The Official Republic Commando: Hard Contact Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

God damn. I hope this book gets a wider release then Ruins (not that I missed much, as I understand it), because, between you people and Karen, I'm now uber-interested in this novel...

I couldn't find ROD anywhere, locally. And by locally, I mean, in my surrounding reasonably large town/small city in Aus. I know others in the country found the thing...

 

Because you don't make vulgar comments in front of Jedi officers you don't know well.

Point, even if I don't agree that the word is vulgar.

And because it's funnier the way it is.

Humor hadn't even struck me as a possibility. In retrospect, though, it actually is amusing--it just hadn't seemed to me like it was meant to be, at first.

 

You can tell I've watched too much Firefly recently

Good man. Visit Amp.


Shadows of the Empire Soundtrack? My god, I haven't heard about that in ages. Is it still around?

 

Good Lord, there's a SOUNDTRACK for SOTE?

Ah, Republic Commando...funny story. I wasn't going to buy it on the same principle I used when I didn't buy Ruins. But Karen's (apparent) excitment and affection for this work warmed me over enough to at least pick it up. Haven't read it yet (Jedi Trial comes first) but I look forward to it.

 

Ruins was awful. Hard Contact so far is quite good. And Karen's a much better author than Voronica, I think.

There is indeed a Shadows score, and yes, it's still around. Joel McNeely did a fantastic job without relying much on John Williams' themes -- and the few times he does use those themes, it's to great effect; the Force Theme gets its best rendition ever in the track "Night Skies". Unfortunately, while almost every one of the ten tracks is excellent, they don't really form a coherent, symphonic whole like Williams' works do; even so, I give it a good 4.5/5 stars. The lyrics to Da Werda Verda are in the CD's liner notes, and are chanted (with a massive choir) in the final track, "The Destruction of Xizor's Skyhook," which is one of the finest finales I've ever heard to any score (except for one part, with a duration of only a few seconds in a 10-minute track, where the choir starts chanting "Ra! Ra! Ra!" that I find incredibly obnoxious). It's too bad McNeely's never written anything else on par with Shadows of the Empire, although I guess I shouldn't complain because he's doing a fantastic job making digital new recordings of great old scores.

 

"Battle of Gall" was my favorite right off the bat.

. . .but back to Hard Contact.

 

The TUCWS Exclusive Interview with Karen Traviss is up!

See it at: http://www.starwarz.com/clonewarseu/features/interviews/karentraviss.htm



We also have a new interview with Michael Reaves!

See it at:
http://www.starwarz.com/clonewarseu/features/interviews/michaelreaves2.htm

 

Mas- is that soundtrack still around to be bought?

 

It's too bad McNeely's never written anything else on par with Shadows of the Empire

I dunno--I thought his work on Dark Angel was pretty good. Alas, no CD was ever released.

*ahem* Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

"I doubt that they'd have R5s already, given that they look more like products of the OT era, and R7s don't show up for another thirty-odd years--but it really doesn't matter. "




Actually, there's an R5 in AOTC.

 

Okay, I've just caught up after a day out of the office...deep breath...

<<Are you one of those Mandalorians all died in Open Seasons people?>>

I prefer to think that the Mandalorians will always be with us, culturally if not genetically, and that they live on...

<< bright/brillant blue laser bolts or lightsaber. It's just a fetish on mine>>

Ooh, I do say that Etain's lightsabre is blue, quite a few times...

<<before you'd written (or while you were writing or preparing to write) RC:HC, had you read Matt Stover's "Equipment," which I think was the first look inside the clones' heads, or Steve Barnes' Cestus Deception? Or, for that matter, either or both of Aaron Allston's clone stories from Insider?>>

None of the above. In fact, I had read no SW books at all until after I finished RC:HC. I asked for a galley of Cestus Deception when Del Rey signed me up, but I read one para and put it away immediately, because I was too afraid of being influenced and writing something derivative. (My personal angst, as some of you know. I hardly read at all these days and I've been that way since I started writing professionally.)

On the other hand, reading the NJO series doesn't freak me out because I'm supposed to draw on that. But RC:HC was new ground. Now you understand why I said I drove poor Ryan Kaufman (LucasArts continuity) nuts: I did my general research on various web sites, watched AOTC a few times and then worked through from scratch, checking with Ryan as I went. When I have a break in the schedule I will read Cestus Deception, though.

<< I doubt that they'd have R5s already, given that they look more like products of the OT era, and R7s don't show up for another thirty-odd years--but it really doesn't matter. >>

Continuity said otherwise on the R5s.

<<Why torture a defective clone, and not just eliminate the defective product (as with the clones whose eyesight is imperfet?>>

Eh? No specific torture there. They just grabbed them and gave them a bit of a reminder/ re-education. There's an obscure external reference to this craft somewhere but I can't find the details at the moment. Getting a bit free-thinking isn't necessarily defective, whereas poor eyesight would be.

<<Why not "piss-poor"? It wouldn't be the word's first appearance in an SW novel.
Because you don't make vulgar comments in front of Jedi officers you don't know well. And because it's funnier the way it is. >>

Correct. The lads are in awe of Jedi officers at that stage.

If I've missed anything, do shout.

 

<<The TUCWS Exclusive Interview with Karen Traviss is up! >>

Thank you, chaps! And thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight on my military experiences. Since March the facts have experienced a certain amount of red shift on a number of sites/ newsletters simply through the process of iteration, and I was worried that by the end of next week I'd have been turned into General Patton.

