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Wing Commander #2
End Run
When the cat-like Kilrathi begin to gain on their human foes as they attempt to expand their imperial power, it is up to Wing Commander to defeat them. Original.
320 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1993
3 people are currently reading
143 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Stasheff
105 books300 followersThe late Christopher Stasheff was an American science fiction and fantasy author. When teaching proved too real, he gave it up in favor of writing full-time. Stasheff was noted for his blending of science fiction and fantasy, as seen in his Warlock series. He spent his early childhood in Mount Vernon, New York, but spent the rest of his formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Stasheff taught at the University of Eastern New Mexico in Portales, before retiring to Champaign, Illinois, in 2009. He had a wife and four children.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 22, 2010
This book is actually two shorter stories. One, the title story, by William Forstchen, is great. Again, sort of boiler plate, but then, that's part of the fun. Sort of funny to see some of the editing faux pas caused by the lack of computers so long ago (characters refered to by the wrong names here or there and what not).
The first short story, Milk Run, by Christopher Stasheff, is, unfortunately, really not very good at all. It's only 60 pages long, but it reads like a first draft from a college workshop. I like some of Stasheff's other work, so this was a surprising disappointment.
But again, where's the book land in the timeline? The Tiger's Claw has been destroyed? But . . . it was totally alive in book 1!
So confusing.
The first short story, Milk Run, by Christopher Stasheff, is, unfortunately, really not very good at all. It's only 60 pages long, but it reads like a first draft from a college workshop. I like some of Stasheff's other work, so this was a surprising disappointment.
But again, where's the book land in the timeline? The Tiger's Claw has been destroyed? But . . . it was totally alive in book 1!
So confusing.
September 8, 2024
The first part, by Stasheff, is so totally different in how the future space warfare "feels" that it is close to being in a different universe. It's a good little short story, but easily skippable as the only information you need from it fits into a couple of sentences later.
The main event is by Forstchen, and is an embryonic version of the guilty-pleasure space combat mixed with weird angry political diatribes that makes his next book in the series, Fleet Action, a classic of the genre. End Run is nearly as good when the action starts, and much more forgivable in its spittle-flecked rants because there are no real civilians around for Forstchen to make look like skunks compared to his heavily-burdened military heroes.
The worst part out of the bridge or cockpit is a romantic subplot that exists solely to kill a female love interest to build the square-jawed, cold and deadly characterization that is always beloved of such authors. Along the way, the woman in question is reduced from an angry ex and accomplished space soldier to a simpering dependent who seems almost to welcome her own death if it helps destroy the humanity her lover must (regretfully!) do without if he is to save the day. We need to be very thankful we don't get a Forstchen-written sex scene, because we almost do, and I shudder even writing that.
The action is amazing, and Forstchen is at his best when crafting space naval warfare that feels tactically, operationally, and strategically real. The ending is a bit of a deus ex machina that doesn't make sense even within the stunted morality of Forstchen's universe. It would have been better if it ended a bit differently, especially as there is little to care about (or to distinguish) Forstchen's military heroes.
If the romantic plot was a sin of commission, however, the book's sin of omission is the lack of a final confrontation between the (weaselly, almost a *civilian*) O'Brien and the main character. After building it up so much as a parallel to earlier game plots that never got novelized, I was really hoping for a fun rant about the need to kill and die followed by a punch in the face for the cowardly and incompetent O'Brien. Forstchen, in both this and Fleet Action, comes across as a bully to his own characters. He writes them as sniveling wretches, places his thumb firmly on the scale against them in all sorts of ways, and then...makes them pee themselves or look like fools in front of women. None of his angry military manly men ever actually get to do what we are told, endlessly, they want to do to these hate-sink characters. It's enough to wonder if the needs of adaptation caused editors to restrain Forstchen's obvious hatreds a bit. It honestly makes me want to read his more recent stuff more, to see how awful he gets when no one is making him play nice.
The main event is by Forstchen, and is an embryonic version of the guilty-pleasure space combat mixed with weird angry political diatribes that makes his next book in the series, Fleet Action, a classic of the genre. End Run is nearly as good when the action starts, and much more forgivable in its spittle-flecked rants because there are no real civilians around for Forstchen to make look like skunks compared to his heavily-burdened military heroes.
The worst part out of the bridge or cockpit is a romantic subplot that exists solely to kill a female love interest to build the square-jawed, cold and deadly characterization that is always beloved of such authors. Along the way, the woman in question is reduced from an angry ex and accomplished space soldier to a simpering dependent who seems almost to welcome her own death if it helps destroy the humanity her lover must (regretfully!) do without if he is to save the day. We need to be very thankful we don't get a Forstchen-written sex scene, because we almost do, and I shudder even writing that.
