Star Wars Novel: Death Troopers

Death Troopers is an upcoming novel by author Joe Schreiber that will be released on October 13, 2009. The events are set to take place just before Episode IV: A New Hope. Honestly I have not been too impressed with the list of Star Wars novels that I've been reading through for the past couple of years (I'd completely avoided the Yuuzhan Vong-era novels, so let's not even go there!) save for some really good ones, such as the Death Star novel written by Michael Reeves & Steve Perry which I have reviewed before in my earlier post.

Of course, a really good Expanded Universe (EU) storyline is ultimately benchmarked against Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy which have enthralled many Star Wars fans (even those movie purists!) and subsequently gave 'ol George the much-needed push to film the prequel trilogies. This next release however, is pretty interesting because it deals with a 'horror' theme! Yes, a PG-13 rating Star Wars novel to say the least!! Ok, that 'PG-13' thing was a made-up...but I didn't make up that 'horror' part!

From the Star Wars wikia page:

"From the first appearance of Darth Vader in the groundbreaking movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars fans have known what terror feels like -- and they loved it. But never before has Star Wars publishing ventured into the unknown territory of true horror . . . until now.

When the Imperial prison barge Purge breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope seems to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party 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 will die. And death is only the beginning.

For aboard the Star Destroyer, amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn't really empty at all, the dead are rising, soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry."

This novel is slated for an October 13, 2009 release by publisher Del Rey. So, what would it be? Space-zombies perhaps? It certainly looks like it....take a look at the promotional art provided in Star Wars wikia page below (although I strongly believe that this is a still-shot from one of Lucasarts' online game, but hey....it helps!):

Attack of space-zombie-troopers! But wait, who's that Twi'lek female jedi fighting alongside Han and Chewie? A Jedi present before the Battle of Yavin?

Scary!!!!!

Can't wait for it!!!!