The hatred I feel for the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy

I did not like the Luke or Lando plotlines at all, but I really liked the War/Politics plotlines. Really, it should have been just one book, and not bothered with Lando or Luke.

 

I liked the BFC, but I liked it the least out of all of the books. There's just something about it...it doesn't flow like other books did, and didn't want to make me read it .

 

The Lando plot should have been published seperately.
The Luke plot sucked. As usual
The Political stuff was ok.
And the Han/Chewie plotline rocked.

 

And, although the Luke plot was boring and such, you must admit that it was necessary. Why? The subject of Luke and Leia's mother had not been mentioned to any great extent until the BFC - and it was a question often asked by StarWars Fans at the time. For an author to take on such a responsibility is, in and of itself, a difficult thing, and I think he handled it well.

 

I will have to agree with those here who didn't like one thing about BFC. IMO, it was the most boring, uninteresting, sleep inducing SW series I have ever read, next to Bounty Hunter Wars and NJO. But that is just my opinion.

 

WORST TRILOGY EVER! These three books were the worst I have ever read in the GFFA.(besides PoT which I didn't even bother finishing) It was really boring.

 

You're a very boring person if you don't like at least parts of it!

K-wings, vagabonds, Plat Mallar, Commodore Brand, Alpha Blue, Nil Spaar, General A'baht, the Intimidator, mud-slinging politics, subterfuge, combat, K-WINGS!!!

Uggghhh...and so much more.

 

My BFC experience runs about opposite from Sturm's. When I first read it, I was like "what the..." ? It ranked fairly low on the list.

But, after interacting with K-Mac on usenet, we discussed some things and he caused me to reread it again. But, this rereading was also after I had read HoT.

Basically, my standards for EU novels were readjusted post-HoT. And based on those new standards, I was able to rate BFC much more favorably.

It's strong points - the political/military scenarios. The weak point - Luke. Interesting curiosity - Lando.

It's certainly not bad, and it has some good points.

 

Every book has high points and low points. BFC although not personally one of my favorites is high on the list. Mostly because its just so very different from most Star Wars books.

I liked how the NR actually had a fleet of warships. They had "real" capital ships for once. They atleast didn`t look like a loose ragtag force. Cruisers, Frigates and K-Wings, Oh my! And they even had E-Wings, I like the addtion of these ships because to me it showed an advance in technology. X-Wings and Y-Wings get old after awhile, so do TIE Fighters and Star Destoryers. It was very refreshing to see so many new, or other wise rarely mentioned ships and fighters.

I thought the Yeveth (spelling?) was a good enemy and very well done. I only recently read the BFC books, so I was looking back on them after reading the NJO books. The Yeveth seemed to me to have many simularitys with the Vong and Wookies was quite well done.

Although something I did find confusing was the "new" types of torpedos and bombs they used. They just seemed too out of place and not as traditional as well proton torpedos and such. Some of them seemed alittle tooo powerful.

Something I found quite interesting was that, kinda like the NJO books. Anyone could die at anytime. Well of the sub characters that is. That was a nice twist.

Overall a good series of books

Samuel

 

This was the worst trilogy over all, but most definately not the worst books. Those would have to be CotJ, PoT, and CS.

The only reason I don't rate the BFC as low as these books is because of the space battle and the relevance of Lukes journey, however badly written it may have been.

 

And for Salma's sake

 

Hey, Merk should be praised for changing up the usual "For the love of Salma Hayek" line a little bit.

 

I didn't like the BFC at all, but at least I finished it, unlike the Bounty Hunter Wars. Yechh!

 

I loved the BFC. I thought the political and militarilistic plotlines were what made it so great. KMac gave us a fresh perspective on the internal politics of the NR, obviously foreshadowing to the weakened state that the govt was in by the time of the NJO. Yes, the Luke plotline was terrible, but KMace provide dus with alot of cool new vehicles, as well as some great new characters. Hell, he even got me to enjoy the Lando storyline, and I just about hate him.


Yes, I want this guy back writing SW EU, too.

 

Finally a BFC thread! I liked this trilogy, but like everyone else who did, except for the akanah storyline. I'll have to re-read it sometime, just to get a good post-NJO feel for it again.

-The Yevetha were cool, original bad guys.
-The "Tom Clancy/submarine" like battles with passive sensors
-The political subplots
-the death of the Yevetha leader. He gets ejected into hyperspace while in a moving ship, for all eternity.

I'd say the NJO Vong idea borrowed stuff from this species. Like someone else said, compare it to any other Bantam "imperial warlord" - Daala, Firra-whateverthecrap, the imperial army dude - storyline, and you'll see it's good. Plus Luke gets some booty.

