World Famous Comics: Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando)
Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando)
By: Karen Traviss Publisher: Del Rey Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Del Rey Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: October 26, 2004 Release Date: October 26, 2004
Product Description: 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 chemical weapon research facility on a Separatist-held planet, four clone troopers operate under the very noses of their enemies. The commandos are outnumbered and outgunned, deep behind enemy lines with no backup–and working with strangers instead of trusted teammates. Matters don’t improve when Darman, the squad’s demolitions expert, gets separated from the others during planetfall. Even Darman’s apparent good luck in meeting an inexperienced Padawan vanishes once Etain admits to her woeful inexperience.
For the separated 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 Republic Commandos.
Quite simply amazing Somewhere in Ms. Traviss' background there was a lot of time spent talking to and with operators on the front lines and the bonds they develop. I don't know where or who she got it from, but I thank them that they gave a talented author an insight into what it is we do and thereby gave us a voice.
Traviss' Hard Contact is a true Clone War novel, viewed through the Clone warrior's eyes. It deals with the bonds that such men form through training and experience. It deals with what operators feel when sent into situations with less than full disclosure about what's happening. It deals with how society needs people who can engage in violence but also how society views them as disposable.
The plot of Hard Contact is simple - the Republic is investigating a world called Qiilura using a couple of Jedi as infiltrators. When contact with them is broken, a small group of Clone Commandos is sent in to establish contact and finish the investigation. Meanwhile, the Separatists are cooking up something on Qiilura, something that may turn the tide of war and shift the balance of power in the galaxy.
Please don't be turned off that the book was based on a video game. In fact, it's completely irrelevant that a video game is involved at all. This is top-notch writing in every way. Of all the books I have read in my life, I place Hard Contact second only behind Gates of Fire in explaining the bonds that men in combat form and what drives them to push on and do what they do.
The characters are well-fleshed out, including the "bad" guys. Motivations are complex, as they are in real life, and the dilemmas that people out on the edge of life and death face are well-portrayed. There are no cookie cutter characterizations and motivations here. I think this is a brilliant piece of fiction and I will follow Ms. Traviss' career and body of work with interest.
Though a tad confusing, a very good, action-packed book. I have personally been a Star Wars fan for a long time (for a teenager), I have read many novels, I have explored the Star Wars universe to a great level. Now, even though I am a fan, I have been critical of some of the movies (specifically Episode II), and I've also been critical of the atmosphere of the story, all clean little zap-zap and stuff, but nothing really gritty or human. There are only two books that I think have really captured a good bit of reality in the Star Wars universe, one is 'Shatterpoint' by Matthew Stover and the other one is the book I'm reviewing, 'Republic Commando: Hard Contact'.
'Hard Contact' captures the gritty reality of war situations in an interesting way, creating an interesting atmosphere for itself. There is lots of blood, and people crawling in mud, people slowly slicing each other's throats open, and even more blood. I captures inhumanity in a setting that you're least probable t find it, in a zap-zap Star Wars movie.
The story itself drags the reader in, four Commandos land on a planet, their ship is blown off, and they can't go back until they complete their mission. At the same time, a Jedi is stuck on the same planet, after having her mentor killed. There are many twists, ugly sequences, and fighting, turning the entire story into a thoughtful bloodbath (sounds near impossible, right.
The book's only flaw is that it sometimes confuses the reader, using army terms, and other things that the reader can't understand. The entire book is filled with things like "We'll reorganize back at sector 7 at 54 kliks, Blue Leader 469 out". Okay, what is sector 7, what's a klik and who the heck is this Blue Leader 70865354%$^^&^$ whatsit? Though this does confuse the reader, rarely does this affect the important parts of the book, s the reader shuld get along fine most of the time.
If you like Halo, Star Wars or things about 'Going behind enemy lines' you are most deifintely going to like this book.
A new point of view on the clones This book offers some interesting descriptions of the personalities of the clones. While we may assume that, being clones, they are all the same that is not the truth. They are all different, and while they were trained only to obey and excel on the battlefield and deprived of feelings like love they are actually very human. You are moved in some cases reading that these men are not considered men ,but expendable machines. A great action novel that provide a new camera angle of perspective on the Clone wars. A great book I really devoured.
A good idea fumbled I picked up this book because I was so damned excited for the Republic Commando game and I had a job where I had literally nothing to do for four hours. I needed a book, win/win, right?
I wish it were so.
I will open with my favorite part of the book, or at least the gyst of it. It is right after the operation on Geonosis when Darman sits down in an extracation vehicle next to a standard clone trooper, not a Commando like him. The Clone asks him about his weapon and they make some small talk. Darman looks around the ship and everywhere he looks he sees himself. He sees himself in every possible situation, wondering what it was that made him so different from all of them and considering what he'd be like if he weren't an RC, etc.
After that I get irritated. Maybe I'm just nit-picky. First of all, my pet peeve was that she was going the whole book calling her characters Delta Squad and implying that the characters she was writing about were the characters you play in the game. In Triple Zero this problem is basicly swept under the rug as if it never happened, but what it comes off as is someone was commissioned for a book based off a game and didn't communicate with the people writing the story on which her novel was based. Because of this all the characters were given incorrect names and the personalities did not mesh with the jobs of the in-game counterparts.
So if I brush that aside we now get to my other big complaint.
For a squad of men who have done nothing but train for 9 years with the best military men that money can by they sure are incompitant. I was expecting something more along the lines of characters as portrayed in Eric Nylund's HALO series (which I reccomend) but here all I have is a bunch of "elite" soldiers who barely can keep their heads down in a firefight.
And this mediocraty was not just confined to the "Elite" troopers, but just about everyone involved in the story. Etain was just about as incompitent as they come, the Jedi Padawan who is left in charge because she was separated from her master and Clones answer to Jedi.
Basicly, everyone in this book only has a goal and no idea how to accomplish it. They're too conscerned about their feelings and how they wish they didn't have to eat protien cubes their whole life, "and gee, I sure do miss the Sarge." I mean, honestly, it's 4 men and a feeble Jedi in the middle of an enemy-controlled world with an entire population looking for them in their rather garish white uniforms and they're wishing they got to try sweets more often?
Yes, these things do happen and these are very important, very interesting insights into Clone life, but this is seriously not the time or the place for musings, go blow up the damned chemical plant already, would you!?
All in all, I just don't think Karen Traviss is cut out to write Military novels.
A Great Read! I am only 16 so this was a bit of an advanced book for me. Although it took me a little while to get used to the author's style i thoroghly enjoyed the book. Once i adjusted to the author's style it was fanstastic and i couldn't put it down. The book gives a great insight into the lives of the clones and their weapons,tactics, training, etc.
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