Order 66

Rating NR Genre sci-fi Author Karen Traviss Publisher Del Rey

This fourth installment of the highly successful Republic Commando series opens at the climax of the Clone Wars. The Grand Army of the Republic is stretched to its limits and the casualties are mounting with no hope of replacements in sight. Treachery has been brewing at the highest levels of the Republic, threatening to tear the entire system apart. Sickened by the treatment of clone soldiers at the hands of their Republican overlords, Commando sergeant, Kal Skirata, is determined to change their fates. He wants to see his men, the Null ARCs, as well as those clones in Delta and Omega squads, saved from an unfair early death and given a chance to live a normal life outside of the army. He has gone through a lot with little success, working with a ragtag network of Jedi, humans, clones and others who all share his goal. Just when he is on the brink of a breakthrough, Chancellor Palpatine issues the order that will destroy all Jedi and change the landscape of the galaxy forever.

Traviss deftly handles the reins of the iconic Star Wars mythos and puts her hallmark on it with engaging characters, superb dialogue, heart-wrenching emotion and killer action. Unlike the combat oriented first three novels, this one is a little more emotional and offers a glimpse into the fates of characters from the previous three books. If you start with this one, be sure to go back and read the rest of the series, but I do caution that it will be an easier experience if you read the others beforehand. 

Though it starts off a little slow, Order 66 quickly builds to a page-turning pace that is maintained throughout. I finished this book in one day and my response time was similar for the first three books, Hard Contact, Triple Zero and True Colors.

This was more than just a singular novel or short series, Traviss’ work here is an unvarnished, somewhat idealized, but nevertheless provocative look at the costs of creating sentient beings from DNA base pairs. What is life? What makes someone human? In this age of science, these are the kinds of issues we just now getting a feel for with the successful cloning of animals. I highly recommend this series as well as any work by Karen Traviss.