I'm actually quite tired of all the hype Zombies have recieved in the past few years but I actually ended up liking this story. It had just enough Star Wars in it for me in order to sit down and enjoy it. A prequel story will be released about a year from now with more details on the backstory.
Here's the thing though, I borrowed this book from my brother. While I did like the book it was not one that I would shell out extra cash for to get it in hardcover if I had the option. So I do recommend either borrowing this book if possible or waiting until it comes out in paperback. Now if you really like zombie stories or prefer hardcover books then maybe sample a chapter in the store before you spend the extra money.
A few notes that could be considered spoilers. Spoiler
-We get a peek at an Imperial bioweapons project.
-Han and Chewie are very well written IMHO.
-Some minor bits of technical information, including stuff about Star Destroyers is included.
Has anyone else read this book yet?
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin (1937-2008)
"Have some of you Americans actually seen Football? Of course there are 0-0 draws but that doesn't make them any less exciting." -Dr Roberts, with quite possibly the dumbest thing ever said in 10 years of SDNet.
haven't read it, but Star Wars Galaxies already has a whole quest line for it on Dathomir, complete with a painting and a suit of messed up stormtrooper armour (which astonishingly for new armour SOE put in, actually has crap stats! but that's prolly only cause of the whole "appearance item" thing they got going on.)
Star Wars was solidly in the fantasy realm from day one. I might pick this up, looks like a goof.
"I spit on metaphysics, sir."
"I pity the woman you marry." -Liberty
This is the guy they want to use to win over "young people?" Are they completely daft? I'd rather vote for a pile of shit than a Jesus freak social regressive.
Here's hoping that his political career goes down in flames and, hopefully, a hilarious gay sex scandal. -Tanasinn
You can't expect sodomy to ruin every conservative politician in this country. -Battlehymn Republic
Connor MacLeod wrote:Is it me or is Star Wars slipping back into the "fantasy" realm more. I mean, zombies?
I thought this was supposed to be more of a horror story. Is it written that way?
I'd say so.
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin (1937-2008)
"Have some of you Americans actually seen Football? Of course there are 0-0 draws but that doesn't make them any less exciting." -Dr Roberts, with quite possibly the dumbest thing ever said in 10 years of SDNet.
It's actually pretty decent as a horror novel. The whole 'Star Wars Zombies!' thing is actually pulled off pretty intelligently so far. The zombies don't even start showing up until more than halfway through the book.
I'm not finished with it yet but so far:
1.) No scene where stormtroopers with personal body armor and energy weapons are overrun by shamblers*
Spoiler
Because the zombies both run and have their own guns for one thing!
2.) It isn't the usual thing where the zombie virus only spreads through bites. It starts as an extremely fast spreading virus with a lethality a bit over 99%. Spoiler
Oh and it's intelligent to so it isn't just a horde of individual zombies, but rather a united swarm with a common intelligence.
Edit: As for my comments on the "fantasy" thing.. no SW seems to have gone more in the "sci fi" direction with alot of things (although I admit the diff between fantasy and scifi can be obscure at times.) Having Space Zombies doesnt bother me much as long as it doesnt turn out to be some pan-galactic threat (then again that could just be my 40K indoctrination talking.)
Connor MacLeod wrote: Having Space Zombies doesnt bother me much as long as it doesnt turn out to be some pan-galactic threat (then again that could just be my 40K indoctrination talking.)
As it is depicted in the book it is decidedly not a pan-galactic threat, although the Empire intended it to be a widely used biological weapon.
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin (1937-2008)
"Have some of you Americans actually seen Football? Of course there are 0-0 draws but that doesn't make them any less exciting." -Dr Roberts, with quite possibly the dumbest thing ever said in 10 years of SDNet.
Patroklos wrote:Does it actually make sense as a weapon given the details?
It appears to be relatively easy to develop an anti virus, some people are naturally immune, and the result leads to corpses being reanimated out of control with the ability to learn and learn fast and a hunger for living flesh. If it ever made sense, other factors quickly ensured that it wouldn't make sense for long.
"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin (1937-2008)
"Have some of you Americans actually seen Football? Of course there are 0-0 draws but that doesn't make them any less exciting." -Dr Roberts, with quite possibly the dumbest thing ever said in 10 years of SDNet.
At least it sounds like it makes more sense than that "Project Starscream" from those god-awful children's horror books.
And this is why you don't watch anything produced by Ronald D. Moore after he had his brain surgically removed and replaced with a bag of elephant semen.-Gramzamber, on why Caprica sucks
God, I need to stop visiting this site. Every day I discover something about the EU that makes me want to vomit.
What is wrong with that? I mean yeah the name is lame, but you don't think that holograms wouldn't be an integral part of entertainment?
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it. Blank Yellow (NSFW)
What drives me crazy is that they have high quality holograms but they restrict the quality on their military holograms to static laden, blue monotone interlaced, low quality images. Practically, it makes no difference to the efficacy of communications, but it's still annoying.
Vympel wrote:What drives me crazy is that they have high quality holograms but they restrict the quality on their military holograms to static laden, blue monotone interlaced, low quality images. Practically, it makes no difference to the efficacy of communications, but it's still annoying.
High quality holograms on a planet dedicated to entertainment. The simplest explanation is that the output is related to size/power/complexity and as such get dumped to the bottom of the Imperial Navy's list of priorities.
Vympel wrote:What drives me crazy is that they have high quality holograms but they restrict the quality on their military holograms to static laden, blue monotone interlaced, low quality images. Practically, it makes no difference to the efficacy of communications, but it's still annoying.
Military equipment are built to be robust and more importantly, in this case, long range.
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
I thought it was a decent read. I didn't like the short chapters - I felt it could have easily been longer; setting things up aboard the Purge instead of the brief look we got and more of an examination of the derelict Star Destroyer before everything goes to Hell, maybe some more survival horror.
I'm not certain I liked the inclusion of Spoiler
Han and Chewie.
It takes time away from the original characters and you know without any trace of a doubt that they're going to make it out all right, so there's no suspense. I really did like it when Spoiler
Chewie was infected by the anti-virus
. The scene where he 'hears' the virus whispering to him, telling him to kill and eat as the "true songs of life" tell him was very eerie and characterizes the infection very well. The scene on the Star Destroyer where the Purge infected start screaming, calling to the others on the larger ship and waking them was, I thought, rather chilling. Spoiler
When Trig and Kale are trying to get off the prison deck and they hear the Wookiee child screaming as it's eaten alive
was another 'ah, hell' moment, especially when it showed up again on the Star Destroyer's bridge, to let in its 'family'.
Also, technically-minded people should like how easily an understaffed prison barge was able to Spoiler
come up with an immunization for blackwing
, which they'd never encountered before. I was bugged by the referrals to a Star Destroyer having only 8-10,000 crew; I thought the last numbers were 30,000 crew, 10,000 stormtroopers? Those were the only things that really bugged me about the book. Spoiler
The fact that the infected learn pretty damn fast made them very threatening; the horde from the Purge started out as just shamblers, moved into running, learned how to use blasters and fly spacecraft all in a period of hours, whereas the nest aboard the Star Destroyer was using the tractor beam to hold ships and consume their crew. Given how quickly blackwing spreads and the learnign rate of the infected, it could be a larger threat, as long as they have a nexus to work from, but without it, they're only a local problem. Granted, a pretty big one given how fast the virus spreads, but not another Galactic Threat of the Week, which was nice.
Anyways, that's my take on Death Troopers. Good concept, some small issues with the execution but a decent read.
Vympel wrote:What drives me crazy is that they have high quality holograms but they restrict the quality on their military holograms to static laden, blue monotone interlaced, low quality images. Practically, it makes no difference to the efficacy of communications, but it's still annoying.
In fairness, I understand a number of military applications IRL still use monotone green-on-black text. The real bug is that Palpatine's office doesn't use high quality holograms. You'd think it would.
Superior Moderator - BotB - HAB [Drill Instructor]-Writer- Stardestroyer.net's resident Star-God.
"We believe in the systematic understanding of the physical world through observation and experimentation, argument and debate and most of all freedom of will." ~ Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Han and Chewie were actually prisoners who were placed in solitary for trying to escape. It seemed like the author actually tried to make them seem like they belonged, and not as the heroes who happen upon the situation and save people.
Also:
Spoiler
the anti-virus thing with Chewie was done really well. I actually thought he was going to be infected for a few minutes, which made it even all the better.
Plus:
Spoiler
The cannibal Imperials was a nice touch, and I liked the interaction between the two brothers, even if the older was had a really bad day, what with being bitten, having infected tissue removed from his leg, and then getting shot in the face by the Purge Zombies, later becoming a zombie before being thrown (presumably) to his death by the younger brother. I also thought that the zombies were well balanced in terms of power and capability.
