Star Wars: Triple Zero

Star Wars: Republic Commando #2

by Karen Traviss

Following the eruption of the bloody Clone Wars at the battle of Geonosis, both sides remain deadlocked in a stalemate that can be broken only by elite warrior teams like Omega Squad, clone commandos with terrifying combat skills and a lethal arsenal. . . .

For Omega Squad, deployed deep behind enemy lines, it's the same old special ops grind: sabotage, espionage, ambush, and assassination. But when Omega Squad is rushed to Coruscant, the war's most dangerous new hotspot, the commandos discover they're not the only ones penetrating the heart of the enemy.

A surge in Separatist attacks has been traced to a network of Sep terror cells in the Republic's capital, masterminded by a mole in Command Headquarters. To identify and destroy a Separatist spy and terror network in a city full of civilians will require special talents and skills. Not even the leadership of Jedi generals, along with the assistance of Delta squad and a certain notorious ARC trooper, can even the odds against the Republic Commandos. And while success may not bring victory in the Clone Wars, failure means certain defeat.

Also includes the bonus story Omega Squad: Targets by Karen Traviss!

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Military Fiction, Media Tie In

393 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 28, 2006

About the author

#1 New York Times best-selling novelist, scriptwriter and comics author Karen Traviss has received critical acclaim for her award-nominated Wess'har series, and her work on Halo, Gears of War, Batman, G.I. Joe, and other major franchises has earned her a broad range of fans. She's best known for military science fiction, but GOING GREY and BLACK RUN, the first books in her new techno-thriller series RINGER, are set in the real world of today. A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, she lives in Wiltshire, England. She's currently working on SACRIFICIAL RED, the third book in the Ringer series, and HERE WE STAND, book three in the NOMAD series.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally...a quality Star Wars novel that allows us fanboys (and fangirls) to hold our helmeted heads up high.

The Republic Commando series is what the Star Wars EU is supposed to be and it has me splooging and leaking happy like a sieve. Ever since Timothy Zhan single-handedly jumpstarted the Star Wars EU, most of the examples I've read have left me somewhere between Meh and downright hacked off. Only R.A. Salvatore’s Vector Prime had really warmed my cockles.

To that exclusive list of one, I now add the Republic Commando series which has set my cockles aflame (a potentially life threatening condition if one happens to be dasypygal and hasn't kept their rump properly waxed...but I digress).

After reading the first of the Republic Commando novels, Hard Contact, I was negligent in failing to mention how genuinely impressed I was with both the story's concept and Ms. Traviss' execution. Therefore, I'll try to make partial amends for my earlier oversight by tossing some her way now because she praising really is doing a WOW job with this series. This is good solid SF in its own right, not just good compared to other Star Wars stories. For better or worse, Ms. Traviss' stellar effort will keep me picking up Star Wars EU novels because she shows that, when done well, this can be among the greatest science fiction backyards in which to play.

Before I background the series and do the plot summary, I want to address two preconceptions I had going into this series in case others are thinking along similar lines. When I picked up Hard Contact, I did so thinking that, at best, I was in for a light diversion and a fast, fun read (3 stars if it really worked hard).

Why?

First, it’s Star Wars. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some Star Wars (and Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly...yes, go on and say it...NERD!!) and I’ve read a handful of the tie-in books that I've enjoyed. However, normally I read them with the expectation of a briskly paced, “non-neuron taxing” story that is the literary equivalent to a burger and a beer (or several). They taste great and fill you up but beyond that are soon fairly forgettable.

Second, and MUCH worse in my opinion, is that this is a tie-in novel for the video game, “Star Wars: Republic Commando.” I’ve never played the game and wasn’t aware that this was a tie in series when I purchased Hard Contact so it’s safe to say that you do not need to be familiar with the game to enjoy the book. However, on the “poor preconception scale,” a video game tie in book for a popular video game that is also part of a major brand like Star Wars often…usually…almost always contains a major “schlock” factor because authors are just “mailing it in” to cash a check.

Well, in this case, my preconceptions were...just...plain...wrong!!

I'm here to tell you that Karen Traviss showed up with her “A” game, took a terrific premise and then wrote as good a Star Wars novel as I’ve read. Still fun, still briskly paced, but with some surprising character depth and a really, really good story.

SERIES BACKGROUND:

The series takes place in between the events of Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith and revolves around the fight between the Grand Army of the Republic made up of clones and the droid-based army of the Separatists. The series main characters are the most ubiquitous in the Star Wars universe (i.e., the clone soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic) and yet, until now, have been mostly invisible as characters.

This series changes that.

The stories focus on Omega Squad, an elite group of clone “commandos” who are the black ops division of the Clone Army, handling assassinations, sabotage, espionage, etc…. These specialized clones have much greater fighting skills and intelligence as well as more individuality and a tremendous sense of loyalty towards their fellow soldiers. However, despite rating uber on the badassery scale, Traviss manages to “humanize” these soldiers allowing the reader to care about them. Part of this is accomplished through the immense loyalty they have for one another and the dangers they willing face to protect their comrades.

This emotional connection with the characters made a world of difference in my enjoyment of the story because the tension and drama became less vicarious and detached and more palpable and intimate.

PLOT SUMMARY:

This installment has Omega Squad on Coruscant having traced an upsurge in separatist attacks to the Republic’s capital. It appears the separatists may have a mole on the inside and are planning an attack that could devastate the capital and cripple the republic. Traviss deftly lays out the plot and keeps the narrative tension pretty high. In addition, the reader is also show, through a series of flashbacks, the brutal training of the commandos and how they way they were treated as little more than “fodder” by the Republic chain of command. This evoking of empathy for the characters’ “upbringing” added to my connection with the story.

THOUGHTS:

This is a terrific story/series for SF fans even if they do not normally read Star Wars EU novels. Karen Traviss is an excellent writer and if you haven’t checked out her own series beginning with City of Pearl, I would strongly recommend that you do. City of Pearl is light years ahead of most debut novels I’ve read and I thought it was amazing.

As for Triple Zero, it’s a wonderful story told by a skilled author with characters about whom you can really sink your heart into and care. The fact that this novel is also set within the Star Wars universe is a nice bonus, but it is certainly not the crutch that it has been for lesser writers.

4.0 stars. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not think that I would like Hard Contact. I was afraid it would be another crappy Clone Wars novel (along the lines of Jedi Trialand The Cestus Deception). This is why it took me forever to purchase it. But when I finally got around to reading it, I was extremely impressed. Couple extraordinary characterization with an uncharted plot about clone commandos during the Clone Wars, and you have one of the best--if not the best--Clone Wars novels written. So, when I saw there was a sequel, I didn't think twice about purchasing.

Plot:
A Separatist cell is discovered on Coruscant. Delta Squad along with rival squad, Omega Squad, are sent to flush out the enemies and dispel the threat. Further, Etain is reunited with Delta Squad and Kal Skirata joins the young clones he trained to aid them in their mission.

Good:
Karen Traviss is a good author. She writes in a clear manner and appears to actually know what she is writing about (she doesn't skip over the tough stuff and focus on the easy stuff).

It's great to see our favorite clone squad, Delta Squad, along with another squad instead of the typical Anakin, Obi-Wan, and gang. Futher, it was cool to see the men who helped train the clones and to learn more about the enigmatic Mando culture. I liked learning about the culture and enjoyed the characters using the language (but more on this later). Etain, Skirata, Ordo, and Fi--whom I greatly enjoyed reading about--have good solid characters. And the plot--a terrorist cell--was something we can easily associate with, especially after the events of 9/11.

Bad:
The first chapter was good, but it quickly got drenched and bogged down in sluggish movement and introducing too many characters. Six characters are either exceedingly minor (such as Laseema, the unimportant Enacca, and Qibbu) and make you wonder how they attained a slot in the Dramatis Personae. Perhaps, it was to bear more resemblance to the established Star Wars Universe.

The plot is not convoluted--disarming a terrorist cell--yet Traviss does not seem to know how she wants to proceed. The whole plot occurs over many pages that are mostly devoted to dialogue such as "I feel guilty about making/using these boys as slaves" from Skirata and Etain. The actual terrorist cell dismantling occurs over a very short period of time, which is cut up and placed in small doses between the large amounts of talking about what people are going to do.

Which brings me to my next problem: Etain. She was mildly annoying in HC but now she is unbearable. Leaving Darman in HC, I felt they were more of friends. Now, after no contact (other than Etain's perpetual "reaching out to Darman in the Force" which she either does or talks about doing each time anything is written in her view), Darman and Etain fling themselves at each other the moment they reunite. What could have been a sweet, slow romance is ruined with the "I couldn't stop thinking of you" "Me neither--let's hop in bed" routine. And how she ends up pregnant--please. This happened in TCD and didn't work. Now, it crops up here (borderline plagiarism). Does every stinking Clone Wars novel have to contain a battle romance (although no where near as corny as Odie and Erk's romance in Jedi Trial) and an illegitimate child?

