Red Harvest

I'm more and more convinced that what kept me hooked on Star Wars as a kid was the internal coherence of its universe. Yeah, the laser guns and big bangs and whizzy spaceships were massively exciting, but Battle Beyond the Stars had them and even as an eight-year-old I knew that was pap. But watching Luke and Vader duel their way through Cloud City , I believed every computer bank, vent and chasm had some purpose. In my mind, those corridor didn't lead to the edge of the set, they just kept going. Every one of those aliens crowded into the Mos Eisley cantina had some reason to be there. When I've returned to the franchise as an adult (I tend to get a rush of nostalgia every couple of years or so), it's been to explore the more distant show more corners of that galaxy far, far away.

Joe Schreiber's Blackwing novels are the perfect example of that. By throwing the series' elements into the horror blender, they gain a voice that goes beyond merely pastiching Lucas's films. It helps that Schreiber's prose has an eloquence that goes beyond that often expected of tie-in material, and he manages to make those elements that should be horrifying genuinely squirm-worthy. Red Harvest might not have the same impact as Death Troopers, but that's chiefly because it lacks the familiar elements of the earlier books: the vast, clinical spaces of Star Destroyers make a much less caring (and therefore more disquieting) environment for horror than the more consciously malevolent Sith Academy found here.

As on so many of the recent Star Wars releases, the sound design on the audiobook version is most impressive. No kid who's ever pretended to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo has done so without doing their best to recreate the dew-dews, whuums and zwooshes, and if a story doesn't blast in with that John Williams fanfare, it's not really Star Wars. Mixed in with the screams, splats and ominous rumbles of survival horror, that audio landscape ties Red Harvest into the mythos while offering a disquieting contrast. Only on occasion does the sound not quite match the prose: the whispered voices that echo the chapter titles can be unintentionally hilarious if the last word isn't that chilling ("Box! Box box box box...").

The litmus test for tie-in fiction is whether it stands up regardless of the license, and, on that basis, Schreiber's books work brilliantly. Red Harvest might not be as red-blooded as Death Troopers, but it's still a terrific action-horror adventure in its own right – and one of the most imaginative uses of the Star Wars license I've encountered. This dark corner of the galaxy has plenty of guts. And it's not afraid to show them to you. show less

This is my next stop during my read through of the Star Wars EU as it now stands. I am moving through as chronologically as possible.

Red Harvest pits zombies against Sith and Jedi, in kind of a mediocre way. This is your stereotypical zombie story, with a Star Wars coating. I don't like writing negative sounding reviews, but I'm not joking when I say that the Star Wars coating is rather thin.

The story starts strong, then progressively gets bit by bit less interesting. A lot of the reviews towards the negative have focused on the lack of characterization and that there are so many characters and no familiar ones. I don't so much have a problem with that, because it tells you straight on that things are going to get ugly, most of these show more characters will die, and the fun will be in just getting there. However, the beginning setup also takes several detours that I didn't find necessary. Zo's brother = deus ex machina for Zo and most of the plot revolving him is short and generally useless. I don't fully understand how Zo became a Jedi, because I read a few chapters into Fatal Alliance before this and just like you would think, the standards of being a Jedi are very high considering how controlled and disciplined you have to be. I'm assuming that Zo must be a Force Jedi with just a special gift and a way of tuning in closely to the Force on brief occasion. Overall she is too soft and passive to be a full fledged Jedi among the ranks of Yoda, Luke, Aayla Secura, Kanaan, or Ahsoka. When she does get active and tunes into the Force, its amazing, but its just done so little that sometimes Zo didn't even seem to be an actual Jedi who would have gone through training at a Jedi Temple. Also, the use of lightsabers is very slim and I think it would've been a lot better to see more actual Jedi/Sith vs zombie combat, instead of having "oh no, the undead are coming, run, run, run, sudden escape, more zombies, run run run, a few cool combat things, run some more and hide!" Darth Scabrous wasn't awful, but he was a pretty typical zombie mad scientist kind of villain. He served his role well enough. I guess my main complaint is just that I expect a lot more from a jedi, even if she's just a glorified botanist. She was trained as a Jedi for a reason and should have been held up to a higher standard than we were given.

