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Star Wars Legends: Novels
Star Wars: Death Troopers
When the Imperial prison barge Purge–temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves–breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.
And death is only the beginning.
The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.
And death is only the beginning.
The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
685 people are currently reading
7901 people want to read
About the author
Joe Schreiber
24 books316 followersJoe Schreiber was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Alaska, Wyoming and northern California. Until recently, he has never lived in the same address for longer than a year. Before settling in Hershey he lived in New York, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and Philadelphia. Becoming a parent forced him to consider a career with more reliable income, and he got a job as an MRI tech at Hershey Medical Center. Joe is married and has two children. He is the author of Chasing The Dead, Eat The Dark, and his newest tale of terror; No Doors, No Windows, which went on sale the same day as STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS. You can find him on the web at his blog ScaryParent.Blogspot.Com and on Suvudu.Com, where he is an occasional horror columnist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,610 reviews
August 26, 2016
this marks my second (and possibly last) foray into the surprisingly expansive world of Star Wars tie-in novels. my first was Han Solo's Revenge back when I was 10 or so.
the plot involves the Empire prison ship Purge and its ill-fated encounter with a not-quite abandoned Empire Destroyer. things are lurking aboard this gigantic ship, both viral and on two legs. I had a good deal of fun racing around this immense zombie labyrinth with the suddenly very small cast of characters. Death Troopers employs the standard amount of characterization befitting a zombie novel: sharply drawn characters are given just enough backstory and depth to make their individual deaths somewhat meaningful or tragic.
I'm not sure what I was expecting before reading this, other than I was sort of excited because ZOMBIES IN SPACE. and not just any space, Star Wars space! it's the little things in life that excite me. the writing is competent and I don't recall groaning audibly at any point. it was increasingly tense, briskly paced, not weighed down by info dumps and the like. not a bad book by any means, and I don't want to underrate the palpable tension that this book eventually created. I turned the pages rapidly.
SPOILERS AHEAD
my biggest issue is fairly petty. I just really, really, REALLY did not appreciate the horrible pathos of a scene where a child weeps over his fallen parents, attempts to wrap their dead arms around him for comfort, and then is painfully killed by zombies. that the child is an alien (wookie) and that the story itself is a fun, shallow adventure did not make this easier. I've had issues with these sorts of scenes in genre novels before - pathos followed by brutality involving children - and as before, this scene took me right out of the book. maybe genre authors should stay away from exploring scenes of atrocity in depth when a glancing fly-by will do. I find it vaguely offensive that something like that is used merely for shock value; if a similar scene occurred in a book with genuine emotional resonance, I'd be upset but not actually offended. or maybe this is just a trigger for me? I dunno. but anyway, fuck you Joe Schreiber for putting that scene in there.
the only other problem I had is that I really, really, REALLY wanted to see some zombie storm troopers lurching around and described as such. that image was one that I was looking forward to quite a bit. not much luck there. there's just a whole bunch of zombies and they include storm troopers among their ranks. eh.
END SPOILERS
because I am the sort of fellow who has a whole folder full of Star Wars storm trooper images, I think I will attempt to satisfy my storm trooper-centric desires by posting those images. enjoy!
the plot involves the Empire prison ship Purge and its ill-fated encounter with a not-quite abandoned Empire Destroyer. things are lurking aboard this gigantic ship, both viral and on two legs. I had a good deal of fun racing around this immense zombie labyrinth with the suddenly very small cast of characters. Death Troopers employs the standard amount of characterization befitting a zombie novel: sharply drawn characters are given just enough backstory and depth to make their individual deaths somewhat meaningful or tragic.
I'm not sure what I was expecting before reading this, other than I was sort of excited because ZOMBIES IN SPACE. and not just any space, Star Wars space! it's the little things in life that excite me. the writing is competent and I don't recall groaning audibly at any point. it was increasingly tense, briskly paced, not weighed down by info dumps and the like. not a bad book by any means, and I don't want to underrate the palpable tension that this book eventually created. I turned the pages rapidly.
SPOILERS AHEAD
my biggest issue is fairly petty. I just really, really, REALLY did not appreciate the horrible pathos of a scene where a child weeps over his fallen parents, attempts to wrap their dead arms around him for comfort, and then is painfully killed by zombies. that the child is an alien (wookie) and that the story itself is a fun, shallow adventure did not make this easier. I've had issues with these sorts of scenes in genre novels before - pathos followed by brutality involving children - and as before, this scene took me right out of the book. maybe genre authors should stay away from exploring scenes of atrocity in depth when a glancing fly-by will do. I find it vaguely offensive that something like that is used merely for shock value; if a similar scene occurred in a book with genuine emotional resonance, I'd be upset but not actually offended. or maybe this is just a trigger for me? I dunno. but anyway, fuck you Joe Schreiber for putting that scene in there.
the only other problem I had is that I really, really, REALLY wanted to see some zombie storm troopers lurching around and described as such. that image was one that I was looking forward to quite a bit. not much luck there. there's just a whole bunch of zombies and they include storm troopers among their ranks. eh.
END SPOILERS
because I am the sort of fellow who has a whole folder full of Star Wars storm trooper images, I think I will attempt to satisfy my storm trooper-centric desires by posting those images. enjoy!
February 12, 2011
My almost 13-year old son read this in one day, had a nightmare that night, and then insisted that I read it as well. I admit, I was intrigued by the concept and the cover art since it came out. After reading it over the course of about 3 days, I realize the cover art and the concept remain the best things about this book.
Death Troopers came out in 2009, so I'm not going to be revealing anything major here to the hardcore Star Wars fans, but still, here's a SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!! If you have any intention of reading this and don't wish to know what happens, STOP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
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OK, so, we've got an Imperial prison barge in deep space, and its engines take a shit. A Star Destroyer is in the area, but there doesn't appear to be many life forms aboard a ship that holds 10,000 souls. The prison dudes hook up to the Star Destroyer to see if they can swap meet for some spare parts, the boarding party comes back with nasty chest colds, people start dropping like flies, and only a few who have a natural immunity to the disease are left alive.
And that brings us to Han Solo and Chewbacca. Seems they're down in solitary confinement, and one of the survivors, a sexy little doctor number, gets them out. That's when all the dead dudes start to become undead (Note: no actual zombies appear until halfway through the book) and from there on out, it's one long chase sequence until the good guys make it out at the end. And no, I'm not ruining the ending for you. Of course Han and Chewie make it out. This is pre-Episode IV time, so they have bigger and better things to do later, Death Stars to help blow up and shit. They're not going to bite it on some prison barge in a zombie story. So the ending is pretty anticlimactic because you know what's coming and there really aren't any good twists.
Conceptually, Han and Chewie blasting their way through hordes of undead Storm Troopers sounds pretty awesome. But the actual application here just doesn't quite pan out. The addition of the character Trig, a whiny teenage prisoner who reminds us a little too much of a whiny teenage Anakin circa Episode II, doesn't help. But the pace moves along at a lighting fast clip, so at least we won't linger for long on these things because there's running to be done. Run, run, run. Shoot a blaster, narrowly escape a zombie attack, run, run, run. (Though one pretty effective scene is whiny teen Trig climbing a mountain of half-eaten corpses to escape a zombie, while more zombies rooting around inside said dead body mountain are reaching up between the legs and ears and kneecaps to grab him.)
The structure of this book wore on me as well. It reminded me of The DaVinci Code. Every chapter (and there are more than 40 of them in the span of 234 pages) ended in a cliffhanger, and quite frequently with a character blacking out. And also quite frequently, the very next chapter would pick back up with the same scene from the same character's POV, a needless break in the flow to artificially manufacture more tension.
The build-up of tension through the first half was pretty effective, but once the zombies kick in, the story doesn't really jump into high gear, the plot just becomes a race to the finish line. By the final act, I was flying through the pages as fast as Han and friends were running from zombies, just so I could cross the tape, have someone wrap me in that weird tinfoil blanket they throw on marathon runners, and move on to something else. But the cover art is still pretty badass. I'm gonna go look at that again.
Death Troopers came out in 2009, so I'm not going to be revealing anything major here to the hardcore Star Wars fans, but still, here's a SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!! If you have any intention of reading this and don't wish to know what happens, STOP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
OK, so, we've got an Imperial prison barge in deep space, and its engines take a shit. A Star Destroyer is in the area, but there doesn't appear to be many life forms aboard a ship that holds 10,000 souls. The prison dudes hook up to the Star Destroyer to see if they can swap meet for some spare parts, the boarding party comes back with nasty chest colds, people start dropping like flies, and only a few who have a natural immunity to the disease are left alive.
And that brings us to Han Solo and Chewbacca. Seems they're down in solitary confinement, and one of the survivors, a sexy little doctor number, gets them out. That's when all the dead dudes start to become undead (Note: no actual zombies appear until halfway through the book) and from there on out, it's one long chase sequence until the good guys make it out at the end. And no, I'm not ruining the ending for you. Of course Han and Chewie make it out. This is pre-Episode IV time, so they have bigger and better things to do later, Death Stars to help blow up and shit. They're not going to bite it on some prison barge in a zombie story. So the ending is pretty anticlimactic because you know what's coming and there really aren't any good twists.
Conceptually, Han and Chewie blasting their way through hordes of undead Storm Troopers sounds pretty awesome. But the actual application here just doesn't quite pan out. The addition of the character Trig, a whiny teenage prisoner who reminds us a little too much of a whiny teenage Anakin circa Episode II, doesn't help. But the pace moves along at a lighting fast clip, so at least we won't linger for long on these things because there's running to be done. Run, run, run. Shoot a blaster, narrowly escape a zombie attack, run, run, run. (Though one pretty effective scene is whiny teen Trig climbing a mountain of half-eaten corpses to escape a zombie, while more zombies rooting around inside said dead body mountain are reaching up between the legs and ears and kneecaps to grab him.)
The structure of this book wore on me as well. It reminded me of The DaVinci Code. Every chapter (and there are more than 40 of them in the span of 234 pages) ended in a cliffhanger, and quite frequently with a character blacking out. And also quite frequently, the very next chapter would pick back up with the same scene from the same character's POV, a needless break in the flow to artificially manufacture more tension.
The build-up of tension through the first half was pretty effective, but once the zombies kick in, the story doesn't really jump into high gear, the plot just becomes a race to the finish line. By the final act, I was flying through the pages as fast as Han and friends were running from zombies, just so I could cross the tape, have someone wrap me in that weird tinfoil blanket they throw on marathon runners, and move on to something else. But the cover art is still pretty badass. I'm gonna go look at that again.
