Customer Reviews

Shield of Lies (Star Wars, Book 2 of the Black Fleet Crisis) (Star Wars, Book 2 of the Black Fleet Crisis)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Here, again, this series has been heavily panned in favor of other books by other favorite Star Wars authors, but I think it's only fair to say that not everyone can write in the same style.

What I liked:

The Yevetha crisis. Something to get the Republic off their butts and back into the action. It brings the military back into the picture, which, other than in the X-Wing series, occasionally gets glossed over. I, for one, am interested in the politics of the New Republic - we must remember that politics are behind much of the action. It's not always all about the shoot-em-up action on some remote planet. The ideas behind Nils Spaar - a megalomaniacal character who is incapable of holding equal ground with any species but his own.

Surprise! Leia's human. We, the readers, get so accustomed to her superhuman mentality that some can't accept when she stumbles or questions her judgement. This self-doubting keeps her three-dimensional, instead of turning into an Ivory Tower heroine. She's forced to do without Luke for a while, which is refreshing.

What I didn't like:

The whole "Luke looks for mom" storyline. I had been under the impression that in the "old days" (ie Heir to the Empire), that it was an established rule not to discuss this. Now, especially in light of the new movies, this storyline comes dangerously close to contradicting itself, I fear. When Luke first went into hiding, I though that this might be an interesting devlopment, that we might find some things out about what goes on in Luke's head. Instead, he gets drawn into the whole mom thing, by this girl who plays on his momentary lapse of self assuredness. I did not like this female character, and I didn't like the "White Current" storyline behind her. Nowhere in the Star Wars universe have we heard of this sect before, yet the stories of the Jedi and the Sith go back for millenia. Even in "Courtship of Princess Leia," the women acknowledge the Force. I have really yet to understand what this "White Current" is all about - are they healers? witches? What can they do?

The Lando/ship thing is dragging badly, and that's sad. I love Lando's character, especially after reading the Han stories, and this could have been something really interesting to drop him into, but instead, well, it's just blah. The mystery of what the ship is, and what it's for is dragging on too long. We want answers; cool, plot-twisty ones, and so does Lando. And LOBOT! Wow, we haven't heard from him since Bespin - and frankly we haven't heard much from him here either. In the future, please don't treat Lando as an expendable character. He's got an great background, and deserves more than he got here. I know he must be bored by now.

This series is ok, but before Mr. McDowell writes more Star Wars, the writing needs a bit more spit and polish.

This book is lousy. Its pointless and dragged out. If these 3 books were made into 1, it may be decent. But this 2nd book is just horrible.

I seen one person say "I am sorry that your limited intellect cannot stand plot development and intricate story lines"

1st of all, plot development is suppose to lead to a plot right? NOTHING HAPPENS. Lando solves nothing in book 2, Luke figures out nothing in book 2. Nothing happens.

2nd of all whats so intricate about a vessal that was made by a long lost race. Sure its in interesting ship, but it could have been wrapped up in about 50 pages. Not page after page, book after book.

Oh No, a Hitler like character in Nil Spaar. Dont get too intricate on me. Boring story.

Here Kube-MacDowell tried to bind two parts of a trilogy together and, alas, failed in his venture. Far too much time is spent on the flaws, uninteresting 'Luke' and 'Lado' storylines and not enough on the 'Leia' storyline, which actually exhibits intelligence. While 'Before the Storm' had at least some interaction between storylines and lots of politics and military work, 'Shield of Lies' has absolutely no inter-story interaction. The 'Leia' storyline is still good (unless you thinkg Ewoks beating up stormies is cool) but doesn't get enough attention. The Battle of Doornik-319 is the best part of the book by far, and even then there are far better parts elsewhere in other books. It's hard to say if I reccomend the book or not, alas. 2/3 of it are a waste, but the other 1/3 is worth reading and connects well with the rest of the series. Decide for yourself after reading the 'Leia' segments of 'Before the Storm' if its worth the money.

1. Lando - Lando, Lobot, and the droids make a complete circle throughout an otherwise interesting spaceship, only to get nothing really done. One thing to be said about Kube-McDowell is that he's the first author to develop Lobot as a character

2. Luke - this is my least favorite section. akanah nags and nags and nags, and luke cowers and whimpers as she cracks the whip. Pretty much, they walk around some planets, constantly looking over their shoulders unnecessarily. I'll have to admit the part about akanah's father kind of made me genuinely sad.

3. Leia - easily the best section. Leia portrayed as incompetent, which pins her self-esteem to the floor. Senate tries to oust her. Nil Spaar is deliciously evil, but his character is a bit overdone and his tyranny a little cliché. Finally, K-wings are put to use in a fun little space battle at the end.

