Rating: 
Summary: A painfully difficult read. The worst Star Wars book out.
Review: I can't even begin to describe how much it pains me to hand the low 1-star rating to any book in the Star Wars Universe. The really cool cover of "Shield of Lies" alone should have gotten it a higher rating that that. Unfortunately, I can honestly say that the only reason I finished reading this book is because it was part of a trilogy and I was determined to read every book in the Lucas-approved Star Wars timeline. This book was simply an extraordinary chore to read. It is made all the more disappointing by the fact that the initial book in the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, "Before the Storm", was quite good. It had all manner of elements that makes Star Wars so entertaining: political debate and intrigue in the New Republic over the creation of the military's 5th Fleet; A genocidal race of aliens called the Yevetha (led by a Hitler-esque ruler named Nil Spaar); and superb battles taking place between the New Republic and the Yevetha. All of these elements allowed "Before the Storm" to move at a rapid clip while creating a story that was very involving. "Shield of Lies" destroys all of that. If ever there was a book that seemed like it was just biding its time between the first and third books of a trilogy, this one is it. Author Kube-McDowell made two disastrous mistakes in writing this book. The first was the narrative style he chose for writing it, and the second was the specific story elements he spent most of his time focusing on. In "Before the Storm" and in the trilogy final "Tyrant's Test", Kube-McDowell followed the tried and true method of quickly cutting between each of the various subplots and weaving them together to help the story flow. In "Shield of Lies", he decides to change his format to very long individual chapters that are almost the length of mini-novellas. The average chapter length is about 40-50 pages. This is incredibly tedious reading if the reader is not interested in the particular subplot being covered. Perhaps if Kube-McDowell had focused on more compelling elements of this trilogy, the long chapters would not have been so troublesome. Unfortunately, the bulk of the time spent in this book is on two of the most inconsequential and tedious storylines in the history of the Star Wars Universe: Lando Calrissian's exploration of something called the Teljkon Vagabond, and Luke's hermit-like existence and search for his mother. Lando's 'adventure' involves Lobot (who you might remember from "Empire Strikes Back"), C-3PO, and R2-D2 and consists of nothing more than the four of them wandering around a long, meandering labyrinth. It's practically impossible to visualize what they are doing and even if the reader starts to grasp it, it doesn't seem like anything of any consequence is being done. The other subplot, Luke's hermit-like state and search for his mother, has been rendered totally irrelevant by the Episode I movie and by all the novels that followed Black Fleet Crisis. Luke seems to be in some sort of mental state while in search of his new purpose in life and gets drawn into a quest to search for a clan of nomads where his mother might be. These nomads use some force called the 'White Current' which is simply a euphemism for the Force, itself, and, at no point, does Luke even come close to finding his mother or what happened to her. Based on Episode I, though, we're pretty sure she's not apart of this group. Both subplots are monumentally boring and made even worse by the fact that the reader has no reason to care about either one. Kube-McDowell managed to not kill the whole trilogy by writing a relatively compelling "Tyrant's Test" to finish the tale, but "Shield of Lies" is such a tremendous disappointment that if the reader is not determined to read all the Star Wars books, I would recommend skipping this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful novel series
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful novel series
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful novel series
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: This Book SUCKS!!!!!
Review: I read the first Black Fleet Crisis book, and it was Ok but this one was horrible. It was the worst book I have ever read! I hate the format especially. They divert,like 100 pages on the same person! The only reason I kept on reading it, was because it was part of a trilogy. If I were you, I would NOT get it, unless you really want to finish the trilogy.BORRRRRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Worse than the first! Just plain awful
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Worse than the first! Just plain awful
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT AS GOOD AS THE 1st BUT GOOD!!!!!
Review: Luke's quest for his mother reaches a new climax that kind of shows Luke is never around when the New Republic needs him.Han has been kidnapped by Nil Spaar, the Yevetha leader, who kills ruthlessly.This is a great story, but, myquestion is will Luke save Han?
Rating: 
Summary: This was one of the worst book I read!
Review: Shield of lies is awful. the first half was okay but the last half was slow and boring. The people involved in the second half never did anything. They complained and threatened, but were never active. What the back cover says about Han doesn't happen until the end of the book. The first part of the book deserved 3 or 4 stars but the last part brought that down. If you haven't read the book, don't by it. if your iching to read it, get it at the library.
Rating:
Summary: It is just plain like a white sheet
Review: The author did little to keep you drawn to the tirilogy and continnues it in this book. It took me 3 months to finish it. Once you stop reading ther's little to make you want to go back and finiish. Also the ending was rush, two previous books iindicating a grand scale epidemic what a watse! I really don't ave any spectacular to write anout this. You doon't even really need to read cuuz the only infoo you might is thw Wookies put some modifications on Falcon. Also Han was out for the whole book!!
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