Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Baen's wonderful series of Wing Commander novels sadly died with False Colors in 1999. Baen's deal with Origin was that they could continue to publish the books in perpetuity… as long as they released one each year. With the series not in active development and the central author Bill Forstchen moving on to bigger things, they allowed that to lapse. And one crippling blow was that Andrew Keith, the author of False Colors and the Heart of the Tiger novelization, died shortly after the former was published. Mr. Keith was a great friend to fans, though, and he had confided in us during an interview that he saw False Colors as the start of a trilogy of stories about those characters. He described this ever so briefly in an interview with my teenage self way back when:

LOAF: Any future plans for working with WC?
Keith: I hope to pitch two new novels down the line. But it depends on Baen Books, Origin, and others.

LOAF: Two new novels? Can you give away any information on those?
Keith: The book ideas are still vague. One I'd like to do would involve a Kilrathi prince -- a friendly one -- from False Colors. Sort of Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland, with Cats and carrier support by the Karga. The other would put the Landreich at war with the Confederation. I'm thinking of following something like the Alamo/Goliad/San Jacinto model.
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The really fun thing is that just these few sentences plus the knowledge of the structure of Andrew Keith's other Wing Commander novels is enough to outline a pair of pretty interesting novels! Military science fiction authors frequently take real events and then paint over them with a future story… and that's so easy to do here. You can study the real history he's mentioning and figure out seemingly exactly how that would've applied to the characters and situations he set up in False Colors. When I did Star*Soldier for Wing Commander Arena, I included both stories as events in the canonical Wing Commander timeline, detailed thusly:

2671-2672
Open warfare breaks out between the Free Republic of the Landreich and the Terran Confederation. Rear Admiral Jason Bondarevsky takes command of the Landreich’s escort carrier fleet, ultimately ending the conflict in a strategic draw with the help of Vance Richards, who comes out of hiding. President H. Maximilian Kruger’s hold over the government begins to slip as a result of the affair.

2675
Murragh Cakg dai Nokhtak leads the FRLS Karga into Kilrathi space in a bid to take the Kiranka throne for himself. However, expected support from the Landreich Navy never materializes and Murragh’s coup falls apart short of the planned invasion of Pasqual. Murragh fights an epic retreat, pursued by Chancellor Melek’s police forces. He returns to the Landreich to live in exile.
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False Colors will turn 30 in a few more years and its biggest fan is now a professional writer. Maybe it's time to actually write these books? Call me, Baen!




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Original update published on August 19, 2026
 
Why don't you just write them anyway, put them in a pdf and offer the files to people who want print copies? Make a back/spine/front cover pdf that matches the official books. Like the Star Wars ReExpanded Project does?

Because let's be real, we're not going to get any more official stuff, it's been 27 years now, so why not an official looking fan continuation of the story?
 
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I met a bunch of people who are doing it to continue the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, why can't other fandoms do it? 🤷‍♂️

Here's just one of their books. And it reads just as well as one of the official X-Wing books.
 

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Bandit LOAF said:
That's a great idea! I just need a few extra hours in my days or to find a great writer to hire for the job :D
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Lol yeah time is always a factor. I'm currently trying to slot in a short story for the above mentioned SW group, and having a hell of a time finding the time.

Still, it's an idea. I'm sure there's people out there who would be willing to do it.
 
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