Another problem I had with this book was paradoxically also one of the few things that I loved about this book--the Mando Language and culture. While I loved learning about the language and culture, I found the in-text definition and the glossary repetitive. I almost felt Traviss was treating me like a complete, incompetent idiot who is incapable of turning a couple of pages to the glossary. Further, the in-text definition slowed down the read and felt unnatural.

Characters I longed to know more about--Atin, Vau, Jusik, even Niner from HC--were mostly neglected. Even Darman's feelings about his forbidden romance with Etain are ignored (those would have been very interesting). The entire Delta squad we know and love from HC was overlooked in an attempt to cover all 16 characters presented in the book.

Overall:
All in all, this book does not live up to its predecessor, HC, but is no where near as bad as TCD or JT. The plot is not bad. The pacing is too slow, many of the characters are mere cardboard faces, and the Mando language is forcibly hammered into the reader's head. The book could easily have been condensed from its 400+ page format into something more enjoyable.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this was a disappointment! All of the things I liked about Hard Contact are still here to a degree, but so dialed down or swamped by other weird stuff that I didn't end up enjoying this really at all.

In my HC review, I said I appreciated that the villain was presented as a down-to-earth, competent character with a comprehensible ethos at least, but that he played such a small role in the story he might as well not be there at all. Apparently Traviss agreed, because this story just doesn't have antagonists at all. There's the tiniest handwaving about how the enemy are a Separatist-backed terror cell targetting clones on Coruscant, and that's it. We never meet these terrorists, distinguish them as individuals, or even let them have any real agency or reaction to the actions the protagonists take. They might as well be simulation targets. The backstory about their motivation, affiliation, and targets serves the same purpose that making the macguffin in HC a virus that kills clones served in that book: it removes any possible tension between the group's motivations (save and care for clones) and the orders they get from the Republic. The command of the whole operation, including clone commandos, Null ARCs, and two Jedi, falls to a civilian, who apparently has carte blanche to use force in densely populated areas and seems to have no meaningful oversight from anyone in the military or government. But that isn't a problem, because the civilian is Kal Skirata (we'll come back to him).

Another great thing about HC was that it's a very nose-to-the-ground, procedural book. Most of the book consists of the characters moving through micro-scale terrain. It doesn't describe it in the most lush or tangible detail, maybe, but you have a sense that the surroundings are there and present challenges and opportunities for soldiers to take advantage of. In Triple Zero, all of that is gone. There are a few moments when the geography of an action scene becomes really important, and it's super disorienting because that hasn't seemed to matter up til that point. The environments are almost completely ignored. Coruscant is, we are told several times, a vast and intimidating environment for the clones in several ways. They have to avoid civilian casualties and keep a low profile, but they also have to remain incognito in social situations. They have to act like normal people. That's a great premise, except. . . they don't, really. There simply aren't actually civilians in this book. Coruscant exists as a series of safehouses, dead drops, and reconnoitered battlezones. The only people who show up are either informants, who are tortured and murdered, or naive soldiers and officers, who become allies as soon as they're brought up to speed on the squad's mission.

So with no villains, no superiors, no civilians, and no environment, this story feels very insular. It has no stakes or plot to speak of. The whole book is just the soldiers hanging out between and during(!) missions. Every piece of drama it has to offer comes within the squad. The morals and norms of personal conduct that drive its conflicts are confined to the squad (or at best, the clones collectively as a kind of extended squad). This is where Traviss' personal politics start to distort these books. The fact is, terrorism on Coruscant doesn't fit into the nature of the Clone Wars at *all*. And Traviss makes no effort to justify it. The clones are just here and have this military authority for no apparent reason, and there is terrorism simply because Traviss wanted to write about soldiers fighting terrorists in an urban setting. And she wanted to write about that in order to make the point that soldiers should be allowed to do whatever they feel they need to do to "get the job done."

I just watched this Jacob Geller video the other day that argues the main political message of the new Call of Duty game is: war poses difficult moral questions, and the answer to those questions is that you just need the violence to be done by the right person--someone with the guts to hurt people when necessary but the inherent moral goodness to *only* hurt them when necessary. Triple Zero doesn't even go that far. The rest of the world exists so distantly that no consequences in a larger sense come into view at all. It doesn't posture about the complex moral scenarios that soldiers find themselves in, doesn't present civilian oversight as naive and dangerous, doesn't do anything except uphold Kal Skirata as a paragon of soldierly virtue.

People complain about heroes who are too powerful being "Gary Stus" but Skirata is an even worse kind of self-insert. He's just always right, about everything, and the only conflicts in the story come when people question him or act in ways he wouldn't approve of. And, unsurprisingly, for the most part they do neither. These are clones, bred for obedience and raised from decanting by Kal. They want desperately to please him, and they know exactly how to do it. The Jedi, apparently two masterless strays he adopted, see him in the same glowing light. All they want in this book is to please him. It is frankly pathetic at times, and while (as I said in HC), that's an interesting place to put a Jedi character psychologically, it feels real weird when Kal is also basically flawless and the only standard by which anything in the book is judged.

I got pretty excited when Etain and Darman's romance actually moved forward here. But like, excited mostly in the "oh yeah now there's a good idea for a book," way, knowing that was not this book. If this book was a fish-out-of-water story about clones trying to fit into civilian life, with an Etain-Darman romance as its main plot, it could have been something really unique and fun. For all its faults, Triple Zero still presents the clones in a far more down-to-earth and meaningful way than any other Clone Wars content. If it had focused on these two aspects, TZ could have found a ton of powerful stuff in the clones' situation--humor, romance, and poignant tragedy. Instead, Etain's romance and pregnancy are framed as something she does to Darman, without his consent or participation! Seriously, it almost exclusively comes up in scenes where he isn't present.

And then it ends in this insultingly post-hoc confrontation, in which we learn that this subplot had stakes and implications that were never clear as it played out. And sure, maybe some of those implications are interesting, and forcing Etain to grapple with questions she didn't consider in her impulsive action is good. What dulls the impact is that Skirata mostly makes this about Etain acting independently from him. If she'd just spoken to him before she acted, he would have told her the right thing to do. Now, she has to submit to a more draconian solution (to literally agree to turn over her baby to him to raise as his own!) to get back in his good graces. Like, Christ, what is going on here? Is this some kind of cult?

The other main conflict is between Kal and his dark counterpart Vau. The distance between these two men is so miniscule that it's often hard to tell if there's actually some principled reason they dislike each other, or if their conflict is just big-dog territoriality. As it turns out, Kal is mad because when Vau trained his boys, he was (ambiguously) more violent to them than Kal was to his own boys, in a way that makes Kal think Vau doesn't love them. But of course according to Vau, he only did it because he "cared about them." The implication is that Kal's love is genuine while Vau's is abusive, even though they both technically abused the kids and participated in a larger genocidal system. But from my perspective, the only real difference is where they drew the line on what kind of violence is acceptable in training child soldiers so it's hard to really root for him. Instead, it seems like we should be rooting for the victim (Atin), who tries to get his revenge on Vau in arguably the most climactic moment of the story. Even that scene is defused almost instantly and the conflict is not meaningfully resolved.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did by the end of it. Traviss is one of the better Star Wars authors and I really like her work in general. Unfortunately, her Mary Sue lead Kal Skirata just killed the book for me. The more I read, the more I grew weary of everyone's worship of the man and his ridiculous self-righteousness. I wish the author had provided more nuance to the ethical question of the Republic's usage of clones in the war. Instead, the message that is continually crammed down the readers' throat is "All that is Mandalorian is great and wonderful; all that is of the Republic is inferior and wrong."

By the time I got to Skirata's final dressing down of Etain for, gods-forbid, daring to get pregnant, I was sick of the book and dead sick of Skirata. He berates her for robbing Darman of choice, as though she is solely to blame for her pregnancy and then demands that the child be raised by him...WTF??? We are supposed to believe that the Republic's control of the clones' lives is bad, but that Skirata's control of his squads is good and nurturing, but I don't see much difference between the two. He controls when Darman is informed about his impending fatherhood and exerts complete control over the unborn child's future within days of its conception. Combine that with Skirata's immediate suspicion and apparent disdain for basically all the women in the book (which he lovingly passed on to Ordo as well...and wait, wasn't Mando culture supposed to be egalitarian across gender lines?) and I just can't give this book any more than two stars. What a shame.

