True Colors (Star Wars: Republic Commando, Book 3)

True Colors is what most SW books are not: intelligent, dramatic, internally realistic, and morally complex. A sequel to the previous Republic Commando novel, Triple Zero, True Colors follows Delta and Omega Squads as they seek to capture scientist Ko Sai, the master geneticist of the Republic's clone army. Having fled Kamino with records of the cloning program, she's now being hunted by Palpatine and other commercial cloners eager to appropriate her work. But where these parties are motivated by commercial and political potential, Delta and Omega Squads have a more personal interest, to coerce the scientist into prolonging their lives by slowing down the quick-aging process built into their genetic code. It's a fairly simple story made complex by attention to character and theme, something most Star Wars writers glance over if they think of it at all. Many employ a comfortable shorthand in which certain kinds of characters or characteristics are good, others bad, and the situations in which they find themselves clear cut. Traviss, though, paints in shades of gray, in which heroes have faults, bad guys are sometimes good, and the choices they have to make rarely easy. The clone soldiers struggle to comprehend the enormity - and irony - of their burden, to die for a Republic that claims to defend freedom and liberty but values its clone warriors less than machines. Though content to do that for which they have been bred, the clones begin to resent being taken for granted, especially by their Jedi generals, men and women who through their relationship with the Force claim to have a wider and deeper appreciation of life in all its forms. The Jedi are painfully aware of their responsibilities to the clones, but find themselves trapped by tradition and circumstance serving the Republic, setting aside the rights of their soldiers to first fight the greater threat posed by the Separatists. With no one to look after their interests but themselves, the clone commandos and their Mandalorian trainers set in motion a plan to free themselves from the tyranny of genetics and societal neglect, to give themselves an opportunity to live a life of normal men. But to do that they have to go against their breeding and training to disobey orders, aid deserters, deceive trusted comrades, kill fellow clone troopers and Mandalorians, and put civilian associates at risk. Complicit in their schemes are two Jedi commanders who discover first hand the dangers of attachment to loved ones and the equally dangerous detachment from avoiding difficult decisions. In the end the commandos and the Jedi find that by looking closely at the thing you hate, you begin to understand it, to see that it exists much the same as you, as the expression of conditions that brought you into existence. Ko Sai is from a society that as a result of ecological disaster had to euthanize weaker members of its species to survive. For the Kaminoans the universe is a cold and h

It is giving nothing away to observe that True Colors, like the two works preceding it, is about clone warriors. What I love about True Colors is that it takes the Star Wars concept of identical soldiers, cloned for only one purpose - to fight and die on command - and examines that concept, shakes it down, and ultimately turns it inside out. For me, this is the essence of military science fiction, a sub-genre that I love: to weave into the story a deeper meaning than the tactics and battles. A thoughtful examination of what it means to be human, and to be a person, resides comfortably within the plot and the characters, without detracting from the story. I found it easy to identify with the characters in True Colors. They had gained my interest and sympathy in the first two "Republic Commando" novels, and now they are living in my head, patiently waiting for further developments when the fourth book in the "Republic Commando" series, Order 66 is released July 15, 2008. There is so much more to the plot than what I can put in a review - no spoilers! I can only say I feel that the world is a much safer and better place with the RC commandos in it.

Another great read from Ms. Traviss. In True Colors, we see more of Delta and Omega squads as they are sent on their way across the Galaxy Far Far Away to fight for the Republic. The squads are not the same as they were in Hard Contact, they've seen too much to think that Jedi are infallible or that military procurement is working in their best interest. At times, they are obviously fatigued from all the fighting in their short lives. Republic Commando: Hard Contact, the first book in this series, was my introduction to the GFFA. As I told someone just yesterday; you don't have to like Star Wars, or even have read any of the Extended Universe books associated with Star Wars to enjoy this series. It's military fiction first and tie-in fiction a distant second. The clones are not all identical, and that's what makes the books interesting. They are as much individuals as identical twins. I look forward to the next installment in this series (and hopefully the next, and the next). I really care about these guys. I want to know how it all turns out for them. It's not the whiz-bang technology or the Hyperspace travel that makes these books good. It's the characters, and Ms. Traviss writes characters so well that you really feel like you know them; you really care what happens to them.

Forget that it's a Star Wars tie-in, for that matter forget even that it's science fiction. Those are just the scenery - albiet exquisite and terrifically well used scenery - in this absolutely gripping military drama. Once again Karen Traviss has turned the ultimate in interchangable cast members - clone soldiers - into deep, complicated, and incredibly sympathetic and powerfully written people. The very title is a clue to the nature of the story, and indeed the true colors of the soldiers on the front line, as opposed to the government who sent them there, are both starting to show through. This is not a story about Jedi and battle droids and spaceships, though they are there. This is a story about people living with the choices they make, this is about comradery, about family, loss, and love. Read this book.

Lots of military action and tactical detail along with good soap opera. Like any good science fiction author karen Traviss might just as well be writing about our own time. Leaders insist that nothing less than the whole galaxies way of life is at stake, yet can't muster the political will to ask the average citizens to sacrifice for it's defence. A professional clone army is the ultimate in outsourcing. The clones like what they do and might even volunteer to do it if they had the choice. Of course they do not have a choice and have few skills that would allow them an alternative. Who can blame them after a couple of years of non-stop deployments start to feel a little "put upon" maybe even ill used. I hope that Karen finds an angle to get around the inevitable "order 66" and can keep the series going. Who would have thought that in a universe of endless variety of beings that identical clone troopers would provide so much diversity and interest.