The Black Fleet Crisis

by Michael P. Kube-McDowell

From Book 1: In the blockbuster bestselling tradition of Heir to the Empire comes this thrilling addition to the Star Wars(r) saga, as peace gives way to a new threat...

It is a time of tranquillity for the New Republic.  The remnants of the Empire now lie in complete disarray, and the reemergence of the Jedi Knights has brought power and prestige to the fledgling government on Coruscant.  Yesterday's Rebels have become today's administrators and diplomats, and the factions that fought against imperial tyranny seem united in savoring the fruits of peace.

But the peace is short-lived.  A restless Luke must journey to his mother's homeworld in a desperate and dangerous quest to find her people.  An adventurous Lando must seize a mysterious spacecraft that has weapons of enormous destructive power and an unknown mission.  And Leia, a living symbol of the New Republic's triumph, must face down a ruthless leader of the Duskhan League, an arrogant Yevetha who seems bent on a genocidal war that could shatter the fragile unity of the New Republic...and threaten its very survival.

Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Chad, Fantasy

785 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Michael Paul Kube-McDowell's earliest science fiction stories began appearing in magazines such as Amazing, Asimov's, and Analog in 1979. His 1985 debut novel Emprise, the first volume of the Trigon Disunity future history, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. The Quiet Pools, published as a Bantam hardcover in 1990, was a Hugo Award nominee.

In addition to his solo novels, Kube-McDowell has collaborated with Sir Arthur C. Clarke (The Trigger) and Isaac Asimov (for the YA series Robot City. He also wrote the popular Black Fleet Crisis trilogy for the Star Wars Expanded Universe; all three volumes were New York Times bestsellers.

A former middle school science teacher, Kube-McDowell has written about science and technology for a variety of periodicals, on topics ranging from gnotobiology to ultralights to spaceflight. He covered the launch of STS-4 for The South Bend Tribune.

Kube-McDowell has attended more than 80 SF fan conventions, and met his wife Gwen (then an artist) in a con huckster room. They both were later members of the Pegasus Award-winning electric filk ensemble The Black Book Band, which performed at cons in the Midwest in the 1990s and released the live album First Contact (Dodeka Records).

Reviews

[Aria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this better than Disney canon

[Arlene Kellas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Black Fleet Crisis is a compilation of three books. Before the Storm, Shield of Lies and Tyrant’s Test all by Michael P. Kube-McDowell.

In Before the Storm, while Luke is off in search of their mother, Leia meet Nil Spaar a Yevethan and the viceroy of the Koornacht Cluster. He comes to Coruscant to speak with President Leia about his area of space. Not to join the New Republic, but to stay separated from.

During their meetings a bean counter discovers a discrepancy and a large number of Imperial ships that aren’t accounted for. These ships were last known to be in the Koornacht Cluster. When asked Nil Spaar advises that they were all destroyed by the Empire when they left.

We soon learn that they weren’t destroyed but are a force that Nil Spaar uses with a Nazi style cleansing of planets in the Cluster that are home to non-Yevethans.

Spaar is a master manipulator and twists everything he does so blame lays at Leia feet. Advising all in the New Republic that the Fifth Fleet is at their door and is a call to war.

We spend a little time with Lando as he and Lobot collect Artoo and Threepio and head off in search of the Teljkon vagabond.

Shield of Lies is written differently than Before the Storm. Where that book bounced between characters and focused mainly on Leia and Nil Spaar this book is three separate sections.

First section is all about Lando and his group. They are now in the vagabond, but are cut off from the fleet and have jumped at least twice. Now they have to unravel the mystery of the ship so that they can survive.

The second section is all about Luke and his search for the missing Fallenassi and hopefully his mother. Akanah gets on his nerves but manages to calm him every time. In some ways it seems as if she’s using him.

The last Section is all about Leia and the Yvethan Crisis. This one is more the political side of her decisions and the repercussions. We can see how things get bogged down and nothing gets done. However, after losing many recon pilots they send a larger force including Commodore Han Solo to the Koornacht Cluster. We end with his shuttle being attacked and him prisoner of the Yvethan.

In Tyrant’s Test we are back to bouncing around again. Little bits of this story, little bits of that story. So much is going on that that I really got to an I don’t care moment. Once again it’s a trilogy trying to get all the main players in and falls flat.

Lando’s adventure with the Vagabond could have been its own separate book. It had absolutely nothing to do with the story. I can see how leaving the Q’ella alone to live could be the opposite of what happened to the Yvetha but the only tie in it has is what Luke is able to do thanks to his time with the Fallenassi.

With that being out, more could have been focused on the real war/battles. Han being captured and beaten was pivotal to Leia and what she was going thru. Then his rescue happens and we know he’ll be alright. I have to imagine there would have been quite the conversation about her pretty much signing his death warrant.

There was quite a bit of story for Lumpy and his coming of age, but they made it barely a footnote. I can’t see Wookies just letting that go.

And the Empire and the little truck up their sleeve felt more like the author just trying to find a way out of an impossible situation they got themselves into.

This could have been much better.

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

(FYI I tend to only review one book per series, unless I want to change my scoring by 0.50 or more of a star. -- I tend not to read reviews until after I read a book, so I go in with an open mind.)

