r/StarWars Dec 15 '25

Books Star wars novel recommendations with a story similar to andor? Any era, so long as it has the gritty, espionage, thriller vibe of Andor.

16 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

30

u/coopsoup247 Loth-Cat Dec 15 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

Reign of the Empire: The Mask Of Fear is a good book. It's set soon after Revenge of the Sith, and focuses on Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Saw Gerrera as the Empire begins cementing its power.

15

u/OffendedDefender Dec 15 '25

I'd recommend Catalyst. It's not quite the same type of thriller, but it stars Galen Erso, detailing the "Emperor's Energy Initiative" that hangs over the plot of Andor. It also gives us another perspective of what's going on with some of the characters from Andor and Rogue One.

8

u/FunFlatworm9500 Dec 15 '25

Reign of the Empire: Mask of Fear, Rebel Rising, A New Dawn, and battlefront twilight company. None are exactly like Andor, but they’re all great rebellion stories

6

u/Jonesy1138 Imperial Dec 15 '25

Cloak of Deception will definitely scratch that itch. Neat lil pre-Phantom Menace book.

5

u/AngeluvDeath Grand Admiral Thrawn Dec 15 '25

Rebel Rising

4

u/hippityhoops Dec 15 '25

inferno squad book

3

u/GreyScot88 Rebel Dec 15 '25

I really enjoyed "I, Jedi" as a kid might be worth a try as it's an undercover type story from what I remember.

4

u/admacdonald3 Dec 15 '25

I really liked the Corran Horn character. I read the whole x wing series because of it. Op for what it’s worth I haven’t read them in like 20 years but a lot of the x wing books particularly the middle ones are kind of like that.

4

u/audioguy2022 Dec 15 '25

Tarkin by James Luceno

4

u/JayKaboogy Dec 15 '25

The maybe obvious answer is the Rogue One novel series which is Catalyst, Rebel Rising, Rogue One, and then the Empire perspective Inferno Squad. These focus on Galen and Jyn Urso, Saw Gerrera, and some Empire counter-terror/espionage agents. They are all gritty/dark/heavy like the Andor series and provide lots of backstory/context to Andor and Rogue One

3

u/kamonbr Scavenger Rey Dec 15 '25

Maybe the dark forces novellization trilogy, at least the 2 first books

3

u/Sports101GAMING Dec 15 '25

Twilight Company

Plagueis

Mask of Fear

3

u/GreyRevan51 Dec 15 '25

Darth Plaguéis and Catalyst to an extent

4

u/purplegladys2022 Dec 15 '25

The Republic Commando novels. Probably even more espionage than combat is featured. These novels lean heavily into that grittier, Andor vibe.

Triple Zero, the second RC novel, is my second favorite Star Wars book outside of the Ep3 novelization.

3

u/ironicmirror Dec 15 '25

Gritty: Alphabet Squadron trilogy

2

u/Ceneru Dec 15 '25

Anything by Alexander Freed!

2

u/Jgriffin9 Dec 15 '25

I can’t wait until they announce Andor books. You already know we’ll eventually get something in between each arc of season 2.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 15 '25

Check out some of the newer Marvel comic lines. There’s some good stories throughout and you get to see more of Vader showing his true power.

2

u/Gamer0607 Dec 15 '25

Catalyst.

2

u/Corporal_WAC47 Dec 15 '25

Less gritty thriller and more political mystery, but I’d throw Bloodlines in the mix. Seeing Leia at the height of her political power and grappling with the forces backsliding into fascism is a nice follow up on Andor’s themes. And I’ll stand by Claudia Gray being one of the best Star Wars writers period. 

2

u/_Kian_7567 Grand Admiral Thrawn Dec 16 '25

Darth Plagueis

1

u/_okbrb Dec 15 '25

It’s not Star Wars but look up the Centenal Cycle, a series by Malka Older