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Are there any Star Wars novelizations, comics series/issues that exclude the Force (both Jedi and Sith, Dark Side and Light Side), and instead focuses purely on the Imperial vs Republic/Rebel Alliance militaries/tech?

I realize the Force is a highly centric part of the Star Wars universe, but I am curious if any works exist out there that steer away from lightsabers and Force pushes and focus more on ships, space battles, and troops/pilots/officers.

Is there such a thing throughout any of the Star Wars domain?

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    I enjoyed the Solo: A Star Wars Story due to this very reason... almost till the end.
    – Essen
    May 10, 2020 at 7:37

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There were quite a few in the Legends continuity.

Some of the earliest novels, the Han Solo Adventures from the late 1970s, focus on the titular scoundrel and don't feature Force-sensitive characters at all or only very little. Likewise, the Lando Calrissian Adventures published a few years afterward focused on Lando's escapades and not on any Jedi or Sith characters.

The X-Wing series of novels partially have little to no focus on the Force. While the bulk of the novels feature a Force-sensitive character named Corran Horn, who eventually receives some minor Jedi training and comes into possession of a lightsaber, for the most part his Force-sensitivity is downplayed and a great deal of the novels' action focuses on space combat and on the non-Force-sensitive members of Rogue and Wraith Squadrons and on the Imperial villains of the stories. Horn only appears in the novels written by Michael Stackpole, which focus on Rogue Squadron. Aaron Allston wrote several more that feature Wraith Squadron (which have a minorly Force-sensitive character, Tyria Sarkin) and one that focuses on Wedge Antilles, Hobbie, and Wes Janson, none of whom are strong in the Force.

The Republic Commando series does put a heavy focus on the titular clone commandos and on the Mandalorian lifestyle as it was presented in the old Expanded Universe as well, but while the troopers are the primary focus, there are Jedi and Jedi-related main characters present in each novel (since it is a Clone Wars series, one would expect there to be) but they share equal or lesser focus than the commandos depending on the story (in part because there are only two main Jedi characters and at least four non-Jedi major characters seeing most of the action). These novels did a lot to develop the clones as individual human beings before the CGI Clone Wars TV show did the same.

There are also multiple stories and books that focus on the bounty hunters (the Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, for example, and the Tales of the Bounty Hunters short story collection), the Rebellion and New Republic (such as the Tales from the New Republic short story collection), and the Empire (such as the Tales from the Empire short story collection). Some stories in these collections do feature Force-sensitive characters but the majority do not. The Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales from Jabba's Palace both feature Force-sensitive characters, including Obi-Wan Kenobi in the former and Luke Skywalker in both as well as others, but for the most part only very briefly.

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    I need to look these up! I’ve always been a fan more of the tech and troop lore in the SW universe than The Force battles themselves, neat as they are to encounter. May 8, 2020 at 21:55
  • @MissouriSpartan X-Wing and Republic Commando are some of my favorite Star Wars media. There were also a lot of comics for the X-Wing series, which I've never picked up but need to do. May 9, 2020 at 0:42
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Two of the recent standalone Star Wars films; Solo: A Star Wars Story and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have minimal references to the Force. Obviously these are Star Wars films so there's not no mention (Darth Maul makes a cameo in Solo and Chirrut Imwe appears to be a Force user of sorts in Rogue One) but neither film centers on The Force as a topic, nor are there any Sith or Jedi main characters.

Both films enjoyed a novelisation.

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Since the Force is such an integral concept in the Star Wars universe, one would be hard pressed to find no mention of the Force in any Star Wars material. Perhaps the closest one can come to Force-free content is in Thrawn (2017), the first novel in a new Thrawn series by author Timothy Zahn.

**** POTENTIAL SPOILERS ****

Grand Admiral Thrawn, a high ranking Chiss Imperial Admiral, meets the iconic Darth Vader, a Force-user. However, the novel doesn't really showcase the Force.

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The tie-in prequel novel for the single-player campaign Star Wars Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, is based on the actions of the eponymous Imperial special forces unit, none of whose members are Force sensitive.

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Star Wars: Tales was a DarkHorse produced comic series of mini stories in packet format. Four or five stories per book. There were several stories which did not incorporate Force Sensitives because the principal cast Luke/Han/Leia weren't always the main character.

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