Clone Wars Gambit is a series of five books that expand on the story of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The first book loosely covers the film, while the others are new stories set in the same era, generally during or between episodes of the show. Originally, Karen Traviss was going to write three of the books, and Karen Miller would write two. However, Miller was later set to write the last novel as well instead of Traviss, who has completely stopped writing
in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss—July 26, 2008
- The Clone Wars: Wild Space by Karen Miller—December 9, 2008
- The Clone Wars: No Prisoners by Karen Traviss—May 19, 2009
- Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth by Karen Miller—February 23, 2010
- Clone Wars Gambit: Siege by Karen Miller—July 6, 2010
In spite of Disney's decision to keep the parent material canon and place everything else under an Alternate Continuity, these works are now no longer considered to be canonical to The Clone Wars, and by extension, the new Expanded Universe and the franchise as a whole.
These books contain examples of:
- Action Girl: Ahsoka, Taria, Aayla, all the female Jedi, and occasionally Padme are just as capable of throwing down as the male Jedi and clone troopers.
- Adaptation Expansion: Callista Ming and Master Djinn Altis, who both fought in the Clone Wars, have their backgrounds as veterans of said war properly fleshed out.
- All-Loving Hero: Obi-Wan Kenobi. He nearly kills himself healing villagers on Lanteeb, paying no attention to his own deteriorating health.
- Artifact of Doom: The Sith Holocron on Zigoola, as one would expect from a dark side artifact, proves to be more than a little troublesome.
- Ascended Extra: Lok Durd, who was a one-shot Villain of the Week in the Clone Wars series, becomes the main antagonist of the Gambit duology.
- Big Damn Heroes: It's Star Wars, so of course, quite frequently. Padme rescues Obi-Wan and Bail at the end of Wild Space and Mace, Ahsoka, Yoda, and half the order rescue Obi-Wan and Anakin at the end of "Stealth".
- Call-Forward: Callista and Master Altis, both of whom are prominent characters in Rebellion-era works, show off their prowess as Jedi before the rise of the Empire.
- Chaste Hero: Averted. The books take George Lucas' comment about Jedi not being celibate and run with it.
- The clones are explicitly said to get regular action too.
- Taria and Obi-Wan both state that she and Obi-Wan were occasionally more than just friends, though it was brief (and it's unclear just how far they went).
- In No Prisoners, future Imperial Admiral Pellaeon is called on to rescue his Intelligence-agent lover, with help from Ahsoka, Rex, and Anakin, and Master Altis's renegade sect of Jedi (including married Jedi).
- Continuity Nod:
- Dooku notes to Ventress that one day, out of arrogance, some Jedi Master might decide to remove the no-attachment rule and let there be families, which will lead into dynasties. Half a century later, this is how Luke runs the new Jedi Order, and a new Empire would be formed from the family of Jagged Fel and Jaina Solo—Luke’s own niece.
- Determinator: Obi-Wan, to a nigh-ridiculous extent. On a Sith planet, unable to access the Light Side, with minimal food and water, undergoing nonstop psychic torture for three days straight, still retains his mind and inner strength, though there are a couple of close shaves.
- The Dragon: Dooku certainly thinks he's in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Darth Sidious, but he's not. In fact, it's pretty clear Palpatine holds him in complete contempt.
- Everybody Knew Already: By the time Episode III rolls around, it seems half the cast knows about Anakin and Padme's relationship.
- A Father to His Men: Pellaeon treats the Clone Troopers as people and takes time to talk with them whenever one of their own is killed, since they have no other family to notify.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Bail and Obi-Wan, a politician and a Jedi with a notable distrust for politicians, come to respect one another after their ordeal in "Wild Space."
- Foreshadowing: The passage in "Stealth" where Anakin loses all sense of himself and feels "half-man, half-machine." Take a wild guess as to what it could be alluding to.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Obi-Wan and Anakin, of the more snappy variety as seen in the Clone Wars TV series.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: Essentially, a canonical version of what Wild Space was.
- I Can Still Fight!: This, combined with Only a Flesh Wound, is pretty much Obi-Wan's response to any sort of injury, no matter how life threatening it might be. He gets a bit cranky when his friends bring this up, as he hates showing any signs of weakness. It also ties in to his All-Loving Hero tendencies, as he invariably puts the needs of others before himself, fighting on if there's still a battle to be won or people to be saved.
- Jerkass Ball: Yoda grabs it to a degree in Wild Space. While him asking Obi-Wan to make it clear to Anakin and Padme that they can't be together is reasonable enough, he does so by alluding to Obi-Wan about his painful romantic history and blames him for the relationship developing despite Obi-Wan being the one to warn Yoda and Windu that he didn't think having Anakin guard Padme alone was a good idea. He also shows no sympathy for the fact that Anakin had lost his mother and urges Obi-Wan to be emotionally distant from Anakin.
- The Mentor: Despite having an apprentice of his own, Anakin is still very much a student of Obi-Wan's, while Ahsoka clearly looks up to him as well. Even Greti, a village girl on Lanteeb, becomes Obi-Wan's informal apprentice.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Lok Durd, who was very much a Laughably Evil Large Ham of a villain in the sole Clone Wars episode he appeared in, proves to be a surprisingly capable and monstrously vile Arc Villain in the Gambit duology.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: With the exception of Rex, Jeff Gurner doesn't give any of the clones their distinct accent in the audiobooks.
- One Degree of Separation: Many prominent Legends characters and Clone Wars characters are revealed to have history with one another. For example, Pellaeon is an old friend of Rex.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Obi-Wan and Anakin (all the time), Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Bail, Obi-Wan and Padmé... there's kind of a theme here.
- What Measureis A Mook?: Averted. The deaths of the clones are mourned/reflected upon more than once.
- Victorian Novel Disease: Essentially, Taria has what appears to be a Space version of Tuberculosis crossed with cancer. It only makes her more beautiful, pale, and tragic.
