Imperial Commando: 501st

Star Wars: Republic Commando #5

by Karen Traviss

The Clone Wars are over, but for those with reason to run from the new galactic Empire, the battle to survive has only just begun. . . .

The Jedi have been decimated in the Great Purge, and the Republic has fallen. Now the former Republic Commandos–the galaxy’s finest special forces troops, cloned from Jango Fett–find themselves on opposing sides and in very different armor. Some have deserted and fled to Mandalore with the mercenaries, renegade clone troopers, and rogue Jedi who make up Kal Skirata’s ragtag resistance to Imperial occupation. Others–including men from Delta and Omega squads–now serve as Imperial Commandos, a black ops unit within Vader’s own 501st Legion, tasked to hunt down fugitive Jedi and clone deserters. For Darman, grieving for his Jedi wife and separated from his son, it’s an agonizing test of loyalty. But he’s not the only one who’ll be forced to test the ties of brotherhood. On Mandalore, clone deserters and the planet’s own natives, who have no love for the Jedi, will have their most cherished beliefs challenged. In the savage new galactic order, old feuds may have to be set aside to unite against a far bigger threat, and nobody can take old loyalties for granted.

Genres: Star Wars, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Space, War

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

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

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course I only find out after reading this that there's not going to be a conclusion to this series. That's seriously unsatisfying. This novel essentially cliff-hangs. Don't bother reading it - stop with Order 66.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen Traviss continues to be one of the best things about the Star Wars EU with this, the fourth volume in what is essentially the Clan Skirata series. As the beginning of what is basically a new, second, story arc, it lacks the emotional whallop of "Order 66", but in addition to laying the groundwork for the next series of conflicts and adventures, it also further defines the personalities of the various clones, begins to explore the myriad of relationships among the hodge-podge cast that inhabits Kyrimorut, peals away new and interesting layers of the Mandolorian culture, and examines the shift in atmosphere as the EU abruptly transforms from a Republic to an Empire. And all this is accomplished with an ease and grace the belies how many moving parts are grinding together to create the overall story.

All of Traviss's strengths are on display here. First and foremost, her deft handling of the clones, who are an unlikely gang of diverse characters. I'm continually amused at the way she gives them all the same basic personality, then tweeks each commando so that they shine in their own peculiar way. And her grasp of their dry humor should be studied by the likes of Troy Denning, whose feeble grasps at humor never fail to yank me out of every story he's written in the last five years. Skirata's Mandos have me laughing out loud every time they slip into their deadpan banter.

The other major quality of Traviss's writing that I can't ever get enough of, is her refusal to turn the Commando novels into action adventure books. Everything about her premise screams out to be written as popcorn action. But unlike a lot of the other current EU writers (I'm looking at you everybody who's writing a 'Fate of the Jedi' novel) she actually seems more concerned with character development and interpersonal relationships! I get rather tired of authors spending the bulk of their page count trying to create huge action set pieces that only serve to load the story with action. Traviss only inserts action when it serves the story, and when it's there, it is terse and cleanly written. One subtle oddity I noticed during "501st" was the fact that she rarely resorts to cliff-hanger chapter endings to manufacture cheap tension. She ends chapters on the down-beats and trusts that your love for the character will spur you into reading further. That's practically unheard of in the recent EU novels, and speaks volumes about her merits as a solid writer.

The only thing that took away from my enjoyment of this novel had nothing to do with the novel itself, but with the recently circulating news that Traviss will not be writing the next book in the series. There is always the slim chance Del Rey will bring on another quality author to take over the chore of exploring the next phase of the Skirata clan's trevails. Unfortunately, we're dealing with the same publisher who entrusted the authorship of its supposedly flagship hardcover series ('Fate of the Jedi') to the likes of Chrisie Golden, who would seem more at home writing the next "Babysitters' Club" paperback. What a bunch of osik.

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

"That's how tyranny succeeds. When folks think it won't affect them. Until it eventually does."
This book was selected in my Star Wars book of the month club! Plus, a good friend of mine gave me the book, which meant I absolutely had to read it!
The Clone Wars has ended, and the Republic is now the Empire. Darman and Niner are stuck in Vader's 501st, Vader's Fist. Darman struggles with the events of the last book, and both long to be home on Kyrimorout with Kal Skirata, Atin, Fi, and the other rag-tags that have assembled there as a haven.
Please note, spoilers from Order 66 (Star Wars: Republic Commando) may follow.

I Liked:
To keep myself streamlined, I will split this up into three categories: writing, characters and plot.
Writing.
1.Karen Traviss' novels don't beat around the bush. They deal with big, universal themes, which this time are bigotry/prejudice, complacency, and fear.
a)Prejudice permeates most of the Mandalorian characters (and the Jedi, of course). Skirata can't accept Kina Ha for being a Kaminoan and Uthan for being a scientist trying to kill his clones. The Kaminoan clones ridicule the Spaarti clones for being inferior. The rising bias against the Jedi in the Empire, the rivalry between Mandalore and the rest of the galaxy...all are potraits of prejudice and intolerance. Ny, one of the least intolerant of the group, puts it this way to the Null clones when they ridicule the Spaarti clones (page 198): "How can you dismiss them all like that when you're the first to say you're more than your genes?" We also see, in her eyes, how ironic it is for Skirata to hate the Jedi, when he happens to adopt many of the practices he criticizes in them (see page 301 for a good quote).
b)Complacency is what keeps the people from revolting. Under the Empire, the galaxy has grown to not care about her galactic brothers and sisters...those on Kashyyyk, Gibad, Camaas...and many others. The quote for the review, said by Uthan on page 139, says this perfectly.
c)Fear: a quote by Jusik best relays this (page 290): "Fear kept beings in line. Fear...made you mistrust and suspect everyone...and divided people didn't form up into groups to rebel."
2.Once her novel starts to roll along (particularly with the Niner and Darman scenes), you thirst for more. How are Niner and Darman going to survive in the 501st? Will anyone find out about the chip Niner has? What about the new Spaarti clone in their squad? How will the Corellian trained Ennen cope with the death of his squadmate? It was hard to put down the book in these sections.
3.Traviss again provides other Expanded Universe references, such as Jax Pavan and the Whiplash movement and Callista and the Altis' sect.
Plot:
1.The story of Niner and Darman in the 501st, Vader's Fist, is definitely the highlight of the book. You get inside Vader's Fist, to see the differences between the Imperial and Republic management, the inclusion of the Spaarti clones, the distrust, and the underlying fear. Plus, they get to do a whole lot more missions, a whole lot more Jedi hunting, which means more of what made Hard Contact so amazing and what has been lacking from most of the Republic Commando books and less sitting around and bad-mouthing the Jedi.
2.Darman's personal battle of the death of Etain is particularly poignant. I feel Traviss did a good job conveying his detached self and his grieving self and I adored how Niner looked out for him.
3.This novel is set in the Imperial era, which is so undiscovered and unexplored. It's nice to see the forays out into it.
4.The fear and suspicion, mentioned in passing in the Jedi Twilight (Star Wars: Coruscant Nights I), is actually at work in Coruscant in this novel. In 501st, clone commandos can feel the growing fear, see how the Empire is coaxing people to tell on their neighbors (all I can think of is the movie, Brazil!), and basically keeping one eye open.
Characters:
1.My favorite characters now include Walon Vau, Niner (who gets a point of view!! YAY!), Ny (sometimes), Commander Roly Melusar, and Maze. I've mentioned why I've liked Walon Vau before (quintessential Mando, cold, hard, calculating) and Maze too (follows orders, perfect ARC), but I will detail on the others.
2.Niner is a particularly fascinating clone. He didn't want to desert like all the others. He felt it was his duty to stay in, to fight the good fight. Only when his other brothers were going to leave, leaving him alone, did he change his mind. Through his reasonable, cautious eyes, we see the growing hatred and distrust of Jedi, his care for his brother, Darman, and how he is growing to want a life outside, yet still fearing it.
3.Nyreen is one of the few female characters Traviss has written that I actually like. Although there are still parts of her that I am not fond of (like how quickly she wants to become Mando and such), I like how she was married before, around Kal's age, independent, not so vehemently against the Jedi, and just overall being different and unique ("a voice of reason"). Through her eyes and her eyes alone, we get a balance from the Mando-heavy prejudice from the book and see how much Jedi Kal is like, how what he does really isn't much different from them.
4.Lastly, my brand-new all-time favorite is Commander Roly Melusar. Man, I can't say enough how much I like him! Here we finally get an Imperial not out for power, prestige, money, whatever, but out there to get rid of Force-users and dissenters for a reason...because he believes in the ideals of the Empire.

