Scott's Rating:   3.5 out of 4

This is the last book of the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy.

Chewbacca finds out about Han's kidnapping and goes to kick Yevetha butt in order to get him back. He loads up the Millenium Falcon with a crew of ticked off Wookiees, including his son, Lumpy, and they go to save the day.

Meanwhile, Lando, Lobot, C-3PO, and R2 are still trapped on the mysterious Quella vessel. As the ship is pursued by Imperials, the stowaways find their sanity tested as they try to figure out the purpose of the vessel.

Leia again has to fight the Senate to prove her competency as President of the New Republic. How will she fight the battle with the Yevetha and the power hungry Senators at the same time?

Finally, Luke continues his search for his mother and the Circle with Akanah. With the help of the Force and the Current, will they find her? Just to complicate things, their latest clue takes them to the heart of the Koornacht Cluster, the home of the Yevetha.

Scott:

    This was a very enjoyable book. I almost rated it 4 death stars, but I'll get into that later. As I have said many times before, Michael Kube-McDowell is the master of detail. That is what makes his characters come to life. He gives them a rich history and personality in just a few short sentences. I really liked Plat Mallar and really enjoyed every scene with him. I hoped that he would survive the book, but then again, minor characters were made to be killed (See! Spoiler!) One of the best parts of the entire story was seeing Chewbacca and his son in action. K-Mac gave them a heck of a lot more personality than I think anyone has done before. One of the neat things he has done is dropped the, "What Chewie? You say Han has fell down the well?" lines that the other characters usually deliver. K-Mac dropped the middle man and let the characters speak for themselves. I liked that. I also liked the vicious Yevetha. Truly an evil foe! K-Mac also has a good feel for the military way of doing things and the battle scenes. This is what I feel makes him one of the better Star Wars writers.

Scott:

    Okay, so here's why I didn't give it four stars. First off, Luke has sex and it is rather blatantly advertised in this novel over and over (Though it happened in the last book). While you are probably rolling your eyes at my comment, let's look at it more closely. The Jedi are at one with their mind and body, right? So whatever their state of mind is, their body follows, not the other way around. "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." So it is safe to say that if Luke chooses to have sex, it will not be just because it feels good. It will be because there is something much deeper happening between him and the woman he chooses. My impression of Luke is that he would take that descision very seroiusly. I don't feel that there was a deep connection between Luke and Akanah. They had only spent a little time together, and Luke knew that she did not totally trust him, and vice versa. Because of this lack of a fully developed relationship, I didn't feel that Luke having sex with this character was arrived at properly. I would have believed it more from his deep relationship with Callista. To top it off, it had no impact on the story. It could have been left out and it would not have changed a thing.

Also, the 'Leia being impeached by the Senate' part of the stories is getting a little old for my tastes, though it was logical to this story. The big finish wasn't big enough for my tastes, too. Some of the battles leading up to the final conflict were more exciting, IMO. Though others may disagree with me, I found the Circle and the Current annoying. Not that they are not a good part of the story, I just got annoyed with the 'You are a Barbarian, Jedi' lectures they kept giving Luke. Oh, and as I expected, they did not find Luke's Mom. Wait for the prequels, I guess. Finally, for as much time as was spent on the Quella vessel, I did not find the finale as exciting as I hoped. I guess I've read too much hard Sci-Fi. My brain has been numbed!

Sorry I wrote so much, but I just wanted to qualify my statements if I was going to say something bad about this book. I really did enjoy it and think it is one of the better SW series.

Scott:

    Nil Spaar spilling guts. Not his, but other peoples. Ugh!