Ok. I understand that some important ingredients of a good novel are character development, plot construction, and dialogue, all of which this book contains. I know that star wars isn't all dog fights and blazing light saber battles and what not. But this book lacks what made Star Wars great in the first place, and that is at least an acceptable level of action. Apart from the space battle at the end and the tyranny of the Yevethah, there is no degree of excitement or tension anywhere else in this book. Sure, Lando's story line is cool and creepy, but almost nothing of consequence really comes from it. This is what makes the series so frustrating! I have yet to start Tyrant's test, but I will soon. I hope and pray that it will rescue this series from the drudgery of the first two books. That is all

Below is an excerpt of my full review of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy:

This series was mostly a great read and one of the better stories of the Star Wars universe I have read. The introduction of the Yevetha, a ruthless enemy likely more diabolical than the Empire, was refreshing. It was not another story involving the Empire trying to rattle the feathers of the New Republic, another remnant hiding somewhere in the Core that was waiting for the opportunity to strike. Instead they were relegated to a supporting role. The impression I had throughout the books was that the New Republic was evenly matched, perhaps even out gunned with the addition of the Black Fleet. The build up to the impending war between the New Republic and Yevetha seemed as if it were going to be grand, but this is where I feel the trilogy lost its greatness and was the second sour spot of the story. The first was the Lando subplot.

Let's put it this way. If you want to read this book and read all things relevant to the story of the book, skip every chapter with Lando, Lobot, and the like. It has absolutely nothing to do with the main story arc. If you want to know what happens, read it after you've finished the main story. Alone it's not so bad a story, but it's really a completely separate story and shouldn't have been included.

The arc involving Luke and the search for his mother was almost time wasted, but it wasn't since it became part of the main plot's conclusion. It introduced a Force like entity, but seemingly more powerful, called the Current, and I am still not sure if I liked that part or not. In the end, though, Luke finds out that he was mislead and now has a new Current hiding ability that even the most powerful Force adept cannot detect. Does Luke ever draw on this power again? Not during the New Republic Era, that's for sure.

The climactic moment of the book had a twist that nearly came out of nowhere and was very anticlimactic. Without giving too much away, it was cheap and poorly executed.

In the end, I did enjoy this trilogy. It pales in comparison to the Thrawn, Han Solo and Jedi Academy trilogies, but I would say it was about on par, if not better, than The Bounty Hunter Wars. Had I known before reading that I could have skipped everything involving Lando, I probably would have. I suggest you do the same.

Contrary to popular belief (referring to most of of the other reviews on this page) Shield of Lies is a great book! A must read for any and all fans of the adult-novel line up. It's got action, intrigue, all the good things that are Star Wars!!

Like its predecessor, Shield of Lies continues bad characterizations, poor plot and long drawn out writing. The Luke out with a strange woman to learn about his mother story line to just annoying. This female character is simply annoying and Luke does not act all that much like a Jedi Master. Jedi Masters can tell when someone is lying to them! As for Leia the drudgery of political life is draining on her. Eventually stories about the running of a government can get boring and after the first book the Leia and political back-stabbing storyline is old and slow and boring. Han finally gets something to do, but due to the ineptness of the New Republic military (can't imagine how they beat the Empire at all) by the evil, is captured by bigoted Yevetha nazi beings introduced in the first book. Chewie has a subplot involving his son's journey into manhood, while Lando's adventure on the ghost ship is really painful to read. This series could have been so much better but a convoluted plot, poor editing and really awful writing make it among te worst set of books in the Star Wars universe.

NOTE: Because I started to "reread" (i.e. listen to the audiobooks) these old Bantam books, I decided to revamp this old review. I will keep the old review at the end in case you want to compare.

The second book in the Black Fleet Crisis series opens with Lando, Lobot, C-3PO, and R2-D2 as they are stuck inside the Vagabond investigating. Luke is off with Akanah as she continues to search for her people, the Fallanassi, and Leia's tenure as president is on rocky ground as the conflict with the Yevetha increases.

I Liked:

Lando's story, while extraneous, was mildly interesting. Furthermore, it was cool to see Lobot.

The real highlight here is Leia's story. I wasn't so fond of it in Before the Storm, but here, it is much, much better. I really found myself liking it at the odd part where Leia is signing a bunch of planets into the New Republic. Yeah, I know, weird, but somehow, this was interesting to me. I think MKM has done a fairly good job building this plot thread and giving it decent treatment.

The characters aren't even too bad, namely Leia and Lando. Leia finally sees what an idiot she was and really has to make up for being so oblivious. And Lando, while nothing to write home to, was certainly not painful to read.

I Didn't Like:

Let me first pause and say, "Where did Han and Chewie go?" Why are we focusing on Lando and his Story That Goes Nowhere and totally neglect Chewie, who has taken the Falcon back to his homeworld? Why not also focus on Chewie? Or what about Han? Surprisingly, he becomes a plot point, very rare for a male, only existing to tie up the loose ends (who is taking care of the kids? Who does Leia trust enough to do her military work?). And perhaps this is the fault of the abridged audiobook, but I still have no clue how he got captured.

By far the worst character remains Luke. While he does attempt to pull his head out of his rear, he continues to let himself get whipped around by moody Akanah. Instead of growing a pair and making her tell him the truth, he lets himself be bullied, pushed around, and shut up as if he has no voice. And how is this guy the head of a new Jedi Order???

