Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars

By: Sam Maggs

Narrated by: Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Cal Kestis leads the Stinger Mantis crew on an adventure set between Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the highly anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Cal Kestis has built a new life for himself with the crew of the Stinger Mantis. Together, Cal’s crew has brought down bounty hunters, defeated Inquisitors, and even evaded Darth Vader himself. More important, Merrin, Cere, Greez, and faithful droid BD-1 are the closest thing Cal has had to a family since the fall of the Jedi Order. Even as the galaxy’s future grows more uncertain by the day, with each blow struck against the Empire the Mantis crew grows more daring.

On what should be a routine mission, they meet a stormtrooper determined to chart her own course with the help of Cal and the crew. In exchange for help starting a new life, the Imperial deserter brings word of a powerful, potentially invaluable tool for their fight against the Empire. And even better, she can help them get to it. The only catch—pursuing it will bring them into the path of one of the Empire’s most dangerous servants, the Inquisitor known as the Fifth Brother.

Can the Imperial deserter truly be trusted? And while Cal and his friends have survived run-ins with the Inquisitors before, how many times can they evade the Empire before their luck runs out?

©2023 Ballantine (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Author Sam Maggs has managed to turn a tie-in novel that bridges the gap between two video games into one of the most romantic and riveting Star Wars books of all time. Jedi: Battle Scars blows every expectation out of the water for a thrilling and intimate tale of messy found family and finding your fire and purpose in the galaxy.” —Dork Side of the Force

“Maggs is a strong writer and the story is incredibly compelling.” —SlashFilm

“A perfect bridge from Fallen Order to Survivor . . . Battle Scars provides a fun and exciting new adventure for Cal & Co.” —That Hashtag Show

Mehh still gave it a shot after reading reviews.

I made it half way through chapter 7, and I had to stop and ask myself what I was listening to 😐. Voice actor is mehh, he does do a good greez voice, but overall I agree it feels like a fan fiction story. Update I did finish it. I still feel the same way, I'll still suggest giving it a chance, but I found myself struggling to connect with the story.

expectations are the killer of Joy

The performance was very good, sometimes one misses the ones with full cast, but they also tell shorter stories. this was is about a few days in the lives of the Mantis, is not requisite listening, and will probably be forgotten soon.
but the hate it is getting due to the romance in it, unbelievable

This was probably written for me and only me

The cringe and downright terrible writing, LGBTQIA+ romance, garbage plot, and multiple perspectives will probably have most people hating this book, so I feel like I must apologize and confess that it was totally written for me. I love trash. I devoured the novelization of The Clone Wars when I was 13, and if this had been out at the same time, I would have read it multiple times.
I didn't really have time to just sit and read the book, so I listened to the audio book, and I must say, it was an experience. If all star wars audio books are like this, I'll definitely listen to more. Musical score, sound effects, and licensed beeps and boops? Yes, please. The narrator was delightfully cheesy and did all the voices. So great! A male voice voicing two female characters with accents that are having a steamy scene? I was at work listening to that and just about died laughing.
I loved it, you'll probably hate it.

Oof

The book is good, but we need to keep Johnathan Davis, Marc Thompson etc.. cause this guy is reading it like it’s a basketball game? I would’ve used reference work before starting a project, made it so hard to get through

Overall fair, and better than the homophobic reviews suggest.

A few minor points made by the more scathing reviews are accurate. There is a high pitched ringing in chapter 6; I suspect it was a mistake because the ringing comes back in chapter 19 at a time the characters would be experiencing tinnitus. The narrator is playful and embellishes the author’s sarcasm, and definitely missed the mark with Cere’s voice. However, the claims that he is too fast or unintelligible are overblown.

There are several hateful reviews out there that boil down to homophobia. Merrin’s character is given depth and nuance in a direction that probably wasn’t expected by those who developed an admiration for her in “Fallen Order.” I imagine the negative reviews would be a few stars higher if Fret were male and standard trope of a hypersexualized video game female character were continued.

And for those who complain of wokeness or politics in a Star Wars story…… those individuals need to recall that social commentary was always at the root of Star Wars.

Should be marketed as a YA novel (a bad one)

If you compare all of the movies and TV shows to all of the books, this is the “Book of Boba Fett” of the novels

weird

This book is a weird one for me. I liked it but some of the romance seemed too quick and at happened at the wrong times. I had fun with this one, but it nagged at me when two characters were flirting and kissing during the middle of a battle. The narrator did a phenomenal job. He's really got it. I don't know if I'll listen to this one again but I did have fun with it.

Definitely not what I have come to expect.....

The action and story are good when actually telling the story but there is far too much forced relationship filler. The author is writing some kind of personal fantasy novel and not an actual story about Cal and the members of the Mantis.

Really disappointing, even for a video game tie-in

Maybe two hours of story stretched out over ten hours. Relatively short book that dragged and felt like it didn’t go anywhere. Great production quality and good narration.

Boring

Such a lack luster story, it feels so empty, as you listen you really want it to get better.