I didn't mind not having familiar characters, because I like being able to sit back and NOT really cheer for anyone. That's what I expected from this book. One person or group to cheer for and the rest are expendable. I definitely got that, but I didn't really care much about Zo. I was hoping more that the orchid could be saved and have some part of it survive what was happening. You know something is up when you're rooting for a PLANT in a Star Wars book.

The Sith academy students all mostly served their purposes. I didn't care about them really, because they are Sith, and anyone on the Dark Side will end up biting it at some point usually. The main disappointment was out of the top student who really didn't end up doing much, but that just shows how misguided Sith apprentices are and deluded about power and what it really is. Let's be honest though, its a cold, isolated Sith planet, full of Sith teenagers, so who cares if it gets destroyed? It is one less potential problem for the Republic and Jedi to have to deal with later. It isn't Doth Mithras so it is therefore expendable too thus far.

My only other pet peeve about this book was the author's way of referring to zombies. The Star Wars universe has so many aliens, worlds, languages, weapons, and names for EVERYTHING. So why must we have to resort to reading "Sith-things" as a term for Star Wars zombies? It couldn't be "undead Sith", "reanimated Sith", "Dark Side cadavers", "immature power seekers", "perpetual screamers"? Something with a little more precision to what they are and something a little less cheap and generic in a world with midi-Chlorians, Force Sensitives, lightsabers, holocrons, Neti, Sith, Tauntauns, Wompas, names for EVERY ship and alien species. We don't call holocrons "hologram things" or "holographic knowledge cubes/pyramids", so why do we have to call Star Wars zombies "Sith-things"?

This book was a fun time, but if some more time had been taken just to tighten up a few details, this actually could have also been a fantastic Star Wars book. I liked it for what it was, but I don't expect myself to pick it up again anytime soon and I've already read Death Troopers so I think I'll lay off power hungry zombies for a while now.

All this book needed to be really good was a stronger and more likable lead Jedi, and better attention to the non-gory details, because the gory details work just fine. A simple question of "what do we call Sith who have turned zombie?" that didn't have the answer of "Sith things" was all that needed answering. With a stronger Jedi lead and a better way of addressing the zombies would've bumped this up a rating, for me personally. I enjoyed the zombie/must survive aspect just fine, but the lack of attention to important story elements I already mentioned really brought this one down from its overall potential, because it did have a lot of potential coming out the gate.

My suggestion: read it if you want to, but don't expect it to be one of the best Star Wars novels that is out there right now. Just enjoy it for what it is and don't expect award winning story telling. show less

A long time ago in a blog post way, way in the past...

I read a novel that combined two things I hold true in my heart, zombies and Star Wars - the real Star Wars, not those prequel abortions (with the slight exception of Revenge of the Sith as I have a soft spot for bad guys winning). I discovered the novel in the most absurd way - I discovered it on 4Chan. Before Star Wars: Death Troopers, I never heard of Joe Schreiber. To be honest, I never did much venturing to read some of his none Star Wars books. I'm thinking about it now, though.

Darth Scabrous, the Sith Lord, discovered a lost plan from a predecessor. A elixir for immortality. All he needs is the Murakami orchid, an orchid so rare that it can only be found in one location - the show more Jedi Agricultural Corps. In order for the orchid to remain alive, it must be accompanied by a Jedi with plant growth skills. When a bounty hunter kidnaps Hestizo Trace and her orchid charge, her brother, Rojo, finds himself on a rescue mission on Odacer-Faustin, home to a Sith academy.

It's easy to overlook all the major players of this novel when cutting it down to a summary. The fact alone that it opens at the Sith academy leads the reader to believe that every character plays some important role - and they do, sorta. Maybe. They carry their own plot line, if that means anything to you.

