Deathstalker Book

Deathstalker was a fast paced fun space opera in the Star Wars mould. It was not thought provoking sci-fi by any means but Simon R Green has an engaging writing style and despite using every sci-fi cliché in the book his story was still enjoyable and the characters even had a little depth to them!

Owen Deathstalker is a historian who has moved to the fringe of the Imperial Empire to get away from the politics that got his famous warrior father killed. Unfortunately for him the tyrannical Empress Lionstone outlaws him anyway as she suspects he could have some useful information in the form of the Deathstalker family secrets that she could extract from him! Owen is forced to flee to the rebel haven Mistworld where he soon gets caught up in talks of a rebellion.

The story was a lot of fun. Owen was not perfect but he was an easy character to like and root for. The story got a bit of added depth by the fact that the Empire was facing the threat of two newly discovered alien species as well as pressure from an existing rebel underground made up of various factions. Then we got POV's from a bunch of scheming aristocrat families. It all made for exciting reading! Owen's story arc was fun and the various other POV characters added a bit of depth to the story and were quite engaging in their own right.

The world was a fun one but nothing complicated. It was a bit Star Wars in terms of setting and technology and we got everything from AI's, Cyborgs, and clones to aliens, telepaths, and vampires. It was a bit crazy at times but it just about worked.

I first read this story way back in my teens and remember it being a crazy read even back then. I was a bit worried this would not hold up well but surprisingly it did. I think I might even have enjoyed this as much this time around as I did when I read it in my early days!

Rating: 4.5 stars

Audio Note: The audio of this was produced by Listen & Live Audio who were the proto-Graphic Audio. It was very well done. The music and sound effects were done well and the narrators also did a great job with the characters.