Lit Death Troopers

Hey guys!
So I just finished Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber, and I thought it was really great. I wanted to know if anyone's gotten the opportunity to read it yet, and if you did, what you thought about it. Thanks

 

I liked it. I felt it was very atmospheric. It was entertaining and Schreiber handled Han and Chewie's appearance well by keeping them in the background. We knew that they would survive, but the other characters were fair game, so it was wise to keep the focus on the new characters. Schreiber employed more than just sight and sound; he made us smell things, taste things, and get elbow-deep in icky, slimy, gunky, disgusting things. When you engage all the senses in your descriptions, it becomes less of a description and more of an experience.

 

And it was sooo graphic, something you don't normally find in SW books! When I get the chance, I'm going to pick up Red Harvest. I guess it's a prequel to DT?

 

It is. I picked up my copy when Schreiber held a book-signing in my area. Got both books signed. Personally, I like Death Troopers better, but I found Red Harvest to still be a fun read. I blasted through those books quicker than I have other EU.

 

It was very good. Not the best Star Wars book I've ever read but it was good. I liked that it was different from what we've gotten before.

 

That's awesome! Good for you! Force Smuggler I agree, wasn't the best, but it was really enjoyable.

 

Yes it was. I'm glad Del Rey decided to branch out into horror. Wonder what else they might try?

 

I liked it a lot. However, I didn't like the prequel Red Harvest that much. I thought it was rather silly in spots.

 

I actually liked Red Harvest more. I enjoyed DT but I felt that it was just silly in a spooky way. I didn't like that Han & Chewie were in it. That made me roll my eyes. And really, TBH, that ruined the book for me.

 

I was OK with Red Harvest til a certain ability of the flower was introduced. Went straight downhill after that.

 

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

Shallow characters and dialogue, but all things considered it's actually a fairly good zombie novel. A horror novel needs to get the atmosphere above anything else, and I believe it succeeded there.

I haven't read Red Harvest, but it sounds like it's mainly good for the cheese factor.

 

What Death Troopers did with atmosphere is something I feel that other EU writers should take into consideration. Great atmosphere needn't be confined to the horror genre.

 

Red Harvest started out great, but not too good of an ending. All of the acolytes sort of blended together as well. Not as much distinct voices as in Death Troopers.

Liked the twist that (well not really a twist. More of the thing you knew in the back of your head but never made the connection) plants can be connected to the force in a physic link type of way.

HOWEVER, I would not be opposed to a third book to make this whole thing a trilogy. Maybe something during the YV War. You could have the YV on one side, the Republic on the other, and the Plagued in the middle. It could make for an interesting story. Also, it would be cool to see the affects the virus has on a YV and how the virus worked during wartime.

That's a hint Schreiber! Get crackin'!

 

Well... he is a local (Pennsylvanian) author... And I have his contact information...

 

All day today I was reading my paperback copy of Deathtroopers and it was pretty good for a short book at 271 pages.

The way that the "zombies" in the book were using blasters and figured out how to get into fighter pilot ships it reminded me of that Resident Evil novel Caliban Cove.

It was also interesting where Chewbacca almost got turned into a zombie where the antivirus kind of turned him feral for a couple of minutes. the creepy kid wookie and his family creeped me out big time lol.

 

Don't read it. Listen to the audiobook. It's much better.

http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V0THFQ&qid=1358349884&sr=1-1

 

Just finished reading Death Troopers. Excellent novel; I had bought this when it came out four years ago, but for some reason never read it, until now.

The creepy, unnerving atmosphere was very well-done; I've always liked zombie fiction/movies/TV shows, and the book was a perfect blend of SW sci-fi & horror, something that is difficult to pull off well.

Wouldn't mind seeing Hasbro make some Death Troopers EU action figures, especially some of the Zombie stormtoopers...

 

I too liked this book, especially the fact that most of it takes place aboard a Star Destroyer. It's the same kind of Star Destroyer that we see in countless books and comics, but the atmosphere is very different here. On the other hand, I could do without Han and Chewie. They really felt shoehorned into the story. Yeah, I know, these characters sell books. But it was a bit too much for me.

Now that I'm in rant-mode:

Spoiler

In fact, Han appearing in most pre-ANH stories these days really annoys me: In Agent Of the Empire, he's there to help Agent Cross, because they happen to know each other. In Shadow Games he takes part in the story because the Outrider is broken or something. This is really stretching my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.

 

I'm contractually obliged to mention that we'll discuss the novel in the 181st Imperial Discussion Group in November, you know. Everyone's invited.

I'm pretty curious myself whether I'll find it horrific or horrible horror, I'm actually going to start reading today. Back when it was released, I did notice that the Jaden Korr storyline of Crosscurrent moves pretty effectively into horror/shock/gore/exploitation territory already, so it will be interesting how using the genre compares to using elements of the genre.

 

Re: Han & Chewie's inclusion in Death Troopers, I also didn't like this since I felt they were only included to help sell the novel, and that the story would have worked better with unknown characters that were created exclusively for the story (or lesser known EU characters). I watch & enjoy a lot of horror films - part of the suspense of these films is genuinely not knowing which characters will survive & which won't. Having characters that you know will live in DT really took away from the effectiveness of the story.

Plus, I've read enough novels/comics with Han & Chewie that I didn't need to read about them in yet another EU novel.

That being said, the novel is still good, and thankfully Chewie & Han aren't the central characters.

 

Death Troopers was...okay, but I liked RH better. It had a better feel to it, I guess (plus I read RH first, so I'm biased). The Sith, Hestizo, and Rojo (Liam Neeson references and all) were better than the random-prisoner feel that DT had. Though the ending was a total hack job. Didn't Schrieber know the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was already rubble by this time?

 

Red Harvest is elevated above Death Troopers in my opinion simply due to Tulkh and the HK droid.

 

i just finished it today, i read almost almost 200 pages in about 2 or so hours.. about Han and Chewie, at the end of the chapter where they get introduced i definitely let out a groan. They definitely didn't need to be in the book.
2 questions, one how did han survive even though he wasn't immune? i know it said he was in the lower depths but wouldn't there be a ton of people down there? and none of them survived.
Also the ending, was it hinting that they were going to hook up at the end or something? I was kinda confused what happened.

 

You're not the only one who was irritated and confused.
I completely agree, and that's why I like RH better than DT - they didn't need to be in the book.

I felt like the end was almost a cliffhanger in general, but only if it had to be. It was almost as if Schreiber didn't really know how to end it.