November 30, 2021
like an unconcerned lover, meeting you for a “nooner”, Death Troopers is quick and dirty. it doesnt ask you how you are doing or if you are getting close. when it is finished, it rolls out of bed and leaves you staring, asking “what exactly just happened”. you feel a little dirty, then you shower and get back to work. in the end, it is still a nooner, so who can scoff at that? not i.
a little background info to explain the above..
as a kid, i was an avid book reader. you put it in front of me, and it would be consumed. scifi, conspiracy, historical fiction.. even the babysitters club.
i was a blank template for the DnD dice rolling dork who, at 40, woulds till be living in the basement. a virgin, who had +60 defense against magic.
i was a sucker for sci-fi movies. i watched starwars, star trek, battle star (original), buck rogers.. my dad ended up recording over our copy of The Beastmaster because my brother and i watched it far far too often.
as i got older, conspiracy’s became more of a focus, zombies and the occult.. i began theorizing how i would reinforce structures in case of a zombie apocalypse. i became the dice rolling dork, and escaped with only minimal scarring.
although i have been considered a geek for most of my life, i have been able to keep myself out of the uber geek, fanboy, socially scary category. Joe Schreiber screwed that all up for me.
by combining Starwars and Zombies into a novel, Joe forced me to pick up a Starwars universe book. this is the first that i have ever read, and as we all know, addictions always start with a single experience…. so.. damn you Joe.. and thank you joe…, . but ultimately.. damn you Joe. i am one step closer to becoming the “starwars kid”. someone keep video cameras away from me for a while.
when i bought this, i found that the dust cover on the book was reversible, a poster for the book. the cover itself, instead of being blank as many hard covers, sported the books image.. inside, a timeline for where this book exists in the universe (between 1-5 years before “A New Hope”).
The plot is pretty basic, Prison barge breaks down in the abyss of space. a Star Destroyer is sound, which has only 10 life forms aboard. prison guard enters the Star Destroyer to scavenge parts, then all hell breaks loose.
For those who say “i dont like star wars, so i wont read this” get over it. this is a horror/zombie novel. Starwars is almost cursory in most places. with the exception of references to familiar starwars species and verbiage, there is not much here that is out of the ordinary for a space/sci-fi storyline. no magic microbes that let you levitate stuff, no “laser swords” or cryptic green man doling out advice from a swamp.
for the avid starwars fan, you wont be disappointed by some of the surprises either. some references just cant be made in a review, doing so would just be bad form on my part.
in the end, i would suggest this book for any sci-fi or horror fan. at 230 pages, it was fast and fun. i look forward to reading it a second time, and loaning it out.
~~
To ballantine/del-rey books:
Great job on the design of Death troopers. there is one aspect that kinda pissed me off though.
What is the point in putting an excerpt in the end of the book for marketing purposes when you choose to put in chapters 3-5? do you realize that with out chapters 1 and 2, we are less likely to read it? that it makes little sense and therefore has a negative impact on the choice to buy the book you have excerpted?
in the book you chose, the characters exist nearly 40 years (thank you timeline!!) after a new hope. the book looks good, but it took far too long to get to the point where i understood what was happening. to be honest, if i were to buy the book, i would not read the first two chapters, as i am already far past their usability.
i have never run into a teaser excerpt that was mid book, and i hope i never do again.
what were you thinking..? very annoying
Toastx2
a little background info to explain the above..
as a kid, i was an avid book reader. you put it in front of me, and it would be consumed. scifi, conspiracy, historical fiction.. even the babysitters club.
i was a blank template for the DnD dice rolling dork who, at 40, woulds till be living in the basement. a virgin, who had +60 defense against magic.
i was a sucker for sci-fi movies. i watched starwars, star trek, battle star (original), buck rogers.. my dad ended up recording over our copy of The Beastmaster because my brother and i watched it far far too often.
as i got older, conspiracy’s became more of a focus, zombies and the occult.. i began theorizing how i would reinforce structures in case of a zombie apocalypse. i became the dice rolling dork, and escaped with only minimal scarring.
although i have been considered a geek for most of my life, i have been able to keep myself out of the uber geek, fanboy, socially scary category. Joe Schreiber screwed that all up for me.
by combining Starwars and Zombies into a novel, Joe forced me to pick up a Starwars universe book. this is the first that i have ever read, and as we all know, addictions always start with a single experience…. so.. damn you Joe.. and thank you joe…, . but ultimately.. damn you Joe. i am one step closer to becoming the “starwars kid”. someone keep video cameras away from me for a while.
when i bought this, i found that the dust cover on the book was reversible, a poster for the book. the cover itself, instead of being blank as many hard covers, sported the books image.. inside, a timeline for where this book exists in the universe (between 1-5 years before “A New Hope”).
The plot is pretty basic, Prison barge breaks down in the abyss of space. a Star Destroyer is sound, which has only 10 life forms aboard. prison guard enters the Star Destroyer to scavenge parts, then all hell breaks loose.
For those who say “i dont like star wars, so i wont read this” get over it. this is a horror/zombie novel. Starwars is almost cursory in most places. with the exception of references to familiar starwars species and verbiage, there is not much here that is out of the ordinary for a space/sci-fi storyline. no magic microbes that let you levitate stuff, no “laser swords” or cryptic green man doling out advice from a swamp.
for the avid starwars fan, you wont be disappointed by some of the surprises either. some references just cant be made in a review, doing so would just be bad form on my part.
in the end, i would suggest this book for any sci-fi or horror fan. at 230 pages, it was fast and fun. i look forward to reading it a second time, and loaning it out.
~~
To ballantine/del-rey books:
Great job on the design of Death troopers. there is one aspect that kinda pissed me off though.
What is the point in putting an excerpt in the end of the book for marketing purposes when you choose to put in chapters 3-5? do you realize that with out chapters 1 and 2, we are less likely to read it? that it makes little sense and therefore has a negative impact on the choice to buy the book you have excerpted?
in the book you chose, the characters exist nearly 40 years (thank you timeline!!) after a new hope. the book looks good, but it took far too long to get to the point where i understood what was happening. to be honest, if i were to buy the book, i would not read the first two chapters, as i am already far past their usability.
i have never run into a teaser excerpt that was mid book, and i hope i never do again.
what were you thinking..? very annoying
Toastx2
June 7, 2021
I really enjoyed Schreiber's writing. It was concise and clear and very sensory. The story itself was okay, it was a fun read. The characters were enjoyable but not particularly memorable.
February 14, 2017
A very funny Star Wars tale... with zombies!
The appearance of a famous characters duo was a nice add, but it spoiled the suspence for good because you already know they are going to survive.
Not bad at all, and the awesome cover raised one star my final vote.
June 6, 2017
I should probably start this review by stating that I am not the biggest Star Wars fan. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movies (well, all save the prequel trilogy, of which I dislike all three) and I’ve played some of the games (Knights of the Old Republic stands as one of my favorite RPGs ever made), but the expanded universe is not something that I’m particularly interested in.
That said, I am a huge horror fan and upon hearing that there was a Star Wars novel with zombies in it… my inner child squeed and it goes without saying that it was something that I needed in my life. So I picked it up, read it and now here I sit composing my thoughts.
I stated first off that I’m not really into the Star Wars expanded universe for a reason. As I have not read other books in the series, I don’t know how much of what I’m going to say could be deemed a complaint for other Star Wars novels (and thus if you are a fan you should completely ignore) and how much is this book in particular, but let’s begin with a few negative aspects.
First off, I found the book a bit too violent. Many of my friends would laugh at hearing that as I can view some extremely disturbing horror films and read horror literature without batting an eye… and I can’t say that this disturbed me, but given the Star Wars universe I found this to be a bit too “R” rated. Star Wars always seemed to me to be a fairly family friendly story, and while I expected an increase in violence due to subject matter (hell, just look at that cover) I found description of people’s insides and decaying faces a bit of shock (as well as a fairly unpleasant scene involving a child). While I personally do not have any real issues with the material, it may be a bit too much for this specific story universe.
The second and third issues may be deemed spoilers (though I’ve noticed it mentioned in other reviews, so readers be wary).
Now on the more positive side, it is a lot of fun seeing zombies on a Star Destroyer. I mean, that is really all the description one needs to know if they’re going to have some fun with it.
I also like that the virus reacts differently to the various alien species, which is to say that it does not effect a wookie in the same way it would a human. This lead to some fairly creative ideas over how the virus would work. I personally would have liked to seen this expanded upon a little more.
I would like to praise the pacing a bit as well. Some may not like this aspect, but I liked that it was a bit of a slow burner at first. Setting and tension are built before we get to our first zombie, and the start of the outbreak is pretty well done. Descriptions of the ship are quite eerie and very satisfying.
So overall, I have to say that I enjoyed the book, thought I think some Star Wars fans may want to be cautious before reading. I gather there is a second Star Wars zombie novel by the same author (set in the old republic era), which I may at some point check out as well. An entertaining 3/5.
That said, I am a huge horror fan and upon hearing that there was a Star Wars novel with zombies in it… my inner child squeed and it goes without saying that it was something that I needed in my life. So I picked it up, read it and now here I sit composing my thoughts.
I stated first off that I’m not really into the Star Wars expanded universe for a reason. As I have not read other books in the series, I don’t know how much of what I’m going to say could be deemed a complaint for other Star Wars novels (and thus if you are a fan you should completely ignore) and how much is this book in particular, but let’s begin with a few negative aspects.
First off, I found the book a bit too violent. Many of my friends would laugh at hearing that as I can view some extremely disturbing horror films and read horror literature without batting an eye… and I can’t say that this disturbed me, but given the Star Wars universe I found this to be a bit too “R” rated. Star Wars always seemed to me to be a fairly family friendly story, and while I expected an increase in violence due to subject matter (hell, just look at that cover) I found description of people’s insides and decaying faces a bit of shock (as well as a fairly unpleasant scene involving a child). While I personally do not have any real issues with the material, it may be a bit too much for this specific story universe.
The second and third issues may be deemed spoilers (though I’ve noticed it mentioned in other reviews, so readers be wary).
Now on the more positive side, it is a lot of fun seeing zombies on a Star Destroyer. I mean, that is really all the description one needs to know if they’re going to have some fun with it.
I also like that the virus reacts differently to the various alien species, which is to say that it does not effect a wookie in the same way it would a human. This lead to some fairly creative ideas over how the virus would work. I personally would have liked to seen this expanded upon a little more.
I would like to praise the pacing a bit as well. Some may not like this aspect, but I liked that it was a bit of a slow burner at first. Setting and tension are built before we get to our first zombie, and the start of the outbreak is pretty well done. Descriptions of the ship are quite eerie and very satisfying.
