Read by Sean Kenin
Publisher: Random House Audio; 13 October 2009
ISBN 10: 0307578267
ISBN 13: 978-0307578266
Standalone
Copy Out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson
Back of the Box
"No fate could be more terrifying than being trapped in deep space.
Unless there's something unknown out there with you.
When the Imperial prison barge Purge–temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves–breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.
And death is only the beginning.
The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry."
I have always been a huge fan of the Star Wars universe and some books are by far better than others. With the zombie craze hitting readers and movie goers from all sides it was only a matter of time before Star Wars was brought on board. Death Troopers is a pre New Hope novel that has the Empire stuck at the edge of known space battling mindless aliens out looking for fresh flesh.
Death Troopers starts out with a lot of set up, we have a lot of characters to start out with and their various motivations and backgrounds for why they are stuck on the prison barge known as Purge. The brothers Kale and Trig Longo are teens that had been caught along with their father in a routine sweep and accused of being smugglers. Aur Myss is a life time prisoner, Zahara Cody is the medical officer with a golden heart and Jareth Sartoris is the captain of the guard on the vessel. Each person comes to life in standard Star Wars fashion, with a chapter dedicated to them and a few other insights along the way throughout the book.
The style that Death Troopers was written is a slow build up followed by lots of dramatic action. The Purge breaks down with no hope of an immediate rescue and happens across a derelict Star Destroyer. With no choice but to send a small force to scavenge for the spare parts to fix their own vessel we slowly learn what truly happened to the crew. The novel does a fair job of building up suspense but since it is fairly well known what is coming it does not come as a shock when the zombies are finally uncovered.
Death Troopers does not bring anything new to the table as far as zombie stories are concerned, but does change the face of the Star Wars universe as it is the first horror novel ever written involving the Star Wars characters. I tried to find out if there were more Star Wars novels planned to be written that feature more horror but I could find nothing planned. In addition, the method in which the zombies were created was not very original, but the book had to explain how the epidemic came about and so without spoiling it for you I will just say it was fairly obvious.
The one thing I enjoyed about this book was that none of the big names in Star Wars were featured in the book and five minutes later a certain smuggler and his walking carpet showed up out of no where. It did not ruin the novel for me but, was a bit of a disappointment as we had some fairly decent characters already introduced and this seemed like overkill. I understand that you need some big star power (pun intended) to drive the story but they were introduced nearly at the half way point and already had things well in hand without their inclusion.
The narrator Sean Kenin did a great job of bringing the various characters to life. While he is obviously not Harrison Ford, he did a fairly good job of impersonating the rogue. The voice acting was top notch. I have no complaints about Kenin's performance for the audio book. Death Troopers is first audio book that I have listen to that incorporated a lot of sound effects during the reading. From blaster sounds to music, it was all used while Kenin read the book to you. I have only two complaints about the additions of sound effects and music. When the zombies are making their moaning noise I was annoyed and to tell the truth embarrassed even though I was listening to it through earphones on my iPod. It was just uncomfortable. The other issue I had was the introduction to the new chapters. The horrific screaming was a bit much. I know that they are attempting to create a spooky or scary feeling through the effects but it came out as tacky and unnecessary.
Death Troopers is a nice attempt at bringing more than just your average Star Wars story of good versus evil, but as far as zombie stories go this one was not that horrific or scary. I know that it is hard to work within the confines of Lucas' guidelines but, it was lacking the necessary punch to make Death Troopers a truly graphic horror. If you are looking for something new to the Star Wars Universe this may be a good option. I just would not place too much pressure on it to change the genre.
Plot 6
Characters 6
Style 6.5
Overall 6/10
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