Lit Black Fleet Crisis

I have about two weeks to read as many Star Wars books that I can before I go back to work. I have not read this trilogy but the reviews from Amazon.com were awful. There were more 1 star ratings than 4 & 5 star ratings combined. The only books in the EU that I did not enjoy were the Callista trilogy and The Crystal Star out of approx. 70 books that I have read.

I would appreciate it if I could get some feedback from everyone. Does this trilogy expand the EU in any meaningful ways? I already have all three books so money is not the object.

Thank you

 

I liked it- but I have wide-ranging tastes.

The Yevetha are interesting villains, the Lando plot thread has good dynamic between Lando and Lobot (it's one of the few books to give Lobot any depth) and the final book has some good stuff with Chewie and his family. It was one of the few books in the whole EU that really showed us things from Chewie's point of view.

 

Not to knock @Iron_lord's opinion, but I myself agree with the poor amazon ratings. I read the first book (Before the Storm) when it came out in 1996, and was bored to tears. It moves slowly and everything feels inconsequential. I also remember everyone behaving out of character - it was as if they were different people who happened to have the name Luke, Leia, etc. The whole thing seemed pointless. Back then I used to force myself through quite a few books I didn't like just because they had the name "Star Wars" on it, and even then I gave up.

Just my two cents.

edit: like Iron_Lord, I do recall Lobot actually getting some attention.

 

I have read the first one Before the Storm and I found it to be ok though the only EU book I have read and not liked was the Crystal Star. I haven't been able to find the other 2 books anywhere but I would like to read them.

 

I liked the Crystal Star - at least, some of it.

 

I liked the focus on the Solo children but to be honest I found Waru kind of creepy which is kind of strange since I was fine with the mind controlling Crystals that Shadowspwan uses in Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.

 

Creepy can be good.

 

I think it was also because of the way it was affecting Luke. It has been a while since I read it. Is it worth a re read?

 

Its three different stories really, personally it was the Yevetha stuff that intrigued me more as it brought about a menace and had the internal politics involved in starting a war. Its a bit more complicated then that but won't spoil it unless you want to read it.

 

I loved it, if you can get your hands on them: why not read it? Personally the Leia/NRDF storyline is my favourite, but the others are okay too.

 

Black Fleet has its moments (those semi piratical Imperials in the Lando part are pretty awesome ), but a full third of the story is just utterly pointless (namely the Luke part), whilst the Yevethas are kind of all right Villains, though they drop the ball somewhat as the conflict goes on. The Lando part on the hand requires something of an acquired taste for stories like it, so not really the thing for everyone.

 

Lando's vagabond adventure is really neat, there's a lot of details for fleet junkies and the Yevetha are worthy villains, Nil Spaar being one of the greatest EU villains imo.

Luke's entire plot is enraging, though. I definitely hate Akanah more than any other Star Wars character.

Overall, it's worth the time imo, and I'll probably read through it yet again at some point, but next time I'll skip Luke's sections.

 

Read 'em. If you don't like 'em, you'll only have made your favorite books seem that much better, which is always good.

 

The Yvetha were good. The Luke storyline was pointless, and pretty much only served to keep him out of the action until the very end. I didn't care for the Lando part.

It doesn't have a huge impact on the EU. Many of the additions get ignored by later EU (new classes of ships), or outright overridden (no more SSDs in the NR fleet). Although it does set the basis for some of the stuff in the later NJO and FOTJ.

 

I liked everything about the books but the Luke parts, so basically 2/3 or the series Lando and Lobot are cool and the political stuff was very enjoyable to me.

 

Like others, I liked the Yevetha and enjoyed the Lando parts, but also found the Luke parts boring, so it's hit and miss.

 

The BFC books are some of the most underrated parts of the EU. The political storyline and the war against the Yevetha was superb. It showed in fantastic detail how wars start and the difficulties of them, especially when viewed through the scope of democratic government. Old characters like Ackbar and Drayson truly shine, while new characters like General A'baht and Plat Mallar are excellent.

--Adm. Nick

 

The Black Fleet Crisis is great ... as toilet paper.

 

The Lando section of the books deserved its own novel, and the under-utilization of New Class vessels in later EU is just criminal. Also, the books themselves are neat and definitely provide a great look at how the NR functioned.

 

I liked seeing more of Lobot in the first one.