So overall, I have to say that I enjoyed the book, thought I think some Star Wars fans may want to be cautious before reading. I gather there is a second Star Wars zombie novel by the same author (set in the old republic era), which I may at some point check out as well. An entertaining 3/5.
April 18, 2016
The zombie force is strong in this one!
ZOMBIES LONG TIME AGO, FAR FAR AWAY
Maybe some hardcore fans of Star Wars can feel uncertain to try this book since its basic premise involves zombies... yes, you read right... ZOMBIES. (Without thinking that nowadays isn't canonical anymore)
However, before you decide to go away from the book, I can let you know that this particular book is in the toplists of several Star Wars reviewers around the internet.
So...
...something good must have!
Moreover, technically you will have zombies as much as they can be zombies in The Walking Dead (where nobody denies that those are zombies!), and at least here, you will get to understand the logic and science behind this creatures (well, the logic and science in a galaxy with lightsabers).
CREEPY GOOD TALE
The book is really good (creepy good) and entertaining.
I had some expectations before I started to read the novel and many of them weren't as I thought, since the story developed in a total different way, but...
...I don't say this in a negative way.
I thought that the novel would be driven through not-big-shots stormtroopers, battling for their lives against an impossible threat, where you wouldn't know who might survive.
However, soon enough, you will get a BIG SURPRISE (nope, I won't spoil it, but you'll love it!) that you will be tenderhearted about having some characters that you know that they must survive the tale.
IMPERIAL HORRORS
The author could acomplish a really interesting project here, merging horror genre with not only sci-fi in a general sense, but just right into the universe of Star Wars in a very plausible way.
I don't want to get into details to avoid to spoil any of the fun that you'd have if you'd decide to read this book too.
And I can tell you that you will have a lot of surprises, and some of them are really cool and great and that will help to make this novel like a true example proudly part of the Star Wars legacy.
ZOMBIES LONG TIME AGO, FAR FAR AWAY
Maybe some hardcore fans of Star Wars can feel uncertain to try this book since its basic premise involves zombies... yes, you read right... ZOMBIES. (Without thinking that nowadays isn't canonical anymore)
However, before you decide to go away from the book, I can let you know that this particular book is in the toplists of several Star Wars reviewers around the internet.
So...
...something good must have!
Moreover, technically you will have zombies as much as they can be zombies in The Walking Dead (where nobody denies that those are zombies!), and at least here, you will get to understand the logic and science behind this creatures (well, the logic and science in a galaxy with lightsabers).
CREEPY GOOD TALE
The book is really good (creepy good) and entertaining.
I had some expectations before I started to read the novel and many of them weren't as I thought, since the story developed in a total different way, but...
...I don't say this in a negative way.
I thought that the novel would be driven through not-big-shots stormtroopers, battling for their lives against an impossible threat, where you wouldn't know who might survive.
However, soon enough, you will get a BIG SURPRISE (nope, I won't spoil it, but you'll love it!) that you will be tenderhearted about having some characters that you know that they must survive the tale.
IMPERIAL HORRORS
The author could acomplish a really interesting project here, merging horror genre with not only sci-fi in a general sense, but just right into the universe of Star Wars in a very plausible way.
I don't want to get into details to avoid to spoil any of the fun that you'd have if you'd decide to read this book too.
And I can tell you that you will have a lot of surprises, and some of them are really cool and great and that will help to make this novel like a true example proudly part of the Star Wars legacy.
October 17, 2021
3¾⭐ | Narration 😁 = Very Good | Narrated by 📣 Sean Kenin
🔦FEATURING
❐ Horror --Of the Zombie kind
❐ Star Wars
❐ Cover 💙Love💙
Do you like Star Wars? Do you like Zombies? Do you mind if the two are mixed?
A sort of continuation of Red Harvest but you wouldn’t have to listen to that to enjoy Death Troopers. Han and Chewy even make an appearance...not gonna lie, they made the story just a little more interesting. Even though the narrator made Han sound like Patrick Warburton (Elaine’s boyfriend on Seinfeld).
🅒🅐🅦🅟🅘🅛🅔 7.14/❿
🅒haracters ￫ 7.5
🅐tmosphere ￫ 7
🅦riting ￫ 6.5
🅟lot ￫ 7
🅘ntrigue ￫ 7.5
🅛ogic ￫ 7
🅔njoyment ￫ 7.5
🔦FEATURING
❐ Horror --Of the Zombie kind
❐ Star Wars
❐ Cover 💙Love💙
Do you like Star Wars? Do you like Zombies? Do you mind if the two are mixed?
A sort of continuation of Red Harvest but you wouldn’t have to listen to that to enjoy Death Troopers. Han and Chewy even make an appearance...not gonna lie, they made the story just a little more interesting. Even though the narrator made Han sound like Patrick Warburton (Elaine’s boyfriend on Seinfeld).
🅒🅐🅦🅟🅘🅛🅔 7.14/❿
🅒haracters ￫ 7.5
🅐tmosphere ￫ 7
🅦riting ￫ 6.5
🅟lot ￫ 7
🅘ntrigue ￫ 7.5
🅛ogic ￫ 7
🅔njoyment ￫ 7.5
October 31, 2021
I held off with finishing this because I wanted to read it on Halloween. It was quite a short book but I still really enjoyed it. As is the case with most Star Wars books that I've read I audiobooked it here and there. And Star Wars audiobooks are usually very good. This one was no exception. I often listened to it late during the evening which wasn't the best idea since it had some very creepy and disgusting soundeffects. But it's a horror story so it really helped set the mood.
Spoilers below.
Four stars might be a bit too generous. It's more of a three and a half star book, but I feel like rounding up this time.
Spoilers below.
Four stars might be a bit too generous. It's more of a three and a half star book, but I feel like rounding up this time.
October 25, 2017
I wrote this review in 2012. For some reason, "Star Wars" fans and zombie film fans don't often mix, so this book is very definitely for a niche audience. If you've kind of gotten tired of the sentimentality and seriousness of "The Walking Dead" (I know it's the zombie apocalypse but could someone please just tell a fucking joke or crack a smile once in a while?), this book harkens back to a time when even zombie movies had a bit of fun. Throw in the sappy silliness of a space opera, and you've got a winner...
George Lucas created a monster back in the late '70s when he introduced the world to "Star Wars". What started as a fun space-opera fantasy film consisting of a dramatis personae of roughly nine major characters has exploded into a multi-billion dollar franchise and a steadily-growing universe of new stories. Fans call it the Expanded Universe, and there are literally hundreds of new authors constantly adding to it with new novels either carrying on the storylines started by Lucas in his six films or creating entirely new storylines within the same fictional universe.
To be fair, some of those novels haven't been that great, but as someone who has read several of them (not even close to all of them, however), I can honestly say that a majority of them have been very good to excellent. Many of these authors stretch the boundaries of the "Star Wars" universe, branching out into interesting cross-genre experiments. One "Star Wars" series extrapolates the challenges a war-time medical unit faces during the Clone Wars (essentially "ER" in space) while another one involves a former Jedi knight-turned-private eye on the dark streets of planet Coruscant.
Author Joe Schreiber, in "Death Troopers", has struck upon the brilliant and ingenious concept of combining "Star Wars" with one of my favorite genres: zombies. This book is literary candy for a geek like me, and it should be required reading for anyone who loves "Star Wars" AND zombies. This book is not for everyone, though, notably anyone with a weak stomach. Schreiber's book is graphically violent and gory, a description one does not often hear with other "Star Wars" books. So, be forewarned.
The book takes place on the Imperial prison barge Purge. When the prison ship experiences technical difficulties on the edges of explored space, it is either luck or misfortune that a Star Destroyer is discovered parked in space not far from them. The problem: the Star Destroyer appears to be completely deserted. Readings indicate that there is no life on board. When two boarding parties leave Purge to investigate, only one returns. Those that return appear to be violently ill and dying from some kind of viral infection.
Before quarantine protocols can be initiated, the prison ship is quickly infected. Inmates, guards, stormtroopers are all dying from what appears to be a violent hemorragic fever. It spreads quickly and completely. Only a handful of survivors are left, due to natural immunity, including Dr. Zahara Cody, the ship's medical officer; the teenaged Longo Brothers; Jareth Sartoris, the ruthless Captain of the Imperial prison guards; and two others who were kept safe due to the fact that they were in solitary confinement during the outbreak. (I'm not going to reveal who these two are, because their appearance is a fun little surprise for "Star Wars" fans. I'll give you a hint: one of them is big and hairy...)
Just when they think the worst is over, however, the corpses of the dead appear to be reanimating. They are not friendly, and they have an insatiable hunger for human flesh. I'm not going to lie: this book made me giddy as a schoolgirl. Who would have ever thought to combine "Star Wars" and zombies, And do it so well? Joe Schreiber, that's who. He's my new hero...
George Lucas created a monster back in the late '70s when he introduced the world to "Star Wars". What started as a fun space-opera fantasy film consisting of a dramatis personae of roughly nine major characters has exploded into a multi-billion dollar franchise and a steadily-growing universe of new stories. Fans call it the Expanded Universe, and there are literally hundreds of new authors constantly adding to it with new novels either carrying on the storylines started by Lucas in his six films or creating entirely new storylines within the same fictional universe.
To be fair, some of those novels haven't been that great, but as someone who has read several of them (not even close to all of them, however), I can honestly say that a majority of them have been very good to excellent. Many of these authors stretch the boundaries of the "Star Wars" universe, branching out into interesting cross-genre experiments. One "Star Wars" series extrapolates the challenges a war-time medical unit faces during the Clone Wars (essentially "ER" in space) while another one involves a former Jedi knight-turned-private eye on the dark streets of planet Coruscant.
Author Joe Schreiber, in "Death Troopers", has struck upon the brilliant and ingenious concept of combining "Star Wars" with one of my favorite genres: zombies. This book is literary candy for a geek like me, and it should be required reading for anyone who loves "Star Wars" AND zombies. This book is not for everyone, though, notably anyone with a weak stomach. Schreiber's book is graphically violent and gory, a description one does not often hear with other "Star Wars" books. So, be forewarned.
The book takes place on the Imperial prison barge Purge. When the prison ship experiences technical difficulties on the edges of explored space, it is either luck or misfortune that a Star Destroyer is discovered parked in space not far from them. The problem: the Star Destroyer appears to be completely deserted. Readings indicate that there is no life on board. When two boarding parties leave Purge to investigate, only one returns. Those that return appear to be violently ill and dying from some kind of viral infection.
