Lit Republic Commando Novels

A quick question: can the Republic Commando novels be enjoyed/understood without playing the game? Do they tell a self contained and complete story?

And more generally: I understand Karen Traviss is controversial, but are the novels worth reading? While I wouldnt mind understanding the controversy, I am more interested in the general quality of the novels. Please, let's avoid flaming or extended arguments between pro-Traviss and anti-Traviss people who obviously will never agree.

 

Read Hard Contact. It's self-contained, doesn't require knowledge of the game or going on into the other books, and it's the best of the lot.

 

Yes, they can. There is a brief tie-in in Triple Zero, and another in Order 66, but other than the fact that the characters in TZ-O66 are the same, they don't require you to have played the game. In fact, the books basically give you everything you need to know and it won't be relevant enough that you have to know the minutiae from the game.

I think they're great, personally. The quality is better overall than her LOTF books (which I still like, for the most part). But you really won't know until you try them for yourself, I guess. I didn't expect to like them nearly as much as I did, but they really are good. Just brace yourself for some Jedi-bashing and Mandalorian-uplifting (which makes sense, because the book is from the POV of Mandos).

 

Do this and nothing else.

 

Turn back now while you still can... Just kidding. I agree with what everyone else said, read Hard Contact and nothing else. And play the game if you can, it's great.

 

I actually liked these books, but it has been a while since I read them. Like everyone says Hard Contact is the best. I just finished rereading it and I like how it handles the clones and even the Jedi character is good. It is an all around good book and highly recommended. I won't be able to read the others forna while -- I'm reading them within a read through of the entire old Clone Wars timeline. If I remember correctly Triple Zero doesn't have that much anti-Jedi bias. I think people have a problem with this book because the other two books reveal how Karen Travis views Jedi, which then iuminates it within this one. Anti-Jedi views exists in it, but I don't think it's as clear without the later half of the series. I do think TZ is a worthwhile sequel to HC. The last two books (I don't count Imperial Commando because it was meant to lead into another book thus Order 66 is the best conclusion to the series) are good, but they also don't fit that well into the Star Wars universe. I'm okay with Mandolarians hating Jedi, I'm okay with some clones sharing that oppinion, but it's ridiculous when Jedi agree that the Jedi Order is evil. Still it is possible to come up with a head canon explanation for that and if you can those books can be very enjoyable. For this reason I recommend giving them a try.

I will say that I love how Travis questions the morality of the Clone Army. I agree that Clone soldiers are bad and her points needed o be raised. The problem is that she blames it entirely on the Jedi. She assumes that they fund the army and treat them like canon fodder. The former is clearly not true because the funding came from one rogue Jedi whose actions the council was unaware of; by the time the army was used the senate controlled the funding, the Jedi were just generals. The latter is so untrue because the EU shows that for the most part the Jedi were the o as who respected the lives of the Clones and cared for their wellbeing. I could say a lot more about my problem with how she presents the issue, but I don't feel like it's relevant. Despite this problem I do enjoy her bringing up these issues and think the make the series worth reading, regardless of the ridiculousness

 

I am on the last chapter of Hard contact and I have found the book boring and overall rather mhé, but I seems to be in minority.

 

If for no other reason, they are worth reading to having more complete understanding of the EU. I agree with those above who say that Hard Contact is far and away the best of her books. It really is great. The other 4 books of the RC/IC series go from bad to worse with each successive entry. Still, even knowing they were bad, I trudged through each so that I could say I've read them when I discuss how poorly they were written.

Of course, if you are buying them it may not be worth it to spend money on something if you're probably not going to enjoy them. I made the mistake of buying her 4 later RC/IC books midway through Hard Contact assuming they'd all be as good as HC was. In the words of Obi-Wan... "I was wrong."

 

I must be in the minority, then; I think Hard Contact is second-best, behind Triple Zero.

 

I might agree with you, but I'm not sure. I remember loving Triple zero, but that was almost three years, so it's hard for me to accurately compare them. I'll be starting TZ by the end of this week, which will refresh my memory.

