Book Review: Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber

While on a routine transport mission back to home base, the Imperial prison barge Purge suffers a mechanical malfunction, forcing all engines to stop. Unable to repair the broken equipment with what they have on hand, the crew discovers a Star Destroyer adrift in space near them. Their hails return no responses, and all scans report that no life forms are aboard so the ship's Captain drafts a salvage crew together to head over to the derelict ship to find anything they can use to repair the Purge.

The eerie silence aboard the Star Destroyer unsettles the salvage crew, yet they trudge onward, breaking into two teams to find anything to repair their ship. Something comes with them when they make their way back to the Purge, and within hours, most of the crew and the prisoners develop strong, flu-like symptoms then die agonizing deaths. For the handful of survivors -- a lone female doctor, the brothers Trig and Kale Longo, a mean-spirited Captain of the Guards and two rogue smugglers -- their troubles have only just begun. Because the dead are waking up, and they're very hungry.

Death Troopers surprised me. I thought it would be just another franchise trying to jump into the zombie foray because it's the flavor of the moment. But I found Joe Schreiber's twist on the zombies quite refreshing. These creepy crawlies learned -- and very quickly -- and then communicated with others like them. But what made this a more intense story was placing everyone within the confines of a mostly dark space ship. Where do you go when there really is no place left to run? Much of the imagery took the "mad scientist" concept to a new level, with such things as large tanks filled with a thick liquid and human parts still intact and still functioning. (It was actually an eerily beautiful scene.)

I'm not sure the addition of Han Solo and Chewbacca to the story added much, except to reinforce that this novel falls into the Star Wars universe. A few times, I also scratched my head trying to figure out how a character managed to get from one place to another. One such instance occurred with the Longo brothers that seemed -- to me -- to defy logical explanation. That, however, did not affect my enjoyment of the novel, and I believe that fans of the the zombie genre will enjoy it as well.

Death Troopers
by Joe Schreiber
Ballantine Books
ISBN: 978-0-345-50962-8
Hardcover, 270 pgs.

purchased book on own

Image from Wookieepedia.