What keeps me from loving this novel is Schreiber's insistence on killing every single character that I loved. Even though I know it's rare for a Jedi and Sith to work with each other, it's still bothering that none of them ever, well, meet. show less

Slightly more enjoyable than Death Troopers", but not by much. If SW is going to have a horror line, they need to get an author who can make the reader feel something, not just describe things gruesomely.
I did like the fact that simple decapitation wasn't the easy way out like in the rest of of the zombie genre.
Finally, why are zombies equated with horror? I want to be scared, not bored or grossed out."

Red Harvest was a fascinating book in a lot of ways with strange aliens, a brother & sister Jedi team and a Sith master who wanted nothing more than eternal life -- but it came at a price.

Red Harvest comes after "Death Troopers" by Joe Schreiber, but it feel Red Harvest is the superior of the two.

Darth Scabrous runs the Sith Academy on some dirty planet. Apparently the Sith guys have academies to train their students just like the Jedi Academy does on Courascant. (Yes, I'm relatively new to the Star Wars novels).

He discovers a method of using a rare orchid that has a lot of Force in it and mixing it with a nearly dead person, killing the victim, a virulent "Sickness" appears. It can make bodily functions continue long after death and show more can transmit the Sickness to others by biting them. There is no cure.

Several interesting points in the novel. The Sickness can infect other species. To see zombie tauntauns was fun as well as zombie living tree aliens. The zombies (they're not called that) walk across the landscape of the planet looking for more to infect. One bite and you're as good as dead.

The brother & sister team was interesting but not played up very much with the brother. He is Trace and she is Zo. He is an accomplished Jedi Knight and she is Jedi too but has a natural affinity towards plant life. She is kidnapped and trapped by Scabrous, since she needs to be near the orchid for it to get the full benefit of the Force. Scabrous wants to eat her heart out. Yuk!

The brother on the other hand goes looking for her and this part of the story fails a bit. It's a little too easy how he hunts her down, finds her and then things don't turn out too well for him!

Really enjoyed the descriptions of the dark Sith planet and the goal of the Sickness, to eventually invade and destroy the galaxy. Much better read than Death Troopers and leaves you wondering at the end if that is the end of the Sickness or did it escape somehow. Clearly room for a sequel. show less

I'm torn in my rating. On one hand, it is good to read a tale of one of the AgriCorp Jedi who is not as useless as some might think. On the other hand, having another Jedi use Liam Neeson's speech from _Taken_ (the "special set of skills" speech) jolted me right out of the carefully crafted world and it took a while for me to get back into it again. High marks for genre mash-up, points deducted for being thefty with the speech.

Red Harvest was a fascinating book in a lot of ways with strange aliens, a brother & sister Jedi team and a Sith master who wanted nothing more than eternal life -- but it came at a price.

Red Harvest comes after "Death Troopers" by Joe Schreiber, but it feel Red Harvest is the superior of the two.

Darth Scabrous runs the Sith Academy on some dirty planet. Apparently the Sith guys have academies to train their students just like the Jedi Academy does on Courascant. (Yes, I'm relatively new to the Star Wars novels).

He discovers a method of using a rare orchid that has a lot of Force in it and mixing it with a nearly dead person, killing the victim, a virulent "Sickness" appears. It can make bodily functions continue long after death and show more can transmit the Sickness to others by biting them. There is no cure.

Several interesting points in the novel. The Sickness can infect other species. To see zombie tauntauns was fun as well as zombie living tree aliens. The zombies (they're not called that) walk across the landscape of the planet looking for more to infect. One bite and you're as good as dead.

The brother & sister team was interesting but not played up very much with the brother. He is Trace and she is Zo. He is an accomplished Jedi Knight and she is Jedi too but has a natural affinity towards plant life. She is kidnapped and trapped by Scabrous, since she needs to be near the orchid for it to get the full benefit of the Force. Scabrous wants to eat her heart out. Yuk!

The brother on the other hand goes looking for her and this part of the story fails a bit. It's a little too easy how he hunts her down, finds her and then things don't turn out too well for him!

Really enjoyed the descriptions of the dark Sith planet and the goal of the Sickness, to eventually invade and destroy the galaxy. Much better read than Death Troopers and leaves you wondering at the end if that is the end of the Sickness or did it escape somehow. Clearly room for a sequel. show less