I'm only going to state this once, right here at the top - this topic is for discussion of the two Republic Commando books (Hard Contact & Triple Zero) and WILL have spoilers in it. You have been warned.
I decided to pick up Hard Contact for a few reasons. Unlike my first few attempts at Prequel/Clone Wars books (all of which I felt burned on) I had enjoyed Labrynth of Evil and Outbound Flight. Those made me want to try again on another prequel era book - but the "best" ones for the most part were the ones I had tried (Shatterpoint, Medstar, Rogue Planet) and those were the ones I hadn't liked at all. But then with the announcment of Karen Traviss as a Legacy of the Force writer and the good word of mouth from Hard Contact - I decided to give it a go.
I found Hard Contact to be interesting. Better than the prequel novels I hated, not quite as good as Labrynth (my favorite from that era so far). My reaction was similar to my first reaction to Rogue Squadron - it was good enough to make me want to read more (so I picked up Triple Zero - but we'll come back to that). Hard Contact is a fairly straightforward book - the team's inserted on a planet and has to take out the bad guys before they unleash a plague designed to kill clones. Good characters though the farm location was slightly boring. Good enemy in Hokum, though their final battle with him was somewhat lacking. However, I think this has more to do with Karen's writing style - she writes very realistically. Battles take place in minutes not in long sweeping arcs over lots of "set pieces".
Triple Zero on the other hand was a great book. Definately my second favorite from this era (after Labrynth). Longer, lots more characters - and it actually feels like there's a WAR going on. Lots of fronts, lots of chaos at the beginning. The only thing I wish the editor/Del Rey had done was to put the short story "TARGETS" at the beginning of the book, as that's where it belongs chronologically (and many characters are introduced there and the events of that story are refered to MANY times throughout Triple Zero). I didn't read it until afterwards not realizing that story came first. Oh well.
It's a fairly deep book for Star Wars, talking about clones and their rights and freedom, soldiers, terrorists, black ops, shady government dealings, the jedi code of the old republic. She's definately not afraid to tackle the tough subjects. Frankly, I can't wait to read Bloodlines.
Speaking of which, it's time for some speculation. First up, we've been introduced to a team of commandos under Boba Fett in The Unifying Force. Who wants to bet one of those commandos is Etain and Darman's son? If we're lucky, perhaps some of the other commandos are the son of Atin (he was hooking up with a twilek girl) and Ordo (he seemed friendly with the Treasury Dept. girl) - who knows maybe even one of Skirata's real sons becomes a true Mandalorian warrior. With the humans living as long as they do, perhaps it's even possible Skirata is still running around? What I'd really enjoy seeing however is one of the clones still going - proving that Skirata succeeded in making the Kamoian scientist find a way to reverse engineer the early death of his sons. Maybe Ordo himself or Mereel could still be alive and kicking. I'm looking forward to seeing what Karen does with this.
Next up, I found this line from Triple Zero intriguing (on page 365 Etain is thinking to herself):
VERY interesting. In some ways, this is a very similar thought to Jacen's path in The Dark Nest. I'm not sure I completely agree - because ultimately what does it mean when you care for a life other than your own - but it means killing another life, or many lives to protect that one life? What if another Jedi chooses to protect the life on the other side of that conflict (which is what Jaina faced in The Dark Nest)? I think this makes for a good topic of discussion anyways.
Finally - it's probably impossible due to her involvement in the Legacy books - but I'd love to see MORE Republic Commando novels from Karen Traviss. This could be the "X-Wing" series of the prequel era. Hopefully Del Rey will consider letting her go back to these characters and this era again, because there's still plotlines she didn't wrap up that I'd enjoy seeing a conclusion to.
Your thoughts?
I decided to pick up Hard Contact for a few reasons. Unlike my first few attempts at Prequel/Clone Wars books (all of which I felt burned on) I had enjoyed Labrynth of Evil and Outbound Flight. Those made me want to try again on another prequel era book - but the "best" ones for the most part were the ones I had tried (Shatterpoint, Medstar, Rogue Planet) and those were the ones I hadn't liked at all. But then with the announcment of Karen Traviss as a Legacy of the Force writer and the good word of mouth from Hard Contact - I decided to give it a go.
I found Hard Contact to be interesting. Better than the prequel novels I hated, not quite as good as Labrynth (my favorite from that era so far). My reaction was similar to my first reaction to Rogue Squadron - it was good enough to make me want to read more (so I picked up Triple Zero - but we'll come back to that). Hard Contact is a fairly straightforward book - the team's inserted on a planet and has to take out the bad guys before they unleash a plague designed to kill clones. Good characters though the farm location was slightly boring. Good enemy in Hokum, though their final battle with him was somewhat lacking. However, I think this has more to do with Karen's writing style - she writes very realistically. Battles take place in minutes not in long sweeping arcs over lots of "set pieces".
Triple Zero on the other hand was a great book. Definately my second favorite from this era (after Labrynth). Longer, lots more characters - and it actually feels like there's a WAR going on. Lots of fronts, lots of chaos at the beginning. The only thing I wish the editor/Del Rey had done was to put the short story "TARGETS" at the beginning of the book, as that's where it belongs chronologically (and many characters are introduced there and the events of that story are refered to MANY times throughout Triple Zero). I didn't read it until afterwards not realizing that story came first. Oh well.
It's a fairly deep book for Star Wars, talking about clones and their rights and freedom, soldiers, terrorists, black ops, shady government dealings, the jedi code of the old republic. She's definately not afraid to tackle the tough subjects. Frankly, I can't wait to read Bloodlines.
Speaking of which, it's time for some speculation. First up, we've been introduced to a team of commandos under Boba Fett in The Unifying Force. Who wants to bet one of those commandos is Etain and Darman's son? If we're lucky, perhaps some of the other commandos are the son of Atin (he was hooking up with a twilek girl) and Ordo (he seemed friendly with the Treasury Dept. girl) - who knows maybe even one of Skirata's real sons becomes a true Mandalorian warrior. With the humans living as long as they do, perhaps it's even possible Skirata is still running around? What I'd really enjoy seeing however is one of the clones still going - proving that Skirata succeeded in making the Kamoian scientist find a way to reverse engineer the early death of his sons. Maybe Ordo himself or Mereel could still be alive and kicking. I'm looking forward to seeing what Karen does with this.
Next up, I found this line from Triple Zero intriguing (on page 365 Etain is thinking to herself):
Quote:
All I had to do was have a life beside my own to care for. This is the true detachment we ought to seek, putting another person above ourselves-not denying our emotions. The attachment to SELF is the path to the dark side.
VERY interesting. In some ways, this is a very similar thought to Jacen's path in The Dark Nest. I'm not sure I completely agree - because ultimately what does it mean when you care for a life other than your own - but it means killing another life, or many lives to protect that one life? What if another Jedi chooses to protect the life on the other side of that conflict (which is what Jaina faced in The Dark Nest)? I think this makes for a good topic of discussion anyways.
Finally - it's probably impossible due to her involvement in the Legacy books - but I'd love to see MORE Republic Commando novels from Karen Traviss. This could be the "X-Wing" series of the prequel era. Hopefully Del Rey will consider letting her go back to these characters and this era again, because there's still plotlines she didn't wrap up that I'd enjoy seeing a conclusion to.
Your thoughts?
