Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars

De: Sam Maggs

Narrado por: Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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

Disappointed

I’ve listened to a great many Star Wars novels on this platform, and of them all, this would have to be the worst. Off the bat, I was jarred with the narrators pacing. Really hard to follow. This is the first audiobook I’ve used the tool to slow the recording for.

The writing itself is amateur, at best. It feels like it was written for YA, contrasted in substance with bizarre, fetishized, violence and some of the most explicitly cringe-inducing “romantic” scenes, dialogue, and plots you will find in Star Wars. (and that’s saying a lot!)

The characters are flat, fladerized, husks of their original counterparts. The mcguffin plot only exists to move the characters around from point A to point B, with very little of significance occurring throughout.

I’ve been looking forward to the next big adventure with Cal and crew since finishing the game in 2019, but this ain’t it.

Go woke go broke

You literally don't need to listen to this book for information leading to the new game. In fact, I'm more confused going into the new game after I waited for 5 days to play it to listen to the book first. It literally makes no sense with the 30+ hours I have into the game.

Spoilers- It was a struggle to listen to the whole lesbian, bondage, kinky romance that plays out as star wars themed romance/ book porn story. Synopses of the whole book- Witch girl meets manly, muscled pink girl while fighting against said manly, muscled pink girl with immediate- porn levels of unrealistic sexual attraction that I wouldn't have come up with as a teenage male because it was just so unrealistic and ridiculous.

Then manly muscle girl finds out old lizard girl (Totally doesn't remind me of Bestiality at all-- just so happens to be the only one out of the whole galaxy of hundreds of trillions of beings that is smart enough to make good tech while also having no story as to why she's so smart and makes such good tech in some back water world, just happens to be around suddenly the same place) is still alive and then muscles leaves witch girl for old lizard girl after lots of sex and bruises around the neck (and other places) from bondage levels of wild sex they have on the small ship full of other people.

All the while leaving the dumb boy- Cal, to obliviously stumble around while being totally ignorant to their steamy sex-athions, only to find out some new and weird emotions, like he's jealous and doesn't know why because he doesn't even understand he likes Merin. Typical dumb boy character being the only one that didn't see the obvious signs in neon lights that are screaming at him as they smack him around a bit.

Then later on they kill a sith or two and I don't remember what else happened besides someone lost an arm. Happy to return the book. Easy pass on this book, don't need it for the game and you're smarter than to be someone that looks at or reads porn... Oops, I mean romance... I mean young adult, I mean teenage, I mean Groomers, oh, never mind.

Better Than Other Reviews Led Me to Believe

I think a lot of the bad reviews have more to do with prejudice and a culture war mentality than the actual quality of the story.

Maggs handled the characters introduced in Fallen Order with care, demonstrating that he knows where they came from—and where they are going. I relished the opportunity to get inside the heads of these people we've mostly only experienced through dialogue in video game cut scenes. They feel more real to me now, fleshed out with nuanced motivations.

And the plot, while certainly not Galaxy-shattering, provided a fun and exciting vehicle for ongoing character development.

Even more excited now to dive into Jedi: Survivor and see what shenanigans our beloved Mantis crew is getting into next!

A Fun Quick Adventure with the Mantis Crew

An adventure with the Mantis Crew, between Fallen Order and Survivor. With a solid focus on Merrin, and fun action sequences to keep you entertained.

Story doesn't stand on it's own

I had a hard time getting into this at the start, reading the book along with the audiobook.

There's sides to the story: one part romance novel, another part adventure thriller.

The romance, to me, felt very forced in the immediate attraction between characters. Even worse is that they become so instantly devoted to each other over literally every aspect of their lives after what amounts to a one night stand. Their relationship towards the end of the book is more believable, but it feels like it could've eased into their feelings a little better.

The story does really shine whenever it is busy serving as an interquel between Fallen Order and Survivor. However, that's also a big issue with it, as this story has no meaning if you haven't played Fallen Order, and the ending is pretty flaccid if there isn't the promise of Survivor following it up (in two days, as of this review).

On the audiobook side, I once again had a little difficulty getting used to the way Sean narrated the novel, but that too grew on me after awhile. They do a great job with doing different character voices, and you can even tell quite easily which character's POV is happening just due to the way Sean changes the narration. Overall helped me get through the halfway point of the book. And the background SFX really help with immersion, and feel very Star Wars, if safely so.

Overall, a middling experience, and I doubt I'll be returning to this story in the future, but I can't say I regretted the read over the last month.

Well presented mediocre fanfiction.

The story is the okayest fan fiction "ship". The narrator does a phenomial job with what he's given, and the music and sound effects are very well put together. On the whole, not worth it unless free though.

Amazing story.

I really enjoyed the story! It felt like another adventure with the Mantis Crew. While chapter 1 started off with weird dialog and chapter 6 had a really obnoxious high pitched ringing in the background, overall it was enjoyable! I would definitely recommend listening to it!

What is with the audio editing

There’s multiple chapters where the narrator’s voice sounds like it’s being distorted for no reason? And a high pitched noise in the background? What the hell?

Poor Story Overall

I am a fan of the Fallen Order game, and am looking forward to the next entry in the series. I was excited to listen to this story as a lead in to see some character development for Cal, but there really was none. Nor does there seem to be much set up for the upcoming game. Just overall disappointing for me.

Boring story with annoying ear ringing sfx

Story was not very entertaining and they play high pitched ear ringing sounds for minutes at a time that is super annoying. Honestly very disappointing.