The Star Wars universe has seen it all.
Six movies. A hilarious Christmas special. A great cartoon series. A campy television movie. Several comic book series at Dark Horse. Even a semi-romance novel in Star Wars: The Courtship of Princess Leia.
But today we have a first for the Star Wars universe—the first horror novel!
Star Wars: Death Troopers, written by Joe Schreiber, is now in bookstores everywhere.
The premise of the story is a relatively simple one:
The Imperial prison barge Purge carrying some of the worst scum in the universe discovers a derelict Star Destroyer in the deep recesses of space—and finds more than it bargained for.Because on the Star Destroyer is a secret so powerful it could undo the rebel cause.
My initial thoughts: Star Wars: Death Troopers is great fun!
I had Death Troopers sent to me early and I read it over this last weekend. It didn't take long—and didn't disappoint. The book is of standard novel length but Joe really ramps up the quick pace of the story like any good horror writer should. The first quarter of the book introduces the major players in the story—the brothers Trig and Kale, Dr. Zahara Cody and her trusty 2-1B medical droid Waste, a none too nice Imperial Captain Jareth Sartoris and a plethora of colorful side characters.
By now everyone knows this is a zombie tale. It has come at the right time. Zombieland is raging through the box office and, along with the DC Comics Blackest Night storyline, zombies are ruling many forms of entertainment. If you have enjoyed either of those and are a Star Wars fan, you should read Death Troopers
At the beginning of the tale Trig and Kale are prisoners in the depths of Gen Pop on the Purge. They are surrounded by murderers, thieves, rapists and the like from all sorts of different races. Dr. Cody keeps the prisoners in good health while being transported to a penal colony, and Guard Sartoris keeps the peace through any means necessary. But when the prison barge docks with a derelict Star Destroyer, all get more than they bargained for.
After all, we have seen how professional stormtroopers are when faced with terrible odds.
Zombify those same stormtroopers, and all hell breaks loose!
Character drives this story. As I said the premise is a simple one leaving the characters alone to make the story. Joe does an excellent job defining the characters and giving them believable developmental story arcs.
Joe even has some Star Wars tricks up his sleeve that I cannot divulge. When they happen though and if you are a Star Wars fan, you will have a grin from ear to ear.
I do have some problems with the book, problems that might be more of an indictment of the horror genre as a whole than with Death Troopers. Throughout the book things happen to line up too neatly at times, with at least one deus ex machina that had me shaking my head. This does happen in most horror movies, so I'm not sure I can call it a flaw of any kind in Joe's storyline and more to writing to the genre.
Other than that, I loved the book. It had multiple gruesome scenes. It had a lot of action. And had some events and twists I just did not expect.
I'll never look at Wookies the same way again, that's for sure!
It is really too bad that this tale will not make it to the silver screen. The shock value on the viewing audience would alone make it worthwhile!
To read a recent interview with Joe where he talks about his foray into the Star Wars universe, click HERE!
To watch the videos sent in for Star Wars: Death Troopers trailer contest, click HERE!
And to read an excerpt from Death Troopers, click HERE!
Read the book. You won't regret it!
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