Andrew's Review of Death Troopers

3/5 Rancors - Joe Schreiber's Death Troopers took me by surprise. I am not particularly fond of the horror genre, at least in its gorier aspects. I do enjoy a good thriller, though. So my initial reaction when I heard that Star Wars would be getting its first horror story was quite mixed. I enjoy seeing the saga taken in new directions and stay open-minded as it mutates through many permutations of what I first saw on the big screen in 1977. However, I really wasn't convinced that horror would be an appropriate choice for a universe that has stayed rather, for lack of a better term, family-friendly to date.

It turns out I'm glad I took a chance on Mr. Schreiber's first Star Wars contribution (his second, a Death Troopers prequel, is already underway as I write this). There were points where the gore factor was excessive for my sensibilities, and a particular scene involving a toddler Wookiee didn't sit well with me. Fortunately, these qualms were allayed by a very fast-paced and gripping story that didn't pause to take a breath between chases and creeping around in the dark.

The size and creep-factor of a seemingly deserted Imperial Star Destroyer adrift in space is well underscored. I also enjoyed the time spent on the prison barge Purge in the opening chapters: penal vessels and procedures aren't an aspect of the Expanded Universe that has received much focus in prior novels. The method by which Death Troopers introduces its version of zombies to the Star Wars universe is believable. I liked that the zombies weren't the sole drivers of the horror elements of the story: the actions the prisoners take against each other early on and the choices a group of Imperial survivors on the Star Destroyer have made to stay alive are good examples of things as unsettling or more as the creatures themselves.

The characters are on the thin side, mostly subservient to the action. They filled their purposes well enough, although there isn't much about them that stands out to me after finishing the book. Captain Jareth Sartoris has a nice little character arc at the end, although it is fairly predictable. The Longo brothers and Dr. Cody act as the reader's primary lens on the outbreak, since they have the least life experience and react with presumably the same horror as the reader to what is taking place.

In what is not a well-kept secret at this point, two movie characters materialize midway in the story and have key roles. I recognize that their presence undermines a general principle of a horror story, in that we as the reader know these two will come out relatively unscathed. However, as a Star Wars fan first and foremost, I confess I was pleased to see them arrive on the scene and they helped greatly in establishing this tale as one set in that galaxy far, far away.

Although the darkness of Death Troopers did not remind me of the Original Trilogy, the excitement of Mr. Schreiber's rapid storytelling and focus on dynamic action sequences did, and for me that's high praise. Although I'm not likely to track down his non-Star Wars horror stories, I will be ready for the Death Troopers prequel and look forward to it with much more confidence than I did this first one.