4.25*







First time read the author's work?: No

Will you be reading more?: Yes

Would you recommend?: Yes


------------
How I rate Stars: 5* = I loved (must read all I can find by the author)
4* = I really enjoyed (got to read all the series and try other books by the author).
3* = I enjoyed (I will continue to read the series)
or
3* = Good book just not my thing (I realised I don't like the genre or picked up a kids book to review in error.)

All of the above scores means I would recommend them!
-
2* = it was okay (I might give the next book in the series a try, to see if that was better IMHO.)
1* = Disliked

Note: adding these basic 'reviews' after finding out that some people see the stars differently than I do - hoping this clarifies how I feel about the book. :-)

[Devan Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been reading a lot of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (Legends) of late, and this is easily the weakest of all the books I have read thus far. Let me say that it isn't that anything in this series is especially bad, it's just that very little is especially good, and that which is is quickly glossed over.

When the books stick to the main story, it is fairly interesting. There is this race called the Yevetha that have made their own sort of regional autocracy that is challenging the New Republic. I really liked the chapters that dealt with their society because you could tell the author really loved inventing this race. It's sort of like he started with the question: how would a primitive society based on honor killing evolve to be an effective military machine? Which, is an interesting question on its face.

Also, I really enjoyed his descriptions of space battle. His attention to detail and description of space battle maneuvers were almost Timothy Zahn level good (almost).

Where the series really suffers, however, is everything in between. Much of the politicking on Coruscant is incredibly boring, and I say this as a political science major who really enjoyed the political scenes in the Phantom Menace. They just drag on for too long, and there is usually very little sense of threat or tension. This is a serious problem in the second book in particular.

Also, some of the "side quests" are annoying. I think that a big problem these Bantam EU books have is that they believe that every main character from the Original Trilogy has to be in every book, and that is simply not the case. I found Luke's journey in this trilogy to be extraneous and boring. Many have said that his journey is out of character, but I am not sure I agree with that. However, it was very clear the author didn't care much about writing Luke, and I always found myself putting the books down when the Luke sections came.

Lando also has a side show chasing this vagabond ship across the galaxy. I personally really enjoyed this story, but only as a standalone story. It doesn't connect at all with the bigger plot of the series, and that was very disappointing. By itself, though, it is very interesting and oftentimes eerie, and I would have loved reading this adventure outside of the context of this series. Within the series though, it just feels like padding.

I loved the stuff with the Wookies, and I wish that we had seen more of that in books 1 and 2. Chewbacca is sent away to Kashyyk in book 1 and we don't see him again until book 3. Personally, I found the stuff he was doing on Kashyyk at the beginning of book 3 ten times more interesting than anything Luke did in this series. MORE WOOKIES.

As a final critique, I don't think that anything really changed for the characters in this series. There was no growth for anybody to speak of. I suppose Leia got more confident in her position, but it wasn't done in a way that made me care. Luke, I think, was supposed to realize the value of family, but he did that in RoTJ, so it just seems out of character. Han takes a back seat, and Lando remains Lando. All in all, Zahn's work and the Corellian Trilogy (criminally underrated btw) do leagues more in terms of character development.

On the bright side, if you are a Solo children hater, you will love this series. They have almost no role at all. I kind of like them when they are done right, but their exclusion was appropriate.

All in all, this entire trilogy just feels like the filler episode of a 22 episode TV show. If you are reading the EU and aren't going for completion, this entire series is definitely skippable.

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shoot me. This trilogy goes nowhere. It’s a bunch of separate stories that go nowhere. There’s a lot of space and filler and very little drama and opera in this space
Opera.

[LOL_BOOKS]

WHICH EU BOOKS SHOULD I READ BESIDES THRAWN?

IF WE WANT TO INCLUDE BOOKS SO MEMER CAN UNDERSTAND OUR RAGE WE HAVE SO MANY THINGS WE NEED TO INCLUDE. INCLUDING THE FIRST NJO BOOK WHERE CHEWIE IS KILLED BY A MOON.

AND THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS IF ONLY FOR HOW ENRAGED I WAS AS A TEENIE THAT AKANAH LIED ABOUT KNOWING ABOUT LUKE AND LEIA'S MOM. I STILL DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW THAT BOOK WAS ALLOWED WHEN THERE WAS A KNOWN MORATORIUM ON PREQUEL STUFF.

LOL THOSE FUCKING BOOKS. I TRUFAX THINK IH'D THOSE MOAR THAN ANYTHING ELSE, EVEN THE CRYSTAL STAR AND KJA'S STUFF. IH'D AKANAH SO MUCH ALTHOUGH I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WRY ANYMOAR, IT WAS MOAR THAN JUST HER LYING ABOUT KNOWING PADME.

SHE WAS A CONDESCENDING ASSHOLE ABOUT HOW WHAT SHE USED THE FORCE FOR WAS BETTER THAN JEDI STUFF AND LUKE INDULGED HER. AND THEN SHE LIED FOR NO FUCKING REASON. I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT SHE WAS TRYING TO GET HIM TO DO, BUT PREYING ON LUKE'S MOMMY ISSUES WAS FUCKING COLD AND SHE NEVER GOT A COME UPPANCE FOR IT. BUT THOSE BOOKS ARE TRASH THROUGH AND THROUGH. LOL LUKE'S BLACK SAND CASTLE WHATEVER.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable series. Still disappointed that the EU has been removed from canon.

[A. Foster]

Enjoyed the entire set. This was a good read. I think that the quality of the way the actors continued was my favorite. This author really knows them. Made you feel like they had depth.