But that is far from all. Akanah is even more intolerable here. She demands trust and the truth from Luke but never once gives it. Like the saying goes, in order to earn respect/trust, you need to give it. Plus, every other scene, she is bawling, crying, whining, getting angry, and huffing about something. I wanted to slap her around or throw her out of the ship!

And again, why, when Leia and the rest of the galaxy are going through a crisis, is Luke conveniently absent? This doesn't jive at all with his earlier incarnations! And you can't use the excuse he doesn't know, because halfway through his section, he finds out!

Speaking of which...MKM decided in this book that the stories weren't disconnected enough and split them into three separate sections. On one hand, it makes skipping Luke's section a lot easier. On the other, that means you get stuck reading about any one character and no idea what is happening in another character's time line. Also, it just makes it glaringly obvious that the sections have nothing to do with each other.

Again, Lando's story seems disconnected and leaves me wondering why we spend so long in the beginning learning about this weird ship. Why is it so important?

As for Leia's story, much better, but still, if she hadn't been a dip-head last book, perhaps this book would have turned out differently.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:

Perhaps a spattering of d*** and h***.

Luke and Akanah travel the galaxy together. Akanah has a father who apparently isn't married to her mother (or isn't anymore?). It's not obvious.

The Yevetha take over planets and commit genocide.

Overall:

Oddly enough, this book is better than the last. However, considering how bad the last one is, that isn't saying much. And still, there are enough "Huh?" moments that continue to befuddle me. Why doesn't Luke try to help Leia? Why does Luke believe his mother is a Fallanassi? Why does Akanah need Luke so badly (seems she is doing an okay job investigating herself)? Why does Luke trust Akanah? What is this White Current and is it related to the Force or not? Where is Chewie? Why hasn't he returned to help Leia? Why didn't Leia just listen to her advisors and avoid this whole mess? What about Han? How the heck did he get captured so easily? Why is Lando's mission even in here, other than to give him something to do?

So, the sagging middle book retains its one star rating, and I wonder how MKM will wrap this trilogy up.

Old Review:

By the time I reached this book, I was half tempted to give up while I was ahead. But I must like punishing myself (or be very obsessed about reading each and every Star Wars book), because I started AND finished this one.

Pretty much nothing of consequence happens in this book. Luke is still off with his newfound girlfriend, still hunting for his mother. Han is kidnapped. Lando is having fun exploring his ship while people are dying. Leia is behaving like a whiny child. And Chewie, well, Chewie is Chewie. He is that character everyone brings into the story and then goes, "Uh, oh. What do I do with him?"

I hated how the book was divided into sections dedicated to each character. Instead of learning a bit about everyone throughout the book, you have to wait to reach each section to learn what happens to each character. Though I really shouldn't have been upset since nothing really happens to anyone, or at least nothing that won't be repaired before the end.

I won't blame the series for sounding too much like the Vong, because technically this came before the Vong. Still, I guess (???) this was better than the continuous "Oh, the Empire developed a new superpower. Luke, grab your lightsaber and help Leia and Han defeat it!"

Have I said yet this is a terrible series? Have I warned you to avoid at all cost? In case it isn't clear, buy the books to complete the set. Just don't open them!

Brought to you by:

*C.S. Light*

Ok so this one started out a lot better. It continued with lando's adventure, which was a great start. The author had the book devided in three sections. THe first section starts with Lando, the next is Luke's story, and the Last deals with leia. Granted the storyline with luke is still awful and he still doesnt do Luke justice he did manage to pull off a decient leia. so all in all I would say better than the first but still not up there with star wars authors like Zahn.

Although I personally enjoyed the political section (PART 3) of this novel (General Abaht's fleet and Ackbar/Leia/Ben-kahl passages interested me especially) the other two sections: Lando/Alien Ship and Luke/Find Mother can lead to repeat themselves chapter after chapter and become predictable. Luke Skywalker was build up in the past novels as a now serious, dedicated Jedi Master. In this novel he is brought back down by the author as a joking pilot with little confidence in the Force. Also, the White Current deal can tend to agrivate; we hear nothing of what kind of Force-users they actually are! And the idea that Luke Skywalker keeps seraching for his mother even during such an intergalactic crisis (genocide, Yevetha, etc.). Also, Lando, Lobot, and the droids become rather expendable, and their actions repeat themselves throughout the first part of their book (which would cause many readers to put down the book). On the contrary, Nil Sparr, Admiral Ackbar and their lackies form a rather interesting war (a Cold War through most of the novel, really), which would provoke some interest. I enjoyed the first novel a lot more, without three parts, each one dedicated to only one plot. Some of the characters were flaky without all that depth; although Ackbar, Han, and Leia are portrayed nicely. Finally we see Leia as a real person...and get a break for the Leia/Train to be Jedi theme. Overall, it was a worthly novel to read to understand the timeline, yet not a worthly novel to read for enjoyment alone.