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Wing Commander #6
Action Stations
Rendered vulnerable by budget cuts on military defense, Earth and its colonies are ill-prepared for an attack by the feline warrior race of the Kilrathi, and Commander Winston Turner fears that the human race has made a fatal mistake. Original.
352 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
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About the author
William R. Forstchen
116 books1,752 followersWilliam R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.
Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.
Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.
In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.
Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...
Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.
Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.
In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.
Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 14, 2017
More militarist fantasy based on the straw-man fallacy that humanoid aliens are out there waiting to attack us so we should keep our military investment pumped and primed. All a hawkish contemporary metaphor of course, and a tediously sanctimonious one at that. But as an origin story for a b-grade space opera computer game, it's pretty good.
September 8, 2024
The one star was almost two, because Forstchen usually delivers at least guilty pleasure, but no. There's no pleasure here.
The story is just a dry recitation of the Pearl Harbor attack with feline aliens standing in for Japanese. There's at least a little of Forstchen's usual technical-literary ingenuity in the way he creates space reasons for replicating the historical eclipsing of battleships by aircraft carriers, but since it is in service of making the story a boring retread of historical events that would make Turtledove blush, who cares?
The characters, even the ones that show up in his better, earlier books at a later period in their lives are wooden and shoehorned in.
The moral of the story is what "invasion literature" has always been: do more militarism or else someone's going to kill you. Scary foreign someones. Like the rest of the book, it barely causes a shrug at this point.
The story is just a dry recitation of the Pearl Harbor attack with feline aliens standing in for Japanese. There's at least a little of Forstchen's usual technical-literary ingenuity in the way he creates space reasons for replicating the historical eclipsing of battleships by aircraft carriers, but since it is in service of making the story a boring retread of historical events that would make Turtledove blush, who cares?
The characters, even the ones that show up in his better, earlier books at a later period in their lives are wooden and shoehorned in.
The moral of the story is what "invasion literature" has always been: do more militarism or else someone's going to kill you. Scary foreign someones. Like the rest of the book, it barely causes a shrug at this point.
June 6, 2019
This is my favorite from the series. I own this one in paperback and may go back and buy it in another format one of these days. Really well done and it turned me on to the authors\'s other books.
March 19, 2009
An original work that "prequels" the Wing Commander series and explores the opening battle of the Earth-Kilrah war, the McAuliffe Ambush. Very well-written, and, like End Run & Fleet Action, isn't tied to following a video game script.
July 16, 2020
A good view of the political and strategical thinking from both sides of the war. Science fiction for sure but Forstchen does a good job of making this seem more realistic than previous books in this series.
January 26, 2016
Very good SiFi book based on the game. Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews