Alternate history ranks among the more robust genres in science fiction, as authors frequently explore the consequences of what might have happened had historical events taken a different turn. Far less common, however, are what might be termed alternate stories: other takes on notable fictional works. While both Marvel and DC have explored the possibilities in such storytelling (in their "What If" and "Elseworlds" titles respectively), for the most part it's a form little seen outside of comic books. Thus, for Dark Horse Publishing to undertake alternate storytelling of the famous "Original Trilogy" of Star Wars movies marks something of a novelty. In three separate limited-series comics (brought together here in a single omnibus volume) their writers and artists envision what might have happened had events in some of the most famous movies in history had taken a slightly different turn.

The first of these comics builds upon the events of the fourth film, A New Hope. In it, the proton torpedoes Luke Skywalker fires into the exhaust vent only damage rather than destroy the Death Star. With the Rebel base on Yavin-4 destroyed and Princess Leia recaptured by Darth Vader, Luke travels to Dagobah to begin his training with Yoda. This sets up an interesting dynamic, with Vader attempting to turn Leia to the Dark Side while Luke more readily embraces his training to become a Jedi. Yet the ending leaves something to be desired, with the resolution just a little too pat for my tastes.

In the second of these tales, the focus is on the events and the characters featured in The Empire Strikes Back. Here the divergence is a small event with enormous consequences, with Han Solo's tauntaun dying before he can locate Luke in Hoth's frigid wastes. Luke's own subsequent death from exposure because of this sets of a new chain of events, with Han, Leia, and Chewbacca fleeing directly to Bespin before going to Dagobah themselves. This was by far my favorite of the three, both for Dave Land's story (which is inventive while remaining true to the elements of the movie) and for how he develops Leia as a Jedi, which allows him to explore the possibilities of what is by far the most disappointingly unexplored aspect of the entire Star Wars franchise.

It would be hard to top Land's story, and the final comic, which is based on Return of the Jedi, emulates the film in the franchise by falling short of its predecessor's high standard. In this story, the team's failure to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt's fortress forces Luke and Leia to continue their search for his carbonized body. While this alters events somewhat, the story's divergence is considerably less than that of the two previous ones, with the final events for the most part playing out as they did in the movie. Though the ending is interesting, it's something of a letdown after the more creative explorations in the first two series, even if it does end up fitting in with the pattern of the original trilogy of films.

This is what if Star Wars.  There are three stories in this omnibus - for New Hope, Empire, and Jedi.  The weakest for me is New Hope, mostly because I doubt that Leia would have given into anger.  I'm sorry.  Look, Luke whines quite a bit and then when things get tough, runs off to some planet.  But Leia puts her nose to the grind stone.  Yes, I know the movies want us to see Leia largely though the lense of Luke and Han (she, who lost her whole world and family, comforts Luke because of Kenobi's death.  She didn't know about his aunt and uncle then).  Honesty, if I wanted one of the Skywalker kids as a Jedi, she's the one you pick.

Which is what happens in Empire in a way.  Jedi changes what happens in Jabba's palace.  These two are stronger and in some ways deeper than the first.  

In fact, all three make note of the idea of everyone fixating on the Skywalker son as opposed to Leia.

The one half star I knocked off was for what I felt was the weakest art of the trilogy.   However, this one was the funnest read for me, as it had a dark aspect - Han Solo's fate, for example - but was the best outcome for the majority of the characters.   Maybe tapping into that little bit of wish fulfillment was what meant I had enjoyed this so much.  

And I have to admit, I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan. I like Star Trek better, in fact, but even a casual Star Wars fan can easily enjoy these comics.  In fact, I'm going to check out the other Star Wars comics available through the Marvel Unlimited program soon. 

Normally, I don’t really like an angsty teen novel even if it does feature my fav horror character, zombies, but I really got a kick out of this book. While I realize that a lot of teens are characterized as moody, whiny, too stupid not to go down to the basement in their pjs to investigate THAT noise, the teens I raised and were around for what seemed like eons simply were not of that breed. Heck, I’d bet my group of country raised kids against any city raised group of kids come zombie apocalypse time anytime.  

Anyway, back to this enormously entertaining book. Like I said earlier, usually the angsty teen has me beating my head against the wall in pain and hoping that they just bite the dust already. Not so with this book. Maybe it was the overall premise that the world has gone on in spite of the zombies. Yeah, everyone has a fence around their house and has a fully loaded shotgun in the gun rack of their truck or under the seat, but life goes on. The kids go to school, have part time jobs at the local hamburger shack, and dream about moving away from small town suburbia to New York City. Okay, okay, so NYC and most big cities are overrun by zombies. Small detail here. Like I said, country kids will make it hands down while the city kids are all turned into shufflers.

The main character, Courtney, has figured out a way to pay for college and while working at the Bully Burger supplements her income by selling Vitamin Z, a drug made from zombie brains, (okay something is just not right about that, I mean everybody know zombies eat brains) along with the burgers and fries. She has always been a bit of a loner so when a football jock starts hitting on her she starts hanging out with a new group of kids and some of her decisions leave a lot to be desired.  While Courtney’s not quite a kickass zombie killer,  she’s definitely no slouch either. I love Courtney’s interaction with her Dad when he starts dating. Some of her conversations in her head are  so funny that I found myself sniggering. Teens faced with their parents having sex are always worthy of a laugh or two.

I loved seeing the change in Courtney and and can’t wait to see where Zombified takes us in January 2015.

One thing I really didn’t like--the covers. The covers had me prepared more for zombie horror while the story was more about the changes and growth of Courtney. So maybe Courtney all tricked out in the Bully Burger security guards zombie fighting uniform would have been better.

Zomburbia is not your typical zombie novel. For once, the zombie apocalypse did not herald the end of life as we know it. Instead, it just marked the end of Cities. After the large Cities were overwhelmed with zombies, people just moved out to the suburbs where even the zombies get bored to death. Well.. at least there aren't too many buildings for them to hide between. However, there are all of the pesky trees in the forest, and Courtney Hart notices that there seem to be more zombie attacks now, and the zombies are faster and don't shuffle as much. But are they really zombies?

Courtney is not your typical girl either. And even though she is smart, she can be stupid sometimes. From the choices she makes regarding boys to the choices she makes with her "Second Job" selling powdered zombie brains, Courtney has to quickly grow up after her friends start dying around her.

This is a really well written book, especially because the main character is not perfect in ANY way. However, she stumbles through out of sheer necessity and the kindness of unexpected friends. It was refreshing to see a different take on the zombie apocalypse, where people plan their every day lives knowing that they'll probably run over a zombie... or 3... on the way to school. And the Vitamin Z drug in the book is well planned out and has a few surprises... I'm very happy that I read this book!

I read this book courtesy of netgalley - thank you! I highly suggest that you head over to Amazon and pick up this book while you remember (now, don't take any Vitamin Z to forget!) since it is probably one of the better takes on a zombie apocalypse that I've read in recent years.

If Zomburbia is a book that interests you, the kindle version is currently available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IUPCKXC/?tag=shasworofboo-20.

If you enjoyed my review, I would appreciate if you could mark it as being helpful on Amazon as well, as this is useful to both the reviewer and the author. I have included the link to the Amazon review in the Source section at the bottom of this review.