I used to read a lot of Star Wars novels back when I was younger, but Article 66 is the first I’ve read in a long time. The name refers to the infamous order given by Chancellor Palpatine (who becomes the Emperor) to clone troopers to kill off their Jedi officers during the Clone Wars in the Revenge of the Sith movie. Basically that is how the Jedi were wiped out, barring a handful such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, who fled into exile. But Article 66 isn’t actually on this tragic event, but centers on a bunch of clone commandos and their former trainer and father figure, Mandalorian warrior Kal Skirata, during the war against the Separatists.
Skirata has his doubts over the ongoing war, which is looking increasingly pointless and making his troops’ sacrifices futile. As a result, he’s hatched a master plan to take his troops out of it and spirit them to a distant planet. With the aid of a Jedi and a former Jedi turned mercenary, he has unearthed information that leads him to think the chancellor is creating a secret navy and army for personal reasons, while concentrating power into his hands by exaggerating the threat from the Separatists.
A major part of the story is the humanity of the clones, who despite being bred as fighting machines in a completely artificial and enclosed environment, are able to think and feel human emotions, including love, friendship, compassion, jealousy and anger. There are a couple of human-clone and alien-clone relationships, to amplify this point. This is a concept that goes beyond the scope of a normal Star Wars novel, which one could apply to the idea of clones, which obviously don’t exist in real-life yet, in general.
Questions and doubts are raised about the Jedi, who in the Star Wars universe are held up as noble and infallible warrior-monks, and provides a clue about how they became so vulnerable to their eventual demise.
The novel also raises interesting points about war and its cynical exploitation by politicians to concentrate power, such as the use of misinformation and vague threats to ramp up the fear of civilians, that exist in real life (see parallels with terrorism and the question of how far to restrict civil liberties in the name of security). But it does so in a rather natural way that lets the reader gradually understand it, rather than blunt preaching.
Article 66 is a very compelling novel though readers who aren’t into Star Wars and/or science fiction can give this a pass.
My Take 