 

i enjoyed the prisoner of war scenes, some leia scenes, and the last line in the book.

about it. but it wasn't BAD, per se, there are worse.

 

I liked BFC. But everyone has different tastes so I don't care if someone else dislikes it but I respect their decision (Even if it is wrong )

 

I actually felt that this trilogy portrayed life in the EU GFFA better then any other.

Finally we see they functioning of the 'New Republic'. Not a happy cohesive unit that acts as one, but the differing forces that are beginning to tear at the seams, beginning the decay which hightens during HoT and self-destructs during the NJO.

The politics were written superbly, and indicated the true nature of the Republic. Leia's dealings with the Yevetha was stimulating reading, and the Ackbar/Drayson sub plot was exactly as you would suspect below the surface of the former Rebellion cum Republic.

Lando's subplot was both interesting, and reminded us that a)Our character's don't simply leap from one war/grand galactic war to another, but do sometimes branch out on their own, and also, that the GFFA is rich in culture, context, worlds and exotic mysteries as much a part of the Star Wars Myth as the Empire or Rebellion.

Luke was portrayed as going through a period in his life - people say out of character, not realising that people aren't generally as monochrome as they might assume. People change, go through their own doubts, phases and fads, and at this time Luke was questioning his role and his future, deciding to go the way of the hermit, and his style and power in the Force increased dramatically as a response. The sub-plot - although not the best of writing - shows us that Luke and Leia are not omniscent, and can be fooled by their own desires as much as the work of others, as they argue over Luke's role, his desperate fool's chase ending up bringing him closer to himself in the end.

The Military scenes though, are the highlight. Ethan and his First Fleet rocked quite considerably, as they showed the grassroots warefare at the level of pilots, general's, officers and staffers. Not just the heroes, but the people in their, toe to toe with the enemy.

All up, BFC was possibly the most realistic and enjoyable of the EU, apart from perhaps the eternal TTT.

My 0.2 cents,

Daniel.

 

I admit to having a soft spot for the BFC, but that's because it was the first SW novels I read. (Well, not counting SotE). And this will sound really lame, but I was battling severe depression at the time, and my Star Wars novels were my main avenue of distraction, and they really helped me. So, I can't totally hate the BFC.

But looking back, it definitely was weak. The thing that got me was how they kept saying they didn't use X-Wings anymore. H'uh?


However, Chewie kicking ass, Han mouthing off to Nil Spaar, etc. All good.

 

For those who don't recognize the name, Michael Kube-McDowell has a pretty solid record in the genre, and has produced good work on books ranging from ones grounded in real-world space physics, to theological SF. While Mr. McDowell's work is not uniformly brilliant, he is smart, competent, and an excellent writer, and can bang out one heck of a yarn. (Check out his sterling Trigon Disunity cycle, in which the aliens that have contacted contemporary Earth are revealed to be human beings who are our own relatives. Enough said.)

He recently worked an excellent collaboration with Arthur C. Clarke (yes, THAT one), entitled The Trigger, and he remains one of the better genre craftsmen out there who stays relevant within the scientific research world. (As I seem to recall, around here, many people had the exact same issues with Greg Bear's work: too "hard SF" for their SW reading tastes.)

[image=http://www.sff.net/people/K-Mac/Trigger_UK_pb_S165.jpg]

Now, if you wish to TRULY subject yourself to some pain and misery, go out and pick up a copy of The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities, by Samuel Delany. The reason I'm pointing this one out to the folks on these Star Wars boards is that (A) it's conceptually and spirtiually similar to the works discussed in here, and (B) Splendor is an absolutely stunning example of what can be done to a competent writer by an overbearing publishing house and a rat-pack of Suit. If you haven't seen it, read it...you'll be amazed, you'll be aghast, you'll be motived to race for the nearest oubliette and projectile-barf, and then start flipping through the Yellow Pages in search of back-alley Shock Therapy practitioners who can jolt your central nervous system so badly that the short-term memory won't have a chance to "fix," and you won't have to remember it...

It's an atricious book, and it didn't make *ME* laugh, but then, I was never really "into" Salmon Pornography. But the writer is certainly someone whom was an influence upon Lucas, and his other work is well worth checking out.

 

Leto II


[face_shocked] You do have a way with words, sir! Good post!

 

"In addition to this the whole series just sucked".

I'm none the wiser as to why.

 

Never read it, never will. I skimmed about two parts in it dealing with Luke. Oh, man...I could hardly recognize him. He's my favorite character, period. You mess him up, you mess up SW.