Star Wars: Before the Storm (The Black Fleet Crisis, #1) in The Expanded Universe

Mar 15, 2011 William rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars

This was a thousand times better than Crystal Star. I still shudder when I mention that book. This novel had some intrigue, a reasonable plot, and some decent action sequences. I do believe the writers for Star Wars could condense these three book arcs into longer, but better edited single books. Like the Jedi Academy series, this one has such separate plots, you get the feeling that each could have been handled in its own book. Besides that, I didn't think Leia was so gullible. Is the position ...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Keith rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars

Stars: 3.5
Re-read? So far, yes. (Updated to leaning no after finishing the trilogy)
Recommend to: SW fans who have gone through the widely considered best SW books and want more.

This book was pretty enjoyable in spite of some major flaws. Those major flaws are almost completely due to the butchery Kube-McDowell does to the character of Leia. (view spoiler) Stars: 3.5
Re-read? So far, yes. (Updated to leaning no after finishing the trilogy)
Recommend to: SW fans who have gone through the widely considered best SW books and want more.

This book was pretty enjoyable in spite of some major flaws. Those major flaws are almost completely due to the butchery Kube-McDowell does to the character of Leia. (view spoiler)

I appreciate a bit more what he did with Luke, although the over-the-top Force powers are silly. (view spoiler) Han is easily the most character accurate, which is often the case.

Lando's portion of the story is easily the best and I wish the entire story was focused on this. My only complaint was (view spoiler)

It isn't a stellar beginning to a trilogy, but it was still interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading.

Some of the ideas that were retconned by the prequels were interesting:
- Yoda was hiding out on Dagobah for hundreds of years.
- The details on Luke's mother. (view spoiler)

First Reads: 4 stars (2002/2006) ...more

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