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Tales of the Bounty Hunters (1996) edited by Kevin J. Anderson

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  Tales of the Bounty Hunters Looks like the banner for a trading card set. IG-88: Therefore I Am by Keven J. Anderson: 4/5 Strong start. One of the best of Anderson's Star Wars  contributions. IG-88 is a droid that uploads its programming into 4 identical droids. They become fairly successful bounty hunters, take over Mechis III (the same planet the Thul family is in charge of in YJKs), and eventually uploads itself into the second Death Star. They all get blown up between that, Boba Fett, and Dash Rendar. Dengar: Payback by Dave Wolverton: 2/5 This is a good story, but not a good Star Wars story. Too much that doesn't really line up with the rest of the universe, like Dengar's bounty hunting customs (giving his target a blaster). The romantic subplot could probably work with a bit more development. Dengar's a cyborg who had most of his emotions surgically removed, but he brain links with a tech-telepath dancer. Bossk: The Prize Pelt by Kathy Tyers: 3/5 Tyers is a cons...
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The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1996)

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Crystal Star 2   The New Rebellion This was fucking stupid. This is the book everyone thinks Crystal Star is. Some Darth Vader cosplaying loser (he was a student at Luke's academy. No, he's never shown up before.) is turning droids into bombs. Every time he kills someone he gets more powerful, soon he will be more powerful than Luke! (Somehow, this didn't work for the Emperor/Vader.) Brakiss is back, because... dunno? She needed an extra dark Jedi to dump exposition and pad the book another hundred pages. Speaking of padding, there's an entire Han Solo/Lando plot that makes no sense and I couldn't even tell you what happens in it. I think they fight hippo dragons? Yeah, there's a lot of random aliens in this book that aren't very well described. Most of them never show up again. It's 1996, there are enough aliens you can get by without making up shitty ones, but whatever. Wedge shows up! He's an idiot. Leia is useless. (Rusch claims that the male aut...
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Black Fleet Crisis 3: Tyrant's Test by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1996)

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 Tyrant's Test Three plots wasn't enough, let's get Chewie and Lumpy in here too! Summary: Leia ducks a no confidence motion by declaring war. Luke finds out his whole mom finding quest was bullshit. Han gets beaten up and tortured. Lando makes it home. The good guys win! Commentary/Review: I don't know how the hell Kube-McDowell got a three book deal out of this mess. As previously established, this trilogy broadly follows three main plots: 1. Luke meeting with the Fallanassi and trying to find his mother. 2. Han and Leia dealing with the political and military issue of the Yevetha. 3. Lando being stuck on "The Vagabond" There are a couple other plots that pop in and out throughout the series. Book 2 has a substantial amount of page space dedicated to Plat Mallar, a survivor of the Yevetha attacks and New Republic pilot. He's in this one a bit, but he has to share the "extra" space w/ Lumpy, Chewie, and some other Wookies, along with archeologis...
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Black Fleet Crisis Book 2: Shield of Lies by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1996)

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  Shield of Lies Not sure why Leia is in Endor mode here. Summary: Lando wanders around on The Derelict some more. They kind of figure out how it works. C-3PO gets damages and R2 is mad at him. (Jealous/protective R2 is a good touch.) Luke wanders around the galaxy with Akanah. They sort of do philosophy. It's kind of awkward since they're together and nominally doing the same thing, but both trying to sneak around each other (but not very interestingly). Leia almost gets impeached! Plat Mallar, the lone survivor of one of the Yvethan attacks becomes a pilot with Ackbar's help. The New Republic almost fights the Yvethan, but backs out when they use hostages. Han gets kidnapped again... I don't think anything super impactful gets introduced here. On the whole, this series only tangentially intersects with the rest of the EU, and we've got some serious second book syndrome. Commentary: Somehow, Kube-McDowell organizes the three books in this trilogy in three different...
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Black Fleet Crisis Book 1: Before the Storm by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1996)

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Before the Storm How do I write these again? After whining about kid's books for a couple months, back to trying to do these properly. I'm not sure if Black Fleet Crisis can actually sustain a blog entry each, but I wanted to do one so here we go. Summary: Leia is doing negotiations with obvious bad guys. (They have a secret Imperial fleet.) Lando chases after some weird alien space ship. Luke goes to try to find his mom since Padme doesn't exist yet. Introduced: The Yevetha: They kinda look like the Tarkata from Mortal Kombat . They can learn super quick and manage to steal a fleet from the Empire. They're negotiating with Leia, but not really cause conspiracy? They drive "thrust ships" which look kind of like Battletech  dropships.  "The Vagabond": A giant space ship that talks in DNA. The White Current and The Fallanassi: I think this is our first "they do The Force different", save for a little stuff way back in Splinter of The Mind...
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Look what I got out of the free bin at a convention!

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 Very excited to do the whole Shadows mini-franchise, and I get to read the physical book! Also got Truce at Bakura.
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YJK14: Crisis at Crystal Reef

 Remember how I said this book would probably be about Anja getting over her addiction? And how they like to name these books after a planet, and then spend most of the book not there? Crystal Reef is a resort under the Calimari polar ice caps. At best, a third of the book is there. Anja does get over her addiction, but it's basically two scenes and not very interesting. I'M FINALLY DONE WITH THIS SHIT! Possible next posts: 1. Non-book catch up. There's a lot of video games and RPG books to cover (and probably some other stuff I'm missing.) 2. Black Fleet Crisis. This is the next trilogy. 3. X-Wing Rogue Squadron: This is the next larger series (5 books released over about 3 years). And I know I actually like them. Part of me wants to dive in, part of me wants to save them.
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