Guardians of the Chiss Key

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Secret Missions #4

by Ryder Windham, Wayne Lo (Illustrations)

The Clone Wars: Secret Missions series of original novels concludes as Nuru Kungurama returns to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant while the remaining members of Breakout Squad await their next mission. But after an alien escape pod vanishes from Jedi Archives, Nuru finds himself flung toward a fateful encounter with his own Jedi Master, Ring-Sol Ambase.

Genres: Star Wars, Fiction, Science Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile, War

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2012

About the author

Ryder Windham is an American sci-fi author who has written over sixty Star Wars books, including novels, comics, reference books, and so on. He has also written junior novelizations for Indiana Jones movies. Since 1993, he has been working on Star Wars projects either by himself or with other authors. His reference book Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide had been on the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks in 2005. Although he has written lots of books, accepted interviews, and appeared at several fan-conventions, little is known about his personal life.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the concluding book of this series. This series in meant for the younger audience. In this one, all of the scheming by Dooku and Darth Sidious come to the front as we finally get the confrontation between master and padawan.

I am really disappointed how this ended. I will start with the positive first. I believe the characters are strong from this series and I do wish we would see more of them. I love the idea of a Chiss Jedi. The clones were not developed as much but I do like them as a unit. I also like the inclusion of Cad Bane in this book. Another positive is the final action scene. I thought it was terrific as we get the battle between Jedi master and his pupil. At the same time we get another fight and action in the sky with spaceships. So with all this stuff I like why the two star rating. The problem was what did all of this serve. It seems like we went thru a lot of scheming just for nothing. And I have so many unanswered questions. Even the characters were dumbfounded as all of them basically said "I guess we will never know". Not exactly what I want from a book or a series. To be left wondering why on different parts of the plot.

This series had so much potential but ended with a thud. I wonder if it was suppose to be longer and it was cut short. That is how it played out. It seems like we had this grand scheme but did not have enough time to have it all play out. Instead it just ended. It seems like the author threw his hands in the air and said "That is it folks". This book really left me unfulfilled.

[Adam Kiewel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just dont get it... the writing is too juvenile at points to be for older readers, yet too adult other times to be for young readers. the books are short and repetitive- clearly for young readers, yet the plot is so convoluted that it doesn't actually make sense. no younger reader could follow it.

I have to give the benefit of the doubt here and say that the series was cut short due to the buyout (published date lines up) because there are too many loose ends that don't get resolved, one of which only being set up in the final pages. If the series was continued and the grand scheme ever explained (I dont think it would make sense regardless- there was no gain after its completion) maybe it would make more sense and be a much better story. it didnt read terribly after all, and the characters hit their stride for the most part finally. except for ambase, he was incredibly foolish for some reason. really all of the older jedi were. what's the point of sending nuru out on his own constantly when theres no need?

[Kat V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok things are finally coming together but it felt like the first three books were kind of pointless and just trying to get us here. The idea behind this book is good but I just didn’t love it. It still fell short for me. Not the dynamic ending I had hoped for. 2.6 stars.

[Sophie_The_Jedi_Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this series! It... shouldn't have taken this long, lol.

This was a fine finale, although the events and decisions of certain characters happened very quickly, leading to so much miscommunication I was actively facepalming by the final battle. I like these characters though - Lalo Gunn is a favorite, although all of the clone troopers are great too, and Gizz! - and I'm a little sad to have reached the end of their adventures.

The writing style in all of these books is so juvenile that I can't imagine how young the intended audience is supposed to be. TCW is already a pretty intense show!

I was surprised that this book ended with one last plot thread and character temptingly dangling loose, especially when nothing has come of it in... thirteen years, wow. Has it been that long?

This isn't the best SW series I've ever read, but I love some good TCW stories no matter what!

3/5 stars.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Wars: Legends: Clone Wars: Secret Missions 04 Guardians of the Chiss Key by Ryder Windham

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense

Fast-paced

Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes

4.0 Stars

I'm actually sad that this series is over. It seems to me, that they left some story on the table. I hope that they swing back and gather Breakout Squad again...into another series or another book. It would be good to see Jedi padawan, Nuru later in his life.

Also, it would be good to see more stories about

The idea of a Clawdite is un-nerving, when you think about it. I love that they gave it a flaw, that it had to fight to keep its form, instead of being able to do it...without consequences.

The clone troopers really have come to feel kinship with the Jedi Masters and padawan leaders that have been attached to them.

It will be interesting to see how they use Nuru Kunurama, Jedi padawan...in future stories.

