Books Review
Ok, at the moment, I'm in the middle of one of the biggest stacks of books "to read" in a long time. I'm actually reading (3) books at the same time right now (Re-reading one series, reading a new series, and just reading). I have 10+ books in my queue... :(
However, over the break, I had bought some books for what I thought would be quick "popcorn" reads.
They are in the Star Wars series, and I was under the impression that they would follow the typical Star Wars formula... Jedi slash and kill hundreds, Leia gets taken prisoner, Luke rescues her, etc... That's the typical formula when you have those main characters in the books.
The Star Wars books have really expanded the overall storyline of Star Wars... some of it very good, but some of it bad. The formula gets tiring however, so I usually just buy the books in a batch, read them, and move to a different genre and eventually come back for the next batch and see if the overall story has gotten interesting.
In this case, I felt the Universe was rocked.
The books:
Triple Zero is the sequel to Hard Contact. As some may know, Hard Contact was a direct tie-in to the Republic Commando game that came out on Xbox. I read Hard Contact when it came out, but obviously it wasn't very memorable... at the time.
Triple Zero. Wow, this book jumps feet first into the lives of a Clone Commando.
When you watched Star Wars Episode 2, did you ever think of the Clones that were fighting? Did you ever wonder how they felt being created, and then basically forced to fight for something they had no stake in?
Triple Zero examines these issues and more. The author, Karen Traviss has taken hold of the Mandalorian Culture and evolved it past what is known about Jango Fett or Boba Fett. She's created a language and customs and has really created a rich culture for Mandalorians.
Karen hits upon the moral and ethical issues that some Jedi face regarding them leading soldiers who are basically slaves. Clone soldiers do not have membership in the Republic, yet they are the ones fighting for it.
Other issues hit on regard what kind of medical care is provided to clones. What happens to the clones that are too injured to fight, ever again, but are still alive? What kind of care can the clones expect once the war is over?
Yes, they are clones, but each clone develops his own identity seperate of his "brothers". They are individuals of each other. Real people with real feelings.
Triple Zero introduces us to some new characters: Skirata and Walon Vau... (2) of the Mandalorian instructors who assisted Jango Fett in the training of the clones. Skirata and Walon were directly responsible for the Commando squads.
Skirata also took on the responsibility of training the Null Commandos. The Nulls were the first batch of commandos that the Kaminoans created and had tried to perfect on Jango's Genome.
However, at age 4, the Nulls were uncontrollable, and were on the verge of being "terminated" as a bad product, when Skirata took them and trained them. They listened to him and only him.
The original characters from Hard Contact were brought back. Omega Squad, and the Jedi Etain. Delta Squad was also introduced and the training differences between Omega, who Skirata trained, and Delta, who Walon trained are quite apparent.
Anyways, Triple Zero was a rich read. So rich in fact, that I bought Hard Contact, and re-read it. After reading Triple Zero, Hard Contact was a more enjoyable read as the characters were more developed in TZ.
After TZ came True Colors. While a very good book, TC did not contain much action and went even farther into the moral and ethics involving the use of the Clones for the war by the Republic.
TC wasn't as good as TZ but it did a very good job to set up the upcomming book: Order 66 which, if you watched Episode 3, you know is the order given by Palpatine for the Clones to kill the Jedi.
That book should be very good as it will examine the relationships established by the Jedi with the Clones and how some Clones will struggle to carry out that order. Mainly the Nulls and Omega Squad. It should be a very good book.