Review: The Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy

I am not an avid reader, though I am trying to push myself to read more, and to read beyond Star Wars books. I started reading The Black Fleet Crisis trilogy back in May of 2009 during a trip to Mississippi, but since reading was not a real hobby of mine, I did not pick it up again until this past April when I traveled to California. It was not that the book was bad, I simply had no interest in reading. I suppose part of the reason it went from a hobby to rarely being done was because of Barbara Hambly, author of Children of the Jedi and Planet of Twilight. She is by far my least favorite Star Wars author and reading her books was a chore. Although The Crystal Star, not written by Hambly, was a nice addition to the Star Wars universe, it was not enough to make reading a hobby again. The Black Fleet Crisis, however, has done that.

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 events in this story were the culmination of years of planning of an ingenious race once enslaved by the Empire. By overrunning the part of the Empire that had them bound and continuing to operate the ship yards to build more star ships, the Yevetha enabled themselves to claim to a number of planets while being able to fend off any type of counter response for their actions. 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.

As with most Star Wars books that I have read, most major characters have their own sub-plot that usually converges into the main plot at some point. That was not the case, however. There was a side story involving Lando, Lobot, R2-D2 and C-3PO aboard an elusive ship built by an extinct race, the Qella. Ultimately this entire side story had nothing to do with the main plot. While it was an interesting story, and its conclusion had a nice touch, it really did not have much purpose and would have been better served either in a comic or in a separate book altogether. The story involving Luke and the search for his mother was almost time wasted, but this plot was 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.

The climactic moment of the book had a twist that nearly came out of nowhere. While not as disappointing as the Lando subplot, it seemed too easy to have tipped the balance of power and far too quickly. Earlier in the book, the Yevetha teamed up with a remnant of the Empire in the hope of striking fear into Leia and the New Republic, resulting in a withdrawal. This only served to embolden the New Republic, however. As both sides were about to engage in battle, literally seconds away from firing the first shot, the Empire staged a coup de grâce and abandoned the fight. They were able to take control of a number of ships using a command override and took the Super Star Destroyer that housed the Yevetha leader, Nil Spaar. The same was done in several other battles that were fought at the same time, resulting in the defeat of the Yevetha forces. So in the end, the cunning and ruthless enemy was defeated in one day. The build up to that point took time and a great number of things occurred, such as the complete annihilation of different species on numerous planets, but in the end, when the war began, it ended a few hours later. In an attempt to “fix” any sense of ease of this victory, the Republic forces did suffer a bit from the battles, but the reality is that it was too easy. Had the Empire stayed, the New Republic may very well have lost, and lost significantly. When I read about the betrayal, I immediately thought of when Thrawn was killed during the heat of battle by the Noghri in The Last Command. Yevetha’s defeat seemed cheap and rushed as opposed to how Thrawn ended up being killed, but it is what it is.

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. With that said, I give the story 6.5 out of 10, because I am such a nice guy.

* I wanted to note that my Star Wars reading has included the original trilogy, in order, up to the Black Fleet Crisis, with the exception of The Han Solo Adventures trilogy, Phantom of the Menace and possibly one or two other books.