Before quarantine protocols can be initiated, the prison ship is quickly infected. Inmates, guards, stormtroopers are all dying from what appears to be a violent hemorragic fever. It spreads quickly and completely. Only a handful of survivors are left, due to natural immunity, including Dr. Zahara Cody, the ship's medical officer; the teenaged Longo Brothers; Jareth Sartoris, the ruthless Captain of the Imperial prison guards; and two others who were kept safe due to the fact that they were in solitary confinement during the outbreak. (I'm not going to reveal who these two are, because their appearance is a fun little surprise for "Star Wars" fans. I'll give you a hint: one of them is big and hairy...)
Just when they think the worst is over, however, the corpses of the dead appear to be reanimating. They are not friendly, and they have an insatiable hunger for human flesh. I'm not going to lie: this book made me giddy as a schoolgirl. Who would have ever thought to combine "Star Wars" and zombies, And do it so well? Joe Schreiber, that's who. He's my new hero...
April 1, 2024
Definitely one of the shorter and weirder Star Wars adult novels. This book is only about 270 pages in Mass Market Paperback, and it reads very quickly. I was able to read it in a matter of hours. It's also set apart because of the subgenre it fits into: Horror!
Yes, Horror in Star Wars is not quite common. We've gotten some scary creatures in The Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett, and we got some zombie type creatures in Ahsoka, but we haven't really gotten novels featuring horror. Enter: Joe Schreiber.
This book does have a few horrifying elements, and it does have some sequences that might be considered scary. I thought it was more gross in areas than scary, but it still worked for me.
Having such a small cast of characters was interesting, and really made it feel like this could have been an episode of Clone Wars or Rebels, just featuring characters we'd never interacted with. The prison barge Purge is already a forboding and scary place, and when you add the undead to it, it becomes much more scary.
The Star Destroyer setting was fascinating, and you can tell that Schreiber did his homework to make it as accurate as possible.
There is a surprise where 2 classic characters show up about halfway through the book, and I thought it was a little clever, but also thought that it took away some of the danger, as the reader already knows that the characters have to survive. It was still cool seeing these character in this horror situation, different than we've seen them interact with before.
There are a few horrifying elements that might be a bit much for kids below a certain age, but I do think that generally the intriguing nature of the book might work well for getting pre-teens/teens into reading Star Wars books. It helps that the book is so short.
The story is an incredibly quick read, and can definitely be done in a matter of hours. As such, there isn't that much depth to the story, and I doubt the original characters will stick with me long term. However, its still a fun read that's worth it, especially if you are a fan of Star Wars and Horror.
Overall, while I enjoyed the book, its not a favorite. Just doesn't fit my style or tastes, but I can acknowledge the craftsmanship behind the book. 7 out of 10!
Yes, Horror in Star Wars is not quite common. We've gotten some scary creatures in The Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett, and we got some zombie type creatures in Ahsoka, but we haven't really gotten novels featuring horror. Enter: Joe Schreiber.
This book does have a few horrifying elements, and it does have some sequences that might be considered scary. I thought it was more gross in areas than scary, but it still worked for me.
Having such a small cast of characters was interesting, and really made it feel like this could have been an episode of Clone Wars or Rebels, just featuring characters we'd never interacted with. The prison barge Purge is already a forboding and scary place, and when you add the undead to it, it becomes much more scary.
The Star Destroyer setting was fascinating, and you can tell that Schreiber did his homework to make it as accurate as possible.
There is a surprise where 2 classic characters show up about halfway through the book, and I thought it was a little clever, but also thought that it took away some of the danger, as the reader already knows that the characters have to survive. It was still cool seeing these character in this horror situation, different than we've seen them interact with before.
There are a few horrifying elements that might be a bit much for kids below a certain age, but I do think that generally the intriguing nature of the book might work well for getting pre-teens/teens into reading Star Wars books. It helps that the book is so short.
The story is an incredibly quick read, and can definitely be done in a matter of hours. As such, there isn't that much depth to the story, and I doubt the original characters will stick with me long term. However, its still a fun read that's worth it, especially if you are a fan of Star Wars and Horror.
Overall, while I enjoyed the book, its not a favorite. Just doesn't fit my style or tastes, but I can acknowledge the craftsmanship behind the book. 7 out of 10!
February 27, 2021
eu tô REALMENTE surpreso. achei o livro fosse ser bastante clichê (amo Star Wars, mas né? kkk) e o que eu encontrei foi um livro muito bem escrito, com personagens interessantes e reviravolta atrás de reviravolta. fui do "pqp q nojo" ao "own meu deus eu quero morar nesse livro" em questão de 50 páginas. bão DEMAIS!
July 15, 2014
“Well, we’re on a Star Destroyer being chased by the living dead”
The Purge is an Imperial prison barge. When it makes an unexpected stop near a ghost Star Destroyer, Captain of the Guard, Jareth Sartoris, is sent aboard to find spare parts. Instead, their party is split up, and only half returns. But once back on the ship, a virus spreads quickly, much more quickly than Zahara Cody, medical officer can treat. Can the survivors—Sartoris, Cody, two orphaned boys, Kale and Trig Longo, and two mysterious high security prisoners—survive?
NOTE: Based on unabridged audiobook and novel.
I Liked:
This is the first Star Wars horror novel. Other novels have dabbled in horror archetypes and tropes, but this one feels more like a horror novel than a straight-up Star Wars novel. And I liked it. We got the first hint that Star Wars could accept other genres with the noir-esque Coruscant Nights Trilogy. Unfortunately, with the CN trilogy, they held back and didn’t push it as far as I feel they could have. Death Troopers is pure horror. We have the spooky set up, the ominous abandoned Star Destroyer, the splitting of the boarding party, the infection, the immuned, the heroic sacrifice, and good old fashioned zombie shambling. Oh, and lots and lots of blood, gore, and nasty deaths.
The original characters were very interesting. I found myself really interested in Kale and Trig Longo. I thought I might not (they were teenagers, their father was a stereotypical smuggler, who was arrested wrongly by the Empire, etc.), but both were sensible, level-headed, and age-appropriate (no superpowered Solo or Skywalker kids here!). Jareth Sartoris was a bit of a stereotypical “bad guy”, but I liked him anyway. His backstory made me feel sorry for him, and I liked how he handled the situation and his "redemption" of sorts. Lastly, Zahara Cody was amazing. Completely a woman I could throw my support behind: smart, capable, independent woman. She could handle a blaster, but didn’t feel like a man. One of my new favorite characters.
POSSIBLE SPOILER:
Han and Chewbacca appear halfway through the novel. Based on many reviewers comments, I was afraid that their inclusion would lessen the story for me. And while I did know they would survive and would have preferred Schreiber using a more unknown pair of scoundrels from Crispin’s or Daley’s works, I still thought it was cool to see them. Han acted very in character, one of the best portrayals I've seen in EU, and Chewbacca actually gets a point of view that is very well-done and insightful (why didn't more authors try to write his pov??). And seeing Chewbacca react to the Wookiee child…there are some definite emotions there.
END OF SPOILER
The story is very stereotypical. The prison barge stops for some reason near an infected ghost Star Destroyer. Scariness ensues. But since this plot hasn’t appeared in Star Wars before and I've not read a ton of horror books, I actually liked it. It was creepy, the characters acted appropriately (even if it meant stumbling into the horror clichés), and it moved very well.
I Didn’t Like:
As with most zombie novels, this is extremely gruesome (though not as gruesome as some!). There were many, many times where I wanted to vomit, the descriptions were so bloody and gory. So if you are sensitive of stomach, be ware. Also, do NOT read while eating.
As I said in the spoiler, the inclusion of a pair of familiar faces diffuses a lot of the suspense of the novel. Also, it is pretty obvious who lives and who dies (I wanted to roll my eyes at the escape, at who “miraculously” appears in the shuttle). And the Dramatis Personae has one character that pretty much "dies" within the first 100 pages, so it seems odd to even include him on the list. And, as we see so often, all but one of the Dramatis Personae (not including surprise characters) is human.
While this book (I thought) balanced the Star Wars and the horror genres, some might feel the Star Wars is too muted. When reading, I would come across a particular Star Wars reference and be like, “Oh, yeah, this is Star Wars.”
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Zahara uses “Karking” in place of the f-bomb. Don’t know if this is the first incident, but someone does use the term “bloody” for cursing.
One character eyes the attractive Zahara.
Lots. One character has a dream and digs into his stomach. Zahara does an impromptu stomach surgery on a character, who remains conscious for most of it. Trig has to climb a mountain of body parts. Zombie feedings. Blasterfire. Heck, we even have a psuedo-dogfight.
Overall:
I liked it…a lot. I was thoroughly entertained, the characters were interesting, the action held my attention, the story moved along quickly (sometimes almost too quickly). I had a few issues, but on the whole, I welcome the inclusion of horror into Star Wars. Perhaps Star Wars will start opening its borders to other genres…
The Purge is an Imperial prison barge. When it makes an unexpected stop near a ghost Star Destroyer, Captain of the Guard, Jareth Sartoris, is sent aboard to find spare parts. Instead, their party is split up, and only half returns. But once back on the ship, a virus spreads quickly, much more quickly than Zahara Cody, medical officer can treat. Can the survivors—Sartoris, Cody, two orphaned boys, Kale and Trig Longo, and two mysterious high security prisoners—survive?
NOTE: Based on unabridged audiobook and novel.
I Liked:
This is the first Star Wars horror novel. Other novels have dabbled in horror archetypes and tropes, but this one feels more like a horror novel than a straight-up Star Wars novel. And I liked it. We got the first hint that Star Wars could accept other genres with the noir-esque Coruscant Nights Trilogy. Unfortunately, with the CN trilogy, they held back and didn’t push it as far as I feel they could have. Death Troopers is pure horror. We have the spooky set up, the ominous abandoned Star Destroyer, the splitting of the boarding party, the infection, the immuned, the heroic sacrifice, and good old fashioned zombie shambling. Oh, and lots and lots of blood, gore, and nasty deaths.
The original characters were very interesting. I found myself really interested in Kale and Trig Longo. I thought I might not (they were teenagers, their father was a stereotypical smuggler, who was arrested wrongly by the Empire, etc.), but both were sensible, level-headed, and age-appropriate (no superpowered Solo or Skywalker kids here!). Jareth Sartoris was a bit of a stereotypical “bad guy”, but I liked him anyway. His backstory made me feel sorry for him, and I liked how he handled the situation and his "redemption" of sorts. Lastly, Zahara Cody was amazing. Completely a woman I could throw my support behind: smart, capable, independent woman. She could handle a blaster, but didn’t feel like a man. One of my new favorite characters.
