Andrew's Review of The Black Fleet Crisis II: Shield of Lies

3/5 Rancors - Shield of Lies is the second entry in Michael P. Kube-McDowell's Black Fleet Crisis trilogy and has many of the standard hallmarks often found in middle chapters of a longer story. There is no particular beginning or ending point and the three primary storylines of Before the Storm are carried forward without any significant conclusions or new plots introduced. One tweak to the format is a reorganization of the three main plots: rather than interweaving them, they are presented in three completely separate parts. This is a welcome change if you don't enjoy jumping storylines from chapter to chapter, but maybe not so much if one or more of the scenarios taking place does not particularly engage you.

Mr. Kube McDowell's strengths from the first book continue unabated. His portrayal of alien species remains strong, his use of politics as an arena of battle alongside the detailed military engagements gives the book an exciting military fiction slant, and more unsettling aspects of the viciously memorable Yevethan culture are revealed.

The three storylines are distinct enough in tone and content that it is unlikely any reader will enjoy them all equally. My take is that the Luke Skywalker plot is the least engaging. Luke and the mysterious White Current adept Akanah continue to seek evidence of the whereabouts of her people and Luke's mother. Of course, thanks to the prequels we know Luke won't find his mother but that's beside the point. Their quest doesn't have enough narrative thrust behind it to sustain the story. It's hard to credit that Luke would be spending his time running around the galaxy on this personal mission while his friends back home are preparing for a possible full-scale war. It comes off as selfish and weak rather than mystical.

Faring better is Lando, Lobot, C-3PO, and R2-D2's continued exploration of the strange vagabond spaceship they have been trapped on. While they don't make much forward progress in Shield of Lies, they do have some entertaining moments, and Mr. Kube-McDowell's juxtaposition of Lando's impulsive humanity with the attitudes of the droids (and the cyborg Lobot occupying an interesting space in-between) continues to intrigue.

By far the most gripping part of the book is Leia's portion that deals with the actual Black Fleet situation. I would have liked more of the book devoted to her struggles with her own emotions, her fellow members of the New Republic government, and the malicious Yevetha. There's a terrific space battle at Doornik 319 that drives home the seriousness and scope of the Yevethan threat and more in this vein would have been welcome too. However, what there is of this story in the book is well executed, and the ending does leave quite a cliffhanger for the final volume.

Shield of Lies is a reasonable continuation of the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, but it does not add very much of substance to the overall story and does not stand well on its own.