Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars

By: Sam Maggs

Narrated by: Sean Kenin Elias-Reyes

Brought to you by Penguin.

Cal Kestis leads the 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 Sam Maggs (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Overall direction is good but some downsides

I'm honestly torn on giving the story either a 4 or 3 star. I think overall its well written and I would like to give it 4 stars for that BUT I'm a bit iffy on how much focus was placed on Merrin's romance. Sometimes it felt like a bit much, especially considering I'm reading this book for Cal and not Merrin.

One area where I really do have a problem with the writing is on the use of the word "they". Referring to purge troopers as "they" when you're talking about a single man made the scenes difficult to follow. Use the English language as it is, not as the latest agenda tries to force it to be. Hearing "he/she" instead of "they" really won't kill anybody. People have survived much worse.

My favourite moment was probably when Cere and Cal were chatting about purpose while the whole crew went their separate ways. I liked the focus on purpose and that it was a good moment between master and padawan. The inclusion of Jaro wasn't overdone throughout the story and felt good.

I'm curious to play the new game and to see the characters after the toll this story had upon them. Greez especially! I hope the game makes some references to the book.

Finally, I'm happy with the performance! I'm impressed that this guy was able to portray several different characters (mostly female too!) and I was still able to follow along. Fret, Merrin and Irene's voices were a bit similar (I was still able to tell them apart but just something to note). Also, I picked up the accidental use of the wrong word once or twice but honestly it was so infrequent and easy to miss it's really not a big problem. Well done!

I doubt this story will be critical for the story of the new game but it can be worth a listen if you've got the time.

Horrible story

The Star Wars in the story is like 30min of the book. The rest is love triangle. It is more a romantic book as a star wars book. It doesn't tie up with the game.