POSSIBLE SPOILER:
Han and Chewbacca appear halfway through the novel. Based on many reviewers comments, I was afraid that their inclusion would lessen the story for me. And while I did know they would survive and would have preferred Schreiber using a more unknown pair of scoundrels from Crispin’s or Daley’s works, I still thought it was cool to see them. Han acted very in character, one of the best portrayals I've seen in EU, and Chewbacca actually gets a point of view that is very well-done and insightful (why didn't more authors try to write his pov??). And seeing Chewbacca react to the Wookiee child…there are some definite emotions there.
END OF SPOILER
The story is very stereotypical. The prison barge stops for some reason near an infected ghost Star Destroyer. Scariness ensues. But since this plot hasn’t appeared in Star Wars before and I've not read a ton of horror books, I actually liked it. It was creepy, the characters acted appropriately (even if it meant stumbling into the horror clichés), and it moved very well.
I Didn’t Like:
As with most zombie novels, this is extremely gruesome (though not as gruesome as some!). There were many, many times where I wanted to vomit, the descriptions were so bloody and gory. So if you are sensitive of stomach, be ware. Also, do NOT read while eating.
As I said in the spoiler, the inclusion of a pair of familiar faces diffuses a lot of the suspense of the novel. Also, it is pretty obvious who lives and who dies (I wanted to roll my eyes at the escape, at who “miraculously” appears in the shuttle). And the Dramatis Personae has one character that pretty much "dies" within the first 100 pages, so it seems odd to even include him on the list. And, as we see so often, all but one of the Dramatis Personae (not including surprise characters) is human.
While this book (I thought) balanced the Star Wars and the horror genres, some might feel the Star Wars is too muted. When reading, I would come across a particular Star Wars reference and be like, “Oh, yeah, this is Star Wars.”
Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Zahara uses “Karking” in place of the f-bomb. Don’t know if this is the first incident, but someone does use the term “bloody” for cursing.
One character eyes the attractive Zahara.
Lots. One character has a dream and digs into his stomach. Zahara does an impromptu stomach surgery on a character, who remains conscious for most of it. Trig has to climb a mountain of body parts. Zombie feedings. Blasterfire. Heck, we even have a psuedo-dogfight.
Overall:
I liked it…a lot. I was thoroughly entertained, the characters were interesting, the action held my attention, the story moved along quickly (sometimes almost too quickly). I had a few issues, but on the whole, I welcome the inclusion of horror into Star Wars. Perhaps Star Wars will start opening its borders to other genres…
December 7, 2022
"Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other; I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."
Not much to say, it's horror book. Zombies on a Star Destroyer because of stupid Imperials. I enjoyed it, but Han and Chewie didn't need to be in it. Of course, it does explain some of the weird stuff that Han has seen.
Not much to say, it's horror book. Zombies on a Star Destroyer because of stupid Imperials. I enjoyed it, but Han and Chewie didn't need to be in it. Of course, it does explain some of the weird stuff that Han has seen.
January 28, 2010
I really wanted this book to be filled with win. Star Wars plus Zombies! How could that be bad? Well, it’s not bad. That’s not exactly the ringing endorsement anybody really wants though, is it?
First problem is that I’m genuinely not a fan of the horror genre. I like the occasional horror movie but I skip all the torture porn, green filter wannabe ghost scary, splatter fest 30 year old reboot give me your money for something you’ve seen before crap. IF it’s good I’m very into it, but the kind of things that scare me aren’t the same things that scare most folks. Death Trooper felt like a very standard eliminator to me – you know bunches of people are going to die, but who actually makes it out in the end? That would require a depth of caring about the characters that I just didn't get.
Second problem is that I *am* a fan of Star Wars. This is a two-fold struggle for any author. There’s the battle against nostalgia plus the weight of trying to ram a new story into an existing, rigid story line. This story pulls off the part about fitting into the time line really well (as if there were any choice in the matter), but I was really underwhelmed by the powerful opportunity to use known characters. I won’t spoil the details here, but it seemed flat compared to what it could have (or should have) been. Staying away from the known characters altogether would have been a better option here. There was no chance that the known characters would be eliminated and that takes away from the suspense in an elimination based story.
I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t like the book. I did like it, I just desperately wanted it to be more than it was. It was a very fast read with good pace and interesting action scenes. I know this would make an excellent movie – one I would pay to go see in the theater. Let’s hope we get to see a movie version of this. I’d love to see zombies wandering around a star destroyer on the big screen with all the squishy bits in surround sound.
First problem is that I’m genuinely not a fan of the horror genre. I like the occasional horror movie but I skip all the torture porn, green filter wannabe ghost scary, splatter fest 30 year old reboot give me your money for something you’ve seen before crap. IF it’s good I’m very into it, but the kind of things that scare me aren’t the same things that scare most folks. Death Trooper felt like a very standard eliminator to me – you know bunches of people are going to die, but who actually makes it out in the end? That would require a depth of caring about the characters that I just didn't get.
Second problem is that I *am* a fan of Star Wars. This is a two-fold struggle for any author. There’s the battle against nostalgia plus the weight of trying to ram a new story into an existing, rigid story line. This story pulls off the part about fitting into the time line really well (as if there were any choice in the matter), but I was really underwhelmed by the powerful opportunity to use known characters. I won’t spoil the details here, but it seemed flat compared to what it could have (or should have) been. Staying away from the known characters altogether would have been a better option here. There was no chance that the known characters would be eliminated and that takes away from the suspense in an elimination based story.
I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t like the book. I did like it, I just desperately wanted it to be more than it was. It was a very fast read with good pace and interesting action scenes. I know this would make an excellent movie – one I would pay to go see in the theater. Let’s hope we get to see a movie version of this. I’d love to see zombies wandering around a star destroyer on the big screen with all the squishy bits in surround sound.
October 28, 2018
A pesar de ser una novela divertida y que se lee muy fácil, no puedo ponerle más de tres estrellas.
Y es que la falta de profundidad y la sensación de que la trama está desaprovechada, pesa bastante. Si además tengo en cuenta el desenlace, muy mejorable, pues al final se queda en eso, una novela entretenida e ideal para pasar el rato, pero que en un par de años ni recordaré haberla leído.
Como siempre, os dejo un enlace a mi blog por si queréis darle un vistazo a la reseña más completa que publiqué allí:
https://fantasiascifiymuchomas.blogsp...
Y es que la falta de profundidad y la sensación de que la trama está desaprovechada, pesa bastante. Si además tengo en cuenta el desenlace, muy mejorable, pues al final se queda en eso, una novela entretenida e ideal para pasar el rato, pero que en un par de años ni recordaré haberla leído.
Como siempre, os dejo un enlace a mi blog por si queréis darle un vistazo a la reseña más completa que publiqué allí:
https://fantasiascifiymuchomas.blogsp...
July 7, 2013
I have always been terrified of scary stuff ever since my childhood nightmares (I don't think they were nightmares anymore just an overactive imagination or a haunted house). I tried to keep away from the scary, bloody, suspenseful things either because they were too dark and scary for me or too dark and scary for my mom. And I practically followed what my mom said.
So when I heard such good stuff about this book, I was like "Well, let's find and see what we can about it." There were some fan-made videos that promoted it that I saw were really cool. You readers should check them out.
SPOILER: THIS IS SPOILER AND STAR WARS HEAVY. SCROLL DOWN TO THE END IF YOU WANT TO SKIP IT.
It starts with a prison ship that somehow doesn't have a good hyperdrive and it gets caught by a tractor beam from an Imperial Star Destroyer. At first everyone is all like, "Cool! At last! We can drop off these spineless, dangerous people or at least have some more protection for a while." And the captain's all like, "Uh, we haven't heard from the ship. Send some guys up. See if we can find out what's going on." Rule #1: When entering an unresponsive ship that you know can carry over a thousand crew and has enough firepower to blow up your ship, send trained professionals with a LOT of firepower to board.
The awesome thing in the beginning is that we don't really get a good look at the zombies until midway. Until the group splits up after all coming together. The zombies are actually not called zombies in this book. Apparently, that term "zombie" is not in the galactic dictionary. They are pretty much described like a zombie with their clothes in tatters, some of them with flesh peeling or ripped open. I know that there is this signature sound that they make and I can't quite remember how it went. (Anyone who remembers can comment below.) So this is the type of style in which movie makers who make zombie-movies should follow. But if all the movie-makers did this then it'll get cheesy and lose its touch. (Ugh, I'm going off track).
A big, but well known, surprise when this came was the introduction of our lovable original characters, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Guess what? They're on their way to prison. Now, we don't know if this is before Battle of Yavin or after Battle of Yavin, so either way we can't let these two become zombies anyway. So, apparantley, like in any zombie epidemic, you've got the guys who are left unscathed when the sickness entered the prison ship. And now they have to fight their way off an infested ISD.
Now, here is where we get to the start that this zombie state is actually a sickness. I've always seen zombies come out of graves and would eat people and then go back under the ground at light. Or some voodoo type ritual. This was the first time that I read of a sickness that could create a zombie state. And 3 years later I know that it is a possibility for some sort of disease to destroy the mind up to its basic functions. These zombies are fast (which I kinda don't like), they have a ton of numbers on their side (really like), they act dumb in some scenes (classic), and in some they become smart (wait, what? I thought you said that they were dumb?) Apparently, the fluid, the sickness, re-engineered by the Empire in this mad laboratory, can adapt given some time. It acts like a hive mind; once one zombie knows how to say, fire a blaster, then they all can.
Oh, and there's one more bit. Apparently, when the zombies all start flying out of the Star Destroyer they all just die because there is a limit on how far the fluid can retain control over all of it's little minions. Really? That's gonna be the big finish? No indication on what's gonna happen to the rest of the zombies stuck on the star destroyer? So, I guess that Joe Schreiber likes to let the readers decide on what's gonna happen. Let us make up a story that the star destroyer lands on a planet with culture similar to Medieval Japan and have samurai aliens fight against Imperial armor covered zombies. Actually, that would be kinda cool to see. Hmm.
In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with this book. It has the feel of a true horror which just a few licks of classic in it. It is not one for the faint of heart, so let me warn you, but it is very good one to read for all of those horror readers and star wars readers and horror/star wars readers. Seriously, if you've never seen star wars but you love horror this book is the best of both worlds. It was vice versa with me.
This book is one that I highly recommend to just about anyone especially a fellow star wars fan.