 

The Black Fleet crisis is really three stand-alone novels melded very imperfectly into a trilogy. There's a story about Luke wandering around the galaxy, a story about Lando investigating a wierd archeological phenomenon, and a political thriller about a threatening xenophobic species. It's only the third part which is really important. The Yevetha plotline is a key portion of the EU - it gives us the best look at how the New Republic actually tries to operate of any source during the Bantam era. Many of the plotpoints developed during that section are actually critical to the HoT doulogy and to the NJO. So that part is really worth reading, you can actually skip the rest if it doesn't interest you, neither the Lando or Luke parts have much connection to anything, regardless of their inherent appeal.

 

I'll share my thoughts, even though Mechalich and Nick share a lot of my views.

Personally, I think the Black Fleet Crisis is a criminally underrated gem of the Bantam era. I think it gives the best insight into the New Republic's military and government, and does it in a truly thought-out and realistic way. I mean, compare Leia's fight for her political life in the Senate in the BFC crisis, to Jacen rewriting the galactic constitution with a lawyer droid in LOTF...there's just no comparison there. Similarly, I think the characters are written in extremely realistic ways - I think this is one of the few book series where it actually manages to capture the characterization of them from the movies, but in a way where you can believe they would end up in a decade. They're not stuck in some movie trope holding pattern from the movies, like in so many other novels (Bantam but much more clearly Del Rey) but they've matured, grown up, moved on - and done so believably. For once, an author realizes that Chewie has his own family and own life. For once, we don't have Han playing smuggler and flying around in the Falcon making quips. For once, we don't have Lando's Latest Crazy Business Venture. For once, we have an author who knows he's allowed to do something other than just ape the movie plots and tropes.

We also get great looks at their personal, everyday lives, in a way that almost no other novel does. I love the scene where Luke drops in to the Solo apartment to have a chat with Leia - their dialogue and the setting was extremely naturalistic. I could believe that that is the way that real siblings would talk in a real conversation.

Also, I really liked how the Jedi were depicted, both in terms of philosophical development via Luke, but also the fact that they don't exist only to be called in to serve as generals and assassins for the Republic. And no one in the Republic really felt the need to call in the Jedi to deal with the Yevetha. I think if the Jedi had continued to be depicted in the manner established in the BFC we would have an actual, believable NJO that didn't just feel and look and act like PT Jedi clones. Of course, the Del Rey soft-reboot probably would have wiped that depiction out anyway, unfortunately.

Now, that being said, I do have a few issues with the series. For one, the setting: I think it should have been set after the end of the war with the Empire. I think the plot works better if it's seen as how the New Republic (which, after all, originated as a loose alliance of factions united by their opposition to the Empire) could survive and thrive after its primary antagonist no longer was around, while maintaining its democratic ideals. Granted, this probably couldn't have happened under Bantam, but at the same time you could tell the author was kind of intending it - although the passage about the long peace with the Empire is another problem, since that single sentence requires a ton of later bending over backward in plotting out the OOU chronology of the Civil War.

And like others said, the series is clearly (like LOTF) three stories, loosely related at best. The Yevetha/Leia/Han/Chewie storyline is by far the meatiest, and could (and probably should) have supported the entire trilogy on its own. The Lando storyline I appreciated not only because it was Lando doing something different, but the pairing of him with the droids was a welcome shake-up. It also reminded me a lot of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama. I could definitely see it as its own novel.

The Luke section, though...that could have been a novella at best. But more importantly, I think it was hugely unnecessary. The author and readers both knew that the PT was around the corner at the time BFC was being written and released. We knew that Luke wouldn't find his real mother. And more to the point, the author should have known that by dropping that red herring, not only was it going to be hugely obvious to future post-PT readers that it was a dead end, but it was going to close off a huge chunk of time in which Luke and Leia absolutely couldn't find out about their mother, leading directly to the ridiculous amount of time (both IU and OOU) that had to elapse before that could happen. Still, as I said above, I do like the Luke plot both for it being something different for him to do, and a different (and after the PT/PT-inspired Del Rey storylines, quite welcome) take on the Jedi and Force philosophy.

Overall, absolutely read the BFC, and it's a damn shame more authors haven't done the same and carried on the new, mature take on the galaxy that it set up.

 

there are some positives, but it is the second worst trilogy in my opinion. The first is COTJ/Darksaber/Planet of Twilight. COTJ was really good, the Luke parts... the rest is trash

 

I have only this to say to negative reviews of the BFC:

 

The BFC also gave us Admiral Firmus Nantz, the second greatest admiral in the NRDF and one bad@ass fleet commander. Granted it took Jason Fry to explain this in the EGTW, but good ole' KMac planted the seeds. The guy was spoken off in the same breath as Ackbar, so that is evidence enough that he was one awesome admiral.

--Adm. Nick