Before the Storm

"You must plan, and you must train, for the battle you don't want to fight, against the enemy you don't want to face, on the ground you don't want to defend. Then, and only then, do you have a credible deterrent."General A'baht____________________________________________________As Chief of State of the New Republic, Leia is so often criticized for romping around the universe with a blaster sans security detail. Here, for the first time, I see Leia performing her duties in office as a president, a politician at last.  Star Wars: The Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm  is not filled with the space battles and saber duels of other Star Wars novels. Much different from any Star Wars novel I've yet read, it is a war of words, political bickering and tactical maneuvers. Therein lies its strength. The plot unfolds slowly, carefully.All the main characters are present, except Chewbacca, who went home to visit his family. Ackbar has a very strong role. It is perhaps the most well-written role in the book. He, Drayson and A'baht hammer out the military tactics despite Leia's disapproval. Lando and Han are present militarily in more supporting roles.As the pressure on her mounts, Leia needs Luke; but he decides to become a hermit and refuses to help. While in solitude, a stranger pays him a visit offering him hope of finding his mother. He takes off to search, leaving Leia in limbo, but not before Leia gave him a piece of her mind. I'm glad, because I was tempted to reach through the pages and do the same."Before the Storm" was written before the prequels. I wonder if Luke is (A) going to find a mother who isn't Padme; or (B) going to find a dead-end. I can only say that the answer is not in this book. I'll have to read the rest of the trilogy, which I'll definitely do. There is not a lot of action, but there is a lot of intrigue. I enjoyed it very much and can't wait to read  Star Wars: The Black Fleet Crisis: Shield of Lies: Book 2 (Star Wars: Black Fleet Crisis) .

Below is an excerpt of my full review of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy: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 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 and was the second sour spot of the story. The first was the Lando subplot.Let's put it this way. If you want to read this book and read all things relevant to the story of the book, skip every chapter with Lando, Lobot, and the like. It has absolutely nothing to do with the main story arc. If you want to know what happens, read it after you've finished the main story. Alone it's not so bad a story, but it's really a completely separate story and shouldn't have been included.The arc involving Luke and the search for his mother was almost time wasted, but it wasn't since it 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. Does Luke ever draw on this power again? Not during the New Republic Era, that's for sure.The climactic moment of the book had a twist that nearly came out of nowhere and was very anticlimactic. Without giving too much away, it was cheap and poorly executed.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. I suggest you do the same.

Seguindo a cronologia da história, este primeiro volume da trilogia The Black Fleet Crisis superou minhas expectativas, pricipalmente depois de ter lido The Crystal Star, que foi muito fraco. Até o momento a trama parece ser bem estruturada, tal como na trilogia Thrawn, Luke continua devagar demais, mas desda vez Leia, que sempre me pareceu mais forte, teve seu momento lerdo. Estou confuso com uma questão de continuidade, que talvez se resolva nos volumes posteriores, mas no episódio VI da trilogia original dos filmes, Leia diz a Luke ter lembranças de sua mãe, com o desfecho do episódio III, entendi que Leia se referisse à sua mãe adotiva. No entanto, neste livro esse tema é retomado, tanto Luke quanto Leia parecem estar se referindo à Padmé, bem, ainda estou no primeiro volume, vejamos como a trama evolui.

Livro bem escrito, que faz bom uso de personagens clássicos, introduzindo nova civilização interessante (em especial ao refletirmos a luz de acontecimentos de hoje). Muito embora seja cedo para avaliar todas as tramas que se desenrolam, algumas parecem descartáveis em face do que hoje já conhecemos. De qualquer forma, vale o tempo de qualquer fã do universo expandido.

A bit confused ref Luke's mum which doesn't tally with padame character, Han on top form, and Akbar a major player

I have yet to discover the Star Wars novel I do not enjoy. Upon reading the first chapter of this book, however, I thought I had as I really had to force myself to read through it (it was plain boring with so far unknown characters). But I promise you it does get better and better. I think the author starts off the different plot lines for the trilogy quite well building up suspense up until the end. While the novel introduces new characters, it does a great job of giving them relevance within the plot without focusing on them too much leaving most of the space for the main characters we actually care to read about. This book follows in the line of great Star Wars books written and does not disappoint. The only reason I am giving it four instead of five stars is its slow start.

was ok