So when I heard such good stuff about this book, I was like "Well, let's find and see what we can about it." There were some fan-made videos that promoted it that I saw were really cool. You readers should check them out.
SPOILER: THIS IS SPOILER AND STAR WARS HEAVY. SCROLL DOWN TO THE END IF YOU WANT TO SKIP IT.
It starts with a prison ship that somehow doesn't have a good hyperdrive and it gets caught by a tractor beam from an Imperial Star Destroyer. At first everyone is all like, "Cool! At last! We can drop off these spineless, dangerous people or at least have some more protection for a while." And the captain's all like, "Uh, we haven't heard from the ship. Send some guys up. See if we can find out what's going on." Rule #1: When entering an unresponsive ship that you know can carry over a thousand crew and has enough firepower to blow up your ship, send trained professionals with a LOT of firepower to board.
The awesome thing in the beginning is that we don't really get a good look at the zombies until midway. Until the group splits up after all coming together. The zombies are actually not called zombies in this book. Apparently, that term "zombie" is not in the galactic dictionary. They are pretty much described like a zombie with their clothes in tatters, some of them with flesh peeling or ripped open. I know that there is this signature sound that they make and I can't quite remember how it went. (Anyone who remembers can comment below.) So this is the type of style in which movie makers who make zombie-movies should follow. But if all the movie-makers did this then it'll get cheesy and lose its touch. (Ugh, I'm going off track).
A big, but well known, surprise when this came was the introduction of our lovable original characters, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Guess what? They're on their way to prison. Now, we don't know if this is before Battle of Yavin or after Battle of Yavin, so either way we can't let these two become zombies anyway. So, apparantley, like in any zombie epidemic, you've got the guys who are left unscathed when the sickness entered the prison ship. And now they have to fight their way off an infested ISD.
Now, here is where we get to the start that this zombie state is actually a sickness. I've always seen zombies come out of graves and would eat people and then go back under the ground at light. Or some voodoo type ritual. This was the first time that I read of a sickness that could create a zombie state. And 3 years later I know that it is a possibility for some sort of disease to destroy the mind up to its basic functions. These zombies are fast (which I kinda don't like), they have a ton of numbers on their side (really like), they act dumb in some scenes (classic), and in some they become smart (wait, what? I thought you said that they were dumb?) Apparently, the fluid, the sickness, re-engineered by the Empire in this mad laboratory, can adapt given some time. It acts like a hive mind; once one zombie knows how to say, fire a blaster, then they all can.
Oh, and there's one more bit. Apparently, when the zombies all start flying out of the Star Destroyer they all just die because there is a limit on how far the fluid can retain control over all of it's little minions. Really? That's gonna be the big finish? No indication on what's gonna happen to the rest of the zombies stuck on the star destroyer? So, I guess that Joe Schreiber likes to let the readers decide on what's gonna happen. Let us make up a story that the star destroyer lands on a planet with culture similar to Medieval Japan and have samurai aliens fight against Imperial armor covered zombies. Actually, that would be kinda cool to see. Hmm.
In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with this book. It has the feel of a true horror which just a few licks of classic in it. It is not one for the faint of heart, so let me warn you, but it is very good one to read for all of those horror readers and star wars readers and horror/star wars readers. Seriously, if you've never seen star wars but you love horror this book is the best of both worlds. It was vice versa with me.
This book is one that I highly recommend to just about anyone especially a fellow star wars fan.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2011
I had read numerous reviews pillorying this novel for not being close enough to the Star Wars universe, or for not having a convincing villain, or for just being sort of sick. I have to confess, I picked up this novel a year ago. Read a couple pages, put it away and just picked it up again to read in a waiting room. This probably wasn't fair to this novel, since waiting rooms make me cranky and hyper-critical.
For me, the biggest "complaint" about the novel would be the gore. Not that I have anything against gore (in the right place), but I imagine that readers who have just finished reading Tatoonie Ghost, or The Courtship of Princess Leia might be shocked at some of the graphic images in this novel, e.g., piles of decapitated bodies, disturbing images involving children, and cannibalism. These are not usually concepts that one encounters in a Star Wars novel.
Thank God we encounter them here, cuz Mary, this novel rocked my socks off.
Joe Schrieber has written a novel that combined just enough horror and adventure to keep me glued to the page. He does an excellent job setting the stage, establishing characterization and developing the plot in an intriguing way. I actually gave a damn about what happened to these characters, and in any horror/adventure novel that is key. These are decent people who are essentially tortured for 288 pages.
Admittedly, this may be the most unorthodox of all the Star Wars novels I have read, at the same time it is the one I enjoyed the most. It breaks the Star Wars novel mold and is very refreshing. I think one of the coolest things a novel can do in an established universe is play around with the rules. Schrieber definitely bends the rules, but he keeps it believable. The canon characters are well played, and the EU characters have a complexity that I wish more Star Wars novelists would consistently emulate. Death Troopers is a great yarn that I devoured [pun intended] in two days and hated to put down. I had a lot of fun with it, and I think a lot of you other folks will as well.
For me, the biggest "complaint" about the novel would be the gore. Not that I have anything against gore (in the right place), but I imagine that readers who have just finished reading Tatoonie Ghost, or The Courtship of Princess Leia might be shocked at some of the graphic images in this novel, e.g., piles of decapitated bodies, disturbing images involving children, and cannibalism. These are not usually concepts that one encounters in a Star Wars novel.
Thank God we encounter them here, cuz Mary, this novel rocked my socks off.
Joe Schrieber has written a novel that combined just enough horror and adventure to keep me glued to the page. He does an excellent job setting the stage, establishing characterization and developing the plot in an intriguing way. I actually gave a damn about what happened to these characters, and in any horror/adventure novel that is key. These are decent people who are essentially tortured for 288 pages.
Admittedly, this may be the most unorthodox of all the Star Wars novels I have read, at the same time it is the one I enjoyed the most. It breaks the Star Wars novel mold and is very refreshing. I think one of the coolest things a novel can do in an established universe is play around with the rules. Schrieber definitely bends the rules, but he keeps it believable. The canon characters are well played, and the EU characters have a complexity that I wish more Star Wars novelists would consistently emulate. Death Troopers is a great yarn that I devoured [pun intended] in two days and hated to put down. I had a lot of fun with it, and I think a lot of you other folks will as well.
May 18, 2011
This was like the movie "I Am Legend" if it were in space. The only thing I didnt like about this book was that it seemed like this book wasn't originally written as a star wars novel but then later various references and characters were added in so that it could be labeled as a Star Wars novel. The plot was lacking in detaials- especially character development and information on why the situation on the star destroyer occurred. a back story or two would have been nice. i was tempted to give this book 2 stars, but im feeling generous today.
Be sure to check out my review of this book on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtTtrk...
Be sure to check out my review of this book on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtTtrk...
October 3, 2022
Four words: Star Wars… AND zombies. A combination I never knew could work so well, but Joe Schreiber absolutely nailed it. I have wanted to read this book for 12 years and I’m glad I finally took the chance. No idea why the reviews were mediocre for this novel but it was one helluva read. 10 year-old me would be proud.
February 26, 2025
Nearly a perfect book! The writing and pacing is impeccable, so vivid and gripping from the first page. It has all the right eeriness and suspense to make what I consider to be a perfect horror. And the fact that it’s set in the Star Wars universe just adds to the setting and the story, bringing familiarity to the unknown.
Where it falls short for me is in the ending - the explanation just wasn’t satisfactory for me. We needed a little more. But I’m looking forward to reading Red Harvest and hoping that will retroactively solve my problem with this one!
Where it falls short for me is in the ending - the explanation just wasn’t satisfactory for me. We needed a little more. But I’m looking forward to reading Red Harvest and hoping that will retroactively solve my problem with this one!
November 19, 2009
Star Wars: Death Troopers, by Joe Schreiber
I believe I saw "Death Troopers" advertised as the first Star Wars horror novel. Although I am not a horror fan, I am an avid Star Wars fan so I had to read it. My first impression came about 100 pages into the novel: it's just a horror story with some Star Wars dressing.
That aside, it's an okay horror story, but it seems very typical. Abandoned ship, check. Mysterious virus, check. Zombies, check. Add some Star Wars elements, check. I really only kept reading to see who was going to live at the end. Even the addition of Han Solo and Chewbacca didn't really help; in fact I thought they took away from the story because you know the two are going to survive, you just don't know how they're going to do it.
I applaud the Star Wars team for trying something new, but I don't think this was the ideal direction. Many Star Wars fans, myself included, read the series because it's comfortable, like returning home. Zombies just don't fit. And in my opinion it doesn't add anything to the Extended Universe.
"Death Troopers" is a quick read; I read it in about 90 minutes, maybe a little more. It's a wait-for-paperback book for me. One that I will add to my collection because I like it to be complete, but it won't be a book reread often.
2/5.
I believe I saw "Death Troopers" advertised as the first Star Wars horror novel. Although I am not a horror fan, I am an avid Star Wars fan so I had to read it. My first impression came about 100 pages into the novel: it's just a horror story with some Star Wars dressing.
That aside, it's an okay horror story, but it seems very typical. Abandoned ship, check. Mysterious virus, check. Zombies, check. Add some Star Wars elements, check. I really only kept reading to see who was going to live at the end. Even the addition of Han Solo and Chewbacca didn't really help; in fact I thought they took away from the story because you know the two are going to survive, you just don't know how they're going to do it.
I applaud the Star Wars team for trying something new, but I don't think this was the ideal direction. Many Star Wars fans, myself included, read the series because it's comfortable, like returning home. Zombies just don't fit. And in my opinion it doesn't add anything to the Extended Universe.
"Death Troopers" is a quick read; I read it in about 90 minutes, maybe a little more. It's a wait-for-paperback book for me. One that I will add to my collection because I like it to be complete, but it won't be a book reread often.
2/5.
July 22, 2023
I think my actual rating would probably be a 3.75, but seeing as Goodreads doesn’t allow you to split hairs like that I rounded it up. First of all, I do think that it is a good book and I did really enjoy it. I think you can tell that Schroeder had fun with the idea and ran with it when writing the book. I think the book really shines with its environments, scenarios, and conceptually introducing a zombie outbreak in Star Wars. If I had to pin down what it locks though, I think I’d argue that the novel doesn’t develop. By that I mean that no overarching story is progressed and no characters undergo drastic development (with some exceptions which I’ll talk about later), there were some things that confused me and some possible plot holes (also more on that later), and the book doesn’t really touch on or reveal anything about what I would consider the main concepts and themes of Star Wars. All in all though, it’s a “what if” book. It’s not trying to be some kind of groundbreaking monumental Thrawn trilogy and it does an excellent job of being what it’s supposed to be: a “what if there were zombies in Star Wars”. The book has no major affect on the overall Star Wars story, just don’t go in expecting it to be the end-all-be all and have some fun with it.