I Didn't Like:
You knew this was coming, didn't you?
1.Mandos good, Jedi bad. Highly toned down from the Republic Commando books with the balancing view off Ny (too bad she remains mostly silent on the matter to the Mandos), but still prevalent none-the-less. I could go on and on about this point, but I don't really think I need to say more. The Jedi are most certainly not perfect, but neither are the Mandalorians.
2.Good Mando wife. It sickens me to see all the women of these commando books be stripped of anything of their own, their own culture, desires, loves, hopes, and dreams and adopt without question or hesitation the Mando way. Besany was a tax auditor...and she goes to being good Mando housewife in less than 18.2 seconds. Laseema, same thing. Jilka follows the same path as Besany and Laseema by falling for yet another of our clone boys, Corr, in a gag-worthy romance. Uthan is slipping and falling for Mij Gilamar, and Nyreen appears to doing the same with Kal. Why can't Traviss create strong women who don't feel the need to drop their own personality for one their husbands can take better? Other than Parja, none of the married women have jobs outside the home (Uthan not being Mando nor married to Mij), and the one woman who didn't follow the Mando way (Kal's wife) is treated with scorn and disdain for wanting her husband to be home (I was a military kid, I could go on about this topic for a while, but I'll spare you). It's an unfair way to paint women, that they are only good if they are A) married to Mandos, B) a good, stay-at-home "Mando wife", and/or C) accept their husband's Mando ways without a qualm or thought about their own heritage and traditions.
3.Repetition. Yet again, Traviss has a few things she must make sure she says at least a dozen times in her novel. How the Nulls were saved by Skirata (as if the last three books didn't repeat that enough). How much Scout reminds Kal of Etain, how Kal hates Kaminoans and Jedi and Uthan, how Atin and Laseema can't have biological kids (which shouldn't really matter in an adoptive society like Mandalore), how hypocritical the Jedi were, how bad artuesii are, how so-and-so can't believe how "easy and quickly" she (most often she) is accepting the Mando culture, how so-and-so was surprised that she (again, most often she) wouldn't be shocked or upset if he (aka insert your Mando here) killed someone, etc., etc., etc. While I understand that new readers may be unfamiliar with the characters and history, the constant repetitions won't help them "catch up". This is not a book for the uninitiated. I figure you cut out half the extraneous repetitions, you lose about 150 pages.
4.Least Favorite characters.
a)Besany, who is mostly shoved into the background (Yay!). However, there is one scene where she appears, just recently wakened and yet is said to look "glamorous". You ever see a woman just wake up? Her hair is everywhere!
b)Skirata, whom I really have never liked since he appeared in Triple Zero (Star Wars: Republic Commando, Book 2). I know he loves his boys (I've heard it a billion times in between the pages), but he is overly emotional, always bawling or pouting or yelling or something-ing.
c)The Nulls. All perfect Gary Stus, who can do no wrong. Plus, there are 6 interchangeable men. Maybe if it were only Ordo, I could stand them, but having six indistinguishable, perfect men is too much for me to handle.
5.Other quibbles:
a)Darman's sudden change to want to return home felt out of left field.
b)Kad acts way off-kilter for a toddler, even a Force sensitive one.
c)Jusik having no attachment to his master? Maybe I got spoiled with the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan relationship from the Jedi Apprentice series.
d)Did you hear Palpatine is a Sith? Apparently everyone in this galaxy knows.
e)Too much time spent on Kyrimorout, aka "Walton's Mountain". In fact, in the beginning, I wanted to call the book "The Skiratas" after "The Waltons" because of all the time they spent at home doing homey things. Isn't this a Star Wars novel?
f)No Dramatis Personae. I've always had trouble figuring out who was what and this time it was even harder than usual.

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Expect to confront the Mando curse word "fierfek". Other than that, not much.
Little to none. Other than perhaps Kad being the child of a liaison between Etain and Darman and that Altis' clan take lovers, not much is made in this regard.
People die in the novel, one by suicide (not to spoil too much, hopefully) and one when attacked by a Jedi. Niner and Darman see a lot of battle in this one.

Overall:
One hundred pages into it, I was going to throw in the towel. I just couldn't take the "At Home on Kyrimorout" any longer. This was a commando novel, where were the commandos doing something besides raising Star Wars chickens? Thankfully, the Niner and Darman story saved it and the Kyrimorout sections actually started to go somewhere besides to the barnyard.
Lots of good stuff happens in this book. We get an inside view of the Empire, see Jusik wonder about his Jedi heritage, see the prejudices of the characters through a mostly unbiased eye (Nyreen), and learn more of why the Empire lasted so long (fear and complacency). Plus, there are some good Jedi chases and fights.
But a lot of "filler" happens too. People talk endlessly about topics we've heard inside and out. More anti-Jedi bias. More silly Kyrimorout "happy family" scenes. And a LOT of characters (fortunately, most background).
Imperial Commando: 501st is a good novel, but I would not recommend reading it unless you have read the last four Republic Commando novels. I tried to start without reading Order 66, and it was confusing. And while it has its bumps, if you don't mind a highly Mando bias (I did), you should enjoy.

[Iset · Rating 1 out of 5]

All I can think is how unneeded this book was.

It doesn’t feel like Star Wars and hasn’t since after the very first book in this mini-series. I didn’t find reading about the clone commandos’ snack breaks scintillating stuff in book two, and here it’s more of the same. The plot drags its heels for ages with the clones out on the homestead, where we read about growing crops and raising livestock, the women preparing meals in the kitchen, and Kal Skirata chopping logs for the fire. Thrilling. And for some reason, for a series that started out as pretty solid military fiction, the series seems to have descended into soap-opera-y nonsense. Anyone who’s single gets paired off lickety split, with the women having no problem giving up their lives and careers to completely embrace the Mandalorian way and discovering that all they ever really wanted after all was a nice strong clone and to bake bread together on a communal farm. So much of the book is centred around trivial daily events and activities, and at times it feels like Traviss is trying to write contemporary romance – I don’t know how else to explain the gas leak and the game of football in which they mull over the offside rule.

By the way did you know that all of the Jedi were horrible, evil people who deserve to be hunted down by Palpatine’s agents. Sure don’t feel sorry for them!

And then, to cap it all off, the series ends on a massive cliffhanger from the clone who started it all, Darman, and fans never got a sequel because it all got cancelled. Wow. Even if I was a fan of this series, that would annoy the heck out of me. Honestly it would be better to pretend these characters’ stories ended in the previous book, or, if you take my view and just don’t click with these books, just avoid the whole series.

Definitely in my Top Ten Worst Star Wars Books.

1 out of 10

[Caleb Likes Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I’ve finally finished the Republic Commando series, and I’m happy to say it went out on a high note. The series was unfortunately canceled before it was completed due to Traviss leaving the project, so this doesn’t really wrap things up, but it’s still a solid book and set up some interesting things that will unfortunately never see the light of day.

I think this book is basically the same as the others in the series in terms of what it does well: the characters and the lore. Many great characters return in this book, the standouts in my opinion still being Kal and Darman, though others certainly have their moments. The interactions between all of them are interesting and are my favorite part of this series. I also have really enjoyed the expansion on the clones and Mandalorian culture; while both were pretty heavily contradicted by The Clone Wars TV show (which is why Traviss ended up leaving), it’s still super interesting as an alternate take on these groups.

The plot here is good too, though nothing I was extremely into. The most interesting part for me was seeing how the characters, particularly the clones, were responding to the birth of the Empire. It’s something I’ve always been curious about and I think it was handled well here. There are also some plot points that follow up ones from past books that I enjoyed, such as what’s going on with Darman.

Not really any negatives here to speak of, at least ones I can really point out. Certain elements of the plot I wasn’t that into, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t say it’s an incredible book or anything—just that there are no glaring issues I have with it.

Overall this is another strong entry into the series, and one that I wish had gotten a follow-up. There are several plot points set up or continued here that I wish we’d gotten some resolution to. But as it is, this is an enjoyable book that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Rating: 8/10

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this, the final (although not intentionally) book of the Republic/Imperial Commando series, Karen Traviss dramatically changes the tone of the series, but keeps the same characters and types of plot.

The book is entirely steeped in the events of Revenge of the Sith, and the results of "Order 66". The loss of a character from that book really overshadows the entire book here.

The main characters interestingly, felt very out of character. There are a few scenes where Skirata goes berserk when he sees another character, and I don't understand why he hates that character so much. They seemed to be on amiable terms in previous books. I think Traviss was trying to make a conflict between characters that didn't really work here. Some of the Commandos also felt odd in this book..

Darman's story was the most fascinating here, and I thought that his journey of disassosiation was fascinating, and that even though it was extreme, it seemed believable. And Niner became a much more interesting character, as he tried to bridge the rest of the characters with Darman.