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

For 2024, I decided to pick up where I left off after 2022 and reread books published between 2004 and 2011—a hodgepodge of Clone Wars, inter-trilogy, and Original Trilogy stories, plus a smattering of Old Republic Sith. This shakes out to twenty-one novels and four short stories, mainly consisting of the Republic Commando series, the Darth Bane trilogy, the Coruscant Nights trilogy, five Clone Wars books written by the Karens, and four standalone novels.

This week’s focus: the second book in the Republic Commando series, Triple Zero by Karen Traviss.

SOME HISTORY:

Karen Traviss finished her manuscript of Triple Zero in a mere five weeks. Using bits of the Mandalorian language that featured in the Republic Commando video game, she developed more of the language; she also developed extensive backstories for characters. Instead of taking place on a remote planet, the majority of Triple Zero is set on Coruscant—Omega Squad and others are not directly fighting Separatists, but instead trying to uncover a Separatist bombing plot. Traviss said that her first readers found the story very emotional, so you could say that Karen Traviss was very invested here!

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

As with Hard Contact, I'm pretty sure that I read Triple Zero but I didn't remember any of its details. I knew that this was the Coruscant one about bombings, but otherwise retained no memories of it.

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

A surge in Separatist bombings has been linked to a Separatist terror cell embedded within the Republic's capital, and it's obvious that they're receiving information from a mole within the Republic Army—so Omega Squad, Delta Squad, and others are dispatched to Coruscant to identify and destroy the Separatist terrorists. But this mission is unlike any they've carried out before; it will require new talents and skills, and victory is not assured…

THE PLOT:

If Hard Contact was fast-paced and tightly-focused on the four commandos of Omega Squad and a Jedi Padawan, Triple Zero is considerably more complex. As the novel opens, General Jedi Etain Tur-Mukan and her forces are trying to rescue battalions trapped on the world of Dinlo, while Omega Squad is investigating Coruscant terrorist bombings by tracking the ships linked to the explosives. Etain’s forces are successful but suffer many casualties, and Omega Squad is trapped when their getaway vehicle is destroyed. Multiple groups rush to their aid, including Etain’s forces and Delta Squad, the protagonists of the Republic Commando video game.

That’s the first 100 pages or so. We then move into the main focus of the novel, which is the investigation into these Separatist bombings on Coruscant. Sergeant Kal Skirata is assigned to investigate this terrorist cell, and he taps Sergeant Walon Vau (sadistic Mandalorian who trained Delta Squad and Atin), Omega Squad, Delta Squad, Etain, Jedi Bardan Jusik, and a Null ARC trooper named Ordo to assist with the investigation. Their investigation is fairly long and convoluted, but culminates in them posing as mercenaries selling bombs to the separatist cell so that they destroy all the terrorists. (A fair bit of interpersonal drama unfolds as well.)

VIEWPOINTS:

Hard Contact’s main viewpoint characters were Niner, Darman, Etain, and the villain Ghez Hokan; Triple Zero gets into the heads of Etain, Kal Skirata, Fi, and the Null trooper Ordo. This felt a little less balanced than the previous book, because Fi and Ordo are heavily influenced by Skirata (the font of knowledge), and even Etain seeks his approval.

CHARACTERS:

After griping about their armor in the previous book and short story, Omega Squad finally got new armor that isn’t blinding white or silver. Unfortunately, it’s black, which really only helps for night missions. Fi continues to crack a lot of jokes, but since we get his viewpoint in this book we see how much he yearns for a normal life and a family. Atin comes face to face with his former Sergeant Wau, and we finally get the story behind his scar. He tries to cope with his feelings by fighting Wau (again), but at least he has a Twi’lek girlfriend now! Darman and Etain reunite, and immediately jump into a romantic relationship (I have thoughts about that). Niner is not in charge of this investigation, but he’s still a good sergeant to the squad.

Delta Squad seem like…jerks. I have not played the Republic Commando game so I’m not familiar with these guys, but they don’t feel as likable as Omega Squad. In particular, Sev seems like a baby sociopath—I know he’s the sniper, but his behavior was questionable at times. Fans of the game were probably very excited by their appearance here, but I was not.

Speaking of jerks: Ordo the Null ARC trooper has a very strong personality, and it took me a while to warm up to him. Initially, he felt very rude and dismissive of anyone who wasn’t another Null or Skirata. He likes Fi as well thanks to the events in Omega Squad: Targets, but he doesn’t seem to like anyone else. He had some awkward interactions with Bessany from the Republic Treasury department, but otherwise I got from Ordo this sense of superiority and almost condescension towards others, particularly civilians. I don’t know if this is a general Null trait or an Ordo-specific trait, but it was off putting to read.

I had similar feelings about Kal Skirata. I liked how we were introduced to him in “Omega Squad: Targets” as he seemed like an interesting but good guy. But in Triple Zero we got a lot of scenes from Skirata’s viewpoint, and the more we saw of him the more I didn’t like him. A lot of his character traits are admirable—training the commandos, forming a connection with them—but it seemed like Kal Skirata had this cult of personality surrounding him that sucked people into his orbit, and it gave me weird vibes. How does he have so much power in the Republic Army? He’s just a training sergeant! I can understand why the Nulls and the men he trained listen to him, but he seemed to have more power than he should at that rank. I appreciated what he’s done to foster this sense of community and family among the troopers, but it seems to be developing into this cult that could become unhealthy and restrictive.

Of the two Jedi characters, Bardan Jusik hero worships the Mandalorians and Skirata, which felt like a worrisome attitude to adopt. At times it felt like there was this good Jedi/bad Jedi dichotomy where Jusik was the good Jedi because he respects Skirata and wants to be a Mando, and Etain was the bad Jedi because she’s indecisive and constantly seeking approval of others and struggling with her place in the Jedi Order yet still aligning herself with them. I’m not crazy about Etain’s character, because she falls into that “weak Jedi woman” typeset too much, and I think that arc works better for characters like Scout from Yoda - Dark Rendezvous and Lorana Jinzler from Outbound Flight because they have qualities that Etain lacks. Scout knows her limitations and tries so hard regardless; Lorana is weak and doubts herself but has this underlying sweetness and kindness to her character. Etain comes across as bratty at times, and her utter determination to have Darman’s secret baby is such a terrible idea.

On the bad guy front, we never get into the head of these Separatist terrorists like we did with Ghez Hokan in Hard Contact, so they felt like a more nebulous enemy. They’re blowing things up, which is bad, but we never find out their exact reason for doing so. The leader is probably from Jabiim, the site of a series of Clone Wars battles; one terrorist also has family from Jabiim, another is doing it for money, and a fourth is doing it for no discernible reason. They never explain their motives, and they’re all killed at the end, so they never developed into fully-fledged characters.

ISSUES:

Hard Contact had really toned down the Britishisms that Traviss tends to use, but they’re back in Triple Zero in full force. Kit instead of gear, “recce” instead of reconnoiter, Kal Skirata calling everyone “lad”... (Side note: do all Mandalorians have Kiwi accents, or is that just a Jango Fett/Temuera Morrison thing?)

Second, Triple Zero felt bloated in comparison to Hard Contact’s standalone-esque svelteness. The Coruscant terror cell investigation doesn��t really kick off until 150 pages into the book, and even then it feels slow-moving. There was not the same sense of urgency as there was in the previous book, and the climax happened super quickly—they killed everyone, when I thought that they’d want at least one survivor to question. I don’t mind when series mix up the type of missions from book to book (the X-Wing series did this very well!), but this terrorist investigation wasn’t always fun to follow. A portion of that bloat also came from the increase in characters; for instance, including Delta Squad is a cool nod to fans of the video game, but did they need to be here? We can already see the difference between how Vau and Skirata trained commandos in Atin’s story, so I don’t think we needed to throw another four guys into the mix.

And oh boy, Etain and Darman’s romantic relationship comes out of left field in this book! I have somewhat squeamish feelings about a relationship between a Jedi and a clone (power dynamics and all), but my bigger problem was that there was no buildup here. Darman and Etain parted at the end of Hard Contact, where their dynamic was friendly with a tiny romantic undercurrent. They meet again after a year apart in Triple Zero, and after one (!!) conversation they’re sleeping together, culminating in Etain finding out she’s pregnant at the end of the book…and she doesn’t tell Darman but she does tell Kal Skirata?? I would have preferred that this whole romantic thing develop slowly over the course of the book instead of the way it played out here. I would have kept ratcheting up the tension between Etain and Darman until they chose to get together romantically at the very end, because as it stands we don’t see any of that tension between them—and the baby revelation felt like too much IMO.

My biggest issue with Triple Zero, though, was how much Traviss’s biases peeked through in the story. I know that Karen Traviss loves Mandalorians and hates Jedi, and I would have known that without even reading her interviews! It feels like Bardan Jusik is presented as the good Jedi because he wants to be a Mandalorian, and thus Etain is the bad Jedi because she wants to keep Darman from his own child. There are multiple references to how the Jedi were wrongfully taken from their families, but I don’t agree with that. They’re not forcibly taken because the parents have to choose to give their children to the Jedi Order, and I think a lot of people confuse Anakin’s situation (a nine-year-old child whose mother is left in slavery) as the Jedi’s usual modus operandi. The Jedi don’t have any understanding of family because they’re not raised that way, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing—the prequel-era Jedi have a ton of issues, but they do not steal children!

Triple Zero also seems to be the origin of super Mando clone troopers (this might be carryover from the video game, but I suspect not). I can see why some readers really like this aspect of the books, but I had some questions. I’m not sure I buy that Jango Fett would recruit all these Mando mercenaries to train the clone troopers, because I never got the sense from Attack of the Clones that Jango felt any responsibility for them. He’s the progenitor of the clone army because it was a very well-paying job, and he got a son out of the deal—he feels no other connection to the clones. And then this widespread clone sense of their Mando heritage: I can see the 100 commandos that Skirata trained and the Nulls being very Mando-heavy, using Mando’a words and embracing their Mandalorian heritage, but this seems to have spread significantly through the clone ranks. I’m not sure about that.

I think that also adds to that feeling of “Mando good, Jedi bad.” Look, Traviss loves the clone troopers and thinks that they are mistreated and the Republic is bad to even deploy them. I agree, because they’re not droids, they’re men! But I also felt that she took it too far at times and became outright preachy: the troopers are the best and most civilians and Jedi are scum and Kal Skirata is the best father-figure in the world. The Mando worldbuilding can be cool, but I also felt like yelling “stop pushing my buttons Karen! The Mandalorians are not always right!!”

IN CONCLUSION:

Triple Zero continues the story of Omega Squad and Etain that began in Hard Contact, but adds a whole lot more characters too. It's a completely different kind of mission here—investigating terror cells—and we learn a lot more about the clone troopers, their upbringing, and their Mandalorian heritage. Those developments bring the series into “your mileage may vary” territory, but they also set things up for future stories, what with Etain’s secret baby and the Nulls’ quest to track down a Kaminoan scientist and fix the clone’s aging problem.


Next up: the first book in the Dark Bane trilogy, Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn.

YouTube review: https://youtu.be/9E-JZNZJ05s

Karen’s Traviss’s Amazon blog: “Next Up” (December 2005): https://web.archive.org/web/200902280...

[Steve Holm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first, but still very good. Mission parameters are very different from last time. I found it interesting learning more about Skirata and how the different Mandalorion “fathers” trained their clone squads. Great development for a few known characters and some new ones. Actually some stuff in here I never thought I would see in Star Wars, very bold choices by Traviss, interesting to see where it leads from here.

Book 2 of 5 done and this is already one of my favorite series within the Star Wars universe.
I give it a 4.5 due to finding it a tiny bit less interesting than the first.

[Samantha (AK) · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I wasn't invested in this series for other reasons, this book would have me dropping it entirely. Set about a year after Geonosis, Triple Zero sees the Commandos operating as a secret counter-terror unit on Coruscant, in the heart of the Republic.

The cast expands considerably in this book. Not only do we have Etain, Jusik, and Omega Squad, but now Delta Squad, Kal Skirata, Walon Vau, and the Null ARCs are prominently featured. To say nothing of the miscellaneous contacts all of these characters are dealing with. The action-plot is a race against time to locate and 'neutralize' Separatist bombers in the planet-wide city of Coruscant, an assignment complicated by its unofficial nature. This part of the book was fine, and I think the character interactions were at their best here. Even with the sudden cast expansion, the clones don't blur together, and it's decent reading, if a bit tepid.

Unfortunately, the bomb plot isn't really what this is about. Again, Traviss is more interested in peeling open the ethics of the Clone Wars, especially with regard to her favorite target: the Jedi Order. (While completely ignoring things like... oh... I don't know... the Galactic Senate?) Unfortunately, the ethical bits and bobs are significantly weaker in this installment. Ahoy, strawmen! On a related note, Kal Skirata, who we only knew secondhand in the last book, finally gets to speak for himself. And wow do I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, Kal understands his complicity in the creation of the Grand Army. The man is marinating in guilt and has soothed his conscience by adopting all the men under his command. (This isn't figurative. Kal's Mandalorian.) On the other hand, he's also displacing a lot of that hate on the Jedi generally, and also on Etain. Jusik, our other Jedi, has somehow managed to get himself exempt from Kal's rage and under the protective umbrella of Kal's paternalism. (Possibly because he never contradicts the man.)

The problem hits with Etain. When we first met her in the last book, Etain was a disillusioned Jedi on the cusp of knighthood, whose experiences with Omega Squad on Qiilura challenged everything she thought she'd been taught. Now she's a Knight, a Jedi General, but she's still floundering with her place and with the role of her Order in a galaxy at war. Like Kal, she hates the ethical quandry of the clone army. Like Kal, she's come to the conclusion that walking away would soothe her more than it would make any real impact. And so, like Kal and Jusik, she stays. However, her interactions with Kal run constantly hot and cold, as he's quick to claim she's just like everyone else taking advantage of "his boys."

That's not to say Etain doesn't screw up. A lot. Her obsession with belonging leads to some really bizarre choices, and a general sense of spinelessness that drives me up the wall. It's not constant. There's a scene near the end of the book where she's working with Walon Vau that I rather enjoyed, but overall she's a weak character, and narratively, she's flat-out not allowed to stand on her own two feet. More on that below, largely spoilered.

Etain and Darman's entanglement from the first book progresses to the physical here, with predictable results of the trope-ish kind. Because doing-the-do = 100% chance of pregnancy, right? More than that, it's this pregnancy that gives Etain the resolve to become her own person, because now she's living and fighting for Darman and her child.

*sigh* The thing is: I appreciate motherhood. I think it's a beautiful thing. THIS? This is not. This is tropey nonsense, and if I hadn't had a bad feeling with the unexpected pregnancy subplot, it got worse when she told Kal about the baby at the end of the book and he promptly dictated that she was going to go into hiding, declared who would name the child (him or Darman), who would raise the child (him), and rather bluntly, that her only other choice was to try to outrun him.

Capped off with the fact that if she weren't a Jedi, he wouldn't be so mad. But because she is, and because she got pregnant without talking to Darman first, it was all just more evidence of what a terrible person she was. (And I do actually get what's going on in Kal's head, to an extent. There's stuff going on with the Manda and aliit and Kal's own paternal ~issues~ but the existence of this entire plotline is a choice by the writer that smacks half a dozen icky tropes at least and I don't appreciate it.)

I hate this entire subplot for many, many reasons. I hate it more because Kal and the rest pay lip service to the idea that a female warrior is just as capable as a male, while simultaneously treating women generally as some odd separate species. There are actually (3) romantic side plots going on in this book, if you can believe it. *eyeroll*

TL;DR:
An okay book marred by strawman arguments and romantic plot tumor. Will read the rest of the series, but I'm in serious need of a break from Traviss' writing.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #118

Background: Hard Contact was written by Karen Traviss and published in February 2006. Traviss has written several other Star Wars novels, mostly set during the Clone Wars (but she also wrote 3 of the Legacy of the Force books). Outside of Star Wars, she has written several Halo and Gears of War books, and half a dozen of her own science fiction novels.

Triple Zero takes place 1 year after the Battle of Geonosis, 21 years before the battle of Yavin. (And also 9 months after the previous book in the series, Hard Contact, my review). The main characters are still the clone commandos of Omega Squadron and the now-Jedi Knight Etain Tur-Mukan, along with the Delta Squadron commandos from the Republic Commando video game, and the Mandalorian mercenary and commando trainer, Sergeant Kal Skirata. The story takes place mostly on Coruscant.

Summary: Separatist terror cells are at work on Coruscant, targeting clone troopers with deadly efficiency, and the Republic seems helpless to stop them. Driven only by concern for the safety of clone troops, Kal Skirata goads the Jedi command into giving him a free hand to take a small team off the grid to investigate, target, and destroy the terrorists with extreme prejudice. In the process, the ties that bind his small clan of Mandalorian-raised clone "sons" to each other and to him are tested and strengthened.

Review: "Her first impression was that he would be a man whose bluff exterior was simply embarrassed machismo. But Skirata wasn't embarrassed about his emotions at all. He had the guts to wear his heart on his sleeve. It was probably what made him even more effective at killing: he could love as hard as he could punch."

Not all of the writing in this book is as terrible as that excerpt might indicate, but overall Triple Zero is almost as bad as Hard Contact was good, mostly by taking everything that was great about it and running in the opposite direction. When I talked about Hard Contact, I listed off 4 things about it that were great: 1) the immersive, world-building detail, 2) the way the story never opts to make things easy for the characters, giving as much attention to the antagonists as to the protagonists, 3) the real tension of having expendable but sympathetic characters in deadly danger, 4) the attention given to the moralities of war, particularly a war fought by (essentially) an army of slave soldiers created to die.

All of that was essentially missing from this book. Traviss presumably assumed that any reader would be familiar enough with Coruscant that she could get away with not describing anything about it aside from occasional references to lots of sky traffic. I never got a good sense of the geography or any people aside from the major characters. The "villains" in this (if you can even call them that) are almost totally ignored. We never learn anything about them or their motivations or their plans. Traviss drags the effort to find them way out with chapter after chapter of dull filler and ad nauseum repitition of ideas and even dialogue, but there is never any particular difficulty to the job from start to finish. The story opens in the aftermath of a bombing, but there doesn't seem to be any particular urgency to get the terrorists before the next bomb goes off (and there never is one or, it seems, even the threat of one). The whole thing ends in a total anti-climax followed by a long wind-down as Traviss ties up or extends the real concern of the story . . .

Because the main storyline of this novel couldn't be more perfunctory, and it's an obvious excuse for Traviss to play around with characters and relationships that she is apparently far more attached to than she ever gives us any reason to be. Most of the major characters from the last book are sidelined here in favor of shiny, new characters (more on this in a moment). Darman gets a significant subplot, but he feels like a minor character within it. Of the original troopers, only Fi gets any real play, and he spends most of the book moping.

Worst of all, the conversations about the morality of the Clone Wars that I so admired in the first book have twisted on their head into an amoral "male brotherhood of the military" fetishism in which any action (torture, assassination, reckless endangerment of non-military individuals) is permissible in the name of looking out for yourself and your immediate circle of "brothers" . . . and one token female. Because yes, surprisingly, there is a surprising and unpleasant dose of patriarchal chauvinism rearing its ugly head here.

Most of the book's flaws can be traced to a single source: Kal Skirata. Everything revolves around him and the little Mandalorian clan that he is building for himself out of the other major characters. For some reason, practically everyone in the book is totally enthralled by Skirata at first sight and immediately feels an overwhelming sense of total, unquestioning loyalty to him and a desperate desire for his approval. He is effectively a nobody in any power structure of the Republic, but he and his cronies can barge into the offices of generals and political power players and manipulate or strong-arm them into whatever serves Clan Skirata's interests at the moment.

Skirata himself is not a badly written or uninteresting character, per se. He has a decent backstory and he is multi-dimensional and basically consistent. But he isn't anything like the paragon that everyone treats him as, nor is he that great of a person. Which is a problem when you make him the moral center of the universe and the bellwether of all the other characters. As a result, Traviss spends the whole novel cramming Skirata adulation down the reader's throat, and this reader was convinced pretty early on that no such admiration was warranted. It's one (and the most egregious one) of many examples throughout the book where Traviss opts to tell rather than to show, and I know she's a better writer than this. How and why did she get so infatuated with the Skirata character and let him overwhelm everything else this way?

To delve into any further detail at this point would involve spoilers, so I'll leave it at that . . . Well, perhaps I can dance around one particular thing that happens late in the story without giving anything away. Another character approaches Skirata with a major piece of news, hoping for his happy approval. He (for reasons that seem inscrutable and totally arbitrary) is enraged and almost abusive in his response, and the other character immediately begins to question themselves and fawn all over Skirata for what they can do to regain his approval. Keep in mind that this bit of news is absolutely none of Skirata's concern whatsoever, but he proceeds to demand that he be given full control over the situation immediately, and the other character concedes. The whole scene is grotesque and infuriating, and it encapsulated everything I hated about his character and the role he plays in the story and the other characters' lives.

Still, as much trouble as I had getting through this, I didn't hate everything about it. Most of the ideas are pretty solid, even when the execution is poor. The main plot was a good concept, and I love this idea of Mandalorian culture spreading through the ranks of the Republic's clone army because of Jango's legacy and the people he hired. The opening chapters were also really good, where we're introduced to new characters and catch up with old characters. This first section was also the only part with any excitement and tension. Finally, I love that Traviss took the time to really try to make a Mandalorian language with rules that make sense, and then to sprinkle it naturally through conversations that sound like bilingual people sound when they're talking to each other. But she does it in a way that's still easy for the reader to follow from context, and if you don't pick up a few words of it by the end, you're a di'kut. So there's that.

At this point, I have a pretty bad feeling about the rest of this series, but I had a really good feeling at the end of the last book, so who knows at this point. I'll hope for the best.

D+

[Dinosaur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of this after having recently read Hard Contact. The world-building is fine and it's nice to see the various clone characters and personalities fleshed out. I didn't mind the migration of the battle environment into urban espionage and terrorism in highly populated areas of Coruscant. Ordo and the Null ARCs are introduced, as well as Mandalorian mercenary Kal Skirata, who (referenced only in Hard Contact) makes his appearance as a father figure and trainer(s) to some of the commandos. He instills in his soldiers, especially those in Omega squad, Mandalorian culture and language to offset in a small way their 'Single Purpose' existence. He considers them sons and genuinely loves them; that's all well and good.

By the end of the novel, however, it had become a little redundant and overzealous. Yes, Proud Warrior Traditions rawr! I understand. But Skirata also maintains tight control of all aspects of his commando squads, particularly because he detests the Republic and the Jedi Order and views their use of the clone soldiers as vile and criminal. This is indeed problematic, but the Null ARCs hero-worship of him for instance, still struck me as off-putting. (Somehow, the Jedi Knight Bardan Jusik seamlessly integrates himself into the operation as Mandalorian and clone commando fanboy, and personally escapes Skirata's abject disdain for the Order)
His obsessive control even extends to....end of the book stuff:
how Skirata dealt with learning about Etain's pregnancy. Firstly, I think Etain should have told Darman immediately. I don't believe Skirata would have known best, period, and could have somehow divined some magic moment to tell Darman the truth. Also, when the two had apparently decided to hop into bed, I would've expected Etain to at least have some notion of birth control. But she is pretty much a kid, with no support system, and I don't suppose the Jedi would have covered much of appropriate sexual decisions in training. After all, she'd felt in the Force that she would have a child, but not when.

That said, Skirata utterly lashes out at Etain solely, and alludes to some plot on Etain's part to possibly entrap Darman. (After asking "whose is it?" ...Really?) For his help, (her refusal would mean he would hunt her down and take the child anyway) he demands sole custody of the child, because he alone is suited to raising the boy. She isn't allowed to name him because it was mentioned that the child was male, and god forbid he is anything other than primarily Mandalorian. Etain's role as mother is dictated by Skirata's whim, and she will follow his instructions to the letter OR ELSE.
Additionally, she is informed by Skirata that if Atin had instead gotten Laseema pregnant, the situation is entirely different. Because Jedi, I guess.
I really didn't understand why Skirata kept infantilizing the soldiers, deciding for Darman what he could handle being told, what should be normal for him and his child, while lamenting the fact that they deserve so much more than being forced to fight. Meh.

[Lukas Deicke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kom'rk tsad droten troch nyn ures adenn.
Dha Werda Verda a'den tratu,
Coruscanta kandosii adu.
Duum motir ca'tra nau tracinya.
Gra'tua cuun hett su dralshy'a.

The gauntlet of Coruscant strikes without mercy.
We are the rage of The Warriors of the Shadow,
The first noble sons of Coruscant.
Let all those who stand before us light the night sky in flame.
Our vengeance burns brighter still.

Ancient war chant of the clone forces of the Galactic Republic.

The second book of the Republic Commando series felt definitely more like a deep dive into Mandalorian Culture and the inherent tragedy of the cloned forces of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. A very dark and sometimes dry narrative with a satisfying ending, however.I am satisfied.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 21BBY

This one gives a deep look into the lives of clone troopers, showing their humanity and tight-knit bonds during a covert mission. The characters are well-developed, especially the relationships between the commandos and their Jedi allies. Traviss also touches on the ethical struggles the clones face, adding depth to the story. With a good mix of action and personal moments it was a nice read, and a nice listen halfway through till the end. What was just ok it was that the plot was simple enough and linear, with every excitement being mediocre for me with nothing really happening up until the end which was just ok, and with the unexpected *spoilers* thing happening, which was a whatever moment disguised as being something huge plot-wise.

A well-written sci-fi adventure story during the Clone Wars to pass the time.

[Iset · Rating 1 out of 5]

What happened? Triple Zero is such a mess! I had such trouble getting into this. In fact, I never did get into it.

Maybe it was because the basic premise of the plot never gelled. Hard Contact promised a commando story and did what it said on the tin; a small force, dropped behind enemy lines in difficult and not entirely foreseen circumstances, adapting to circumstances and taking out an objective. To suddenly have our commandos working to bring down a spy ring on Coruscant seemed… entirely beyond their purview and not what I really signed up for when I picked up a book about commandos. It’s played very tropey as well – the two rival teams grudgingly forced to work together, the individual members of Omega Squad being reduced down to stock stereotypes such as the comedian and the traumatised one, when before they seemed a lot more subtle and complex.

And there are other problems as well, pointed out by other readers. Skirata is a cool character but the level of blind adoration he receives – even from characters who have never met him before and yet trip over themselves to worship at his pedestal – seems entirely unjustified. Etain and Darman’s romance goes from 0 to 60 in a lightsecond. Whoa! A bit more development and build up, please! I couldn’t root for them because I didn’t believe in their lightning fast skip from distant friends to intense baby drama.

Traviss is really grinding the anti-Jedi axe this time, but there’s no real attempt to debate the issues. That is, only one or two of her Jedi ‘know the truth’ that using a clone army is wrong and will back each other up when defying the Order without a second thought. There is no real attempt to debate these issues among the Jedi, no impulse on the part of Traviss’ Jedi to go back to the Order that has been their life and home and try to spread word of the need for this ethical debate because things have to change and the rest of the Order needs to realise it too. They just walk away, confident in the knowledge that only they are the smartest Jedi on the block. It doesn’t ring true. And I say that someone who thinks the Jedi restriction on love is stupid and it – alongside the use of a clone army – is something that could use a really good internal debate among the Jedi.

I can see – finally – why Traviss has a reputation as a promoter of Mandalorian culture, as she finally introduces that aspect here. It wasn’t really present in Hard Contact, or any of the Clone Wars animated series novelisations from her. There’s even a glossary in the back. But what does it matter when the book is a dull dud? Besides, I have trouble buying the notion that the clones would’ve been brought up with that much knowledge of it. As a bought and paid for army, carefully and rigorously grown and raised, I can’t imagine that any form of cultural allegiance would’ve been encouraged or permitted. And, surprisingly, I was expecting more insight into the thought processes and lives of previously established characters like Niner, Fi, and even Darman, but we really don’t spend that much time in their heads at all.

I was bored.

2 out of 10

[✰DoveyV✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.7 — I think I may have actually liked this one better than the first one so I’m not really sure why the rating is lower…? But anyway, the new characters introduced where spectacular and they really add a lot more depth to the story. It was interesting seeing Coruscant from the POV of clones and mandalorians but I do feel like this book dragged slightly more but I’m really not sure why I feel like that so it’s probably just me.

I have to say that I sobbed my way through almost the entire first chapter. From the little ARCs to Skirata to Jango with Boba and then to after the Battle of Geonosis, it was mostly sad (sad doesn’t even cover it) but then some was adorable too. But anyway yeah that entire flashback bit is going to haunt me for the rest of my days.

Kaminoans are monsters as I would gladly
help Kal skin them alive.

As there were quite a few characters I’m going to kind of group them up—
Omega
Gosh I knew that if there was a Fi POV it would be rather traumatized and therefore relatable since he’s the sarcastic dark humored one, but it was honestly worse than I was expecting. But I swear that if Fi does not find love and purpose, something that makes him happy and want to live, in the next book then I’m gonna be so mad.
You really don’t get to see much of Niner and Darman but Atin got some development for sure so you get to see more of his character and personality as well as backstory.

Delta I was hoping to like more than I did because I like the RC game and they’re funny in that but they just kind of came off as rude and arrogant in the book. I’m hoping that changes and it kind of slightly did but we’ll see.

The Nulls
I loved Ordo immediately! He definitely reminded me of Fives from CW and was absolutely crazy sometimes but I loved it. His POV not only showed the adorable father-son bond but also a different look at the war and the clones themselves. Then Mereel showed up and while you really don’t get see much I can tell I’ll like him too.

~ I absolutely loved how Skirata treated the clones, I mean he basically adopted them (especially the Null ARCs) and he very clearly cares for them and he taught them their culture and gave them a heritage and encouraged them to be more than just soldiers, to be human, to be family. I do think he’s a bit of an extremist but I mean if he gets the task done then I don’t see a problem with that because he has a clear moral compass even if I have no idea where it’s pointing.
~ I found Etain more than a little annoying in this one. I think she needs to figure out who she is because she clearly does not know herself or her motives at all and I blame the Jedi for that.
~ It’s hard not to adore adore Jusik though, he’s just so cute and sincere, hopefully he doesn’t die :/
~ Besany has a lot of potential as a character. I definitely like what’s going on with her and I can tell she has the right mentality and morals.
~ Vau I have mixed feelings about. I like him as a character, but not exactly as a person.
~ You don’t get to see much of Corr but I’m certain I’ll love him just as much as the others and I certainly like him with what I’ve seen so far. Can’t wait to see what happens in the next book.

One of my favorite things though was the bonds between Kal and his boys. They literally called him Papa Kal or father (in Mando’a which is gender neutral so more like “parent”). He treated them like his sons and always looked out for and cared for them and they respected and loved him equally. They were a family and I adored it.

Again the Mandalorian culture was amazing. A lot more was introduced, probably because Skirata was in this one as well as Ordo and Vau, and I devoured it all. Like if there was an actual culture and people like the Mandalorians then I would not hesitate to join if given the chance. I really did love how all the endearments and family titles were gender neutral.

There was a glossary in the back with all the military slang and words/phrases in other languages with definitions and pronunciation. So not only do I now know what all these Mando’a curses and insults mean but I can pronounce them! In both singular and plural forms!!!

Most of the romance was adorable. I won’t say names so it’s spoiler free. You get a few clones finding love, yes please! I can’t wait to see the unfulfilled one because I think they’re a perfect match. Out of the two legitimate ones though you don’t get to see much but let me just tell you that Twi’lek women with a clone or Jedi is something I will never refuse to ship. The other one however I found rushed and not very shippable, sad but true, they went from friends to way past that in such a short time that it felt insincere (even more so when you read one of their POVs).

Overall I’m curious to see where this series goes and what happens to the characters in the end. Let’s just hope it doesn’t break me 🥲
Happy endings please Traviss, they deserve it
(Order 66 is going to kill me, I just know it…)

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most readers, myself included, like a happy ending. In fact, J. R. R. Tolkien suggested that a "eucatastrophe"--an unexpected overcoming of seeming impossible peril--is the best ending for a fantasy-type story. But Triple Zero's happy ending seemed pre-ordained and inevitable. The reader, much less the characters, hardly broke into a sweat. It was too easy. Complicated, yes, but easy.

I understand the limitations Fan Fiction puts on the author, but Traviss merely followed the "formula" of Hard Contact and doubled the cast. Faced with the inevitability of all her main characters surviving, Traviss tried to dish up a little internal conflict. And it was good, but too easily resolved. In fact, over and over, she has the loser (whose point of view those scenes are always reported from) agreeing with the winner.

At least she could have made the external conflict seem more threatening, but her bad guys were often dismissed as "amateurs" by the good guys...after they'd effortlessly blown them away.

She has a good story. it's the storytelling which needs to be pumped up.

Okay, all that might be forgiven if it weren't for the sticky, sweet ending. There was so much honey, the last pages of the book stuck together! Everyone loves everyone--the L-word is used almost as much as in chic lit--or at least accepts the others as buddies or brothers.

Did appreciate the timeline, list of characters, and glossary. (The reader can learn Mando'a to irritate those Klingon-spouting trekkies.)

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sequel to Hard Contact. This could be read as a stand alone novel but Omega Squad is back in this novel and some other characters from the first book. You will have a better understanding if you read the first novel. In this book, the unit has an undercover assignment on Coruscant and they are joined by Delta Squad and the two men that trained them on Kamino.

The author has a nice little niche where this series explores the introduction of clones into the galaxy. These stories take place early in the Clone Wars and she explores how clones are introduced into common everyday situations and also explores developing feelings towards other people.

I did like the first book better though. This one used too much Mandalorian lingo that took away from the story. In the first novel, there were military descriptions and tactics that added to the story. In this book, these descriptions were explored deeply and at times took my attention away from the plotline.

All in all, this is one of the better series in this universe and I look forward to continuing this series.

[Matthew McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, Karen Traviss makes you not want to put the book down. True to her style, she keeps you on the edge of your seat with suspenseful action scenes, entertaining dialogue and intriguing characters dealing with complicated moral issues. And for bonus points, she put Delta Squad from the video game into this installment!

[Sea Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, I knew I could expect something good, but I didn't expect to be drawn even further in to the characters in this series than I already was. It felt familiar and yet still exciting reading through this book.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, it's very interesting how time and experience can reshape something you absolutely loved as a child.

This series was a formative influence on me. It solidified the Mandalorian people and culture as a permanent part of my personality. It made me love reading and writing about soldiers and war-based subjects. But HOO BUDDY have parts of this book aged like milk.

I don't know if it was just because it was the mid-2000s and I was a wee lass of thirteen years old when I first read this, but holy Jesus is the misogyny rampant. The reason this is shocking is because my takeaway from this series was that gender does not matter to Mandalorians. The whole idea is supposed to be that once you put on the armor, no one cares what's underneath it. Their language is entirely gender neutral: vod/vode means "brother/brothers, sister/sisters, sibling/siblings;" ad'ika/ad'ike affectionately means "son/sons, daughter/daughters, child/children;" buir is the catchall for a parent, whether it be mother or father. It is also stated by more than one character that Mandalorians "males" see "female" warriors as their equal.

And yet, interspersed with this, we have a clear gender binary going on here. The clone boys, as well as Vau and Skirata, are all described with some sort of "masculine" descriptor many times; the idea that specifically Mandalorian fathers and their sons have a very deep bond (Mandalorian fathers name their sons and the mother has no say???); Mandalorian fathers take their sons out to war, but there is no mention of their daughters or their wives joining in the fight; there is SO MUCH talk of the clones getting a "wife" to take care of them and to give them a normal life and a family.

And don't even get me STARTED on the moment Skirata turned to Bessany Wennan, a character I remember fondly from my childhood, and orders her to make him and the other men some caf.

And she just. Gets up and does it. Girl, no!!!

And then there is the fact that Etain's entire arc of self-esteem and learning about herself and what she is capable of when under fire in the field with Omega squad in the first book was entirely reduced to her and Darman's love affair—which progressed SO much faster than I remembered and ENTIRELY off page—and culminates in her getting pregnant. Which, because she is a Female, then immediately becomes her entire character and purpose.

I scream at my own ass.

God, when I was younger, I saw what Traviss wanted me to see—that Etain was giving Darman a shot at a normal life. Clone troopers have no chance at ever having any semblance of a family or even a peaceful existence. They age at twice the rate of a normal human and literally exist only to fight. The chances they will even make it to the end of the war is slim to none. They are a slave army with no rights and no autonomy, and this tragedy kills me to this day. And, yes, I still hate the jetiise for using said slave army while still being such self-righteous pricks.

But why does Etain's autonomy have to be sacrificed for Darman to have a shot at it as well?

Traviss comes so close to nailing it on the head. Etain acknowledges that she had no choice in her life either. Her parents gave her up to complete strangers when she was a baby because she was born with the power to use the Force. She had no choice in whether or not she became a Jedi, and was forced into a life that she never quite felt she fit into. Just as the clones were forced into a violent and short-lived life devoid of even the most simple pleasures—also at the whims of their Jedi masters.

And yet we took a hard right turn away from that and into "hee hee frivolous female Love Feelings and now exists only for the fetus growing inside her."

Like!!!!! What!!!!!!!!

And it genuinely would have been really nice if I could have seen ANY of Etain and Darman's relationship blooming. Even with having Etain as a POV character, we get precious few scenes of the two of them together. Granted, I do appreciate that she also existed outside of him and had somewhat nuanced relationships with different characters, but, my God, would have loved to have seen how we got from "I missed you" to "Baby time :)" in like two weeks.

Also, Skirata's reaction to Etain telling him she was pregnant was infuriating. Like, I get it, he is deeply protective of Darman and his other ad'ike. And he has reason to be! They are all incredibly naive to the ways of the world and have no idea how to emotionally navigate things like relationships and fatherhood—but the fact that his first question to Etain (when he KNEW that Darman and Etain were together) was "Whose is it?" with all of the accusation that such a question can hold, had me seeing red.

That ranked up there with when she went to Skirata with something that happened between her and Ordo, and he IMMEDIATELY jumped to thinking that she fucked Ordo also. What in the fucking world?? I would call it slutshaming but that is somehow even worse than what that word indicates is happening here, considering she was in a committed relationship with Darman.

Vau somehow came out of this colored better in my eyes! Vau actually treated Etain more like an equal, and even did recon/hunting jobs with her! He talked down to her much less, and he was the one who had used the "Mandalorian males see mandalorian females as their equals" line. When I was a child, I thought Vau was the most evil bastard there was with how he had brutalized his clones—and he is still a right bastard for that—but he at least came off as much more genuine than Skirata's clearly male-skewed favoritism.

Maybe it's because Skirata's non-Mando wife left him and he's got some issues to work out. I don't know, but he's got the credits. He should see a therapist about that.

God, there were so many little details regarding the weirdly prevalent misogyny that really bothered me—but the last example I will give was in one of the final chapters: Fi was talking to some female (the overuse of this word was infuriating, but the reason for that has nothing to do with this book's sins) officers in the Coruscant Security Force, and he noted that they all began giggling when he explained how easy it is for him to take off his armor.

Were these women fifteen? Why would grown women respond like that as he described how his armor and kit works? What?

Whatever!!!!

Anyway, it was nice seeing my boys again. Traviss excels at the military tactics portion of things. But, while that was fun and all, I can't help but think that including SO much of that made things like allowing the development of Darman and Etain's relationship (as well as Atin and Laeema's and Ordo and Bessany's) to actually be shown to us, rather than just telling me later what's going on there, impossible.

This has just reaffirmed my belief that my Mandalorians are the superior Mandalorians. God, I am dreading when Mandalore comes into play now, along with Parja. I am remembering some things from further along in the books that's making me groan. Truly, it is amazing how selective a child's memory can be.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Include in future re-reads? Yes
Ranking: 3.5

For the first 1/3 of this book, I really wasn't enjoying it. Things really picked up and Traviss introduced a lot to the characters that I think were pretty cool. I think you are supposed to be familiar with some of these characters from other sources outside of the Republic Commando series, so that was annoying at first.

Thankfully, the story picks up and the plot is pretty unique for the EU, which I appreciate. This series is interesting to me so far because, unlike other books in the EU from this era, there is some continuity and it feels like events will matter outside of this isolated story.

Traviss has already shown that she wants to humanize the clones and focus on the moral problems with breeding and utilizing a clone army. She expands on that theme effectively. I thought the clones singing their pre-battle song was genius. It was a tiny thing for her to introduce, but it gives the clones character and you look at them as having hopes and fears like anybody else. The real genius was having them do this tradition with their helmets on over their private channel. Now, you can picture them doing this at any time.

At one point, something that I'm assuming was a typo described a bomb as "Incontinent battle ordinance", which made me laugh.

There was one character that I thought was greatly mistreated by the author and potentially ruined beyond repair. This was Etain. I thought her character in the first book was pretty good.
She was an absolutely terrible character for the first half of this book. She gives ridiculous corny speeches about every three pages for a while like the most annoying politician. She is also worthless. She is a general (albeit only because she is a Jedi) who has seen a decent amount of battle. She is apparently looked up to by the troops. She also inexplicably doesn't understand triage. The average person who has never seen a battlefield understands this, but a respected general apparently doesn't. She throws a fit because a dying trooper isn't getting attention until the medical droid explains to him that the mark on his armor means he can't be saved so they are focusing on troopers who have a chance to live. You would think a general who has seen numerous battlefields would understand this basic concept. However, I did enjoy that she got with Darman. This was a pretty cool development. It made Etain interesting again added another dimension to the clones. When she gets pregnant, it made me pretty interested in their future.

Some characters showed up in this book (the Nulls) that I don't remember from other sources. I may have seen them in the animated show, but I can't remember. You were clearly expected to know their background.

The point where this book went from a 2-star to a 4-star was when Traviss didn't shy away from the darker sides of war. Too much of Star Wars (and most entertainment) wants to paint the good side of the war as 100% altruistic while the bad side is 100% evil. The reality is that every side of a war has to do terrible things. The clones are part of a group in this book that tortures and executes people. I've always been incredibly annoyed when books and movies act like this side of warfare doesn't happen, so this was refreshing. It was also really nice that the characters didn't agonize over this. There was enough of them considering the fallout of their actions without it being too much.

Skirata was a good but grossly overdone character. I think it was a smart solution to introduce an instructor who trained commandos so he could have a special relationship with them. I can understand the clones that he personally trained adoring him, but basically everyone who comes into contact with him, including people who recently met him, start to worship him almost immediately. It was just too much. His biggest flaw was that he loved too much and was willing to sacrifice everything for others. Come on.

