The Unofficial Clone Wars Site

Republic Commando: Hard Contact

Authors: Karen Traviss
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: October 2004

Reviewed by Nathan “Valin Kenobi” O’Keefe

Summary: On the planet Qiilura, Separatist scientists are developing a nanovirus designed to kill only Clone Troopers. Four Republic Clone Commandos are dispatched to destroy the installation and capture the head scientist, Dr. Uthan. One commando, Darman, is separated from his squad, meets Jedi Padawan Etain Tur-Mukan, who is already on-planet, and eventually they all team up to complete the mission.

Some SPOILERS below!

What Worked: Actually, nearly everything, which is all the more surprising considering how swiftly this book was conceptualized and rushed to print.

When I found out this book was to take place only 3 months after Geonosis, my initial reaction was disappointment. Since we’re so close to the release of Revenge of the Sith and the Clone Wars books have been released roughly chronologically, returning to the beginning seemed like a giant step backward. Besides, that segment of the Clone Wars timeline was crowded already. But it turned out to be interesting to revisit the early stages of the war--for example, characters are encountering the clone troopers for the first time, still coming to grips with the new state of war, and so on. I suppose this is poetically fitting, since Traviss herself is new to the Star Wars universe, and so too her characters are new to the Clone Wars.

After reading the book and various remarks from Traviss’ own mouth (well, keyboard), I'm really impressed with the amount of effort she spent drawing up background information and getting inside the clones' heads. She put a lot of thought into the details and characters' motivations, and it shows.

I liked the epigraphs--in layman’s terms, the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The ones I liked best were from Ki-Adi-Mundi (Chapter 9) and Adar Tallon (Chapter 14)--the former because I was genuinely touched by the thought-provoking sentiment expressed, and the latter because it’s one of the few times that Adar Tallon is mentioned in the current Clone Wars publishing.

I also liked the villain, the Mandalorian Ghez Hokan. The fact that his enemies are clones of Jango Fett presents him with interesting philosophical conflicts, and sometimes affects his judgment when dealing with them.

The “clones are people too” subplot has been driven into the ground already (The Cestus Deception, the MedStar duology, and Jedi Trial), but since this book focuses on the Clone Commandos, that theme obviously has to be revisited here. To me, the most significant new insight is that despite their biological maturity the clones actually have less experience with “the real world” than a regular human ten-year-old. All they know firsthand is warfare and training for warfare, and everything else is just secondhand “book learning”. When they enter into the wider galaxy, they become captivated by things as ordinary as a forest stream and real food.

And their regimented upbringing didn’t completely dehumanize them. Though they have been acclimatized to combat in brutal live-fire training exercises, even clone commandos can have doubts before going into battle, and get ambivalent feelings after killing their fellow beings (to wit: Darman, Chapter 4). And they were programmed with implicit trust in the Jedi, and suffer a crisis of faith when they find out not all Jedi live up to the infallible ideal. And they’ve come to psychologically depend on their Katarn armor, in effect using it as a shield against unpredictable reality. And they’re secretly scared of the Kaminoan cloners and technicians. These are things I’d never given much thought to, but which do make sense.

Plus I found it quite interesting that Etain sensed Darman as a ten-year-old child--which he is, really.

I think MedStar went too far the wrong way, in making the clones too much like regular soldiers. A drunken clone trooper passed out in the camp cantina? Come on. They have better discipline than that, and I’d be surprised if they ever drink alcohol in the first place. But Traviss’ commandos strike the right balance between mindless drones and full-on humans.

Also, the commandos’ use of humor shows they’re not just unfeeling killers. It’s rare that I laugh out loud reading a book, but I did upon reading this exchange, after Darman hides two extremely powerful charges in boxes in a refrigeration unit in the enemy laboratory:

Atin: “That won’t reduce the blast any, will it?”

Darman: “Not so you’d notice, believe me.”

What Didn't Work: Honestly, not much.

While destroying the nanovirus program is the logical and satisfying conclusion to the story, in a way it’s too bad it was never completed. It would’ve been interesting to see how both sides dealt with it--where and how the Confederacy utilized it, and how the Republic handled the internal consequences of a weapon that slaughtered clone troopers while leaving Jedi and regular organic soldiers untouched. For example, how would this have affected the way the Republic prosecutes the war and deploys the various kinds of troops?

The cover is extremely uninspired--simply a shot from the video game. But it makes a direct connection to the game, which is the whole purpose of the novel, after all. A classic “don’t judge a book by its cover” situation.

Overall: A very good entry in the Clone Wars series. Its primary flaw, for me, stems from the fact that I’m more interested in the Jedi, politics, and galactic aspects of Star Wars, not so much with individual commando missions at the far end of nowhere. But that’s simply one reader’s personal taste, not an intrinsic fault of the book itself.

Rating: 8.5/10

<<<Back to Reviews

Site Information: Contact Us | Frequently Asked Questions | History | Staff | Acknowledgements

Disclaimer: This is a completely unofficial, fan-made site. It is not sponsored, licensed, or approved by Lucasfilm Ltd. All "Star Wars" titles, unoriginal images, slogans, etc. are trademark/copyright their respective publishers and/or creators. "Star Wars" is a registered trademark of Lucasilm Ltd. If you're looking for the Official "Star Wars" Website, head over to http://www.starwars.com. Layouts, designs, and related content are © 2003 - present The Unofficial Clone Wars Site.