I also thought that Jusik had a very interesting journey in this book. His difficulties with reconciling his Jedi nature and his Mandalorian nature kept me invested.

I also thought the "Hunting Jedi" portion of the book with Darman and Niner was probably the best "Commando" plot of the series. I've never cared for the Commando missions, but the mission here was the most compelling of the series.

Overall, the book was pretty good, certainly a lot better than Order 66, but not as good as True Colors, and still just a "good" series overall. 7 out of 10.

(I'd give the overall series a 7 out of 10 as well).

[Meggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars, reluctantly rounded up

For 2024 2025 2026, 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 fifth book in the Republic Commando series, 501st: an Imperial Commando novel by Karen Traviss.

SOME HISTORY:

The 501st Legion charity group was formed in 1997 by Albin Johnson and Tom Crews, and the 501st have expanded over the years from just stormtrooper cosplayers to every single Star Wars villain. They have extensive information on how to make screen accurate costumes, they have garrisons all around the world, and they do so much volunteer charity work—they’re great! The 501st were canonized in two stories by Timothy Zahn in 2004, Fool's Bargain and Survivor's Quest, and Traviss’s decision to name her 2009 novel after them was a lovely gesture.

MY RECOLLECTION OF THE BOOK:

As with most of the Republic Commando books, I had never read Imperial Commando before. I read it over a year ago, then I had to reread it because the only notes I took from my first readthrough were the words “self-indulgent melodrama.”

A BRIEF SUMMARY:

The Jedi have been decimated in the aftermath of Order 66, and the Republic has fallen. The former Republic Commandos now find themselves on opposing sides in very different armor. Some have deserted and fled to Mandalore with Kal Skirata, while others from Omega and Delta Squad now find themselves stuck on Coruscant, serving as Imperial Commandos tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi. All of them will have their loyalty tested by the looming threat of Palpatine's new empire...

THE PLOT:

Imperial Commando ends with very few plotlines resolved, because Traviss was originally contracted for two Imperial Commando novels—the second was cancelled after Traviss withdrew from the project. On Coruscant, Niner and Darman from Omega Squad have been absorbed into the 501st and are tasked with hunting down fugitive Jedi. Niner wants to desert and go to Mandalore, but Darman is going through a lot of issues and emotionally isn’t ready to leave. They’re ultimately dispatched on three missions, but most of the book is devoted to Niner trying to get important intel offplanet to Kal Skirata.

Meanwhile, Kal Skirata and fam are dug in on his farm on Mandalore. The Imperials have a garrison in Keldabe and Fenn Shysa wants them to help with his possible rebellion, but they’re not going to get involved with any of that. There's a lot of time spent mourning Etain and wondering what they're going to do next and debating how they are going to extract Niner and Darman and pairing people off romantically and getting angry at the Jedi.

CHARACTERS:

I was most interested in what happened with the Omega Squad guys on Coruscant. Niner misses his brothers and wishes he could have made it to Mandalore with them, but he doesn’t feel like he can abandon Darman right now in his current state. Niner is rather skeptical of what the 501st is being tasked to do, and doesn’t hate the Jedi like some of the other Mando-trained clones do. During their first assignment, he gets his hand on some important information from the Jedi safehouse and knows that he needs to conceal it from the Empire. It turns out to be information about Master Altis’s network moving younglings and padawans to Plett’s Well, a connection from Barbara Hambly’s Children of the Jedi.

Niner decides to keep Darman out of the loop, though, because Darman is increasingly unstable and also falling under the sway of their new supervisor, Roly Melusar. Melusar is a true believer who thinks that all Force users, Jedi or Dark or otherwise, need to be eliminated. Skirata sends the Nulls to Coruscant to pick up Niner and Darman, but Darman refuses to come after learning there are Jedi on the farm and Niner hands over the information but stays with the 501st for plot reasons. I say plot reasons because this felt drawn out, like Traviss didn’t want to resolve this until book number two…but there is no book two. I don’t want Niner to abandon his brother, but Darman is a mess. If he waits for Darman, he’s going to be waiting a long time. Niner’s steady and dependable, and his POV sections were a breath of fresh air compared to Darman’s traumatic nonsense.

Darman seems like he’s losing his mind. He’s gone through a lot in the past few books: Etain had a baby and didn’t tell him for over a year, he got married via text message only for Etain to stupidly die during Order 66, and he’s convinced that the Jedi are going to steal his son. He’s an easy target for Melusar’s anti-Force rhetoric. As we end the book, he asks to go to Mandalore on a mission so he can grab his son and run. I felt bad for Darman, but I also wished that someone would smack him upside the head and tell him he’s behaving irrationally because Niner tiptoes around his issues. I know that no one thinks rationally in the depths of grief, but Darman is clearly struggling and also a tad too unhinged.

Delta Squad is barely in this. We see the guys during 501st briefings, it’s mentioned that Walon Vau is going to Kashyyyk to look for Sev, but there’s no resolution on that front and it doesn’t seem like Skirata’s gang makes any attempt to get the Delta guys off Coruscant during their failed extraction mission.

Of the new squad members that the former Omega Squad gets assigned, two were trained by Corellians and don’t view themselves as Mandalorian at all. Bry dies during the first mission, and Ennen takes his own life after they find that the subject of the second mission wasn’t even a Jedi, just a random guy who stole a lightsaber. That was awful. You really feel for these troopers, because while the Clone Wars may have ended, their service won’t end and they’ll constantly be deployed at new threats until the Empire has no more use for them. They’re also assigned one of the new Spaarti cylinder clones after Bry is killed, and his name is Rede. Niner and Darman talk trash about him at first, but later try to bring him into the group more. We don’t know much about him at this point other than he’s a very quick study.

Then there are the hordes of Kal Skirata’s found family on Mandalore. (Good golly.) I feel like my criticisms of Kal Skirata from previous books remain the same in this one, so I’d rather focus on other characters. I like that we got Nyreen’s viewpoint in this book, because she provided a much-needed outsider’s perspective. She is troubled at times by Kal’s hypocrisy and deep-seated anger and pro-Mando/anti-Jedi sentiments, but since she’s his romantic interest I don’t feel like her insights were deep enough. She has some awareness of this weird cultlike dynamic, but then she will feel bad for him and make him cookies. I like any acknowledgement that Skirata’s attitude and actions can be bonkers, but the anti-Jedi sentiments are still very strong here.

Of the Nulls, the only viewpoint character we get is Ordo. Ordo barely interacts with Bessany now that they’re married, and he’s upset about the presence of Kal’s actual daughter Ruu on the farm. He keeps reiterating that if Jusik can’t wipe the Jedi’s memories of their time on Mandalore, he’ll kill them. Ordo, calm down! I wish we could have gotten the POVs from different members of the Nulls outside of the short stories, like Mereel the ladies man or Jaing the hacker tech guy. Ordo’s fine, but the others seem like more fun.

The Separatist scientist Dr. Uthan is also on the farm, in hopes that she will work on the anti-aging cure that Ko Sai gave up on. She also falls for Mij Gilamar—I guess they have some things in common, since he’s a medical doctor and she’s a scientist? She becomes some sort of stand-in mother for Scout the Jedi padawan. After Palpatine uses the FG36 nanovirus on her homeworld of Gibad, it felt like a switch was flicked and all of a sudden she’s team Skirata. She comes up with a vaccine against the virus and they spread it to all of Mandalore which seems medically ethically dubious but whatever,

Nyreen brings some Jedi to the farm in the beginning of the book: Scout, the redhaired padawan from Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, and a Kaminoan Jedi named Kina Ha who was mentioned in the roleplaying game sourcebook Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Scout doesn’t feel like herself. She seems to be a substitute for Etain, she’s terrified of the clones, and she instantly gloms onto Dr. Uthan and Gilamar. What I loved about Scout in Yoda: Dark Rendezvous was that despite being weak in the Force, Scout tries harder than any other padawan. Yoda himself tells her that she has spirit and determination! We see none of that here. Everyone cries when they see her because she reminds them of Etain, and other than Etain being a weaker Jedi I just don’t see the connection here.

I think Traviss’s known tendency to not read the books that characters appear in and just base her knowledge on reference materials is most evident in her portrayal of pre-existing characters. While I liked seeing that Scout survived Order 66, this wasn’t the Scout that I loved in Sean Stewart’s book. And as cool as it was to incorporate Kina Ha, basically a footnote in the roleplaying game, she feels less like a distinct character and more like another mouthpiece for Traviss’s anti-Jedi agenda.

