This is my first dive into the Star Wars universe via the book world. I have always been a huge Star Wars fan, but through the movies and cartoons only. Although I have frequently perused Star Wars novels in bookstores, I always shied away from purchasing them because the Star Wars legacy is so large now that I felt I would be lost. But then I saw Death Troopers and was fascinated by its description on two fronts, 1) it had Storm Troopers in it, I have always loved Storm Troopers, they are my favorite evil army. 2) This book also has zombies, (some of which were former Storm Troopers, yeah!!) The premise is a little different for a Star Wars book, but it was still enjoyable. Schreiber brought his characters to life, and even in far fetched stories, if the reader empathizes with the characters, the story comes to life. Han Solo and Chewbacca make an appearance in this story as well, and the author worked well with them, I could totally envision Harrison Ford acting out the Solo role.

This book has freed me from my fear of delving into Star Wars stories. I will certainly visit the galaxy far, far away again. ( )

Originally posted on my review blog, Stomping on Yeti, at http://yetistomper.blogspot.com/2009/...

21 Words or Less: A fast-paced and truly creepy novel, Death Troopers combines Star Wars and horror but fails to try for more.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Good: Fast-paced popcorn read; Visual, descriptive prose; delivers on promise of "Star Wars horror"

The Bad: Feels very safe; Zombies take a long time to actually appear; very short for a hardcover, Could have been excellent with a little more character back story or a more detailed plot

While not quite as overexposed as vampires, there is an undeniable zombie epidemic lurching its way through the genre. World War Z. Zombieland. The Walking Dead. Necropolis. Even Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. That being the case, it was no surprise when LucasBooks announced Death Troopers, a zombie/Star Wars mash-up written by up-and-coming horror writer, Joe Schreiber. Luckily for the galaxy far, far away being bitten the Zombie virus doesn't necessarily guarantee turning into a mindless, staggering, decomposing story. On the other hand, it doesn't preclude it either. Some works of zombie fiction are absolutely brilliant, others deserve to be shotgunned, burned, or otherwise lobotomized. It's all about the execution.

So does Joe Schreiber deliver? Yes and no. From the beginning, it's clear that Schreiber has a way with words. His prose style has a visual style that is pitch perfect for writing horror. Simply put, you see what he writes, even when you really, really don't want to. And when the zombie action ramps up aboard the derelict Star Destroyer, Schreiber writes some things you really, really don't want to see. So as our small cast of characters attempts to escape the rapidly deteriorating situation, you feel like you are next to them every step of the way. It is horror.

It's also Star Wars. Despite the lack of flesh eating undead in the original trilogy (or even the crappy prequels), Schreiber captures the feel of the universe, the dialogue, the descriptions very well, especially for a SW rookie. There are even a few cameo appearances along the way. I won't give them away but he writes them so well it’s as if they walked off the screen and into this book. Schreiber did his research and he integrated his story into the greater galaxy. So when Death Troopers is described as Star Wars Horror, it's a fair assessment. Unfortunately, it feels like it could have been more.

One of the largest problems with this book is its length. It's a hardcover novel for a hardcover price but only contains 232 pages of actual story; a length which simply doesn't allow for deep characters, a well-crafted plot, and the intricate prose needed in a quality horror novel. While Schreiber does a spectacular job turning a sterile Star Destroyer into a terrifying set of corridors and caverns, the plot and the characters disappoint. They aren't bad by any means, they just need more attention. There is no reason why the book needs to be that short. Schreiber could easily have maintained the visceral prose that is the book's main strength AND detailed a cast of three dimensional characters uncovering an insidious plot concocted by the Empire's most brilliant and nefarious minds. He could have done it and kept it under 300 pages. There are hints of a larger story and characterization but those hints were never fully realized.

As a result, Death Troopers commits one of the most basic (and admittedly hard to avoid) sins of the zombie subgenre: the cold open. Instead of hitting the ground running, we first bear witness to the death of the majority of the ship's passengers and then their disappearance. There is no mystery here. It's zombies. Like almost any other zombie book or movie, the audience is firmly aware of what they are getting into when they jump on board. So when Schreiber takes his time getting to the fun stuff the book suffers.

Without ample characterization or mysterious plot elements, there is no connection between the reader and the potential victims fleeing the zombie horde. Without that bond, even the most frenetically paced story will fail to excite. Schreiber allows us to gradually become invested in Kale and Trig Longo, political prisoners aboard the ill-fated Purge, and Zahara Cody, the ship's chief medical officer but they don't really develop like they could have, especially considering some of the surprising decisions they face. This is very apparent when considering how "right" the cameos feel when contrasted with the underdeveloped main cast.

