Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead | |||||||||
Steve Perry | |||||||||
Lucas Books, Del Rey, 325 pages | |||||||||
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A review by David Maddox
Although now under the Del Rey Lucas Books imprint, the novel is designed to begin a series filling in the gaps
during Indy's involvement in World War II. Set in 1943, five years after the events of Last Crusade,
14 years before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Army of the Dead follows Indy and George "Mac" McHale
on a 'holiday' excursion to Haiti to locate the Heart of Darkness, a rumored gigantic black pearl that is
considered a focal point of voodoo magic.
Perry is an old hand at Lucas properties, most notably having written the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
novel for the big multimedia event back in the 90s. He captures Indy well and, although he himself admits to
taking some liberties with the geographical setting, captures a nice picture of Haiti and the voodoo
culture. Readers will enjoy seeing Mac and Indy working together, although there is definitely a dark side to
the man which the reader knows will result in his betrayal during Crystal Skull.
Unfortunately, the novel is a bit of a letdown. The characters are well defined, from Marie, the love
interest who leads our heroes into the jungle, to Boukman, the evil centuries old voodoo priest who wants the
pearl to rule the world. There's even a German and Japanese soldier battalion fighting their ways, separately,
to claim the item themselves.
The zombis are quite creepy. Perry has done his research and he covers and explains the difference between
the type of zombi created from a living slave via a potion, and the truly risen from the dead, animated corpses
type of zombi.
But the story and the adventure, really just involve Indy and his team fighting through a jungle, getting set
upon by soldiers, fighting through a jungle, getting set upon by zombis and more fighting through a
jungle. There's nothing that really makes it jump out as an eye-popping Indiana Jones adventure. It suffers
from being set in the middle of World War II, but taken as a vacation of the lead characters.
There are some nice references to past Indy screen adventures, but it wouldn't have hurt to throw in a mention
or two of some of the events of the 12 previous Bantam books, as there is a rumor that they will be reprinted soon.
Overall, it's nice to see more Indiana Jones stories beginning to see fruition. Army of the Dead is a
nice jumping off point, and the hope is that the novels that follow will step up the stakes and take Indy right
back into the heart of his adventures we know and love.
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