I felt the same about her use of Master Altis here. Altis was introduced in Children of the Jedi as Callista’s master, and to make sense of his unorthodox ways post-prequels he became a leader operating outside of the Coruscanti Jedi Order. So Master Altis is the “good” Jedi, and Yoda and the rest were bad. Kal Skirata meets with Altis, and Altis doesn’t push back against anything that Skirata says—including wiping the memory of the Jedi currently on Mandalore. Memory wiping or mind rubbing has always struck me as Dark Side adjacent, and I feel uneasy about its use anywhere but especially here. I'm concerned about how easily Master Altis accepted its possible use, especially when Bardan Jusik has never done anything like that before!

In addition to Scout and Kina Ha, Arligan Zey also ends up on the farm after the Nulls extract former Captain Maze and find out that he’s brought Zey along too. Zey seems like a shadow of his former self, silently accepting the Skirata gang’s verbal abuse and threats of violence against him. Camas was a jerk, but Zey had always been understanding of Skirata and the Nulls so this felt like an overreaction. They also bring up the idea that Etain didn’t want the Jedi to know about her baby because they would have taken him from her, and at least Zey firmly pushes back against the notion.

I wish Bardan Jusik would get some therapy. He’s gone 180 degrees from quitting the Jedi Order to becoming a Mandalorian, and his idolization of Kal Skirata and attempt to renounce his Force skills as well as his Jedi heritage is sad to see. Also, Zey was his Master for years! He ignores him and treats him like crap! This is not healthy behavior!

The most traumatized individual on the farm is probably Jango Fett’s older sister, Arla, a character introduced but not named in Jango Fett - Open Seasons. We learn that she was kidnapped by Death Watch, developed Stockholm Syndrome, worked for them as an assassin before ending up in Republic custody doped up on heavy antipsychotics. She’s deeply unhappy, she doesn’t want to live with what she’s done, and Jusik is considering wiping her memory as well. Ohhhhh boy.

On the bad guy front, it’s…complicated. The Empire is obviously bad, but they feel like a far off threat. Then all of a sudden at the end, we’re told that Death Watch is back courtesy of Dred Priest and his nasty girlfriend, Gilamar kills Priest and throws his body in the river, and the Skirata gang is like “yikes, that might be an issue.” This threat really should have been built up over the course of the book, and maybe even in previous books. It's difficult to feel concerned about the reemergence of Death Watch when Traviss springs it on the reader at the very end.

ISSUES:

My first issue with IC was the glacially slow pace of the story. I think Karen Traviss wanted to give Kal Skirata’s little gang some R&R as they figure out their new life, but it was so darn boring to read. There are two missions that the Skiratas carry out (extracting Maze, then trying to extract Niner and Darman), and they happen way too quickly. I wouldn’t even count first Bardan Jusik and later Kal Skirata meeting with Master Altis as missions per se, because those conversations are over in a fraction of a chapter. There are so many scenes of characters just hanging around on the farm, and after four books of lots of action it’s dull!

It felt like Traviss was running out of steam, as though the more characters she introduced and the more interpersonal conflict was added to the narrative, the more soap opera-like these books became. (Soap operas are wild and crazy, though. This was boring.) My sole note from my first readthrough about “self-indulgent melodrama” was directed at the sheer quantity of characters wallowing in the mire of their emotions. I can understand that up to a point, but you can’t sustain a whole book on that!

When I was a kid, I played with Barbie dolls, and one Thanksgiving when my cousins came to visit my cousin stole my Barbies because G.I. Joe needed a girlfriend. So much of this book felt like that! In earlier books, A’tin met Laseema the waitress, and we had the whole Darman and Etain fiasco, and eventually Ordo married Bessany. But it reaches a point here where people are getting together basically off screen. Jitka gets together with Corr for some unfathomable reason—I suppose because he is an unattached clone trooper? They busted her out of prison in book 4 and forcibly dumped her on Mandalore, but it’s inexplicably all OK now. Towards the end we’re told that Kal’s daughter Ruu is romantically involved with one of Rav Bralor’s troopers, and we never saw any of that connection play out! Dr. Uthan and Mij Gilamar get together because I guess they’re single older people, and everyone pushes Nyreen at Kal Skirata. So much of this felt like shoving Barbies at G.I. Joes and pairing all the spares.

Additionally, the Mandalorians have always been depicted by Traviss as this strong warrior culture with egalitarian traditions, and we have met strong female Mandalorians like Rav Bralor and her niece Parja—or in the Legacy of the Force series, Boba Fett’s granddaughter Mirta Gev. But in IC, apart from Nyreen we only see the women in the kitchen. (Even Nyreen makes cookies for Kal Skirata at one point!) Bessany is a very intelligent Republic auditor, she probably should be handling their finances, but instead she spends all her time in the kitchen trying to be the perfect wife for Ordo. Where did these 1950s gender dynamics come from? Now that they’re on Mandalore, the women are all in the kitchen and the men just sit around discussing what they're going to do. This is Mandalore—I expected better than this!

I was most interested in Niner and Darman's plotline, but it felt like we were constantly cutting away from them to boring Mandalore sequences. And even the sections focused on Niner and Darman felt…insufficient. They go on three short missions total: the first assignment, where they’re looking for the Antarian ranger and they encounter Iri Camas; the second one, where they get word of a Jedi in the depths of Coruscant but it’s actually a normal dude who stole a lightsaber; and the third mission, where they’re sent to a space station and Rede kills the Jedi. Melusar talks a lot about he’s going to send them to take down the remaining Jedi, especially Master Altis’s group. But so much of this felt like “we can’t do anything important here because we’re saving it for book 2.” There is no book 2!

Reading IC, I got very upset because it felt like so much squandered potential. I enjoyed Hard Contact a lot, I have recommended it to many people, but I cannot recommend Order 66 or this one. What made the previous books interesting is drowned under poorly done romance, everyone talking about their feelings, and rants about how much the Jedi suck. I agreed with most of Traviss’s talking points about the clones, but then she squanders that goodwill with everything that comes afterwards. I found this an exceptionally frustrating reading experience; when I sat down to read this again for my review, I would get through one chapter then have to take a break for several days because I was getting really mad. Rinse and repeat. I can usually get through a Star Wars book in a week, but this one took me TWO MONTHS.

IN CONCLUSION:

501st: An Imperial Commando Novel by Karen Traviss is the first part of an unfinished story—because Traviss quit writing for Star Wars, we never got book number two. There were rumors about Del Rey commissioning someone else to write book number two but it never panned out. So, nothing is resolved in this book, and almost everything is left hanging for a second book that never materialized. While I was interested in what was going on with Niner and Darman on Coruscant, the scenes on Mandalore are endless scenes of characters sitting around and doing nothing. Some plot threads are obviously set up for book number two, but none of that is resolved here.

That makes Imperial Commando a really hard sell for me, because why would I recommend a slow, messy, frustrating book that leaves the reader hanging? But at the very least, I'm glad I finally finished the Republic Commando series and can now bid farewell to the Skirata gang and their endless drama.


Next up: the third book in the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn, Dynasty of Evil.

YouTube review: https://youtu.be/2BOwTI1kl_I

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why do I keep coming back to this franchise? Maybe its because I'm a bit of a masochist who likes being hit over the head with a 2x4 of morality and ethics, or maybe it's because I want to bleed my savings account a bit more.

No. The real reason is that I'm going out on limb, hoping, praying for some action sequences, moral ambiguity, and the struggle against the Empire like this novel would imply, alas I am wrong. So very, very wrong.

Once more, we are given another dose of why Yoda's Jedi Order is bad, and that there was another one all along that permits love. I don't know if I should start taking offense here, because Lucas states that he based the Jedi off warrior monks. I wonder if Traviss is aware of this? Because the way how she portrays the Jedi seem to suggest otherwise.

Had she written a counter view, then this novel would be a lot better as it shows to conflicting views. But no, the entire novel is about how bad the Jedi is, it's rediculous. There are no fast paced scenes of fighting the Empire to survive, nor the fear of being hunted by Darth Vader. No. It's just talking and why Jedi are bad.

Really felt like I wasted my money buying this. But hey, I've had many chances to stop, I've got no one to blame but me for getting into this.

[DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Traviss's characters, but this Commando installment is probably the weakest example of her prose. Lots of repetition. Repeating things about what Clones are like. Especially if you've read other books in this series. Stuff gets repeated. Within a few paragraphs. There's often repetition.

But the characters are great. This book is also more character driven (as opposed to action driven) than her other Commando books.

I'm changing my review to 2 stars instead of 3. Because the more I think about it, the more obvious it is that Traviss just phoned this one in. There's all kinds of set up for how she'll wrap this all up in Imp Comm 2, but now she's not writing that book. So I'm irritated. And still annoyed by all the repetition.

[Rooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

So very annoying that the series ended prematurely with this book!

[Johannes]

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve put off finishing Republic Commando, the book series I’ve been re-reading following the 20th anniversary of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and my subsequent dive back into the first fandom of my childhood, Star Wars. The series doesn’t have a happy ending (or even an ending.) That played into my reluctance.

