when it was not forthcoming, transferred him to a (supposedly) dull job working for In System Security. In "Fleet Action", Tolwyn is made into a much more fleshed-out, three dimensional character.

Captain Bondarevsky was a new face to me. According to the story, he led a daring raid inside Kilrathi space which destroyed one of the shipyards on the veritable front porch of the Kilrathi home planet. As such he is regarded as something of a hero in his own right.

Other characters who appear will be familiar to players of the Wing Commander games: Hunter, Doomsday, and Paladin. The latter is still in the position of undercover operative that he assumed in the context of the WC2 story line.

Is the book a good read? Well, it's not terrible, but it does seem like the author couldn't decide exactly what kind of story he wanted to write. The parts where Paladin and Bondarevsky work with the Confedera-tion's head of counter-espionage could have been lifted directly from "The Hunt for Red October". The scenes involving the Kilrathi council and the scheming of its various members would make Machiavelli proud. The details of the dissatisfaction of the Confederation frontier worlds with the central government sound like chapters from early American history. But instead of settling on one of these aspects, Forstchen jumps among them, with the overall effect one of inconsistency.

"Fleet Action" could also do with a good editing. In simply reading through it once I noticed many cases of bad punctuation, bad grammar, and bad writing. Of course, expecting literary merit from what is clearly a hack job may be a bit much to ask.

And so, my overall advice: Save your money; invest it; and who knows? By the time Wing Commander III arrives, you might actually have enough to afford the speech pack.

This review is Copyright (C) 1994 by Joshua E. Randall for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.