Hard Contact Part 1

[colls]

Welcome to our first of four check-in and discussion posts for our Book of the Month.

This month’s book is Hard Contact (Star Wars: Republic Commando #1) by Karen Traviss
Chapters 1-5

Hard Contact Part 1

1. What are your thoughts on the squad so far? Any favorites yet between Darman, Nine, Fi, and Atin?

2. The mercenary Mandalorian, Hokan, has a connection with the Republic force that I'm assuming he will soon meet. Do you think he knew Jango Fett personally or only by reputation - will he recognize the clones' faces?

3. How are you liking it so far?



FYI - There's no need to answer all (or any) of the questions above - they're just talking points to get us started. Informal chatter is more than welcome! In-person book clubs often veer off topic, it's okay if we do as well. :)
All I ask is that you try to avoid spoilers for things past Part I of the book.

Comments

[barbiejedi]

I had intended to reread this one along with the comm, but September is shaping up to be a busy month and I don't think I'm going to have time to get around to it-- I completely forgot it was going on until I saw the second week's discussion post, and I've already got two other new releases on my To Be Read pile that are higher priority. (Plus I apparently still have enough leftover fanwanky memories of how Traviss came to stop writing Star Wars that it makes even thinking about her early stuff feel a little bitter.)

I'm definitely reading everyone's comments and discussions this month, but I probably won't be saying much, since most of my interest in the RepCom part of Star Wars revolved around the Nulls, who aren't properly introduced until later on.

[seascribble]

Do I want to know why KT stopped writing star wars or do I want to read her stuff and have my mando and clone feels first?

[barbiejedi]

Trying to phrase this neutrally without going into detail, it's basically that she was pretty much The Only Person Doing Mando Stuff in the EU for several years starting with Hard Contact in 2004. When the 2008 Clone Wars cartoon came around and also wanted to do Mandalorian stuff, there were (inevitably) continuity issues and and Filoni's show won out over her novels/short stories. Her writing career was strong enough that Star Wars was only part of it, so she moved on to doing other things.

There were a lot of strong feelings from all different sides about it.

Traviss is very good for clone and Mando feels.

[seascribble]

That makes sense. I don't like the Mando stuff in TCW (I've reconciled with it, after Rebels and some really good fanfic), so I can kind of see why you'd take your ball and go home. I need to read this week's chapter of Hard Contact so I can see if I have more clone feels.