What was worse, however, was that I instantly knew I wouldn’t have time to write down all the thoughts that were swirling around my head upon re-reading. I was feeling myself slip into the sort of derangement all too familiar to all those of us who are in fandom, or worse, academia.

It’s funny re-reading books that you were obsessed with when you were young. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you accidentally discover a common thread that has been winding its way through your life since before you could even name it as such. Imagine my delight when, after four years of working on a dissertation on group identity, nationalism, and gender, I picked up the Republic Commando series and found these themes staring me right back in the face.

The books are sexist. There’s no way around it, and their sexism becomes more apparent as the series goes on. Most of the criticism I’ve seen of the books’ sexism has tended to focus on the treatment of the female characters. There’s certainly a lot there.

Take Etain Tur-Mukan, the Jedi protagonist. She’s a padawan at the beginning of the series, becomes a knight and a commander in the army. Her story is heartbreakingly compelling: she’s a young woman who struggles with her grasp of the Force, who is forced to assume a military command and ends up finding community with the clones because she, too, is a kind of outcast.

Yet Etain, simply because she is a woman, is constantly called naïve for actions that male characters commit with impunity. This judgement has nothing to do with her actions, and everything to do with the fact that she is undertaking these actions as a woman. When she decides to keep a pregnancy from her boyfriend, she is called selfish. When the man’s adoptive father decides to do the same, it’s called a rational risk-assessment. Plus, as her pregnancy progresses, we get to hear all sorts of characters remark on how crazy her hormones must be making her. It’s enough to make a man consider something drastic, like write a blog post.

There are further examples. Besany Wennen, a woman whose main characterising feature is how hot she is, gets shoehorned into a housewife role once she meets a clone trooper boyfriend. One of the only female Mandalorians we meet, Rav Bralor, barely has speaking lines, and all she gets to do is (literally) make a home. (This is compared to other Mandalorians who are introduced later in the series whose roles gradually expand.)

Still, I’m not so interested in the sexism inherent in making most of your female characters homemakers and wives and just generally secondary to the male characters. There’s something deeper here. I’m interested in how the sexism of the books subverts the idea of Mandalorian identity as an open identity.

One thing Mandalorians textually do not care about is descent from a Mandalorian lineage. Traditionally, descent is a key aspect of nationalist rhetoric. Jus sanguinis, the law of the blood, is still a way in which many states understand their citizenship policy: you have to be born to the people to be of the people. This notion has led and continues to lead to hate crimes, organised violence, and genocide.

Traviss takes descent away from her Mandalorians and then asks: what does identity look like in the absence of this? And she manages to create a compelling story for an identity that succeeds not in spite of this absence, but precisely because of its absence. Mando identity works anywhere, for anyone who feels othered in their place in life, and who would like to belong somewhere. It is the quintessential inclusive identity.

I don’t think Traviss is very interested in interrogating the exclusions her culture produces, but I am. The books mostly support her story of an inclusive identity because the characters she presents truly are vulnerable and oppressed. One of the most compelling aspects of the books is her interrogation of the rights of clones, and the ethics of creating an army of people who were literally bred to fight.
At the same time, the story works in favour of her narrative of an open identity because, as long as there’s a war on where only certain people fight, the gender order underlying her books remains unquestioned. The commando squads are all men because the clones are all men. The culture is martial because there’s a war on and as such, certain things (a humour, a habitus) can be excused. The exclusion of women from these military spaces, which we would have to question in our culture, are explained in-story, and are therefore, to a certain extent, beyond criticism. After all, the books didn’t invent the clone army, or the way male soldiers will talk amongst themselves.

Moreover, Mandalorian culture seems to offer a way out of the rigid hierarchy of the army. Mandalorian culture offers the clones an identity, becoming a sort of salvation for them in a world that regards them as sub-human. And readers can rest assured that everything is better in this Mandalorian utopia: you are judged based on merit, not on where you came from. You, too, can belong, as long as you follow the basic tenets.

Still, the gender order continues to haunt the books.

At the beginning of each chapter, a quote introduces a commentary on something in the books: a plot point that can be resolved off-screen, a news bulletin about an event, or, in later books, further worldbuilding. In one of those quotes, the introduction of the resol’nare, the basic tenets of Mandalorian society is framed as a mother teaching her daughter.

Now, when I find myself in times of trouble regarding questions of cultural reproduction and gender, I turn to esteemed feminist sociologist Nira Yuval-Davis and her colleague Floya Anthias to aid me. Yuval-Davis & Anthias (1989, p. 7) wrote:

“[W]e can [...] locate five major (although not exclusive) ways in which women have tended to participate in ethnic and national processes and in relation to state practices. These are:
(a) as biological reproducers of members of ethnic collectivities;
(b) as reproducers of the boundaries of ethnic/national groups;
(c) as participating centrally in the ideological reproduction of the collectivity and as transmitters of its culture;
(d) as signifiers of ethnic/national differences—as a focus and symbol in ideological discourses used in the construction, reproduction and transformation of ethnic/national categories;
(e) as participants in national, economic, political and military struggles.”

“Women as reproducers of national culture” is literally one of the staples of nationalist ideology.

While Mandalorian culture subverts the biologically reproducing nation, and Mandalorian culture is not particularly interested in women as symbols or boundary markers, Mandalorian women are both participants in the national struggle, and central to the ideological reproduction of the collective. If you go to the Wookieepedia article on Legends Mandalorians right now, and you read the section on society, you can read this wonderful paragraph:

“Mandalorian males were all expected to be warriors, and were responsible for training their sons to be the same. Females were expected to have the same martial skills as males, and were responsible for the training of daughters. They were also expected to be able to cook, and to care for any young children and defend the home if the men were away. But if they had no children dependent on them, females would fight side by side with the men on the battlefield, and the couple was expected to share the responsibilities in the home.”

I will only say this once: If care work is the primary responsibility of women, your society is not free of sexism. This is a post-sexist society the same way many Soviet societies claimed to be post-sexism, by bringing women into the labour market while still leaving them with care responsibilities at home that left the fundamental division of labour between the genders untouched.

We see Kal Skirata, the main Mandalorian of the series, teach his sons Mandalorian culture, and his identity as a father is central to his character—and yet, when it comes to illustrating cultural reproduction, Traviss chooses a woman? Was it out of some instinct about the absence of women in her stories? Or was she reaching for that underlying trope, that women-as-culture narrative that so often excludes them from political participation?

For all of the emphasis on gender equality and Kal raising the boys, women are still expected to be reproducers of national culture, and beyond that “beautiful soul[s]” (Elshtain, 1987, p. xiii) for whom men fight.

Most of the clones get paired of over the course of the series, mostly with a woman they have met once. With the exception of one or two of these pairs, few of their relationship dynamics get significant plot time, so you’re left to wonder what these two people have in common. Truly the only for adding women into the story at all is to give them a clone boyfriend shortly thereafter. Not only is it sexist, it’s also wildly heteronormative. Are we really supposed to believe that, out of three million clones with distinct personalities and preferences, all three million turned out with a romantic and sexual attraction that fits our broad cultural norm?

This point leads me straight to the tension between family and descent as understood in the Mando way. One of the books’ central plots revolves around the pregnancy of one of the Jedi characters, Etain. She decides to have a child with her clone partner to give him a kind of future. This, textually, is “the Mandalorian way.” Children represent the future. A biological child represents a personal future.

It's interesting to consider this notion in the context of the wider series, because few other characters express the idea that biological children constitute a kind of individual futurity. Quite the opposite, there is a Mandalorian saying that goes “aliit ori’shya tal’din,” meaning “family is more than blood.” And yet, there is also this notion that to conceive a child that carries forward one’s genes is a special kind of futurity, moreso than any other connection the clones manage to build.

I turn to the Mandalorian tenet “tribe.” Mandalorian culture is textually at least somewhat anarchist, organised in loosely federated clans of “chosen families” (I shudder to use the term.) Yet the families we are presented with understand themselves in nuclear family terms or are even related by blood. These traditional families often adhere to quite traditional gender roles and hierarchical structures, structured along lines of parent/child and husband/wife. Most every who enters into the clan eventually has to assume one of these roles. Men are adopted; women marry into the clan. This is not a tribal clan—it's the national family.

I’m going to level with you; this is the part where my desire for what I want Mandalorian society to be runs up against what the text wants it to be. There’s a huge potential in these “loosely federated clans,” but they all group under one leader anyway, even if he doesn’t do much and generally doesn’t hold that much power. My little anarchist heart beats a little faster when I imagine the potential in a society that organises based on need, that disperses and re-forms based on mutual solidarity. But it’s not what the text gives us.

