Joe Schreiber - Star Wars: Red Harvest

Star Wars: Red Harvest

Joe Schreiber

Del Rey, Dec 28 2010, $27.00

ISBN: 9780345511171

On the cold desolate planet Odacer-Faustin, Sith Master Lord Darth Scabrous sets up a training program to teach the young the techniques in using the dark side of the Force. Rumors abound that the Sith Master searches for the right pupils who will fill his formula for immortality. From time to time a student vanishes. One of the trainees who disappears Wim Nickter finds himself surrounded by medical equipment. He will "donate" his blood to Scabrous. As he lays dying

The beginning of a plague begins

Scabrous seeks a Murkamis Orchid, which he receives when "talented botanist" Hestizo Trace "delivers "the plant to the Sith Lord. The sentient flower has bonded with Hestizo and needs her as does Scabrous. He abducts the human and takes her to his planet for she and her dark orchid are the final keys to his immortality formula. Her brother Jedi Knight Rojo traces her through the Force as he wants to save his sister, but finds himself facing an army of zombies and worse.

If someone told me when I saw the first Star Wars movie back in ancient times I would read a Star Wars novel with zombies and a Sith Lord acting like a vampire, I would have said no way. Yet, Joe Schreiber entertainingly brings zombie fever to the Force during the Old Republic era. Zo is a heroic person who fights to the end to prevent the zombie pathogen from turning pandemic. However this is Lord Darth Scabrous' story as his insidious malevolence owns the exciting tale. Mr. Schreiber provides a face to evil as the Force turns to its darkest horror niches.

Harriet Klausner