Max Nocerino 
Lamar Giles’ Star Wars: Sanctuary – A Bad Batch Novel is just what the summer needed, even if it’s a bit short.
Star Wars: Sanctuary – A Bad Batch Novel is just what the summer needed, even if it’s a bit short.
I would never have believed you if you told me that the unfinished episodes of The Clone Wars (featuring Clone Force 99) would become a juggernaut structural component of Disney Star Wars Canon. They just seemed like mere extras to me. A novelty. A flash in the pan. However, in reality, The Bad Batch became a 3-season animated series after we got a taste of this Avenger’s style clone team and skyrocketed to the status of a fan favorite. Now, even after the series has largely concluded, this novel, Star Wars: Sanctuary, comes along to fill in some blanks and give us a captivating adventure..
A GALACTIC PAGE-TURNER
Sanctuary is a page-turner, even if there aren’t a lot of pages. This is the first Star Wars outing for the talented young writer, Lamar Giles. I incorrectly dubbed (on Discord) Lamar the first African-American man to write a Star Wars adult novel. But I mistakenly later admitted that the honor belongs to Stephen Barnes, who wrote the Cestus Deception novel over 20 years ago! Despite this error, I love that Disney draws its talent from a diverse pool of writers, and I hope Lamar sticks around for future projects.
The novel takes place in the natural gap between the Season 2 episode where the clones have temporarily settled on the remote and tranquil world of Pabu, and after a tsunami has devastated their infrastructure. The clones know that their new home needs money for structural repair and supplies. They decide to get this dough, the only way they know how – by using their unique and diverse talents as mercenaries.
CLONE FORCE 99 RETURNS!
What I love about Clone Force 99 is that they are genetically mutated clone troopers who each have their own augmented attribute that gives them a much sharper advantage than the factory standard clone. Tech is super intelligent, Wrecker is super-strong, and Hunter can track people with his senses, highly attuned to the electromagnetic spectrum.
Lamar can write each of the clones’ strengths in a very engaging yet subtle way, without the reader being bombarded by “plot-armor” exposition. Tech speaks very formally and like a droid, can calculate probability odds in his head, and writes better code than the latter as well! He is also very inexperienced and unsure of his emotions towards the beautiful pirate, Phee Genoa. Phee has enlisted the clones in a daring caper to steal money from wealthy criminals at an auction for valuable artifacts.
Lamar also captures the subtleties of Hunter’s senses equally well. I love how he nailed Omega’s caring and happy-go-lucky attitude to a T. He obviously did his homework by watching the series beforehand. For those of you living under a rock, Omega is the unaltered female clone of Jango Fett, who grew up watching the Bad Batch grow up (at a much more accelerated rate), and joined the team after the war ended. She is essentially the clone’s younger sister, and the guys treat her (especially Hunter) like their beloved daughter. Omega equally loves her brothers and is one of the purest, kindest souls in the current Star Wars roster.
A FRESH TWIST ON THE FORMULA?
The adventure in this novel is structured in a unique way from standard Star Wars novels or other novels. What I initially felt were weak plot points turned out to be brilliant decisions on Lamar’s part that I didn’t realize in hindsight. The caper at the auction goes slightly awry, and while they steal the very valuable object, there are some glitches in Phee’s droid’s code, and they don’t extract enough money from the accounts of several bidders. Their intelligence also fails, and they don’t have information on one mysterious bidder who turns out to be a hazard to the mission.
To remedy this setback, Phee’s next plan is to deliver the stolen artifact to an affluent art collector named Cellia Moten. She is a deranged narcissistic psychopath who hides behind the facade of a cooing sycophant of Emperor Palpatine, whom she creepily calls by his first name; Sheev. I’ve never heard a Star Wars character call Palpatine by his first name in such a casual and friendly way. When it happened, I knew that this book was going to be interesting. Cellia kills all the people who deliver her artifacts and buries their bodies (to fertilize her tree groves) on the grounds of her opulent estate.
A MONSTER
She is truly a monster, a cheerful serial killer with no qualms about doing horrible things, but not allowing herself to break a single nail. She has a team of thugs who carry out her dirty work, and she believes that her relationship with Palpatine provides her with immunity from the law. Furthermore, she aspires to become a regional governor for the Emperor. She even resorted to murdering an Imperial ISB agent who was investigating her activities. The Empire views her as a complex figure—both an ally and someone to monitor very closely. Giles has truly created an excellent villain in her, alongside the duotagonist villain, Sedril Crane.