The family does a lot of work in the imagining of the nation. Renowned feminist scholar Anne McClintock has written on the importance of the family image that the nation as a family can legitimise hierarchical structures under supposedly unified interests. Put differently: When we imagine the nation as a family, we accept that some naturally have more rights than others (husbands over wives, parents over children), but that all work towards a common goal (McClintock, 1993, p. 64). The Mandalorian clans presented in Republic Commando reproduce this.

As (no doubt) so many of you, I recently also finished the second season of Andor. That show, too, revolves around a community of people that share a common identity of choice—but that community rarely cleaves to a family structure. People organise because of shared ideals, and they create a community based on that. Sometimes they also create families, but family is not a given.

Why is it so hard to imagine Andor, and so easy to imagine these Mandalorians? Perhaps, deep down, many of us secretly long for the suffocating embrace of the nuclear family, a community of destiny that removes our ability to choose, because the choice is exhausting. And with, almost as an echo, comes a longing for the nation state it implies, one with a basis in biological descent and gender binaries.

One thing that’s also quite revealing of the series’ biases is the way in which phrases are translated from Mando’a into English. Mando’a is a gender-neutral language, but personal nouns such as buir (parent) are regularly translated as “father,” and it’s noted in-text as exceptional when they’re applied to women as “mother.” Part of this, I’m sure, is an assumed English-speaking unease with using gender neutral terms (no one would affectionately call their parent “parent,” I suppose) but that creates a gendered impression of a language that should be gender neutral.

All in all, gender is fundamental to the Mandalorians. This becomes evident in cultural reproduction, in notions of family and the homeland. Mandalorians, it seems, are just another national culture. Nothing new under the sun, not even in a galaxy far, far away.

The failure of Mandalorian identity to truly constitute an open, non-essentialist identity is inextricably linked to the failure of imagining a different gender order. As Anne McClintock (1993, p. 77) writes:

“If nationalism is not transformed by an analysis of gender power, the nation-state will remain a repository of male hopes, male aspirations and male privilege.”

Without an understanding of how gender figures into the construction of national collectivities, and without a strong feminist ethos, the Mandalorians remain a national collective much like any other. The Mandalorian community is imagined through central tenets that value the family, the language, and traditions. The transmission of culture and language is a gendered process. Lastly, the family as a basis of social organisation legitimises gendered hierarchies. Women remain homemakers, even as they’re also warriors.

I felt a certain sadness when I wrapped up the last book of my re-read. As a kid, I bought into the story of Mandalorian culture. As a trans guy, closeted even from myself, I nevertheless understood myself as one of the guys. Surely the exclusions that I did perceive (that I could not help perceive, because they were sexist exclusions I was encountering in my daily life lived as a woman) would magically not apply to me. I have since ingested too much feminist theory to still be fun at parties, and I no longer want to ignore these exclusions, even if they might not mean me. A community founded on a binary notion of gender that props up a system of exclusions can never be the community that liberates us.

Still, I do not love this series any less after my re-read. If anything, I love it more, because it taught me something about myself: even before I started this PhD, I was drawn to stories about groups of people that investigate the mythology they share. I turned that passion into a 300+ page dissertation, but I can trace it all the way back to reading these books, as a nerdy teenager in the mid-aughts.

May we all nerd out so hard that it earns us a postgraduate degree.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #174

Background: 501st was written by Karen Traviss. It was published in October of 2009. This is the 5th and final book in Traviss's Republic Commando series. Her other Star Wars books include 3 of the Legacy of the Force series.

501st begins 3 weeks after the Battle of Coruscant, 19 years before the Battle of Yavin. The book features all of the surviving characters from the series so far, focusing as usual on Kal Skirata, Darman, and Bardan Jusik. The book takes place mostly on Coruscant and Mandalore.

Summary: The Jedi have fallen and the Republic has become the Empire. Clan Skirata struggles to pick up the pieces as they begin their new life in exile on Mandalore, having sustained devastating losses in their escape from Coruscant. Kal hopes for at least a partial restoration if they can rescue Darman and Niner, left behind in the chaos and now pressed into service in the Empire's relentless push to conclude the Jedi Purge. Meanwhile, as the Imperials move to consolidate a stranglehold over the entire galaxy, Clan Skirata wonders whether they can keep from being drawn back into war.

Review: I wouldn't have believed after finishing the fantastic first book in this series that I would be so happy to see it end, and end in premature cancellation. The completist in me rebels at this, but nothing good could have come of any further stories wasted on these tiresome characters. It does still rub me the wrong way that Traviss was driven to quit the series after The Clone Wars animated series unceremoniously steamrolled all of her meticulous Mandalorian world-building, but "self-indulgent" doesn't even begin to describe the melodramatic depths to which this series has sunk.

The book, like (frankly) most of the rest of this series, exists as an excuse to spend more time with the characters and inch their series arc forward another few inches, and any smaller "story" that happens is almost an afterthought, stretched impossibly thin across pages and pages of filler as the same conversations play out again and again. And at this point, I just have so much contempt for these people and their values that it's almost painful.

The central conflict here is that our heroes don't seem to understand that the Jedi Order has been shattered beyond repair, and are still obsessed with petty prejudice against a dwindling group of fugitives on the brink of being hunted to exctinction while the rest of the galaxy crumbles around them. Desperate Jedi keep showing up at Skirata's secret hideout, and he won't let them stay and he can't let them go. So, the characters argue and argue about what to do, and clones spout absurd lines like, "I'd willingly give my life for you, but I won't risk it for a Jedi. Not even a kind one. It makes a mockery of everything we've been through." Not only is this complete nonsense, but one of the Jedi in question is a child, and somehow I'm supposed to believe this presents a real moral conundrum as opposed to being just flatly obvious to anyone who isn't a sociopath.

But of course, even when Skirata questions his own outrageous attitudes and behavior (because ceratinly none of the other characters will), they are quick to reassure him that of course he's a saint among mortals: "Am I being a bigot? About Jedi, I mean."

"Well, you are a bigot, but you gave Jusik a chance. And you haven't shot Kina Ha or Scout yet."

Could the bar for being a good person possibly be any lower? "You tolerate this guy who renounced the Jedi Order to worship at your feet, and you haven't murdered a child and an old woman yet (... YET!), so you're pretty much a paragon of compassion and restraint." They're actually proud of him for scraping up the literal bare minimum of civilized decency. But even this dilemma ultimately comes to nothing, as we are presented with a loophole that allows Skirata to have his cake and eat it, too.

And still, his is almost a decent arc compared to some of the others. I very much want to throw Darman off of the nearest Coruscant skyscraper for the outrageously stupid 180 flip he does here. Traviss left me with no one to root for . . . why read on at that point? Even developments that felt like they might go somewhere interesting earlier on seem empty and flat here. During the last few books, some of the clones have begun movings towards having families, but "one-dimensional" is a generous way to characterize how well-developed these relationships are. Traviss even draws attention to how flat this is at one point, though I'm not entirely sure it was intentional. One of the earliest clone relationships, aside from Darman, was between Ordo and Besany Wennen. They're both fine characters, at least in terms of potential, but their relationship is as devoid of chemistry as any I've ever read.

In retrospect, they ended up together almost by default, and they never seem to actually develop any sort of real connection with each other beyond the simple fact that they're married . . . for some reason. Pretty late in the novel, Besany says: "Actually, the point I was making was that I spend less time with you now than I did when you were in the army." And I was like, "Hang on a second, she's right! I don't know that they've had one other scene together this whole novel, or even a scene where either of them was particularly upset that they aren't really spending time together."

And then Ordo replies, "But we're married now." ... What?

Besany: "If romance isn't dead, it's certainly coughing up blood." Boy, you said it. What is this mess? And then, that's kind of the end of it. I think they resolve to do better? I honestly can't be bothered to remember, but that exchange doesn't really turn into anything. I almost think it was meant to be a bit of fish-out-of-water humor about her adjusting to the always-exalted "Mando" culture. Just . . . get me out of here.

D+

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's no secret by now that Traviss was all about the Madaloeans and their culture, but by now, five books into one series with three others that are tangentially related, it's getting a little tiresome. I enjoy the worlds and characters she created, but how many kids does Skirata have now? Fifteen? Maybe more? Extending that culture among this many novels strains some of what makes the stories and characters interesting, as the novels become repetitious.

In 501st, Darman and Niner are now a part of the Imperial Commando unit, while the rest of their teammates have deserted back to Mandalore. A large part of the novel is devoted to how Darman and Niner are going to make it back to join them, and there's an additional plot involving Uthan developing a virus that will make Mandalore immune to Palpatine's biological weapon, but for the most part, nothing happens in this book. It's 434 pages of build-up for the second half of this series, which, famously, was never written. You can find a summary of what Traviss had in store for her characters on the Star Wars wiki, and it looks like it would have been a good continuation and conclusion to Skirata and his extended family. Unfortunately, it doesn't save the book from being long, tedious, repetitive, and ultimately pointless.