I ain't GI Jane, although I do know my stuff, and as there are TA soldiers being shot at in Iraq right now I felt very uncomfortable being elevated to the level of those who are actually risking their lives. I wasn't anything that great.

(I may in fact be rejoining the reserves. But I have a lot of hurdles to get over first and it's by no means certain.)

But on a lighter note:

Recruiting sergeant: "Could you kill a man, Traviss?"

Traviss: "Eventually, sir."

 

In Jedi Trial, the ARC and Commandos are used almost interchangably. Interesting...

 

When I have a break in the schedule I will read Cestus Deception, though.

Cestus Deception is pretty poor. I recommend Shatterpoint instead, if you're going to be reading Clone Wars-y stuff.

 

"I doubt that they'd have R5s already, given that they look more like products of the OT era, and R7s don't show up for another thirty-odd years--but it really doesn't matter"

Actually, the R5s were all made before AOTC. They stopped making R5s right before AOTC.

http://holonetnews.com/45/business/13228_3.html


I have read all of Jedi Trial except the very last chapter, and I do NOT think the clone commandos in the book are Republic Commandos. I think they are normal Clone Troopers, but with some commando training. THere is precedent for this. In AOTC, the Clone Commander tells the Jedi he has a group of commandos at their disposal. These are not the Republic Commandos, just normal Clone Troopers with a little commando training.

Here are my reasons to think they are not Republic Commandos:

1) they work in a large group; Republic Commandos work in small teams of 4, as est. in Hard Contact and the Republic Commando game.

2) "Green Wizard" is one of the clone commandos in Jedi Trial. Note that his alphanumeric designation starts with "CT-." Only normal clone troopers start with "CT-," as established in The Cestus Deception and the TCG. ARC Troopers start with "A-," as established in The Cestus Deception. Republic Commandos start with "RC-," as established in Hard Contact, albeit at times it had "CC-" instead of
"RC-," but that was probably just a typo or mistake by Karen Traviss or the editors or someone [no biggie].

3) Green Wizard calls himself "Green Wizard" b/c he is a sergeant, indicating he has green stripes on his armor due to his rank. As far as I know, the green stripes for sergeants is unique to normal Clone Troopers, it is not a feature of Republic Commando armor. All pics from the game preview and the novel cover show the Republic Commandos in identical silver armor sans rank stripes.

4) The Clone Commandos are not ARC troopers, as they are differentiated in the book from the ARC Troopers who lead them into battle.

So I think by process of elimination, the Jedi Trial Clone Commandos are normal Clone Troopers serving as commandos as seen in AOTC, not the Republic Commandos or ARC Troopers of the EU

 

I quite liked the look of the Medstar stuff. I'm a sucker for MASH-type stories.

And I did indeed miss a question:

<<Sticks wouldn't really work for 'saber practice, I'd think--a real lightsaber blade doesn't have mass, lending a totally different feel to the fighting.>>

Well, Darman doesn't have a lightsabre to hand, and Etain's too damn dangerous with a real lightsabre when she gets riled. Anyway, he's just keeping her occupied, bless him. (It feels very odd typing "sabre" now. Does anyone have a preference for UK or US English on this board? Happy to do either.)

 

<<"Green Wizard" is one of the clone commandos in Jedi Trial. Note that his alphanumeric designation starts with "CT-." Only normal clone troopers start with "CT-," as established in The Cestus Deception and the TCG. ARC Troopers start with "A-," as established in The Cestus Deception. Republic Commandos start with "RC-," as established in Hard Contact, albeit at times it had "CC-" instead of
"RC-," but that was probably just a typo or mistake by Karen Traviss or the editors or someone [no biggie].>>

Yeah, I found them too. They were all CC designations at manuscript stage. By the time the galleys (page proofs) were ready, a decision was taken to change that to RC because...well, RC is the title and the name of the game. At the production stage, some got CCs in the type got picked up and changed, and some didn't. It's normal for stuff to slip through, especially in something turned round this fast, however diligently the proofreaders work.

 

So "RC-" is the correct designation. Well, that solves that.

 

I think part of the confusion about the term "commandos" stems from the fact that "ARC" stands for "Advanced Recon COMMANDO." So, you could say "Hey, commando!" and get the attention of either Darman or Alpha (ARC trooper from comics.)

The RC troops do sport color-coding, but it's got nothing to do with rank, apparently.

Karen, what was the hardest part of the book to write? Either plot-wise or character-wise?

 

<<what was the hardest part of the book to write? Either plot-wise or character-wise?>>

Good question. I didn't find any of it actually hard to write, because the whole clone thing just fired me up, but the sheer volume of checking fact after fact slowed me down. That's not actually a bad thing, but it was technically different for me. I write flat-out, but I don't have to stop and think about my own universe, whereas a simple sentence could take me ten minutes because I had to find the correct analogy, or the right description, or the right name for a vehicle.

And I hate having to kill off characters, not because I'm sentimental but because you can't use 'em again. Never mind, plenty more where those came from

 

Heh, so you're actually in the military then eh? Cool-I'm from A Co, 2-22nd INF, 10th Mtn Division. Haven't read republic Commando yet, but I'll get dsown to my Border sometime I think..

 

I've just started it. Karen- Awesome so far!

 

Quick nitpicky thing:

When Darman is asked how long the Republic's had a Grand Army, he answers 10 years. Now, I've only seen AotC once, but as I recall that's when the Grand Army was formed. The clones were commissioned 10 years ago, but the Grand Army would only have been around for 3 months.