Two words: Zombie tauntauns

I haven't been bookblogging much over the last few years, since roughly 75 of the books I read each year are one for PW, and thus ones I can't talk about here. The rest have tended to get lost in the shuffle, but I am trying to get back to my old habits.

As some of you know, my general policy on licensed/tie-in books is that I'll read them if A) I give a crap about the franchise, and B) if I'm a fan of the author. This means that I read very few licensed books, but I also don't have much patience for the snobby attitude some folks have towards them; most licensed books suck because Sturgeon's Law says they suck, just like original properties.

But I digress.

Although I haven't given a damn about anything in the Star Wars universe since 1983, I'm a huge Joe Schreiber fan. He's written three damned fine horror novels, and the cover alone of Deathtroopers is one of my favorite pieces of Star Wars art. So I knew I'd eventually get around to reading both Deathtroopers and its prequel, Red Harvest.

At their core, both books are zombie novels set in the Star Wars universe, but Joe doesn't just call it a day there. His zombies are infected by an alien organism that operates like a disorganized, rage-fueled hive mind. Infected creatures eventually succumb and try to bite others, but they're capable of some degree of reason (if parsed through an alien mind), and can figure out how to do things like shoot blasters and trigger tractor beams, and (perhaps more significantly) to hold back on attacking until the right moment. They're closer to the titular baddies in the remake of The Crazies than to Romero zombies.

Deathtroopers takes place on an Imperial prison ship right before the first movie*. That means that pretty much everyone's a bad guy of some sort, either a soldier for the Empire or a convict. When the ship discovers an abandoned Star Destroyer, the exploration team brings back the virus that transmits the zombie plague, and soon enough, all but a handful of immune folks are stricken.

The biggest drawback to Deathtroopers is that two of the prisoners on the ship are a pair of smugglers named Han Solo and Chewbacca. And although I love the characters and Schrieber writes them well, it's not exactly a spoiler to say that they do not get eaten by the eels zombies at this time. And the characters who live are pretty much the exact ones you'd predict. That said, the development of the zombies -- particularly their differences from traditional zombies -- is a major plus here.

Red Harvest takes place thousands of years ago, and although it shows the origin of the zombies, the two books don't otherwise tie in. This time, the setting is at a Sith academy (this takes place long before the "always two sith there are" days). And yes, that means that every single character in the book is a complete bastard who deserves to die. And Schrieber has fun with this; there's constantly a sense that you're following a named character who will live (or at least live until the final chapter), only to see them die suddenly. The only "good" character is a kidnapped Jedi (although her brother later comes looking for her), but otherwise, you've got a bunch of jerks**.

Actually, you've got a bunch of jerks with access to the Force, which definitely makes things more interesting. Especially since that alien organism can help tap into the Force, too (and this is the rare moment where the "midichlorians" idea actually works well with a plotline). And yes, Sith zombies are scarier than tauntaun zombies, although the latter are pretty disturbing.

Both books are recommended and can be read in either order, but I definitely preferred Red Harvest.

*If you're wondering what I consider the "first" movie, note the whole thing about not giving a crap since 1983.

**Incidentally, if Rowling ever licenses out Harry Potter, I totally want to see Schrieber write a novel about a bunch of Slytherin kids who go camping and meet a masked maniac.