The saving grace for this book is that people who have already made the journey with these characters through the Republic Commando novels will get one last chance to see them. It's just a shame that it comes with an unresolved ending. The previous books were self-contained stories that followed a larger arc; 501st is not. Even if the second book had been written and published, I'd still be disappointed that this book is just setup for the next one.

[Jacksen Eddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering the book series was altered as the Clone Wars show came into the Star Wars universe. I thought this was the most compelling of the stories and despite everything coming to a perfectly tied conclusion, it ended in a way that left me satisfied. I wish we would’ve gotten the final version though.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this one, and I probably never will. What I did read did not thrill me. I loved the idea of seeing what happened to the clones post-Clone Wars. It was a great concept, and in someone else's hands, it could have been a great book. But this was typical Karen Traviss- filled with unnecessary romance and dripping with melodramatic emotional goo. Clone soldiers with wives and children? Weepy Mandalorians? Puh-lease. When I pick up a Star Wars book, I expect to see epic battles, political intrigue, nefarious plots and total bad-assery. Not a grown man crying over a plate of cookies.

Now, if you like romance novels set in space and you think that every single flippin' character DOES need to have a spouse/significant other/mad crush, and you think it's sweet when touch guys get all teary eyed every other page, or in short, if you like Karen Traviss and you don't think she should give up and go write for Harlequin, then by all means, read this book. You'll love it.

[Erik Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not as strong as the previous Commando books, and the series is starting to read like a Mandalorian ethnography. Lighter on action and intrigue, Karen Traviss has shifted the focus to personal drama and family dynamic. To be honest it's starting to feel like a soap opera, As Mandalore Turns or The Cloned and the Restless if you will.

While this book was a little slower than its bretheren, I am looking forward to the next book and seeing how Darman pulls off his daring escape. Hopefully this book was just bridging the gap between epic stories that I have come to expect from Ms. Traviss.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad it's her last contribution to the Star Wars universe.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this series and hope it continues one day. I really want to see what happens to the main characters. How far will Darman go? Will Niner follow?

[Fingon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sasvim kul iznet prelaz s atmosfere Republike i rata na atmosferu Imperije.
Definitivno jedan od najboljih serijala EU je završen, i završen je klifhengerom jer Dizni.

[Espresso · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second disappointment of the series.
In Order 66 Etain died stupidly. After proving herself intelligent and noble, she practically commits suicide. I have no problem with a character dying if it is "in character", but it was not.

In this book the main problem is Darman. One must understand he has no basis for dealing with the loss of Etain, but even so he is extremely volatile and irrational, which is not at all like Darman. He decides not to desert because he thinks he can do more good in the Imperial Army then in the last segment, suddenly changes his mind.

Many of the plot scenarios are left unresolved. What happens with Uthan, Ny & Skirata, Scout, Altis, Darman, Niner? This felt very slapped together. I certainly hope there is another novel on the way to rectify the last two.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Emperor has won and is consolidating his power. The Republic Commandos are now the Imperial Commandos. Niner and Dar are part of the 501st and their job is to track down and eliminate all Jedi.

The rest of the commando brothers are trying to regroup with Skirata at their head. The favorites are back, Jusik, Fi, Ordo to name a few.

I did not find this book to be in keeping with the first 4 books which I thought were excellent. Dar was just unfathomable in his attitudes and just didn't wring true for me. Very distracting. The rest of the stories, essentially back stories were very good though.

[McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a while to read this, simply because I knew the series was incomplete and I fell so deeply in love with these characters and their story that I didn't want the journey to end. But I couldn't put it off any longer. I'm beyond grateful to the author for penning these characters and themes the way she did. Their story was one I'd never thought I'd read, and one that turned out to be deeply changing for me. I will forever be sad that circumstances did not allow for the series to continue beyond this final book, but I will also be forever grateful that it continued as long as it did. Aay'han, indeed.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently I read this book instead of Order 66, thinking it was Order 66, because I'm an idiot and didn't stop to look at the cover. I guess I don't give Traviss merit as an author since I just assumed she'd just skipped over all the action that apparently occurred in the book I was supposed to read; I didn't stop to think that maybe, GASP, I was wrong. Anyway, I'm not going to bother reading Order 66 and I'm sure most of the issues I had with this novel wouldn't have been resolved had I gone into it having read the book I was supposed to.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing I can really say is that I'm so upset that these books never got a proper ending. The characters, the story, the just sheer heart of it all is such a travesty to keep hanging and I'm just grateful that Canon is now bringing back commandos and Mandalorian/clone connections in their current media. It's a nice mix of the old and the new and I like to think these books played a part in that.

[Uk_id · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I begin my review, let me first set it in its proper context. This is the first Karen Traviss/commando book I've read. Consequently, I came to 501st not knowing any of the characters or their preceding story lines. In many ways, I think this negatively affected my views of the book, for reasons I'll discuss in more detail below. Furthermore, as has been stated elsewhere, this book necessarily doesn't get a fair shake, because its sequel(s) were cancelled, thus leaving the plot and subplots forever unresolved.

Now on to the review.

Karen Traviss is a seasoned writer, so she is able to provide a (mostly) technically sound story. Aside from an instance where a character that isn’t in a scene has a line of dialogue--most likely a misprint on the part of the publisher--, I didn’t find any glaring errors in the book’s presentation. Additionally, the flow of the story moves smoothly for the most part, if not ponderously so. Even so, Ms. Traviss’s style occasionally wanders, and it rarely does so in ways that produce a literary effect. Ms. Traviss uses such instances usually to investigate deeper into character and plot points; unfortunately for me, I never got to the point where I cared enough about the characters to enjoy the tangents. (Perhaps if I had read some of the previous commando books I would have derived more utility from them, but I can only speculate on that point.) Indeed, my lack of connection and empathy for the characters often led to my skimming quickly over those parts of the book. With that said, the actions taken by the characters are causally linked to previous actions and supported sufficiently by stated motivations. This means that we the readers are not left scratching our heads trying to figure out what is going on and why, and we know how each action fits into the larger storyline. Furthermore, Ms. Traviss performed her work well enough that we understand the stakes involved; indeed, on this point I think she placed too much and too frequent an emphasis on the stakes, which had the unfortunate effect of over dramatizing them to the point of being melodramatic. Finally, Ms. Traviss worked the plot, subplots, and story well enough that the ending of the book provides plenty of promise for the (no longer viable) sequel(s).

Despite the mostly positive expression above, I ultimately did not enjoy this book. I think the primary reason is my lack of familiarity with the commando series, although having not read the previous books I have no way of knowing for sure. (It may be the case that I wouldn't have liked or disliked it any more than I do now.) The first problem is the sheer number of characters Ms. Traviss throws down on a scene, either as physical participants or through mention in dialogue or thought. This problem is then magnified by the fact that several characters have numerous names. Part way through the book I wondered if I should start making a little character-web sheet just so I knew who was talking about whom. The consequent is an inability to delve into and enjoy the story, on account of constantly having to pull out of the story’s moment to try and figure out the scene's character roster.

The second problem is a mismatch between expectations and reality. I bought this book expecting a slam-packed story of adventure and daring, 501st style; instead, I got a glimpse of what would happen if we were to amalgamate the 1990s sitcom Full House with All Quiet on the Western Front and Fiddler on the Roof and adapted the end result to the world of a Galaxy Far Far Away. Characters spend the vast majority of the book doing the most mundane things, like farming and talking about recipes (seriously). We’re constantly (oh so constantly) reminded that the deserter-clones and their fugitive associates are living together as a hodgepodge family. The clan is tied together through the patriarchal Skirata (the GFFA’s Tevya-cum-Chuck Norris) and the hardcore familial and warrior traditions of Mandalore. Young and old love is always there at the forefront. We the readers are supposed to immerse ourselves in these quotidian affairs and sympathize with the characters’ desire to leave war behind and live normal, peaceful lives. Moreover, we’re supposed to worry about the characters’ inability to do so, because they are wanted and hunted by the Empire and are under constant threat of attack--the clones are never able to really leave their warrior selves behind. All of that is fine for environmental texture and demonstrations of motivations and stakes, but it goes so far beyond doing so that it becomes the focus of the narrative and thus the story. For the first 100 pages of the book, we’re treated over and over again to these themes. After a brief moment of frenetic activity by the two clone troopers left behind and still serving in the 501st (literally more than a 100 pages into the book) , the narrative slows way down and again returns to focusing almost exclusively on the themes mentioned previously. Ultimately, the story suffers from a significant paucity of fist-to-face action or any physical action really. As stated at the onset, this serious disconnect between what I was expecting and what I got created an insurmountable deficit in my enjoyment of the book. (Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing necessarily wrong with the themes discussed above, it’s just that when I pick up a book about clone troopers in the GFFA, I want blasters and explosions; I couldn’t care less about their pigs, wood fences, or romantic interests.)