 

Hard Contact is the only one of the books that is true its series name. It is actually a book about Republic Commandos. That alone makes it tops in my mind (disregarding that I think it is the highest quality book, anyway).

From there forward, the "commando" portion of it is just a sideshow. Even as early as Triple Zero, the action was focused on what are essentially police action (Coruscant being the Republic capital, I treat Triple Zero like an FBI operation in the United States rather than Green Berets operating overseas in an austere environment). The books after that are much more about renegade operations than actual Republic Commando work.

 

Fair enough, although I'd call TZ more NCIS-esque than FBI.

 

Nicely put. This is a large part of why I like Hard Contact, the criticism was there too but it was more restrained so more effective as a result.

 

Triple Zero and True Colors were my favorites when I read them last.

 

Hard Contact was great. Triple Zero and True Colors had parts that were perhaps greater even HC, but also had parts that could really drive you crazy. Order 66 and 501st just completely fell off the rails.

 

I just remember finishing Triple Zero. I don't remember what is was, maybe something about the Jedi girl Etain (I think) and her treatment from Skiratta left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I never continued the series from there.

I enjoyed Hard Contact a lot but it seemed very dense and packed in for a paperback, like Triple Zero. Perhaps they are better on the eyes via Tablet.

 

Frankly, I really enjoyed every book of the series. (And I've never played the game, so you can understand them without having played it).
The bashing never bothered me, nor did the Mando-praising.

 

I ended up getting invested in the commandos, so I generally overlook the usual criticisms for the series. My brother and I got Hard Contact specifically because of the game.

 

I read them in pretty much reverse order - since my library only had the later ones.

As a result, Hard Contact seems just a little "drier" than the others.

 

Ha! I actually did the same thing. I thought Imperial Commando was a separate series, so I read it first. I realized about half way in that I probably should have read the other books first. For some reason I messed up the order and read Order 66 next. I finally figured out Hard Contact came first, so I read it and Triple Zero. After that, I finally jumped ship. I can only take so much Mando praise in one lifetime...
It's weird. Cancerous Ordo is one of my top ten favorite Star Wars characters, and I loved the Mandalorians in Kotor 2. Yet I can't stand them when Traviss writes them, and I found the Mandalorian-heavy bounty hunter story in Sw TOR boring as heck. I guess I prefer to hear about their war stories and less about their silly language and cooking and whatever else the soap opera Traviss books dove into to.

 

I never played the game and thoroughly enjoyed them.

They're fun, tough and you learn a lot of the Mando language

 

You don't need to play the game. The squad that appears in the novels is a completely separate squad than the one in the game, although that squad does appear in the later books of the series.

Try out HARD CONTACT which has the benefit of being the first and best and even those who don't like the later works usually agree it's a good book.

The later books touch a lot on the wider EU but they're very much about a small group of clones who have an unhealthy tie to their training officer and their training officer's nationalistic pride of being a Mandalorian.

You can read HARD CONTACT as a one and done, and if you decide to try more...you can read them or stop as you desire.

I think the important thing is that if you don't like her writing or her direction, the books do not significantly impact the Legends timeline and they're books that can be skipped without missing massive developments in the Legends CW era, imo.

 

I actually really like all of them. The mando love only really becomes over the top in the later books but it's an interesting perspective on the Clone Wars and one that not a lot of other EU has really considered. I always find it interesting to see multiple sides of a story (i.e. A Song of Ice and Fire) and the Skirata clan in Republic Commando is a wonderful example of that. Unfortuanately Imperial Commando: 501st is almost entirely unsatisfying because it has no resolution, but you can end the series with Order 66, and it might be a bit of a downer ending, but it definately works (I also think IC cheapens some of what happens in 66, particularly when it comes to presumed dead characters returning, but that's a whole other ball of wax).

In my opinion Republic Commando is one of the best series in the EU. It's different than naything else out there, and that's what makes it great. A lot of people don't like Karen Traviss, and honestly I don't really either (her blog posts back in the day bordered on ludicrous) but that doesn't mean I don't like her books. If you can jettisen yourself from all the controversy surroinding these novels, I think you'll find something really enjoyable there.