As for the scare factor: I generally wouldn’t consider myself someone who’s good with horror and I must admit that for a long time when I was a kid I was absolutely terrified of zombies, but I didn’t find the book to be all that scary. Most of the scares center around the gruesomeness and gore of the zombies, which I must say was effective as I tried to eat lasagna right after reading the book and found that it reminded me too much of the bloody body parts I had just finished reading about. Generally though, I don’t know that the book really exceeds the scariness of the average zombie media. Had I read this when I was 10 or 12 though, I probably would have been absolutely terrified. I read some other reviews that mentioned parents with scared kids. Think twice before giving this book to your kid!!! I’d probably rate the book at being maybe about 16+ although that seems a bit high. It’s really going to depend on the kid and it’s up to parents to use their discretion as all kids are different with how well they can handle this stuff, but maybe read through it first yourself before handing it off to the kids. If they can’t handle zombies, I can recommend Schreiber’s Maul: Lockdown which is a bit violent but much less scary and was something I was able to handle when I was in middle school.
SPOILER SECTION AHEAD:
The most surprising part of the book to me was the introduction of Han and Chewie. I had no idea they would be in the book and I was excited to see them play a major part in the book and they provided a great comfort throughout the story. My only reproach to this is that, that it’s comforting. Some of the horror and suspense I think is lessened because you know that no matter what, Han and Chewie are going to make it out of this ok. I think there’s like a Steven King quote along the lines of “what makes something scary is that you have to believe the characters might not make it” and while the characters that do not appear again fit this, I think Han and Chewie might undermine this a little. That being said I don’t know that I’d want them taken out, so I guess it’s just a trade off.
Next, I mentioned there isn’t drastic development. While Han and Chewie don’t develop, Sartis and Trig do, although I think their development felt a little sudden, a very minor complaint which could just be me.
Lastly, some parts of the book confused me. Now I haven’t read Red Harvest, the prequel/origin story to Death Troopers, bust some things just didn’t make sense. First, after most of the ship crew dies, the zombies decide to congregate elsewhere, seemingly ignoring the survivors, in one place which didn’t make much sense to me. Why didn’t they just hunt everyone down before? Second, when they go to investigate the ship at first they run into some droid, including a protocol droid. Why didn’t the protocol droid provide any warning? Also what is it that Austin sees that starts the infection? I assume it was either a corpse or a canister but I don’t believe they ever say. Third, at one point Han and Chewie find a Wookie youngling suffering from the outbreak in the command center of the Star Destroyer well after the initial outbreak and deaths. Where the heck did this kid come from and how did he survive so long? Was this the same kid from before cause it sounded like he had died. I could just be missing some stuff but I just didn’t get some of it. I didn’t really understand the ending either with the zombies just during after they left the area. I guess it wasn’t “contaminated enough” but the prison barge wasn’t contaminated and the shuttle they left in should have been. They also don’t address the spread of the virus, could it have been transmitted by the survivors or what? Also, if someone is immune to the outbreak, how are they not immune when they are bitten? Isn’t it still the same virus? And how did the anti-virus give Chewie the infection? I thought it was just taken from Zahara’s blood. It doesn’t infect Han at all and they’re able to just cure Chewie by extracting the liquid in his throat, although I suppose you might be able to argue that would have worked for any Wookie as Zahara didn’t have the chance to work on any before they died. On that topic, the fact that a deadly zombie bio weapon wants to dredge up memories of life day and life day songs of all things is kind of hilarious although I think that may be intentional.
There were also a couple things that didn’t feel quite Star War-sy. The first that comes to mind are some of the terminals that Zahara uses and plugging in the keyboards and stuff. Also, at some point Han says the word “zombies”. The term had not been used up until that point and I had assumed there was no concept of it in Star Wars so it was weird to see him say it.
As a side it RIP that Wookie kid who I assume got eaten at the beginning, I felt so bad for him. The one in the command center can die though, screw that freaky little idiot. I think they could have been the same though. I don’t know how they got there or what, I have mixed feelings about Wookie children now.
As for the scare factor: I generally wouldn’t consider myself someone who’s good with horror and I must admit that for a long time when I was a kid I was absolutely terrified of zombies, but I didn’t find the book to be all that scary. Most of the scares center around the gruesomeness and gore of the zombies, which I must say was effective as I tried to eat lasagna right after reading the book and found that it reminded me too much of the bloody body parts I had just finished reading about. Generally though, I don’t know that the book really exceeds the scariness of the average zombie media. Had I read this when I was 10 or 12 though, I probably would have been absolutely terrified. I read some other reviews that mentioned parents with scared kids. Think twice before giving this book to your kid!!! I’d probably rate the book at being maybe about 16+ although that seems a bit high. It’s really going to depend on the kid and it’s up to parents to use their discretion as all kids are different with how well they can handle this stuff, but maybe read through it first yourself before handing it off to the kids. If they can’t handle zombies, I can recommend Schreiber’s Maul: Lockdown which is a bit violent but much less scary and was something I was able to handle when I was in middle school.
SPOILER SECTION AHEAD:
The most surprising part of the book to me was the introduction of Han and Chewie. I had no idea they would be in the book and I was excited to see them play a major part in the book and they provided a great comfort throughout the story. My only reproach to this is that, that it’s comforting. Some of the horror and suspense I think is lessened because you know that no matter what, Han and Chewie are going to make it out of this ok. I think there’s like a Steven King quote along the lines of “what makes something scary is that you have to believe the characters might not make it” and while the characters that do not appear again fit this, I think Han and Chewie might undermine this a little. That being said I don’t know that I’d want them taken out, so I guess it’s just a trade off.
Next, I mentioned there isn’t drastic development. While Han and Chewie don’t develop, Sartis and Trig do, although I think their development felt a little sudden, a very minor complaint which could just be me.
Lastly, some parts of the book confused me. Now I haven’t read Red Harvest, the prequel/origin story to Death Troopers, bust some things just didn’t make sense. First, after most of the ship crew dies, the zombies decide to congregate elsewhere, seemingly ignoring the survivors, in one place which didn’t make much sense to me. Why didn’t they just hunt everyone down before? Second, when they go to investigate the ship at first they run into some droid, including a protocol droid. Why didn’t the protocol droid provide any warning? Also what is it that Austin sees that starts the infection? I assume it was either a corpse or a canister but I don’t believe they ever say. Third, at one point Han and Chewie find a Wookie youngling suffering from the outbreak in the command center of the Star Destroyer well after the initial outbreak and deaths. Where the heck did this kid come from and how did he survive so long? Was this the same kid from before cause it sounded like he had died. I could just be missing some stuff but I just didn’t get some of it. I didn’t really understand the ending either with the zombies just during after they left the area. I guess it wasn’t “contaminated enough” but the prison barge wasn’t contaminated and the shuttle they left in should have been. They also don’t address the spread of the virus, could it have been transmitted by the survivors or what? Also, if someone is immune to the outbreak, how are they not immune when they are bitten? Isn’t it still the same virus? And how did the anti-virus give Chewie the infection? I thought it was just taken from Zahara’s blood. It doesn’t infect Han at all and they’re able to just cure Chewie by extracting the liquid in his throat, although I suppose you might be able to argue that would have worked for any Wookie as Zahara didn’t have the chance to work on any before they died. On that topic, the fact that a deadly zombie bio weapon wants to dredge up memories of life day and life day songs of all things is kind of hilarious although I think that may be intentional.
There were also a couple things that didn’t feel quite Star War-sy. The first that comes to mind are some of the terminals that Zahara uses and plugging in the keyboards and stuff. Also, at some point Han says the word “zombies”. The term had not been used up until that point and I had assumed there was no concept of it in Star Wars so it was weird to see him say it.
As a side it RIP that Wookie kid who I assume got eaten at the beginning, I felt so bad for him. The one in the command center can die though, screw that freaky little idiot. I think they could have been the same though. I don’t know how they got there or what, I have mixed feelings about Wookie children now.
December 5, 2015
Star Wars and zombies. How can this not be good, right? Give your brain some cotton candy. Read it.
February 4, 2021
3.5
Concept 3
Story 4
It was actually really exciting:)
Concept 3
Story 4
It was actually really exciting:)
November 29, 2022
This is a fun and compact star wars zombie story. I'll admit this was a nostalgia read for me as I read this my senior year of HS (gasps that was an entire decade ago) and stumbled across a copy at my local used book store and immediately snatched it up.
However, upon this re-read I utilized the audiobook which really added to what is really a simple and streamlined story. There are a ton of sound effects and an eerie atmospheric effect they utilize throughout the entire novel to simulate being in space. Honestly I listen to a lot of audiobooks and had not previously encountered an audiobook production that used this amount of additional sound effects.
Alrighty, moving on.
Pros: This is a short, concise story, that has decent albeit generic characters and obviously their sole motivation is "survive." however, we get some fun moments throughout with the side characters and their reveals. Additionally, this book has good body horror and moments that are well imagined and explained to give the reader that "icky" feeling.
Cons: it is not original. Everything down to the reason for the zombies is as generic as the empire is so big and bad. Additionally, the POV jumping is fine but less characters that we jump between would have made each character feel more unique instead of us getting vinnettes from each character more so than their actual POVs.
It is a good, short, and effective horror novel, which I personally really enjoyed, but I can't put it in the same league as my 4 and 5 star reads just because I have fond memories of reading it previously bc at the of the day it is just fine and does not stand out as a book that isnt' more than a fun afternoon of reading.
However, upon this re-read I utilized the audiobook which really added to what is really a simple and streamlined story. There are a ton of sound effects and an eerie atmospheric effect they utilize throughout the entire novel to simulate being in space. Honestly I listen to a lot of audiobooks and had not previously encountered an audiobook production that used this amount of additional sound effects.
Alrighty, moving on.
Pros: This is a short, concise story, that has decent albeit generic characters and obviously their sole motivation is "survive." however, we get some fun moments throughout with the side characters and their reveals. Additionally, this book has good body horror and moments that are well imagined and explained to give the reader that "icky" feeling.
Cons: it is not original. Everything down to the reason for the zombies is as generic as the empire is so big and bad. Additionally, the POV jumping is fine but less characters that we jump between would have made each character feel more unique instead of us getting vinnettes from each character more so than their actual POVs.