The third problem was the preoccupation, nay, the obsession with Etain. It didn’t take more than a few pages to establish that the Jedi Knight Etain had had an illicit relationship with Darman, which resulted in the birth of a son. In the same span of pages, it was also clearly established that Etain was killed during Order 66. And yet, beat after beat in the narrative is dedicated to reminding us that Etain is dead. The characters constantly bring the focus of their thoughts or conversations to the fact that Etain is dead. One moment a clone is looking at his breakfast and the next he’s choking up about Etain being dead. One moment the clones are laughing about something and the next they’re berating themselves for joviality while Etain is dead. Yeah, we got it. She’s dead and the characters have been affected by this death. I don’t need a reminder almost every chapter that Etain is dead. Let’s move on to the blasters and explosions! In all seriousness though, there are a couple of problems with how Ms. Traviss handles this subplot. It makes sense (story-wise) that Darman would focus in on the death of Etain. Her death and their son, after all, are the foundation for his motivation. It drives his actions in the story. Thus, whenever that narration from Darman’s point of view focused on Etain’s death, I got it. I went with it. As for all of the other characters, however, Etain’s death was more a lingering shadow than an impetus or motivation for action. Consequently, once Ms. Traviss established Etain’s death and demonstrated once or twice the constant negative effect on the clones and their acquaintances, she should have moved on and focused on something else when providing us narrative from their points of view. Ultimately, Etain’s death lost almost all meaning to me, because the book’s obsession over the event gave it a very narmish constitution.

In the final analysis, this isn’t the worst book I’ve read. There were some good parts. I appreciate the fact that Ms. Traviss was able to remain honest as an author by not tacitly condoning the characters’ double standards, but called them out on it in both narration and dialogue. As I said before, the book is mostly technically sound. My biggest problem with the story then is that it moves way too slow for an action novel (you can’t call a book an imperial commando novel and then not give us an action-driven story!) and it simply did not meet my expectations. No doubt many have no problem with the pace or the focus, as I did. But for those looking to read a story about storm troopers bashing down doors, blowing up buildings, and just being the terrorists they are meant to be, this book will likely disappoint.

[Collin Henderson]

DNF@ 50/ 434

So kuch has been established and happened to the cast at this point in the series. Its revealed a different side of the sometimes simplistic Star Wars universe, and also delivered on mostly compelling war dramas. Its why I'm sad to say I dropped this one.

I looked up the plot summary, and a lot of good stuff happens in here. The problem is that it exemplifies the worst aspects of the series up to this point. Traviss is a frustrating writer, because she repeatedly demonstrates a knack for looking at the fantastical elements of the prequels and grounding them with real world morality in a way that's interesting and thought provoking.

She was also in dire need of a good editor, because every book past the first is bloated, with each one showing more and more of that bloat. None of these books needed to be as long as they were. It was less noticeable with previous books since they captured war time paranoia and shifting loyalties so well. Now that the empire has touched down though, it leaves Traviss to self indulge in the extreme.

Skirata is more of a Mary sue than ever here. We are reminded time and time again of how he does everything for "his boys" and how unwaveringly loyal they are to him. We get such long, drawn out scenes that even David Lynch would probably say they were too long. And after reading the plot summary, i think you can skip this one. Because even though some good stuff happens in it, it's overall a setup book for a final (?) volume that we will never get. It lacks the ever buildimg dread that built over the course of three and two thirds books that culminated in order 66 and its bittersweet finale. It lacks major developments that move the story forward. It indulges in its probably too large cast of characters to a fault. And this is all in the first 50 pages.

There's so much to love in this series despite its sometimes glaring flaws with its writing. In many ways, the fact that it never got an ending is extremely frustrating. But really, i would argue that you can probably stop at Order 66. There are still some loose threads left by it, but it concluded a lot of what was built up in the Republic Era books in really nice ways.

If we got a second Imperial Commando book (that may have closed the series?) I may be more willing to follow through with this. As things are, and Will forever be, this book is not needed, even if you enjoyed the first 4 books in the series. It sets up a whole bunch of stuff that would have been paid off in a book we will never get.

I guess these feelings summarize my experience with the series as a whole. After the positively incredible Hard Contact, the books became too long and self indulgent. The difference between those and this one is that the others at least built towards a great climax at the end of Order 66. This showcases Traviss's worst habits with little of her brilliance.

And, as they say, that's all she wrote.

[Thurm · Rating 3 out of 5]

70

This series was a vastly different experience than what I anticipated it would be. Ultimately it wound up having a lot more depth than I thought a Star Wars series tied into a single video game could, with a huge cast of characters and a story intricately woven into the prequel era. It uses the events of Episode III in particular to great effect in this and the previous book. It does stand pretty far apart from the Clone Wars show. Clones and Jedi don't have the buddy-buddy relationship they do in that, and Order 66 isn't as big of a deal for the clones (no thought-altering brain implants needed here), who are just following orders and aren't too keen on being used by Jedi in the first place.

This book takes place in the aftermath of the last book, with the every-growing group of clones, wives, Mandalorians, and a few surviving Jedi living at a homestead in rural Mandalore grappling with the events that took place during Order 66. Karen Traviss was clearly gearing up to tie into some interesting things with the Empire and the early Rebellion, but because of the books being decanon-ized the series never got finished. While that is a bummer, it's indicative of the larger issues the series has in that it couldn't come close to wrapping up the story in 5 books. It's as though after each book Traviss was given the green light to write another one, and then she'd expand things further and further each time without any regard to how many books she'd need to tie things up nicely.

The story of Kal Skirata and his beloved group of clones he trained from their childhood on is a good one, and he is a classically enjoyable paternal figure as he tries to save every clone he can by trying to find a way to get these adopted sons to Mandalore after he becomes disenfranchised with first the Republic and then the Empire. The issue is that due to decisions made early on when I doubt the series was meant to be anything more than some quick and easy war stories, this makes little sense. It was stated that each Mandalorian sergeant on Kamino trained about 100 commandos apiece. We have 3 of those at this point, for about 300 total. They would have all had some emotional investment in hundreds and hundreds of clones, yet they seem mostly content to have rescued about 15, mostly from Skirata's group plus a few wives/girlfriends. Saving any more than that has to just be taken as all talk, because the story is already strained beyond the breaking point with how many names and people we have to remember.

Traviss also makes a point to state over and over how Skirata will do "anything" for his boys but then when it comes down to it she can't actually make him do anything that violent or harm anyone without abandoning the gentle Mandalorian grandpa persona she's created, so a great deal of his character comes across as disingenuous. He doesn't put his money where his mouth is.

Ultimately, by this point, it's really hard to ignore the sheer number of moving parts due to the vast number of characters that Traviss has written in, as well as her desire to add even more with nearly every book in the series. It's incredibly difficult to remember people that are only brought up every once in a while, and story lines frequently have to take a back seat as we switch between them.

It's still enjoyable and competently written and I enjoyed reading the series. I have no doubt that if Traviss had been allowed to write a few more entries that she'd have been able to smooth things out a bit and wrap things up in a satisfying and emotional way. The writing is really excellent, which helps me forgive most of the "big picture" issues. But this book serves as a transition point from the prequel era into an in-between point for Star Wars that has only been explored in books, and she had to bring so much baggage with her that it feels a bit like being dragged through the mud. The fact that another entry was never released and that the book ends without resolving 90% of its plot points also leaves a bad taste.

Ultimately I'd still recommend this series if you can deal with a series that never got finished, so long as you enjoy this era of Star Wars. There's not really an organic stopping point after the first entry if you don't want to be left on a cliffhanger unfortunately. It does add an exceptional amount of background for the clone commandos and Mandalorians, so if you have any interest in that then this is definitely a great read. Objectively, it's far and away some of the best writing Star Wars has gotten even if the story itself is a little bloated and overwhelming.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would probably rate this closer to 3.5 stars -- there are still too many characters being juggled, and too many repetitive angst-ridden conversations. But the newly-born Empire casts an apocalyptic shadow over the events of this novel, and several new characters do add some extra spice to the proceedings. A shame that the series never got the concluding volume it deserved.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so very sad that is the last we'll ever see of these characters. The fact that I'll never know is so upsetting.

The worst part is, I went into this series KNOWING it was unfinished and never will be... I can only hope it ended bittersweet if not a HEA

[Sophia Sine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I NEED ANOTHER BOOK YOU CANT JUST END IT LIKE THAT