Armor does not make a Mandalorian. The armor is simply a manifestation of an impenetrable, unassailable heart.
Mandalorians get the job done and look great while doing it. They have been developed in significant, sometimes overlapping, often totally different ways across Legends publishing, video games such as Knights of the Old Republic and Republic Commando, and in canon on the small screen—across Clone Wars, Rebels, and now the Mandalorian. If you want the inside scoop on the vast background on Mandalorian culture and the discrepancies and departures across the Canon/Legends divide, this is the reading guide for you, and you won’t be disappointed.
To get a full picture on Mandalorians, you’ll certainly need to take a step into a larger world. While this list is all Legends for now, you can take this list alongside Clone Wars and Rebels to get the fuller picture of how Lucas, Filoni, and Favoreau have gone a different direction. The Canon Mandos, as of the Clone Wars, are warriors of old now living in a reformed pacifistic society, while others rebel in secret. This militant group, Death Watch, and Clan Vizsla, overlap from Jango Fett: Open Seasons, which functions as Jango’s Legends origin story. Karen Traviss has certainly been the architect of Mandalorian culture in Legends continuity, seen in The Republic Commando series and much later in the timeline in her Legacy of the Force entries, and her work is beloved by many.
Traviss’s Mandalorians are as fully-formed of a culture as you’ll find in the Expanded Universe. Her superb world-building encompasses all aspects of what it means to be Mandalorian. She develops the Mando’a language, the Dha Werda Verda dance (reminiscent of the Maori Haka), the concept of loyalty and honor to Mandalorian warrior ideals as more important than biological bloodlines, and even spirituality and the afterlife. She wrestles with the Mandalorians’ history as morally-ambiguous mercenaries and how that competes with their code of honor. We even see the rivalry between Mandos and Jedi, from the Clone Wars to the Legacy of the Force series.
We look forward to expanding this list when tie-in material is published alongside The Mandalorian, but in the meantime, shoot straight and run hard!
Coming Soon
Our team is hard at work building out this collection. Stay tuned!
Books in this Collection
Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
The Mandalorian Armor
Slave Ship
Hard Merchandise
Jango Fett: Open Seasons
Republic Commando: Hard Contact
A tie-in novel to the Republic Commandos video game, Hard Contact is the first in a five book series. This novel introduces a squad of clone troopers as they take on a precarious mission to destroy a nanovirus production facility on the Separatist-controlled planet of Qiilura. When the clones find themselves split up behind enemy lines, their chances of success seem slim. If they’re to be successful and make it out alive, each trooper will have to rely on his clone brothers to have his back.
Karen Traviss’ Republic Commando series is one of the most celebrated and dearly loved Legends series out there. Hard Contact, its first installment, is responsible for laying the foundation for fans’ staunch dedication.
Republic Commando: Triple Zero
Boba Fett: A Practical Man
Bloodlines
Republic Commando: True Colors
Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
The job of the clone troopers is simple: destroy the enemy at all costs. But as the war wages on and its atrocities add up, some clones start question their purpose and plan to lay down their arms altogether. Suddenly, a seemingly simple command from Chancellor Palpatine ruins those plans and also leaves them wondering exactly who the enemy is that they’re supposed to destroy.
Karen Traviss—who has proved more than capable of placing the reader inside the helmet of a trooper—is once again successful with this novel. The pain and suspense of the Order 66 scene in Revenge of the Sith is somehow stretched the entire length of the novel. Readers who have followed the Republic Commandos series can’t miss this part of the story!
Imperial Commando: 501st
Order 66 may have unified the galaxy under the Empire’s control, but it split members of the clone army. Just weeks after the order was carried out, former brothers-in-arms now find themselves on opposite sides. Will they ultimately choose to serve their Emperor or their ex-comrades, the Jedi? And just how far are they willing to go in the process?
While the Jedi may have gotten the worst of it, Karen Traviss manages to brilliantly portray the struggle of the clones following Order 66. This book serves as a fitting end to her run with the Republic Commandos.
The Old Republic: Revan
Being a Jedi turned Sith and finding redemption, Revan has become one of the most powerful Force users by practicing balance between the light and dark sides. Learning how he broke free of the dark side but continuing to draw on its power of his own will puts powerful Force use into perspective.
This novel takes place after the Knights of the Old Republic video game, starting with Revan and Bastilla contemplating their future together. But a threat to the galaxy begins to reveal itself, forcing Revan to leave his wife and unborn child behind to make sure the world is a safe place for his family in the years to come. On the way he encounters Scourge, a Sith strong in the dark side of the Force who intends to break his willpower.
Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 1
Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (Trade Paperback)
Republic Commando: Hard Contact
A tie-in novel to the Republic Commandos video game, Hard Contact is the first in a five book series. This novel introduces a squad of clone troopers as they take on a precarious mission to destroy a nanovirus production facility on the Separatist-controlled planet of Qiilura. When the clones find themselves split up behind enemy lines, their chances of success seem slim. If they’re to be successful and make it out alive, each trooper will have to rely on his clone brothers to have his back.
Karen Traviss’ Republic Commando series is one of the most celebrated and dearly loved Legends series out there. Hard Contact, its first installment, is responsible for laying the foundation for fans’ staunch dedication.
Republic Commando: Triple Zero
Republic Commando: True Colors
Order 66: A Republic Commando Novel
The job of the clone troopers is simple: destroy the enemy at all costs. But as the war wages on and its atrocities add up, some clones start question their purpose and plan to lay down their arms altogether. Suddenly, a seemingly simple command from Chancellor Palpatine ruins those plans and also leaves them wondering exactly who the enemy is that they’re supposed to destroy.
Karen Traviss—who has proved more than capable of placing the reader inside the helmet of a trooper—is once again successful with this novel. The pain and suspense of the Order 66 scene in Revenge of the Sith is somehow stretched the entire length of the novel. Readers who have followed the Republic Commandos series can’t miss this part of the story!
Imperial Commando: 501st
Order 66 may have unified the galaxy under the Empire’s control, but it split members of the clone army. Just weeks after the order was carried out, former brothers-in-arms now find themselves on opposite sides. Will they ultimately choose to serve their Emperor or their ex-comrades, the Jedi? And just how far are they willing to go in the process?
While the Jedi may have gotten the worst of it, Karen Traviss manages to brilliantly portray the struggle of the clones following Order 66. This book serves as a fitting end to her run with the Republic Commandos.
Jango Fett: Open Seasons
The Mandalorian Armor
Slave Ship
Hard Merchandise
Boba Fett: A Practical Man
The Old Republic: Revan
Being a Jedi turned Sith and finding redemption, Revan has become one of the most powerful Force users by practicing balance between the light and dark sides. Learning how he broke free of the dark side but continuing to draw on its power of his own will puts powerful Force use into perspective.
This novel takes place after the Knights of the Old Republic video game, starting with Revan and Bastilla contemplating their future together. But a threat to the galaxy begins to reveal itself, forcing Revan to leave his wife and unborn child behind to make sure the world is a safe place for his family in the years to come. On the way he encounters Scourge, a Sith strong in the dark side of the Force who intends to break his willpower.