Star Wars: Sanctuary: A Bad Batch Novel
Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Omega gamble on a mission to help rebuild Pabu in this thrilling adventure for The Bad Batch.
A good soldier knows that life is all about change – whether it’s on or off the battlefield. Surviving, living, means adaptation. Hunter is well acquainted with this lesson. He’s on the run from the Empire, Echo’s off on a mission with Captain Rex, and Crosshair is . . . still Crosshair, but amidst all the change, Hunter still has Tech, Wrecker, and Omega.
And it seems that his small family might have finally found a safe place to land, far from the increasingly vigilant eyes of the Empire: Pabu. But their potential new island home is in desperate need of resources if there is any hope for the fledgling community to recover from a devastating sea wave. That’s where Phee Goena, self-proclaimed liberator of treasures, comes in, with a couple of jobs she swears will get them the funds they need. Despite Hunter’s concern with Phee’s precarious plans, the rest of the crew is fine following her lead.
Things go wrong almost immediately, as Phee’s droid blows the crew’s cover at a high-stakes auction, and they barely make it out with the relic they’d been paid to acquire. Hunter insists they finish their first mission and deliver the relic before taking on more work, but Phee and the others push forward with a second job: ferrying a couple on the run, one of whom is due to give birth at any moment. Hunter worries what they’re risking, especially when their mysterious new passengers cling to lies and secrets that trace back to an Imperial Security Bureau officer hot on their trail.
As Hunter tries to get the crew back on a stable, safe path far, far away from anything to do with the Empire’s watchdogs, their overlapping missions only invite more danger and chaos. On the verge of failing both their desperate passengers and their community on Pabu, the Batch must remember that the only way they succeed, the only way they survive to fight another day, is by trusting each other.
Author: Lamar Giles
Cover Artist: Marie Bergeron
Release date: August 5, 2025
Page Count: 320 pages
ISBN: 9780593874462
I always get excited when new authors join the Star Wars family. This is the first time I’ve read any of Lamar’s writing, and he succeeds so well with this Clone Force 99 story that it makes me keen to seek out more of his work.
Sanctuary is set between seasons 1 and 2 of The Bad Batch. The crew (minus Echo and Crosshair who are away from the team for various reasons) are adapting to life on the world of Pabu, figuring out their future plans. However, Pabu is in the midst of a geological change that will need a vast amount of credits to repair, so Phee Genoa, the pirate who has made Pabu her home, convinces the Clone Force 99 to do a pair of jobs with her that will help restore the planet. Of course, both jobs go horribly wrong, so as the team use all their skills to move themselves from one bad situation to another we witness some introspective moments that show the challenges (both emotional and personal) that each of them are facing internally after the absense of Crosshair.
Lamar does a wonderful job with each character, giving them extra depth that is faithful to the characters we know from the TV show, and also introduces us to new villains that we can only hope meet sticky ends. Through all of this Lamar balances the demands of working in the Star Wars space while giving us a sense of his writing style and personality.
There’s a confrontation near the end of the book that thrilled me as a Star Wars fan, and I’m confident it gave Lamar plenty of joy to write it. I love how he portrayed Wrecker, showcasing his heart as well as his immense brawn, as well as the bittersweet interactions between Tech and Phee, as well as Hunter and Omega.
There’s no need to have watched The Bad Batch show to enjoy this novel, but undoubtedly there are references that wont hit home as much as they would if you’ve not watched the show. Star Wars: Sanctuary: A Bad Batch Novel was a wonderful read, full of memorable connections – I think I might just go and rewatch season two, so welcome to the galaxy Lamar Giles!