It is a good, short, and effective horror novel, which I personally really enjoyed, but I can't put it in the same league as my 4 and 5 star reads just because I have fond memories of reading it previously bc at the of the day it is just fine and does not stand out as a book that isnt' more than a fun afternoon of reading.
May 7, 2025
Creepy Star Wars!
Good premise, I’d say 3.5⭐️ rounded up, it’s very creepy and eerie while being entertaining and a good concept. It could’ve used some editing in places but a solid legends book nonetheless.
Good premise, I’d say 3.5⭐️ rounded up, it’s very creepy and eerie while being entertaining and a good concept. It could’ve used some editing in places but a solid legends book nonetheless.
November 21, 2012
I had put off reading this book for a long time because I did not want to be disappointed. When I first heard about Death Troopers, I was a bit excited. The concept seemed to be pretty exciting: horror set in the Star Wars Universe. As much as I wanted to rush out and buy this book to read, I waited. My fear was that the book would fall far short of my expectations of the initial concept and leaving me feeling annoyed. I finally gave in and picked up this book from the local library. After devouring within two days, I knew one thing was for certain.
I should have trusted my instincts and never read this book.
The one positive thing I will say up front is that the concept the book based on is sound; mysterious outbreak in space that leads to a slaughter of beings from a force no one understands. Everything else is a negative that in the book feeling nothing more than a seventh grade pulp fiction project.
Let’s begin by looking at character development or the lack there off. The author tosses out over half a dozen characters at your early in the book that you can play the “who will live” game. The problem is that no effort is given to developing any backstory or attempting to build a relationship between the reader and the characters. This results in zero impact when the characters stop dropping like flies. What effort is given to develop the characters is used to great broad clichés that make the read think of them not by name, but by stereotype (i.e. “Guard With Heart Of Gold”, “Whiny Kid Brother”, “Angry Violent Inmate”). To make matters worse, the author drops two iconic Star Wars characters into the story at the halfway point and it total disrupts the focus on the primary characters.
The plot and pacing are also issues with the book. While the author does toss you right into the mix of the action early, the middle of the book begins to drag as pages are created to fill in the gaps until it is time for the ending. There are also a lot of plot hooks that are left dangling like the idea of psychological screen for Imperials and its usage or the relationships of other inmates interacting with the main characters. It also left me with a lot of questions like why didn’t they check the logs of the derelict they boarded to see why it was a derelict or why the heck were their only two escape pods (holding 4 people total) on a ship with a staff of at least ten. It was things like this that kept taking me out of the book and disrupting the flow.
I also had a problem with the prose in this book. Some critics have stated that this book is full of wonderful descriptions and gory depictions that should not be read by young readers. I would have to say they were reading the wrong book. Descriptive narration is kept to a minimum and is basic at best when it is used. I also noted a few places where the author chose to “tell and not show” (pet peeve of mine). As for the gore, it was at most a PG-13 and a weak one at that. For those that would like to see a good example of good, check out Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler where he describes a character performing self mutilation. I was squirming by the midpoint of that passage.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to any one. Life is too short to waste your time on reading poorly written or average books and this is one of them. I enjoy pulp fiction and quick reads as much as anyone, but this novel fell short of even that bar.
I should have trusted my instincts and never read this book.
The one positive thing I will say up front is that the concept the book based on is sound; mysterious outbreak in space that leads to a slaughter of beings from a force no one understands. Everything else is a negative that in the book feeling nothing more than a seventh grade pulp fiction project.
Let’s begin by looking at character development or the lack there off. The author tosses out over half a dozen characters at your early in the book that you can play the “who will live” game. The problem is that no effort is given to developing any backstory or attempting to build a relationship between the reader and the characters. This results in zero impact when the characters stop dropping like flies. What effort is given to develop the characters is used to great broad clichés that make the read think of them not by name, but by stereotype (i.e. “Guard With Heart Of Gold”, “Whiny Kid Brother”, “Angry Violent Inmate”). To make matters worse, the author drops two iconic Star Wars characters into the story at the halfway point and it total disrupts the focus on the primary characters.
The plot and pacing are also issues with the book. While the author does toss you right into the mix of the action early, the middle of the book begins to drag as pages are created to fill in the gaps until it is time for the ending. There are also a lot of plot hooks that are left dangling like the idea of psychological screen for Imperials and its usage or the relationships of other inmates interacting with the main characters. It also left me with a lot of questions like why didn’t they check the logs of the derelict they boarded to see why it was a derelict or why the heck were their only two escape pods (holding 4 people total) on a ship with a staff of at least ten. It was things like this that kept taking me out of the book and disrupting the flow.
I also had a problem with the prose in this book. Some critics have stated that this book is full of wonderful descriptions and gory depictions that should not be read by young readers. I would have to say they were reading the wrong book. Descriptive narration is kept to a minimum and is basic at best when it is used. I also noted a few places where the author chose to “tell and not show” (pet peeve of mine). As for the gore, it was at most a PG-13 and a weak one at that. For those that would like to see a good example of good, check out Infected: A Novel by Scott Sigler where he describes a character performing self mutilation. I was squirming by the midpoint of that passage.
I wouldn’t recommend this book to any one. Life is too short to waste your time on reading poorly written or average books and this is one of them. I enjoy pulp fiction and quick reads as much as anyone, but this novel fell short of even that bar.
June 6, 2015
I bought a Star Wars t-shirt from Target the other week, first Star Wars t-shirt ever. I finally decided to embrace the geek I am and wear the title with pride. It's an awesome shirt. It's blue with an AT-AT on it, showing what look like the schematics of it. Fantastic shirt and it fits great. Good on ya Target. When I got home, after buying it, I decided to go on Goodreads and ask the group I'm most active in about some recs on Star Wars books.
I've always stayed away from movie tie-in books. The books are using a movie as cannon fodder so they can't be great, or so my thinking went. I suppose I overlooked that Star Wars began life as a comic book.
Death Troopers was at the top of the list of recs. Multiple people said, "read it". A few days later, I went to the library and checked out the book. I use my library as a test bed for which books I will ultimately buy. I've checked out quite a few I haven't liked, never finished, thereby saving myself a lot of money.
Death Troopers is a book I'm going to buy, eventually, to grace my bookshelf. It's a book I'll read more than once. It's really good. The story is great. The twist on the zombie theme is well done. The undead are never called zombies in the book, but when you make undead that eat people, you've made a zombie. There is a fantastic duo in the book, one I didn't think would be in it. I won't give away who they are in case you haven't read the book.
The writing is great, moves along at a click and never gets bogged down by description. The description that is in the book is top notch, I could see the Star Destroyer in my mind and everything that was going on. And the ending...Wonderful. It's not a 'dance and act like nothing happened' ending. It's the kind of ending I enjoy.
I definitely recommend the book, even if you are like me before this book; adamant about never reading a Star Wars novel. It's just a great sci-fi book. The twist on zombies is what keeps it at the great level, doesn't allow it to slip down into the nether regions of the pit of sci-fi.
Go out and get Death Troopers. If you're a sci-fi fan, you'll thank me once you're done reading it.
I've always stayed away from movie tie-in books. The books are using a movie as cannon fodder so they can't be great, or so my thinking went. I suppose I overlooked that Star Wars began life as a comic book.
Death Troopers was at the top of the list of recs. Multiple people said, "read it". A few days later, I went to the library and checked out the book. I use my library as a test bed for which books I will ultimately buy. I've checked out quite a few I haven't liked, never finished, thereby saving myself a lot of money.
Death Troopers is a book I'm going to buy, eventually, to grace my bookshelf. It's a book I'll read more than once. It's really good. The story is great. The twist on the zombie theme is well done. The undead are never called zombies in the book, but when you make undead that eat people, you've made a zombie. There is a fantastic duo in the book, one I didn't think would be in it. I won't give away who they are in case you haven't read the book.
The writing is great, moves along at a click and never gets bogged down by description. The description that is in the book is top notch, I could see the Star Destroyer in my mind and everything that was going on. And the ending...Wonderful. It's not a 'dance and act like nothing happened' ending. It's the kind of ending I enjoy.
I definitely recommend the book, even if you are like me before this book; adamant about never reading a Star Wars novel. It's just a great sci-fi book. The twist on zombies is what keeps it at the great level, doesn't allow it to slip down into the nether regions of the pit of sci-fi.
Go out and get Death Troopers. If you're a sci-fi fan, you'll thank me once you're done reading it.
June 13, 2011
While being a fun twist to the Star Wars Universe (A sci-horror) it lacked the sticking power that the other novels have. The characters were all pre-molded and while i could put that aside, Schreiber decided to use two of the most iconic characters from all of Star Wars. Chewbacca and Han Solo were both in this book. It might seem like a big spoiler... but there really is no back story to it other than "they caught us and here we are". The book takes place before New Hope... and so there isn't even any question about whether or not they survive. Which takes away a big element of fear/thrill at their predicament.
The one thing i couldn't set aside was the fact that I can't remember a single instance where Han & Chewie even remotely mention this experience. Even in the more recent books where they fought off the Vong they had amble opportunity to reference something like this, and as i read the newer series i can only hope that Han make some mention of this event in analogy to what's being done by the Sith or the new enemy. I just recently finished Fury.
I do realize that it could explain why they hate the Empire more, but there was no need to bring in Han & Chewie. This story could easily have been written substituting Han & Chewie for 2 new people. It would have been cool to find out that the survivors were going to be in a series that could have been centered at attempting to destroy the creators of this infestation, turning the infest back onto the empire it self, or any number of things that could have provided more than 40-50 pages of bland cookie cutter type character development.
All in all the book held my interest throughout, but i wouldn't suggest this book to a new person to the Star Wars universe... i'm still debating on telling a friend who's more of a fan than i am.
The one thing i couldn't set aside was the fact that I can't remember a single instance where Han & Chewie even remotely mention this experience. Even in the more recent books where they fought off the Vong they had amble opportunity to reference something like this, and as i read the newer series i can only hope that Han make some mention of this event in analogy to what's being done by the Sith or the new enemy. I just recently finished Fury.
I do realize that it could explain why they hate the Empire more, but there was no need to bring in Han & Chewie. This story could easily have been written substituting Han & Chewie for 2 new people. It would have been cool to find out that the survivors were going to be in a series that could have been centered at attempting to destroy the creators of this infestation, turning the infest back onto the empire it self, or any number of things that could have provided more than 40-50 pages of bland cookie cutter type character development.
All in all the book held my interest throughout, but i wouldn't suggest this book to a new person to the Star Wars universe... i'm still debating on telling a friend who's more of a fan than i am.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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