Customer Reviews

Shield of Lies: Star Wars (The Black Fleet Crisis)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book is lousy. Its pointless and dragged out. If these 3 books were made into 1, it may be decent. But this 2nd book is just horrible.

I seen one person say "I am sorry that your limited intellect cannot stand plot development and intricate story lines"

1st of all, plot development is suppose to lead to a plot right? NOTHING HAPPENS. Lando solves nothing in book 2, Luke figures out nothing in book 2. Nothing happens.

2nd of all whats so intricate about a vessal that was made by a long lost race. Sure its in interesting ship, but it could have been wrapped up in about 50 pages. Not page after page, book after book.

Oh No, a Hitler like character in Nil Spaar. Dont get too intricate on me. Boring story.

Like its predecessor, Shield of Lies continues bad characterizations, poor plot and long drawn out writing. The Luke out with a strange woman to learn about his mother story line to just annoying. This female character is simply annoying and Luke does not act all that much like a Jedi Master. Jedi Masters can tell when someone is lying to them! As for Leia the drudgery of political life is draining on her. Eventually stories about the running of a government can get boring and after the first book the Leia and political back-stabbing storyline is old and slow and boring. Han finally gets something to do, but due to the ineptness of the New Republic military (can't imagine how they beat the Empire at all) by the evil, is captured by bigoted Yevetha nazi beings introduced in the first book. Chewie has a subplot involving his son's journey into manhood, while Lando's adventure on the ghost ship is really painful to read. This series could have been so much better but a convoluted plot, poor editing and really awful writing make it among te worst set of books in the Star Wars universe.

This is an interesting story. I hope someday Luke learns who his mother really is.

I don't know what the other reviewers are thinking, this is one of the best trilogies in the entire series. A major complaint seems to be that these books are "all talk and no action," well my little friends, I am sorry that your limited intellect cannot stand plot development and intricate story lines. Unlike a LOT of sci-fi books out there, the Star Wars books actually try to have a story, and a MEANINGFUL, LASTING story at that. Not just blazing light saber/death star/dog fight battles. If you don't have the intellectual capacity to enjoy a good story with good plot lines, that is well written and that explores more than just shooting at people, then I recommend something along the lines of "Pokémon" that would seem to fit with your age group. CHEERS!

Here Kube-MacDowell tried to bind two parts of a trilogy together and, alas, failed in his venture. Far too much time is spent on the flaws, uninteresting 'Luke' and 'Lado' storylines and not enough on the 'Leia' storyline, which actually exhibits intelligence. While 'Before the Storm' had at least some interaction between storylines and lots of politics and military work, 'Shield of Lies' has absolutely no inter-story interaction. The 'Leia' storyline is still good (unless you thinkg Ewoks beating up stormies is cool) but doesn't get enough attention. The Battle of Doornik-319 is the best part of the book by far, and even then there are far better parts elsewhere in other books. It's hard to say if I reccomend the book or not, alas. 2/3 of it are a waste, but the other 1/3 is worth reading and connects well with the rest of the series. Decide for yourself after reading the 'Leia' segments of 'Before the Storm' if its worth the money.

Based on the first book in the trilogy, I wasn't expecting much from this book, and I was not disapointed. Before I make all the accusations though, here is the basic plot of the book. Lando and Lobot are on some derilict ship built by some weird species trying to figure out how it works. Leia is trying to hold the New republic together while tensions run high because of some species who decided to cause problems. Luke (having had a huge fight with Leia in the previous book) has completely cut off contact with her and the rest of his family and is off with some girl on a mission to find his mother, whom he believes may still be alive. Anyway, now that bad things about this book. First of all the three main storylines have absolutely nothing to do with each other! Even in the first book they didn't seem to corruspond with each other very well, but this book makes it even worse by dividing them up into three seperate sections "Lando", "Luke", and "Leia" and telling only one of those characters activities at a time. Also, I can't believe Luke would actually believe this idiot Akanah's lies and just go along with her. She is a weak, whiny, completely dependant jerk who cries every fifteen minutes it seems. And the whole "white current" thing is just plain stupid! We already have one superpower (the Force, duh) why do we need another one? After a while, Akanah's whining coupled with her constant self rightous attitude of "all jedi are murdering barbarians because they carry lightsabers" and her feeling she needed to "save" him made me want to scream and throw the book across the room. Just who's side is this author on anyway? So, a summery of my perseption of this series would be the political stuff makes me yawn, the Luke/Akanah stuff makes me sick, and the Lando stuff has nothing to do with anything! Stay away from this one at all costs, unless you are a comeplete die-hard fan who has to read every bit of Star Wars fiction out there.