The action is amazing, and Forstchen is at his best when crafting space naval warfare that feels tactically, operationally, and strategically real. The ending is a bit of a deus ex machina that doesn't make sense even within the stunted morality of Forstchen's universe. It would have been better if it ended a bit differently, especially as there is little to care about (or to distinguish) Forstchen's military heroes.
If the romantic plot was a sin of commission, however, the book's sin of omission is the lack of a final confrontation between the (weaselly, almost a *civilian*) O'Brien and the main character. After building it up so much as a parallel to earlier game plots that never got novelized, I was really hoping for a fun rant about the need to kill and die followed by a punch in the face for the cowardly and incompetent O'Brien. Forstchen, in both this and Fleet Action, comes across as a bully to his own characters. He writes them as sniveling wretches, places his thumb firmly on the scale against them in all sorts of ways, and then...makes them pee themselves or look like fools in front of women. None of his angry military manly men ever actually get to do what we are told, endlessly, they want to do to these hate-sink characters. It's enough to wonder if the needs of adaptation caused editors to restrain Forstchen's obvious hatreds a bit. It honestly makes me want to read his more recent stuff more, to see how awful he gets when no one is making him play nice.
April 16, 2023
Found in a used bookstore - this is a licensed novel for an old computer game; I played the game when I was a kid in the nineties and read one of the other licensed novels, which I have fond memories of, so I picked it up.
There are two parts to End Run, which are loosely related in the plot but told as two completely different stories. The first part, Milk Run by Christopher Stasheff, is really a novella or perhaps a long short story. It's not without its charms (notably the charming portrait of a grimy but tightly-bonded and highly effective crew on a beloved but dingy ship, kind of Firefly-esque fifteen years or so before Firefly). It doesn't really work as a story, though; there aren't any character stakes. An outsider joins the crew for a special mission, she clashes with the captain but dies heroically to save the mission. They remember her fondly. There's not really any growth happening here, it's just a series of things that happen.
The second part, End Run by William E. Fortschen, is much longer and more interesting, for better and for worse. With the intelligence gained by the characters in Milk Run, fleet command has a daring plan to help save the human race from their seemingly inevitable defeat by the Kilrathi. It involves sacrificing a few ships to gain a key advantage, and one of those ships is the one our hero, Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky, has been assigned to, as their wing commander (hey, that's the name of this series).
Jason is (to me) an incredibly tedious and annoying paragon of macho perfection, always correct and always successful. He's good at everything, everyone admires him, and no less than three women are established as spending years sitting around pining for him (I almost couldn't believe it when the third one came up, I was like DAMN FORTSCHEN REALLY CAN'T HELP HIMSELF!). Most especially, the sexy marine Svetlana will never recover from her love affair with him. They get into two massive arguments over whose fault the end of their relationship is; the second one ends with him laughing at how angry she is and then her pleading to sleep with him; Fortschen is clearly going for that romantic comedy "haha isn't it funny that we're so involved in this argument" moment but it really isn't earned. Her death afterwards is sadly predictable.
Now all of that said: in the last one hundred pages of End Run, I found myself genuinely enthralled by whether the mission would succeed, in a way I never suspected I would be. Fortschen is bad at character, real bad at women, but he's very good at writing space ship stuff, and the slow tension of Jason's little fleet trying to help win the war and then escape with their lives was genuinely exciting.
There are two parts to End Run, which are loosely related in the plot but told as two completely different stories. The first part, Milk Run by Christopher Stasheff, is really a novella or perhaps a long short story. It's not without its charms (notably the charming portrait of a grimy but tightly-bonded and highly effective crew on a beloved but dingy ship, kind of Firefly-esque fifteen years or so before Firefly). It doesn't really work as a story, though; there aren't any character stakes. An outsider joins the crew for a special mission, she clashes with the captain but dies heroically to save the mission. They remember her fondly. There's not really any growth happening here, it's just a series of things that happen.
The second part, End Run by William E. Fortschen, is much longer and more interesting, for better and for worse. With the intelligence gained by the characters in Milk Run, fleet command has a daring plan to help save the human race from their seemingly inevitable defeat by the Kilrathi. It involves sacrificing a few ships to gain a key advantage, and one of those ships is the one our hero, Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky, has been assigned to, as their wing commander (hey, that's the name of this series).
Jason is (to me) an incredibly tedious and annoying paragon of macho perfection, always correct and always successful. He's good at everything, everyone admires him, and no less than three women are established as spending years sitting around pining for him (I almost couldn't believe it when the third one came up, I was like DAMN FORTSCHEN REALLY CAN'T HELP HIMSELF!). Most especially, the sexy marine Svetlana will never recover from her love affair with him. They get into two massive arguments over whose fault the end of their relationship is; the second one ends with him laughing at how angry she is and then her pleading to sleep with him; Fortschen is clearly going for that romantic comedy "haha isn't it funny that we're so involved in this argument" moment but it really isn't earned. Her death afterwards is sadly predictable.
