Book Review - 'Republic Commando: Hard Contact' by Karen Traviss

One of Gordon’s favourite ‘Star Wars’ games is ‘Republic Commando’ and when he came across the first book in the ‘Republic Commando’ series in his teens, he snapped it up.

Over the years, I’ve thought about reading this series but never got around to it. Until now.

Although there are 5 books in the series, Gordon only has the first 2. He knows for a fact he doesn’t want to read the fourth in the series, ‘Order 66’, for obvious reasons.

Last week, I suddenly decided the time had come for me to get started with this.

Despite being late to the party – again; the book was published in 2006 – I still wanted to review it.

I trusted I’d be in good hands as the author, Karen Traviss, is a former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist. She’s held numerous positions, including police press officer, and has served in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army.

‘As the Clone Wars rage, victory or defeat lies in the hands of elite squads that take on the toughest assignments in the galaxy – stone-cold soldiers who go where no one else would, to do what no one else could…
On a mission to sabotage a nanovirus research facility on a Separatist-held planet, four clone troopers operate under the noses of their enemies. The commandos are outnumbered and outgunned, deep behind enemy lines with no backup – and working with strangers instead of trusted team-mates. Matters don’t improve when Darman, the squad’s demolitions expert gets cut off from the others during planetfall. Even Darman’s apparent good luck in meeting a Jedi Padawan vanishes once she admits to her woeful inexperience.
For the isolated clone commandos and stranded Jedi, a long, dangerous journey lies ahead, through hostile territory brimming with Trandoshan slavers, Separatists and suspicious natives. A single misstep could mean discovery… and death. It’s a virtual suicide mission for anyone – anyone except the Republic Commandos.’

The story focusses on Omega Squad, which consists of Niner, the sergeant, Darman, Atin and Fi. This is the first time they’re operating together, having lost their respective teams.

Being clones, obviously they’re genetically identical, trained to perform “to expected levels of excellence together – and as long as they did, their Kaminoan technicians and motley band of alien instructors didn’t seem to care how they felt about it.”

That homogeneity, however, doesn’t stretch to their personalities – “the commandos cared. They just kept it to themselves.”

Each one is a unique character…
“Fi stood there with his hands on his hips, identical to Niner in every way except that he was… different. He spoke a little differently. He smelled subtly different. He moved his hands… not like Niner’s squad did, not at all.”

Each one responds differently to whatever situation they find themselves in. After a while, I genuinely forgot these guys were clones.

Before Qiilura, the planet on which the story is set, the only place these clones had experienced was Geonosis, their only battle experience, against droids.

The point is made, in Chapter 2, how new the whole idea of a clone army is when Jedi Master Arligan Zey says to Omega Squad, “‘Padawan Jusik is new to clone armies, as are we all.’ That was understandable: Darman had never seen Jedi before the Battle of Geonosis, and he was equally fascinated.”

Omega Squad’s mission is to apprehend a Separatist scientist, destroy her biological weapons lab on Qiilura, and, if possible, find the Jedi master who is on the planet investigating the Trade Federation.

Although Qiilura produces a large quantity of the galaxy’s luxury foodstuffs, it’s controlled by a Neimoidian merchant who pockets the profit, leaving the farmers wallowing in poverty. Because of this, in a bid to make a little money, the farmers tend to sell information to the local warlord, Ghez Hokan, a Mandalorian.

As the squad is en route to the planet, we’re introduced to Etain Tur-Mukan, a Jedi padawan who’s lost contact with her master. Concealing her Jedi identity, she hides out with a family of farmers while trying to figure out how to get valuable information off the planet for the Neimoidians monitor all the channels, making it impossible to send anything without alerting them.

When Darman gets separated from his squad, its Etain who eventually comes across him, the first clone she’s seen.

Viewing all Jedi as generals who give him orders, Darman is confused when she seems incapable of telling him what to do.

And from there, we see their development as they try to understand one another and work together to survive.

Despite that, the focus of the book is the clone commandos as we get to know each individual in the squad; how they learn to really work together and trust one another; how they deal with being in a peaceful setting, which is basically featureless farmland, not a battlefield.

I found the antagonist, Ghez Hokan, interesting, mainly because he’s the first Mandalorian I’ve come across who isn’t a Fett. He’s intelligent and plans his moves. Traviss makes it plain he’s a no-nonsense, cold-blooded killer who doesn’t let anything or anyone stand in his way. Personally, I liked how, as the story unfolds, he gradually learns how capable the clones are.

The scientist, Ovolot Quail Uthan, is a woman who, according to Hokan, “understood how to use power and influence.” And yet, she did not make much of an impression on me; to be honest, I don’t remember much about her at all.

The clones’ mission turns out not to be as straightforward as it could have been, which makes for a lot of action scenes. The way plans have to be modified to take into account changing situations give it a realistic feel.

Traviss’ knowledge of army lingo and use of weapons was delivered in a straightforward manner. I didn’t find it confusing, and those passages flowed easily and didn’t come across as any sort of info-dump. That’s speaking as someone who has little, if any, knowledge of army-soldier stuff.

Alongside the action, there’s also a good amount of character development and we really get to know the clones.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was seeing them evolve from strangers to a cohesive fighting unit, trusting each other’s backs.

I very much enjoyed seeing things we take for granted from a clone’s point of view. In the book, although they present as adults, chronologically they’re about 10 years old, due to the accelerated ageing they went through on Kamino.

Darman’s almost child-like reaction to each new experience – his confusion when dealing with civilians; his fascination with Etain, the first female he’s come into proper contact with; seeing the beauty of the world – was handled well.

Another thing I appreciated – we’re shown Darman’s reaction to killing a living being, instead of a droid:
“He’d killed plenty of times at Geonosis, smashing droids with grenade launchers and cannons at a distance, hyped on fear and the instinct to live… But this was different. It wasn’t distant…The… blood had dried in a stream down his glove… They had drilled him to kill, and kill, and kill, but nobody had thought to teach him what he was supposed to feel afterward.”

I wasn’t sure about Etain. Her constant self-doubt got a little wearing after a while. Also, I found Traviss’ constantly telling me how unattractive and thin this poor girl is, irritating.

In Darman’s eyes, “he wasn’t sure if she was pretty or downright ugly.”

As for Niner, “he didn’t like the… conflicts she created in him… He had never been this close to a human female before, and he was relieved that she was emaciated, unkempt, and generally less than appealing.”

I couldn’t help thinking Traviss was trying too hard to make the main female character unattractive yet, somehow, still attractive, if that makes sense.

The worldbuilding was good. It was easy to picture the featureless landscape, the Separatist facilities, the awful poverty of the farmers, the local creatures…

The tension and sense of threat made it hard to put the book down, especially as the squad got closer to completing their mission. I was genuinely worried about their fate and couldn’t read the final chapters fast enough.

One thing that struck me as weird – the ‘prologue’ is told in first person present tense, from Darman’s point of view. That’s the only time. The rest of the story is third person.

I do have one complaint. The story features a species called gurlanin; I don’t know enough about the Star Wars universe to know if they existed before or if they’re wholly the product of Traviss’ imagination.

They are stupendously invulnerable to the point of being practically undetectable in the Force. The one that is present in the story has an uncanny knack for turning up at just the right time, which led to a few eye-rolling moments.

Overall, I found this a fun, enjoyable read and finished it in a few days. It did what it said on the tin, as it were – an action story about the Republic Commandos with the bonus of good character development.