Star Wars: Red Harvest in The Expanded Universe

Oct 22, 2012 Scott Rhee rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zombies, the-old-republic, horror, star-wars, space-horror, science-fiction

Joe Schreiber continues his fun zombie-filled "Star Wars" series that he started in "Death Troopers" with "Red Harvest".

More of a prequel than a continuation of the events in "Death Troopers", "Red Harvest" takes place in the legendary period known as the Old Republic, thousands of years prior to the events of the "Star Wars" films.

The story is set on the wintry-cold planet of Odacer-Faustin, which is the location of a Sith Academy. Lording over the school is Darth Scabrous, a tyrannical and t ...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Laura rated it liked it

Shelves: own-physical, reviews, star-wars, unsatisfying-ending

There has ever been a more amazing cover than Red Harvest's. Those epic Sith eyes, creepy red tones, and general murderous intents are what drew me to this book. I have no idea who that is, but I will found out, and I will love him. That Sith is one badass. He's going to rule the entire book, make Jedi fall beneath his blade, and rule planets. He's going to-

Wait, who is that again?

After reading the book, I'm still not really sure. Why did the cover lie to me so convincingly? I knew this was a ho There has ever been a more amazing cover than Red Harvest's. Those epic Sith eyes, creepy red tones, and general murderous intents are what drew me to this book. I have no idea who that is, but I will found out, and I will love him. That Sith is one badass. He's going to rule the entire book, make Jedi fall beneath his blade, and rule planets. He's going to-

Wait, who is that again?

After reading the book, I'm still not really sure. Why did the cover lie to me so convincingly? I knew this was a horror book, but I expected it to be more character focused than Death Troopers, considering one of the first chapters is about a Sith student using the Force to manipulate another students mind when that student is aware of it. They give us potentially the most crazy Sith ever, and what happens to him?

He disapears.

For almost the whole book.

Not disappears as in the plot is about finding him, but just that he's an unimportant character and no one really pays attention to him. How can you create a character with that much talent and just not use him? And that's not just with him, either. Schreiber throws this whole list of characters at you in such a short amount of time that you don't even remember their species - oh wait, yes you do, because they're all human. In the dramatis personae(cast list) there are two non-humans out of about ten. And one random Zabrak that had more screen time than some of the listed characters but still wasn't important enough to be on the list of characters. The huge cast, I think, was the great downfall of this book. The plot was actually very interesting - much more than Death Troopers. But then, I've always loved the Sith training camps more than space adventures, so maybe I'm just biased. Either way, all these characters could have been fleshed out or just taken out entirely. I felt that there was a lot of potentially to their backstories and personalities, but with only 240 pages, it's impossible to get into that enough.

The one person we did learn about, I hated. Hestizo Trace, aka, damsel in distress. She does pretty much nothing except get kidnapped and order a flower around. Everyone has to save her, and when no one is around, she screams and flails and pretty much is useless. This girl is a Jedi? Yeah, right.

I wanted to badly to like this book. I even went out and bought Death Troopers because I didn't want to miss anything. (I was told this was a sequel, okay?!) In the end, I'm not sure if I forced myself to like it or I actually enjoyed it, but here. Have a 3 star rating. You were gory till the end. ...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Jim C rated it liked it

A book set in the Star Wars expanded universe. When I first read that this book was about zombies, I was skeptical. I believed that zombies had no place in the Star Wars universe. That being said, it was a decent book. What I liked about this book is that most of the characters are Sith masters and apprentices. This book shows the depravity of the dark side of the force and what its users will do to achieve their ultimate goals. It is a quick read being only 250 pages and if you like zombies, I ...more

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May 31, 2012 Christopher Preiman rated it liked it

Shelves: star-wars-universe, 2012

George Lucas "hay you got your zombies in my STAR WARS!"
Joe Schreiber "hay you got your STAR WARS in my zombies!"
me "hay guys this isn't bad. it's just not that good either."
the plot of this mash up is basic and not really worth going into. the summary here on good reads is sufficient to give you the picture.
but the basic concept zombies at a Sith academy is novel and not with out it's charms.
the zombies are even flavored just right to make them fit in the star wars universe fairly well.
when ...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Sam Ang rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, horror, star-wars

The full article of this review is available at this link:
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...

A long long time ago, there was a ship filled with the living dead in a galaxy far far away. The captivating story of a ship full of Imperial dead shambling around was novel in the sense that the popular sci-fi franchise never tried to accommodate horror elements into it. At least never did it seriously. That was Joe Schreiber's Death Troopers (which was also another book shared in my previous artic The full article of this review is available at this link:
http://bookunderthesun.blogspot.sg/20...

A long long time ago, there was a ship filled with the living dead in a galaxy far far away. The captivating story of a ship full of Imperial dead shambling around was novel in the sense that the popular sci-fi franchise never tried to accommodate horror elements into it. At least never did it seriously. That was Joe Schreiber's Death Troopers (which was also another book shared in my previous article).

But the fact that this horrifying disease of living dead only struck on a ship full of Imperial mortals raised an interesting question, one which will eventually surface sooner or later: what if those weren't your usual bunch of mortals? What if those were Force wielders? Well, zombies carrying lightsabers is really a sight to behold, isn't it?

Red Harvest is not just about shambling Sith undeads - this is also where it began, and Schreiber tried to explain the unanswered questions from Death Troopers. The infection which occurred in the previous story was revealed to be the fallout of an event 4,000 years before, and evil had a name: Darth Scabrous.

The planet of Odacer-Faustin was the site of a Sith academy, where beings from around the galaxy convened to learn the ways of the Dark Side in order to fuel their own dark ambitions. Unfortunately for them, Darth Scabrous' ambition was something far darker and sinister and the infection started out as the solution to his scheme.

Thrown into the mix was Jedi Hestizo Trace of the Jedi Agricultural Corps, which essentially was the place for the less powerful. Well, at least we now know that not all Jedi were godlike beings, which makes sense. She was the caretaker of a rare breed of orchid known as the Murakami orchid, and unfortunately was the final ingredient for Darth Scabrous' recipe to work. With her misadventure thus began and whether she will make it through unscathed (or undead) became the focus of the novel.

In comparison, I still prefer Death Troopers as opposed to Red Harvest. Maybe it was the inclusion of something akin to black magic in the story, or it could be that despite the fact that the protagonists were Force wielders, they appeared puny and unable to defend themselves properly.

The more memorable scene of brother pitching against brother in the previous novel was replaced by another equally sad scene, although the latter somehow lacked the kind of impact the former had. It is undeniable though that the highlight of the story is not on what is most horrifying but on what is most saddening, which is what makes Schreiber's Star Wars horror novels unique and different. ...more

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Aug 17, 2013 Haydensdad rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, series, 2013-reading-challenge, star-wars

Read this while on vacation this year. Not a terrible book but thats about the best I have to offer with this volume.
The book primarily concerns the Sith academy and the trouble that it encounters as the result of Darth Scaberous' failed experiment to achieve immortality.

The insights into the Sith apprentice training were interesting as were the revelation of some Jedi traits I was unaware of.
I think of the Jedi as all cast from the same hold. While all have some of the same abilities not all ar ...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Kent rated it liked it · review of another edition

If you like Star Wars and zombies, then this is the book for you. This is by no means an essential book in the SW universe, but it is an interesting read that is quite enjoyable. I'm not really into zombie stuff, but this was pretty good. ...more

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