Crane is an ISB officer who is also chillingly deranged, but in a much more proper and disciplined demeanor, reminding me of an evil version of James Bond. Crane was a former spy for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. But he defected and joined the Empire after the end of the war. Crane is a stickler for the rules and loves arresting various individuals for petty crimes against the Empire. He is one of those irritating savants who will recite the complete list of crimes they have committed before arresting. The character is unbearingly rigid, unnervingly prim and proper, and very annoying. He is also looking for his daughter Gayla, whom he trained as his spy protege and regards as his child, although she is Keshiri and he is human.
FAMILY VALUES
He trained her in the most brutal of fashion, intermixed with affection and creating a hybrid of Sith-ish/Jedi-ish training that I absolutely loved reading in the brief flashback interludes that Lamar crafted. Ever since Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath disasters and the two lengthy Timothy Zahn ones, I have grown to dislike interludes and flashbacks in Star Wars novels. But I feel that Lamar hit the sweet spot with his iteration, and I award him another point as a writer. They aren’t too long, and they aren’t too frequent, and that I feel is the right way to do it. Gayla has enlisted the clones to transport her and her husband, who hides a surprising secret that I didn’t see coming. She is also with child, which in and of itself is very interesting.
The story structure, as I said, has a bit of a unique DNA. I found myself having trouble with guessing what would happen next (which, as a reader, is something I love). The clones being grounded by an ion storm on a hostile planet with a sick and in-labor Gayla seemed too much of a convenient plot point, but it works out in the end, and Lamar makes it make sense, without feeling too forced.
WRECKER
I was pleasantly surprised that Wrecker (being a bit of a goofy dolt who likes explosions) showed some intuition and intelligence that I usually wouldn’t have expected from him. He is the team’s muscle, and Tech and Hunter usually do the thinking, but he is not to be underestimated in his ability to understand the bigger picture. Likewise, just because Tech is brainy, it does not mean he is useless in battle. He is quite deadly when he needs to be.
Giles wrote the character interactions like a champ, and his skill was super-apparent when Phee said what was building up amongst the clones for the entire book – NO, the whole series! Hunter is obsessed with being the team leader and having the other clones follow everything he says, even if the latter repercussions are not always positive. He is their leader, that is true. But he often forgets to consider his siblings’ ideas and desires. Phee expertly holds up a mirror to that, showing him this behavior and making him realize that there is no I in team, albeit begrudgingly.
Many leaders in the real world have this problem as well, and Lamar was able to capture it so realistically and organically. Generally speaking (in my humble opinion), Star Wars should always have elements that feel very similar to stuff we have here on Earth. At least in terms of humanity and characterization (the jury is still out if this also applies to lore and culture).
FAMILIAL ROLES
There is also another problem presented to us, bubbling under the surface. Hunter’s indecisiveness in making Pabu the team’s permanent home. Honestly, the galaxy is a dangerous place (perilous for this team), and he only wants what is best for Omega. She is chronologically older than him, but biologically, she is still a kid and needs to be protected from the evils of the galaxy in a way only an adult can truly provide. But there is a catch. Omega doesn’t want to live a boring, peaceful island life on Pabu. She wants to travel the galaxy with her brothers, completing dangerous missions and helping innocent denizens of the galaxy in the best way she can. The conflict is deliciously palpable.
It’s hard as a reader to decide which is the better option. They are on the run after all, and there is no safe harbor for them anyway. Yet the allure of a wholesome home is subconsciously appealing to all of the clones, even Wrecker, who humorously even wants to live on the planet they are stuck on, as it is full of potential pyrotechnic features. Yet can they be more than just soldiers? It is a deep and philosophical conundrum.
A LACKLUSTER CLIMAX
There is so much to unpack in this narrative. Lastly, I will say that while the ending and climax were originally not to my liking, in hindsight, when all the pieces came together in my head, I later felt that they were totally necessary and narratively brilliant. I am also usually not very big on oversaturated, legacy character appearances in Star Wars media. But I can tell Lamar was like a kid in a candy store by being able to write his own hallway scene. Good for you, Lamar. All of us Star Wars fans dream of getting the opportunity to do what you just did. And yeah, it was awesome and needed to happen.
VERDICT
In conclusion, I learned a lot about storytelling from this book and accept that sometimes things that may not seem to work out work out better than you could possibly imagine.
Star Wars: Sanctuary – A Bad Batch Novel is available to buy now.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