Now all of that said: in the last one hundred pages of End Run, I found myself genuinely enthralled by whether the mission would succeed, in a way I never suspected I would be. Fortschen is bad at character, real bad at women, but he's very good at writing space ship stuff, and the slow tension of Jason's little fleet trying to help win the war and then escape with their lives was genuinely exciting.
January 28, 2025
End Run was a pretty dull novel and I did not like the protagonist Jason 'Bear' Bondarevsky at all, from what I saw he was a jerk half the time and really did not act like the leader he was supposed to be.
I also did not like his love interest Svetlana at all I think she was rather pathetic, because she whines about 'half her family' dying in the war without regard for others who had family perished in the war. Also sure war is hell but it does not justify certain things like war crimes or even cutting ears off of dead enemies and making them into some twisted necklace!
Most of the characters did more to annoy me then anything else and all in all this is a very bad novel mostly full of unlikeable characters and improbable plot points.
I also did not like his love interest Svetlana at all I think she was rather pathetic, because she whines about 'half her family' dying in the war without regard for others who had family perished in the war. Also sure war is hell but it does not justify certain things like war crimes or even cutting ears off of dead enemies and making them into some twisted necklace!
Most of the characters did more to annoy me then anything else and all in all this is a very bad novel mostly full of unlikeable characters and improbable plot points.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2020
I was a HUGE fan of this universe and the two stories in this series were exactly what I wanted.
The first, a somewhat dark (to my 12/13 year old mind), interesting "doomed" mission story. This pairs nicely with the second, a direct sequel to the previous with a new set of principal characters by William R Forstchen, who largely takes over the writing duties in the series.
Though the sequel, "Fleet Action", may actually be a superior book, "End Run" will always have a special place in my heart.
The first, a somewhat dark (to my 12/13 year old mind), interesting "doomed" mission story. This pairs nicely with the second, a direct sequel to the previous with a new set of principal characters by William R Forstchen, who largely takes over the writing duties in the series.
Though the sequel, "Fleet Action", may actually be a superior book, "End Run" will always have a special place in my heart.
July 19, 2021
The beginning tends to be very lethargic, as newly minted wing commander Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky takes charge of getting his green pilots up to combat readiness for what turns out to be a top secret suicide mission . However, once the fur flies... Between the brown-nosing captain of the Tarawa and Jason, the action and suspense truly kicks up. Its hard to pick out just who are the villains...among the Terrans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 25, 2018
I'm really liking these wind commander books, and I'm happy Baen has reissued them. They're all very good, and this one is no exception. If you like the whole space battle scene, then you won't want to miss this one.
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July 17, 2020Awesome Book, expands the universe and was a fun read.
December 21, 2012
Not too much to say here really. I like the book a whole lot. The first 'mini-story' wasn't as well written or as exciting as the main story, but it was an important set up.
As for the main story. It was a focused, intense ride with a relatively small force given what was essentially a suicide mission that was possibly the only chance humanity has for survival.
End Run is a good, fast read novel. I've read it multiple times. It isn't designed to make you think, it's designed to get you interested and make it hard to put the book down. In that it succeeds.
As for the main story. It was a focused, intense ride with a relatively small force given what was essentially a suicide mission that was possibly the only chance humanity has for survival.
End Run is a good, fast read novel. I've read it multiple times. It isn't designed to make you think, it's designed to get you interested and make it hard to put the book down. In that it succeeds.
April 13, 2014
Honor. Commitment. Fraternity. Wing Commander. A well-written addition to the line of Wing Commander series. End Run was well written, suspenseful, and had a good mix of inter-personal play and fighting action sequences. The story line was simple, and even though I was never quite surprised when things played out there was always the possibility the authors would throw in something new.
Buy: If you are a Wing Commander fan.
Borrow: If you're looking for an entertaining space military story emphasizing duty and fraternity.
Pass: If you're looking for complex political intrigue.
Buy: If you are a Wing Commander fan.
Borrow: If you're looking for an entertaining space military story emphasizing duty and fraternity.
Pass: If you're looking for complex political intrigue.
March 6, 2007
just a great book
June 16, 2013
Not bad for my first venture into the Wing-commander verse --- but I'm not really an action reader --- I need more meaningful fiber. Still, not bad for sic-fi.
March 25, 2016
A great expansion and explanation of the war in the "Wing Commander" universe. Entertaining and dark.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews