No Prisoners

No Prisoners
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Karen Traviss
1 Star
Epub, 175 Pages

about a spy who Pellaon is involved with. And Anakin and his apprentice, a group of jedi[the offshoot branch Callista is in]and some troopers from the 501st rescuing her.

I think it can be summed up with this quote “Emotions are our programming…and help us understand what’s right and wrong“. More complete and utter bullshit from Traviss. Lots of handwringing and saying how bad the Republic is and how “right” the CSI is.

Once again Traviss focuses on the Jedi and the Republic to the exclusion of the Sith and the machinations they have for Galactic Domination. She is such a bitch.

501st

501st
Star Wars: Imperial Commando #1
Karen Traviss
3 Stars
dtb, 434 pages

Picks right up from the Republic Commando books.
Two of the clones get stuck in the 501st, the rest go to Mandalore. Lots of angst and Jedi hating and some seriously twisted thinking. Might as well be a soap opera with all the drama.

Update-no more Commando books by Traviss. Or by anyone. Sigh.

The Clone Wars

The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Karen Traviss
3 stars
256 pages

Jabba’s son is kidnapped by the Separatists who make it look like it was the Jedi. The Jedi have to rescue the little slimer. Anakin has a padawan. LOTS of clone troopers die. Kenobi fights Asajj Ventress. Once again, Traviss’s anti-jedi streak shows, strongly. Asajj is shown as some hurt little girl who is just trying to make up for her masters death by becoming a mass murderer.

Order 66

Order 66
Star Wars: Republic Commando #4
Karen Traviss
3 stars
432 pages

the final Republic Commando novel, supposedly. We will see though, since she left several “openings” for later stories. Basically, everything comes to a head and the RC’s under Skirata disappear and go to Mandalore to start their new lives. Etain, the jedi who had a baby with a clone, is killed as they are trying to leave Coruscant. I really enjoyed this story, much more story than the previous. I really hope the bookclub carries this and the previous as a combo.

Revelation

Revelation
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #8
Karen Traviss
3 stars
410 pages

well, I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. Caedus is really slipping. Doesn’t seem like much of a Sithlord at all. The GA fractures when the Duumvirate of Caedus and Niathal splits. Ben proves with evidence that it was Caedus who killed Mara. Jaina gets training from Fett. Fett uncarbonites his wife who has been in it for close to 30 years.

I was mostly disappointed in how lame and shallow the “training” of Jaina was by Fett. Saying things like “be a different person” and then using a real sword instead of a lightsaber. Whatever. Everything takes place in a month too. Just seemed very shallow, and there were no humorous spots to lighten things up like in Fury. And LOTS of humanistic moralizing about Jedi, Sith and what is good and what is wrong. Traviss has ruined it by bringing her 21st century humanistic amoralism to the table.

True Colors

True Colors
Star Wars: Republic Commando #3
Karen Traviss
3 stars
472 pages

follows the commandos as they find out more about the war and slowly realize that things are not as presented by Palpatine and the media. Skarata is hunting down the Kaminoan who engineered the clones so she can reverse the “fast aging” so they can live a normal length life. Traviss is really setting things up to tie in with the Legacy books. I didn’t enjoy this novel nearly as much as the first two. The military jargon, the Mando’ese, it was just over used, imo, this time. You have so many different identifications for the same people [usually group oriented] that I felt like I lost track of who was who. Nulls, Alpha’s, ARC’s, Republic Commandos, Delta, Omega, etc, etc. Keeping track of it all really bogged the story down.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #5
Karen Traviss
3 stars
367 pages

Ben is sent on an assassination mission, grows up quick. He finds out that Lumiya and Jacen are in cahoots and Mara tracks down Jacen and tries to kill him. Mara dies, leaving clues for Ben and Luke about her true killer. Luke kills Lumiya. On the Mando side, Boba finds the clones who aren’t aging and gets the treatment, finds precious metal on Mandolore and recalls all Mando’s. At the very end he finds out his wife is not dead. Jacen becomes a Sith Lord, Darth Caedus.

Bloodlines

Bloodlines
Star Wars: Legacy of the Force #2
Karen Traviss
3 stars

oh man. This was reading Episode III all over again.

Jacen has completely fallen to Lumiya’s lies about the Sith and is only one step from becoming a true Sith. Boba Fett looks for his daughter, finds his granddaughter. At least one of the ARC’s[from RC] is alive, so Fett is trying to find him to find the anti-aging gene therapy he must have used. Ben is falling sway to to Jacen, but sees the evil in what Jacen is doing.

The book ends without anything being wrapped up[of course, it is a 9 book series]. Jacen has come to think he must kill Tenel Ka and their daughter to become a Sith Lord able to save the galaxy from war. He is truly warped.

I have no idea where this series is going to go. If LotF ends up being all Eastern and Everything is Right, Nothing is wrong, then I will be done with StarWars when this series ends.

City of Pearl

City of Pearl
Karen Traviss
SF
1 star

after reading her Republic Commando books, I had very high hopes. Which were dashed. This is about an eco-cop that goes on a mission to another planet. Finds humans and aliens and becomes a new type of alien. The book was about paganism and earth worship. It was not a pleasure to read and I shall be sticking to her Starwars stuff from now on.

Republic Commando Omnibus #1 (Star Wars)

Hard Contact

Triple Zero

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Karen Traviss

3 Stars

SciFi

 

this was a fantastic book. Followed a group of specialized clone troopers [commandos]. Made them human, and revealed a lot of details about what a raw deal the clones got. Engineered to die within 20 years. Created, train, fight, die. Terrible. It was cool to read a StarWars book not centered on the Jedi, even tho Jedi were involved.