All in all, Death Troopers is a decent Star Wars story and a decent Zombie novel. The prose is dripping with suspense and Schreiber masterfully paints an unsettling story with the blood of Stormtroopers and Wookies alike. The book is good but it could have been so much more, given more pages and more development, both of plot and of character. While the novel succeeds at being creepy (and at times profoundly disturbing), Schreiber appears to have said "good enough" rather than turning off his targeting computer and trusting the force. While he's survived the battle, if he had ramped up the action little faster, developed his original characters a little deeper, and detailed the underlying cause of the epidemic a little bit more, he might have been just blown the reactor core. ( )

I waited for this book with anticipation when I first heard about it. But “Death Troopers” by Joe Schreiber is just a zombies in space story, with a few Star Wars characters added into the mix. It was entertaining, and Schreiber certainly added the gore and the shock scenes to make it horrifying. It didn’t need to be a part of the Star Wars universe, but I guess that was to entice those fans to read this different approach. ( )

A nice concept. Star Wars & Zombies. Zombies are definitely in vogue (hopefully to knockoff vampires soon!). One thing I really liked about the book was the quick jump into action. Not a lot of dawdling. However, the book seem suited to more YA. Like it was trying to be scary, but it really wasn't. Otherwise, a nice side-story in the SW lexicon. Oh, and I loved the surprise characters. ( )

The old adage says you should never judge a book by its cover.

Maybe we should update it to say that we should never judge a book by its cover or its Internet marketing campaign.

Images of the cover for this "Star Wars" book began to slip out months ago along with the tease of stormtroopers plus zombies. Based on that alone, the novel had to be worth reading, right?

Yes and no.

As a standalone novel in the "Star Wars" universe, the books is an enjoyable enough story as author Joe Schreiber introduces us to a bunch of character who are to set to be potential zombie fodder early in the story.

The story has a nice sense of atmosphere to it. A prison ship breaks down with a full compliment of prisoners and is forced to dock with an abandoned star destroyer for help and to try and find parts. Hope turns to fear as a mysterious disease comes back on board, wiping out most of the crew and prisoners apart from a handful of survivors with immunity to the disease. Then, the dead start rising and become zombies, leading to lots of chasing and running.

The problem with "Death Troopers" is that there's a twist mid-way through that completely took me out of the story and had me rolling my eyes. And the book never recovered from that moment. In fact, a large chunk of the second half of the book depends on this twist, making it virtually impossible to escape it or maybe pretend it didn't happen and get back to some zombie stormtrooper mayhem. ( )

When an abandoned Star Destroyer is found, most of the search party rapidly gets sick and dies, but they don't stay dead, and the survivors quickly find that perhaps the ship isn't as empty as they thought. If this sounds like the set up to a cheap B-movie, then you know exactly what you are in for. Weak story-telling is the hallmark, with many "oh my gosh!" cliffhangers and completely unbelievable happenings. It seems at the beginning of this book that there won't even be any familiar or even expanded universe characters, but about a third of the way in we learn that two of the surviving prisoners are faces we know. At least it is explained in this book why the zombies don't attack and eat each other, a commonly unanswered question in these types of stories. However, the climax of the book is completely unexciting, and would have happened without any intervention by the survivors anyway. A poor entry that has no impact on the overall Star Wars universe. ( )

The zombie craze comes to the Star Wars universe.

This book was interesting, if nothing else. The horror aspect, as well as the descriptions of gore and carnage, certainly takes Star Wars to a place it's never been before. It gave it a grittier feel, which I rather liked. I feel like the characters were a little flat, but hey, that's probably not what you're picking this book up for, am I right?

I thought the book was suitably creepy. Reanimated corpses are good for that much, at least, and the fact that the main characters knew some of the corpses in question really played on that. Add in the setting of a mostly deserted Star Destroyer, huge and yet claustrophobic at the same time, covered in bloodstains and full of nooks and crannies for zombies to hide, and Schreiber really has something working.

The only thing I really didn't like was the inclusion of two very well known characters from the Star Wars universe as main characters. In general, I'm sure the novels that contain the core characters are better received than those that don't; in this case, however, I felt like it really took something away from the story. You know these two are going to survive, and that drained most of the tension from any scenes they were in. I have to believe that horror is most effective when you don't know if the characters are going to have their brains gobbled out or not.

The rest of the crew was up for grabs, though, and I'm glad that not all of them made it through. Each time one of them met an end, it raised the stakes for everyone else, really kicked it up a notch. Overall, this was pretty cool. I'll have to pick up something else by Mr. Schreiber to see how well he handles mainstream horror (if there is such a thing). ( )