The Skrill creature was cool, but it was a bit ridiculous. It was a powerful hunter that could glide using the loose folds of it's skin. Then, you find out that it can fly while carrying the corpse of an adult male. Just because it is a made up creature doesn't mean it should be completely absurd.

It was cool that Etain gained sensitivity in the Force while she was pregnant.

My biggest problem with this book, besides the boring and confusing first 1/3 of the book, was the climactic moment. This entire time they are trying to track down this terror cell.
They successfully do this by setting up a deal to sell them a massive amount of explosives.
This is all fine, until the very end. They have tracked everyone in the cell and killed the leader.
The rest of the terrorists are at the meeting point. There is no reason that I can see for them to go in and make the deal. They can just go and kill the terrorists. But they make the deal and give the terrorists all of these explosives. Then they go in a kill everyone, but with far more danger because the explosives could blow up a huge area of the city. I still can't figure out why they went through with the deal instead of just killing the terrorists.

Finally, this book presented a more realistic look at how a Jedi Order would actually be. The movies and many of the books mostly present Force users as either completely committed to the Order and willing to go along with everything that entails or they are evil or soon to be evil. The Jedi in this book, Jusik and Etain, are far more realistic of how real people would be. They want to be part of the Order, but they are also not 100% committed to every rule of the Order. When push came to shove, they both realized they would choose to leave the Order if they had to make a choice between being true to what they see as right and strict obedience to the Jedi Order.

So this book had quite a bit more that was good than bad, but I feel some trepidation going forward. The things that Traviss has done so far that I've appreciated could become annoying very quickly if she remains fixated on the same themes. I'm happy to continue the series at this point though.

[Mitchell Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9

-Ordo the man but he lowkey freaked me out with his intensity
-Etain and Dar really just jumped into it with the relationship and the sex, I really thought one was gonna die in the final battle
-I wish we did get a death in the final sting operation
-Corr seemed like a cool dude but did he only have 1 hand or were both metal?
-Kal was interesting but his like mood shifts were throwing me off, like I wanted to like him but I felt very weary of him
-I wish Atin killed Vau, he fucking sucked and the shrill seemed really weird
-I need them to use the verpine rifle in more movies and shows I need to see how good it is
-I wish they blew up the green speeder with someone on it
-I hope Etain and Dara’s son grows up to be a savage
-I kinda wanted a little more romance in the story with Etain and Dar as well as Ordo and the other lady
-Enacca and Jusik were the goats

[Lee (BooBoo The Fool) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won’t lie… not much happens in these books, but I’m not reading for the plot I’m reading for the clones and I’m LOVING IT!!! All the plot happens at the last few pages of the books and it’s revolved quickly and then you’re left at a little cliff hanger but it’s still good action when it happens. Looking forward to seeing the progress of all the relationships and how this “new character” I going to affect both Etain and the clones

[Jacksen Eddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would consider this book a 3.5 star, rounded down to 3 as the book had a few rough patches where I put it down for a while. The story was an interesting take on Star Wars as it explored the thoughts and purpose of the clone army. I don’t know how I feel about the choices made by the writer in this book, but as this is a series I can’t cast judgment entirely yet.

[Ben Briles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even after reading Hard Contact and knowing that I would probably like this series WAY more than I'd previously assumed, Triple Zero still kinda blew me away. Even with KT's background in military fiction, I figured that the series would be all action all the time, and that just isn't the case at all. The characters are the main focus here and they're all great. Even the one that I hate. No one is one-dimensional or lacking in depth. Sure, they've all got their archetypes, but the amount of development for almost everyone here over the course of these two books is nothing short of astounding to me.

I laughed, I cried, I cheered in triumph, and I said "NOOOOOO" aloud at least a few times. It might even be worth not waiting for Obroa-skai Walkers to settle on the next book before I start on #3.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Karen Traviss' Contribution to the Extended Star Wars universe has been uneven to say the least. Responsible for two brutally tedious and entirely forgettable Clone Wars books, she also penned Hard Contact which - of the twenty-five Star Wars novels I've read to date - is easily the best. Triple Zero is the sequel to that latter tale and it contains little of what made that book so very good.
There are a ton of Clone Troopers in Triple Zero and Traviss tries to give them each as distinct a personality as makes sense. Here's the rub though, characterisation is not her strong point. The Mandalorian sergeant Skirata is supposed to be a charismatic father-figure and tactical genius but comes across rather more like a maudlin has-been while his colleague Waylon Vau never really suggests the cold-hearted taskmaster, but rather is just plain dull and mean-spirited. Traviss' distaste for Jedi seeps from every pore as Etain makes the transition from incompetent to only partially incompetent while and fellow Jedi Jusik acts like some kind of wannabe schoolkid on uppers.

Putting aside such flimsy personalities, the action on offer is well-realised with many genuinely tense scenes, particularly those where the Troopers find them themselves surveilling suspected terrorists through the insanely complex and vast urban jungle of Coruscant, Its just a shame that in attempting to prove just how unstoppable the Republic Commandos are, Traviss never really puts them in harm's way. The real star of Triple Zero is the Null-class ARC Trooper Ordo, effectively the Elite of the Elite and a fun character as he transitions from super-soldier to spy to military intelligence. More of him and less of everyone else would have been a vast improvement.

What also shines through is Traviss' cynicism towards the more questionable aspects of The Clone Wars such as the dubious idea of immediately elevating every Jedi to the rank of general and why no-one seems to have a problem with The Republic's usage of a vast slave army in its war against the Seperatists. Prosecute Yoda for war-crimes, I say.

Unfortunately, one great character and a bit of social commentary isn't really enough to save this book which seems all the more pedestrian in the shadow of its magnificent predecessor.

[Chief · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not quite as good as Hard Contact (the first book in this series) but it was still an enjoyable read. The plot is somewhat convoluted and is really secondary to Traviss's forced character development of the troopers and their Seargent, Skirata.

For those that have read Traviss's LoTF books, this book really delves into those characters that come back and you can see her big picture story arc coming together. Unfortunately this book is where her personal hatred for the Jedi starts to rear its ugly head. Instead of showing how the clones and Jedi are similar in how they are raised, she tries to make the Jedi seem as bad and clueless as possible even unhuman, and make the clones seem like innocent victims of the Jedi's war. The only Jedi she seems to like is one who's gone completely native, so to speak, and just wants to be one of the troopers.

I hope this doesn't continue into the next book as much as Im afraid it does. Traviss seems very self indulgent, and has done everything she possibly can to give the Star Wars universe their own Klingon race. While I like seeing the "real" side of the clones, and giving them characterization, I don't buy into all the Mando "culture" spreading through the ranks, and frankly I have a hard time buying into Skirata's little club.

I don't think this is a bad book, and in fact it made me actually slightly interested in the Mando stuff Traviss forced into her LoTF books. I do however believe that Traviss has trouble keeping her own (strange) biases out of the forefront of her wirting, and she veered away from her LucasFilm mandate so wildly that I have a hard time recommending her novels to anyone else. Her personal actions in the latter days of her time with the SW universe further cement her in my crazy column.

If you read and liked Hard Contact this is a decent follow-up that further's the characters but drags in spots and goes further than you probably want as far as looking into the lives of the clones.

[S—]

This starts out really good, then it goes downhill, into an abyss.

Not because of the writing. Not because of the plot.

Before reading
Interweb: Kal Skirata is cool and Vau is an abuser
Me: Ok. Noted.

After reading
Me: Kal Skirata is one macho man. The way he trashes Etain does not amuse me. Vau's done fucked up things but his macho-ness (or lack thereof) is not so in-my-face like Kal.

Etain's character gets dumped down. Why? And she even gets symbolised with a space cat... really? And what's with the obsession with motherhood and pregnancy and catering men? If I heard more of the emphasis on father and son I would vomit testosterone. Darman is cute. Laseema is cute. Fi is cute. Ordo and Kal ruin this book.

[Jorge Rosas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but I felt it was unnecessary long. A few surprises but those were quite shocking, I was a little annoyed with the fact that Delta was not well developed or the fact that their interventions just faded away or felt childish, been the ones who started the entire Commando thing at least their personalities should have been noted a little more. Omega as the main characters seems to be a little too perfect and the Vau vs Kal thematic was great but the book is too partial about it.

[Stephanie "Jedigal" · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characterization is very light in this book, you will need to know the characters from the previous Republic Commando books. Suggest re-reading the last right before this one, and you might enjoy more than I did.

[Katie]

FB post from 7 years ago: "finished Triple Zero and was a mite disappointed."
I have no idea how that translates into stars. Probably a three?

[Vendea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two words: Clone Dads