The whole chess game that is being played by Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus is diabolical, to say the least. Also, Palpatine's interest in coming to an arrangement with the Chiss Ascendancy...is very interesting. Also, it is interesting how the CA are being so coy, too.

Okay, on to the next book and series. The book I'll be reading next is Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover...part of the Clone Wars series (a seven BOOK series). Yes!

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This entire arc was convoluted to the point of making no sense and Nuru's master was so frustratingly gullible. I feel like my time was wasted on this series.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I just wrote a humongous review for "Duel At Shattered Rock," I am going to keep this review brief and to the point. :D

I read this book in one day because I just HAD TO SEE what happened to my precious Gunnbox!!!

WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THIS BOOK:
- It explained several elements of the plot that had been confusing/elusive in previous books.
- Chatterbox, bless his sweet soul, *SPOILER* did not die.
- *SPOILER* LALO GUNN IS NOT A FREAKING TRAITOR!!!!!!! Second shout out to Joey for lending me all of the books at once because after "Duel" I was SO MAD at Ryder Windham!!! I mean, he had established this wonderful ship with two characters that are so hilarious and so loveable that you cannot not ship them. And then, he proceeded to nearly kill one and paint the other as a traitor. *twitches eye* Suffice it to say, I began this book as soon as possible after finishing "Duel." :D
-THEY KEPT GIZZ!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOO!! However, he still needs a bath. BoO. ;D

WHAT I DISLIKED ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Because I didn't hate it. I was just a little disappointed.
-The way he finished the story left me hanging for more.
-Everything felt a bit rushed at the end
-The climax was amazing but its resolution was a bit disappointing
-Gunnbox was resolved well (SPOILER: I liked that she confided her suspicions about a saboteur in Chatterbox, and THAT'S what they were doing all those hours alone in the cockpit...brainstorming...yes...that's all. ;), yet I thought that he STILL could have done more with them. I know that they were not the main main characters but still.
-SPOILER: VEEREN IS ALIVE?! Okay, this character never made much sense to me, and I didn't like that. Nuru had a head on his shoulders, yet Veeren was always portrayed as a character that didn't make sense and was never relatable since she was from a different culture. This excuse seems too vague for and a bit speciesist if i'm honest, which is weird because Star Wars is usually pretty good at fleshing out its species. Her character had the greatest potential to be explored and to grow, I thought, however Ryder put her in a story that was not her own and did not allow her to fulfill her character's full potential, which was a real shame. If he had made her the star of her own series, I would see the value of including such a complex character, but it is painfully obvious that the only reason she is there is to be "the female Chiss." Killing Veeren gave Nuru character development and upped the stakes for his journey, however bringing her back at the end of a series was a mistake I thought. Suffice it to say, I felt that Veeren's character's only purpose was to give Nuru a slight crush so that Gunnbox did not have to be the only relationship in the series. However, it is hinted at that Nuru and Veeren are actually related...so that just adds a whole 'nother level of creepiness to things...*cough Luke and Leia in episodes 4 and 5 cough cough.*

I loved the story up until its climax, because after that, for me, the ending was rushed, underdeveloped, and needed more. However, I still love the series as a whole and commend Ryder Windham for his lovable main characters. :)

[Kaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final Book closes the story of Nuru Kungurama and the Breakout Squad. After so much mystery, the secret plan of Dooku and his teacher Darth Sidious is revealed to us, a plan that has been taking shape for years and that is related to Nuru Kungurama. Maestro and Padawan, believing the other to be a traitor, will have to resolve their differences in a duel on Coruscant. It doesn't matter who wins, because the one responsible will be the only one victorious.

Following the incident at Bilbringi, the depot is boarded by Republic forces under the command of Jedi General Kit Fisto. Master Fisto questions Nuru about what happened, and the young Padawan tells him everything except the fact that his master is still alive and destroyed a ship with the aristocrat Veeren on board. Nuru also tells him how his mission to escort the Kynachi diplomat failed, but inspecting the place, they discover the diplomat along with his assistants alive. This confuses everyone, and now they wonder who could be behind it.
All this mysterious conspiracy turns out to have originated eleven years ago, when in a pursuit by pirates Dooku together with the master Ambase, were forced to chase the criminals to the edge of the galaxy, where they would find a capsule that carried the baby Nuru. Already in the present, Dooku convinces Ambase that Nuru intends to capture the capsule, so he goes to Coruscant to protect it.
On their return trip to Coruscant, it is revealed to us that a member of the Breakout Squad is an impostor and the one responsible for the sabotage all this time. This impostor is a clawdite hired by Ventress, who, thanks to his shapeshifting abilities, managed to pass himself off as a clone, while the original was traveling all this time with Ambase.

