Before the Storm

  This is book #1 in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy. It's got a lot in it! Much more story and detail then The Crystal Star but again it was published before Planet of Twilight so again Calista never happened again. Anyway, you could retitle this, Luke and Leia Lose Their Minds, lol. The story got so complicated with new characters popping up that I was starting to feel like I was reading the Star Wars version of War and Peace! (actualy I've never read War and Peace but I hear it's hard to follow) I will have to say some things seemed a little out of character for Leia and Luke but some of that may play in the story line later so I won't put it down too quickly but I will say it annoys me no end when they have Luke speaking some sort of Shakespearean (for lack of better to call it) I am sensitive to speech patterns and it throws me when people are way off, come on, Luke is a farm boy from Tatooine, why is he speaking to his students like a collage professor? Makes you wonder, do Jedi have lessons in grammar?

A painting of a young Padmé Amidala hanging in the
 Imperial Palace during the Thrawn campaign

  I do like the depth the author is putting into emotions. There is also a lot of politics and war stratagies but not done in a way that is boring.
  One problem I see coming is, how much in 1996 was known about Padme'? In this book Luke is met by someone knowing about who his mother was. This was getting close to the making of the second set of movies but so far I'm not sure how much was revealed to this author... so far it is being done in a way to not give a lot of details to conflict with later stories yet it does still conflict! I guess we will see how it turns out...