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Wing Commander #7
False Colors
When a desperate attack on the Kilrathi homeworld destroyed the entire planet, with the Emperor and his warlords, the demoralized Kilrathi colony worlds surrendered. After thirty-five years of war, Earth and its own colonies welcomed "peace in our time". But the ominous reality was that plenty of independent Kilrathi warlords survived and commanded a formidable array of warships and weaponry. War weary Earth turned a deaf ear to reports of Kilrathi belligerence, preferring to look forward to a tranquil and prosperous future. But it was only the calm before a new storm....
470 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1998
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99 people want to read
About the author
William R. Forstchen
116 books1,732 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 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 3, 2023
Classic
Took me back to playing these games as a kid, a solid 4/5. Need to read more space sci fi!
Took me back to playing these games as a kid, a solid 4/5. Need to read more space sci fi!
July 16, 2020
3/4 of the book is just political back and forth babble with not much plot or character development. The last 1/4 of the book was pretty exciting, too bad it took so long to move the needle of interest.
March 12, 2025
An alright read altogether, especially for fans of the Wing Commander universe (and why would you even read this if you weren't?)
I find it fascinating that the novelizations of WC3 and 4 read way more like the author had his own ideas in mind (or at least a reasonably different plot outline to work from), whereas this one has "contract work" vibes most of the time. It's more of a filler iteration that doesn't really give its characters of world much time to breathe as it sits wedged between two already-completed, fully realized storylines trying its hardest to connect them.
I find it fascinating that the novelizations of WC3 and 4 read way more like the author had his own ideas in mind (or at least a reasonably different plot outline to work from), whereas this one has "contract work" vibes most of the time. It's more of a filler iteration that doesn't really give its characters of world much time to breathe as it sits wedged between two already-completed, fully realized storylines trying its hardest to connect them.
February 25, 2019
It's not an especially good book (it's circumspect and unevenly-paced, with a terrible cast of 1-dimensional characters except for Geoffrey Tolwyn), and anyone who isn't a fan of the now-ancient line of early-90s computer games won't have a clue what's going on, but for some weird reason I loved it and couldn't wait for my daily dip-ins. It's the last of the Wing Commander novels and as such it holds a certain melancholy nostalgia to it. Forstchen does a great job of filling in some of the timeline between Wing Commander's 3 and 4, adding depth and detail to Tolwyn's antiheroic character. Bondarevsky is a 1-dimensional stand-in for the games series' Christopher Blair, but he serves adequately as such. Certainly a must-read for the rapidly ageing population that grew up on the computer game series.
January 2, 2013
Quite good. Provides a nice transition between Wing Commander III and Wing Commander IV. It is the last of the Baen Wing Commander series (Harper will release a trilogy based on the movie). While this was intended to be the first of a trilogy bridging the gap between end of the Kilrathi War and the beginning of the Border Worlds conflict, the remaining books were never written due to tragic death of Andrew Keith.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews