When the Imperial prison barge Purge — temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s  most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels and thieves — 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 in ways too hideous to imagine.

And death is only the beginning.

The Purge’s half-dozen survivors — two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board — will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting onboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. The dead are rising, soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.

Author: Joe Schreiber

Dr. Zombie’s Review:

Death Troopers by Joe Schreiber is a book that any Zombie and/or Star Wars fan would love.  Especially if you are a fan of both.  Schreiber smoothly inserts the horror of zombies into the science fiction world of Star Wars.  He even included two core characters in the story line that are sure to make any Star Wars fan stroke their lightsabre in pure joy.  Schreiber captured the personalities of Han Solo and Chewbacca in this macabre tale of a prison barge that comes across the path of what seems to be an abandoned Star Destroyer.

Joe Schreiber did an excellent job forming a connection with the reader and newly introduced characters Kale and Trig Longo, Dr. Cody Zahara and the vile Jareth Sartoris.  Although this storyline has no major impact on the Star Wars Galaxy as a whole, it still is a must read.  This stand alone story stands very well with many of the Star Wars novels.

In the heart of America, in the world’s most secure prison, something horrible is growing in the dark. A wave of cannibalism and fear is sweeping across the heartland, spreading carnage and infection in its wake. Captain Bannerman Clark of the National Guard has been tasked with an impossible mission: discover what is happening — and then stop it before it annihilates Los Angeles.

In California, he discovers a woman trapped in a hospital overrun with violent madmen. She may hold the secret to the Epidemic but she has lost everything — even her name.

David Wellington’s first novel, Monster Island, explored a world overcome by horror and the few people strong enough to survive. Now he takes us back in time to where it all began — to the day the dead began to rise.

Author: David Wellington

Dr. Zombie’s Review:

David Wellington does it again in this second novel in the zombie trilogy. Zombie Nation goes into the details of how the zombie plague in Monster Island Began. Bannerman Clark a captain in the colorado National Guard is charged with finding the source of the outbreak and stopping it. This leads Bannerman to a Supermax prison in which the cause of a recent riot turns out to be the doing of zombies. The infected warden has left for his vacation to California and has begun the plague. However there is still hope. A young woman has become infected, yet is still in complete control of her faculties. Could she have the answer to stopping this plague?

Just like Monster Island, I found it hard to put down and finished reading it in a matter of days. Well worth reading.

It’s one month after a global disaster. The most “developed” nations of the world have fallen to the shambling zombie masses. Only a few pockets of humanity survive — in places rife with high-powered weaponry, such as Somalia.

In New York City, the dead walk the streets, driven by an insatiable hunger for all things living. One amongst them is different; though he shares their appetites he has retained his human intelligence. Alone among the mindless zombies, Gary Fleck is an eyewitness to the end of the world — and perhaps the evil genius behind it all.

From the other side of the planet, a small but heavily-armed group of schoolgirls-turned-soldiers has come in search of desperately needed medicine. Dekalb, a former United Nations weapons inspector, leads them as their local guide. Ayaan, a crack shot at the age of sixteen, will stop at nothing to complete her mission. They think they are prepared for anything. On Monster Island they will find that there is something worse even than being undead, as Gary learns the true price of survival.

Author: David Wellington

Dr. Zombie’s Review:

This first in a trilogy, Monster Island was a great start to what is a fantastic series. The characters are well thought out. you almost feel sorry for the antagonist. Gary, who unknowingly becomes the master of the zombie horde that has taken over Manhattan starts out as a man smart enough to survive the plague. However, He soon discovers that even he can’t stop the hunger that grows within him.

On the other side of the planet, Dekalb, a UN weapons inspector, has allied himself with a Somalian warlord in order to protect himself and his seven year old daughter from the plague that has taken over the world. As part of the arrangement Dekalb must lead a team of teenage soldiers for a search machine in Manhattan for medicine that the warlord needs.

Monster Island kept me interested through the entire read. In fact I immediately went out and bouoght the other two books in the trilogy after reading it. This is a zombie book you do not want to miss.