Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars

Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars is a 2023 Star Wars novel written by Sam Maggs and published on March 7, 2023, by Random House Worlds.

Summary
Set between 14 BBY and 11 BBY, Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars tells the story of Jedi Knight Cal Kestis and the crew of the Stinger Mantis in the five years between the video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (2023). Cal, Nightsister Merrin, Cere Junda and Greez Dritus infiltrate a base belonging to the Haxion Brood crime syndicate built on a remote meteorite. Their mission goes awry and in their escape, they encounter Fret, a former Stormtrooper that has defected from the Empire, who seeks to help the crew in their fight against the Empire. The crew travel with Fret to Hosnian Prime to meet with a wealthy entrepreneur who wants to hire the crew to do a job that could aid in the fight against the Empire. They must gain access to the schematics of the Shroud, a powerful piece of Imperial cloaking technology, that is also being sought by the Inquisitor Fifth Brother. The Empire gaining access to the Shroud could allow it to wipe out any rebellions or insurgencies.

It is revealed that Fret is not a former Imperial, but a current Imperial, and that the schematics of the Shroud do not physically exist. Rather, the Mantis crew are actually being tasked with finding Irei, the inventor of the Shroud whose mind contains the schematics and who is a former lover of Fret.

Development
After playing Fallen Order when it was released in November 2019, author Sam Maggs publicly stated that she wanted to write a Merrin story. Merrin's small amount of story time in Fallen Order left Maggs "chomping at the bit for more from her".

Announcement and release
On August 19, 2022, it was announced that Sam Maggs would be writing a tie-in novel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor that would be published by Del Rey on March 7, 2023. Previously, Maggs had contributed to the Star Wars Adventures comic series in 2020 and 2021 and briefly worked as a writer on the delayed remake of Knights of the Old Republic.

On December 1, 2022, the official cover and synopsis for the book was revealed which included the revelation that Inquistor the Fifth Brother would feature and serve as the book's primary antagonist.

An official excerpt from the book was released on January 31, 2023. The excerpt, taken from the beginning of the book, follows Cal Kestis as he works to infiltrate a base belonging to the Haxion Brood crime syndicate, a group that he had previously encountered in Fallen Order.

Reception
In a review for CNET, Sean Keane gave credit to author Sam Maggs' writing in the tie-in novel for sending Cal and the Stinger Mantis crew "on a tense adventure and infuses them with new depth".

Bryan Young of /Film called Maggs "a strong writer" and the book's story is "incredibly compelling". He wrote that the book is particularly appealing for anyone who has played Fallen Order but also added that the "there's nothing vital to the canon or the overarching story of 'Star Wars' that you're going to miss by not reading the book". Likewise, Star Wars News Net's Nate Manning viewed Maggs' writing as coming out of a deep love for Fallen Order with the greatest strength of Battle Scars being its characterization of each member of the Mantis crew "as their own person with their own vision of the future". Manning gave the book a rating of 8/10.

General audience reception, however, was far more critical. Fans of Fallen Order felt the story didn't do justice to the characters and their relationships with each other, and critiqued it as a 'self-insert lesbian sex fantasy with one-dimensional character writing.' Multiple reviewers complained that it 'felt like bad fanfiction from the internet' and was reminiscent of 'a smut novel.' These complaints earned it a 3/5 rating on Goodreads.

The general consensus for fans of Fallen Order and Survivor was to 'skip this one' and just play the games.

Editions
Paperback

Hardback

eBook

Audiobook