To steal the Chiss ship, Dooku sends Cad Bane to Ambase's aid. So both break into the facilities and manage to seize the capsule. Ambase and Nuru duel after the latter has destroyed the capsule. They're both out for revenge, which brings them closer to the dark side, but when they find out from Lalo Gunn that a member of the Breakout Squad is an impostor, they realize they've been manipulated all this time. Despite not having given in to his dark desires, Ambase ends up leaving the Jedi Order, because he thinks that he came too close to falling into darkness and that participating in this war would make things worse. On the other hand, Nuru is left in charge of the Breakout Squad to lead it on future missions. The story concludes with Dooku and Palpatine pleased to see that another of their plans has worked, for now, thanks to Nuru's exploits, it is believed that the Padawans are more than capable of engaging in a war that only corrupts more to the Jedi.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars Legends Project #130

Background: Guardians of the Chiss Key was written by Ryder Windham and published in March of 2012. In addition to his extensive involvement with dozens of Star Wars publications, Windham also wrote the previous books in this series.

Guardians of the Chiss Key takes place during the Clone Wars, 21-22 years before the Battle of Yavin. It picks up where Duel at Shattered Rock (my review) left off. The book takes place concurrently with the events of "Dooku Captured" and "The Gungan General," episodes 11 and 12 of the first season of The Clone Wars TV series. The main characters are the same as the last book: Nuru Kungurama, Breaker, Sharp, Knuckles, Chatterbox, Cleaver, and Lalo Gunn. The major action of the story takes place on Coruscant.

Summary: Nuru Kungurama returns to Coruscant, still no closer to solving the many mysteries surrounding his previous missions, to find a new puzzle awaiting him. A Jedi scholar has been researching the Chiss pod he was discovered in as an infant and believes he has uncovered something important. Unfortunately, the pod is also the key to Count Dooku's plot involving Nuru's missing master, Ring-Sol Ambase. Will the Sith's schemes succeed, or can the two Jedi unravel the mystery before their confrontation ends in tragedy?

Review: So, finally everything comes to a head, and we get to the bottom of what all of this incredibly elaborate manipulation was all about. The weirdest thing about this series to me is how long it took to publish. The first book came out in 2009, the last one in 2012. All of them up to the last one end in major cliffhangers with significant questions left unanswered. None of that is particularly unusual for a book series, certainly, but these books take about 90 minutes to read and then you'd have a whole year to wait for the next one. The entire Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series came out at a rate of one every 2-3 months (otherwise they'd still be coming out).

Anyway. I'm obviously just looking for things to talk about. This is a reasonably solid ending to a consistently mediocre series aimed at way too young of an age group for me to really be reading. I can't say a whole lot more about it without giving things away because most of the story is tying up loose threads and paying off the set ups from the first three books. Well, most of them. The most intriguing bit of the series to me was the hints about what Nuru's true identity within the Chiss Ascendancy might be, and that was left dangling. Still, as usual, this series is at its best when lots of stuff is happening, not so much when it's setting all of the stuff up, so this entry is better than some of the others. Overall, I wouldn't recommend the series to anyone older than about 13, but there are much worse Star Wars books out there.

C+

[Brian Washington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Wars: Guardians of the Chiss Key is freaking cool! Honestly, the entire Secret Missions series is freaking cool, and I dig the idea of other secret mission operations. This one serves as the wrap up to Nuru’s story, and it sticks the landing.

What’s really great about this book is how it closes Nuru’s quest. What started with him trailing his master’s mission ends up coming full circle on Coruscant. All the roads come together here: Palpatine, Yoda, the Jedi, and this secret squad operating out on the fringes. The way it’s set up feels like a precursor to something like The Bad Batch.

The pacing in this book is good. There’s not a ton of action, but it never left me feeling like I needed more of it. The way the story flows and the way the series concludes makes up for that completely. By the end, we’re left with this squad still out there on the edges of the galaxy, and it makes me wish there was more to come.

My only small critique: Nuru is around twelve years old, yet pulling off Jedi level eye popping powers. Do I wish it were canon? Sort of. Could they shoehorn it in? Absolutely and if they did, it would be fantastic.

As a series, Secret Missions is a high four out of five for me. There are some dead spots that don’t necessarily need to exist, but the introduction of the Chiss is fantastic. It even plants the seeds of what could be a Chiss ‘grand plan’ in canon. 4/5.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Officially, 4.5 ⭐️

I feel like I have more questions than answers, and I would have liked to see more of the clone’s reactions to the impostor. However, I enjoyed the series and Breakout Squad is great. I love Nuru too. Dude’s a champ.