This is the book that made me say "enough is enough" and stop reading SW books. If ever a book was written to fulfill a contractual obligation, this is it. Kube obviously ran out of ideas, but had to come up with a "middle book." Thus we get Lando and Lobot goofing around in a "living ship"--a plot stolen from a 1980 comic book (the one before Empire started.) Get this--they solve the puzzle of the ship by gazing into one of those "Magic Eye" posters you see at the mall. NO I AM NOT KIDDING! Read the first series again or get hooked on Kerouac or Vonnegut or something. Avoid this book.

First off let me say that this book isn't as bad as everyone seems to think it is. Interesting, well written and a good, fast read, I gave it four stars only because I didn't like it quite as much as the first, 'Before the Storm'. I liked the character of Akanah and her interaction with Luke. Of all the woman they've invented in the novels as companions for Luke(Callista, Gariel, etc.) I found her to be among the most well drawn and fleshed out. Lando's story is fascinating and I really feel Lobat coming to the forefront in this one. As Lando himself says early in the novel, "Lobot, you have unexpected depth." Leia's story is by far the most interesting. She continues to be the best characterization of the Princess I've ever seen in the novels, and she really gets a chance to show her strength in the polititcal forum. Now to address the issue of the book being divided into the three sections. This seems to unnecessarily upset people. To me, it allowed me to focus on one story at a time, and of the three sections, I read two in the same sittings I started them. Overall, a good follow-up to a great book.

As I wrote in my review of volume 1, I really wish there were a place to rate trilogies as a whole. While we're wishing, let's wish that authors would just save up and write a single big fat book! Or put all three volumes out at once!

Some of the reviews here were written in 1999 before volume 3 was available, and they complain that the book doesn't go anywhere. Well, this is slightly off base, because it's not an independent work, it's a Middle! As a middle it is not OBVIOUSLY bad. The writing isn't bad, some of the action is potentially interesting, and, although the plots don't seem to be going anywhere, and the loose ends are being tied up, you might be willing to suspend your judgment and wait to see how they are volume 3 is going to bring everything together.

However, now that we have read the third book, we find that most of this never DOES get tied together. The subplot involving the automated ship that has taken off with Lando and company into Imperial space - well, that will never get integrated with any of the rest of the action AT ALL. The subplot involving Luke's joyride with Akatha - none of the activity in volume 2 will contribute in any way to the resolutions of things in volume 3. It is all just killing time, basically. As for the war, all the espionage and information-collecting they are doing, they might as well not do, since the war is going to get resolved without it.

This had the potential to be a 4-star middle, but unfortunately it's nestled in a 2-star trilogy.

What can I say in this book's defense? Leia is well done, and becomes more human when she begins to question the politics in Coruscant. She manages to be a reasonably well developed character. Even though her plot was descent, the ending was terrible, nullifying all the development in the world. I was also annoyed at how the talks between her and Nil Spaar dragged on in the first book of the series.

Here's the fun part! Horrible characters were created just for this book, like Plat Malar and General A'baht. What in the world is a K-Wing? TRULY uninspired combat sequences (when there were any). Incompetent people on both sides who act illogically and for no apparent reason. Luke does virtually nothing for the entire book, and even though his plotline EVENTUALLY ties in to Leia's it is still not worth reading about. Han is taken out of the trilogy early on and fails to make a reappearance. Lando and the droids' plot was quite possibly the STUPIDEST Star Wars plot EVER (he finds an alien spacecraft and floats around while Lobot cusses out the obnoxious, snooty Artoo and Threepio). ALL of the main characters were SOOOOO badly out of character it's not even funny, and none of the plots tied together. This was especially infuriating because it would have been SOOOO easy to tie Lando's boring side trek into the rest of the plot (brings vagabond into the battle, tips the balance in favor of the Republic). None of this happened.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. If you want a good Star Wars story, buy virtually anything else out there. Especially Heir to the Empire, the Jedi Academy Trilogy, or The Courtship of Princess Leia.