Best characters are: Nuru, Cleaver, Breaker, and Sharp (the real one).

Gunn is still annoying, I was so happy when she left and then the author brought her back like ugh, why.

Also, Dooku’s motivations and Palpatine’s schemes didn’t make sense even from a Sith perspective. What were they trying to accomplish? If their ultimate goal was to take out the older Jedi dude, then ok they succeeded in a way, or was it just to spread chaos and dark side juice around? Idk.

[Nate Tranell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a shame…was such a strong series from the beginning, especially the first two books, but book three kept the momentum going. This wasn’t necessarily horrible, but it felt way too expository even for a junior novel, and I feel like Windham had to cut satisfying endings for most the plot lines. It honestly feels like there should’ve been at least one more book in the series, especially because when character work was handled delicately in previous books, it all seems so rushed here.

Fun series, and it’s not like I was expecting that much from it anyway. But I think it could have been better with a little more time to grow into itself — even if only one or two more books.

[Diyyan :)) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.2/5

Ahhhh it had so so much potential. The ending was really really rushed and the whole buildup unfolded in like 2 chapters. A bit bittersweet ending between the master and apprentice but hey a happy ending for breakout squad which is rare for Star wars iykyk. Honestly started getting annoyed with Nuru at this book cos boi was not thinking straight at all but yeh i get it dark side clouding his mind bla bla bla. It was a fun read overall and am glad to have met the breakout squad. I shall pretend order 66 never happened and they all live happily ever after THE END

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun ending to the story. I really enjoyed the series, and it's a shame that I'll likely hear nothing of any of these characters again. The story concluded in a way that leaves future work with the characters wide open, but I doubt if anyone picked them up before Disney shut down the old EU.

Fun characters, fun story, and left me wanting more.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently the best way to play one side against another is to confuse everyone. In the end no one knows why they are doing what or fighting who. Maybe Darth Sidious does but certainly not me and I don't think the author did either.

[The Author CT-9902 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic!! The best Characters were Chatterbox, Gunn, and Knuckles.

[Jurgen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got the feeling not much happened the first 2/3 of the book...
The ending was better.

[Samuel Saul Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little series that ultimately gives us some Cad Bane storyline and some Dooku back story.

Additionally we see the only Chiss Jedi that I'm aware of.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

An OK young readers series, but not even in the same galaxy (far, far away, you might say...) as Jude Watson's earlier young reader series'.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asher (7yo) read.

[Brian Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've decided to review the four books in the Secret Missions series together, since they seem to be more a single story than four individual stories under the same arc. Each book has its own conflict and story, but they seem to be a backfrop for the larger story, which is the conflict between Nuru Kungurama, a Chiss Padawan, and his Master, Ring-Sol Ambrase. There are other characters in the books (four clone troopers, a droid commando, and the captain of a ship), but the central conflict that drives the entire story is that one. And since this is the Clone Wars, of course the events are all orchestrated by Palpatine for his grand scheme.

The stories are decent, in that they move quickly, and the characters are engaging, but this was the first juvenile book that felt like it was written for kids. Despite the complexities of the plot, the story was told simply, with more telling than showing, and an overuse of abverbs. Windham added some humor to the stories, though without making it cringe-worthy, like C-3PO and the droid factory from Attack of the Clones. He also used lines from the original movies, so readers can run their own Easter egg hunts to find them.

The first book, Breakout Squad, sets up the events that separate Nuru and Ring-Sol, while also creating the Breakout Squad itself. The second book, Curse of the Black Hole Pirates, gives us some insight into Nuru's past as the squad goes into unknown space and meets with a Chiss ambassador. Duel at Shattered Rock reveals a Mandalorian assassin on a new mission, and Guardians of the Chiss Key brings the main plot to a close.

When I decided to include the juvenile books into my Star Wars reading project, I decided against adding any adaptation of other works. That eliminated a lot of titles (each movie has a juvenile and an easy-reader adaptation, and there are some books which are adaptations of other books), but now that I'm deep into the Clone Wars, I'm finding that I'm missing out on some details because I haven't watched the show yet. Secret Missions feels incomplete in some ways, and I wonder if it's because Windham is relying on the readers being familiar with the show. The way he wraps up events in the fourth book leaves many questions unanswered, though maybe they're a set up for the show.

So, the books are decent, if a little basic, and they feel like there should be more story once they wrap up. Readers already familiar with The Clone Wars might have more of their questions answered, but other readers should use caution when approaching the series.