Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead

Indiana Jones: Prequels #13

by Steve Perry

There’s no rest for the weary treasure hunter, but that’s how Indiana Jones likes it. Fresh from spying for the Allies in the thick of World War II Germany, the globe-trotting archaeologist doesn’t need much persuading to join his cohort “Mac” McHale in searching for one of the most coveted of artifacts: the fabled black pearl known as the Heart of Darkness. But the partners in adventure are not alone on their foray into the mysterious jungles of Haiti. German and Japanese agents are in hot pursuit, determined to possess the ebony artifact–and its secrets–for their own sinister purposes. And shadowing them all is an infamous voodoo priest, with powers of both diabolical science and black magic at his command.

On a treacherous odyssey across the Island of the Dead, where the legend of the zombi looms large, spiders, snakes, and booby traps will prove the least of Indy’s challenges. And capturing the prize will be child’s play compared to confronting an enemy unlike any other, whose numbers are legion and nearly impossible to kill–because they’re already dead. . . .

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Zombies, Action, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Novels

325 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 29, 2009

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.

Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indy vs zombies…I suppose it had to happen eventually.

After wrapping up some espionage activity in the heart of WW2 Germany, Indy joins his buddy Mac McHale in traveling to Haiti in search of an enormous black pearl known as The Heart of Darkness. Unfortunately, both German and Japanese agents are also after the artifact due to rumors of its strange powers. But the real obstacle this time around is a voodoo priest who has the ability to control the dead and make them do his bidding.

This is Steve Perry’s one and only Indiana Jones novel and I noticed that his web site does not exactly tout his accomplishment for this book. Many reviewers pan this novel but I have to say it actually wasn’t too bad. It does move a little slower than most other Indy novels I’ve read and Indy, himself, is in less than half the scenes so perhaps that is why it sometimes gets short shrift. But the voodoo angle was developed quite well and I have to say…when voodoo is done well, it gives me the heebie-jeebies. The zombies (or “zombis” as referred to here) as tools of the voodoo priest were also done well. Overall, this was a pretty middle of the road Indiana Jones novel, and I have now read them all (except the movie novelizations).

One side note: Goodreads has this listed as the 13th and final novel in the “Indiana Jones Prequel series” but I think it more accurate to say those ended with number 12, Max McCoy’s Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx. This book takes place in 1943 and several references are made to past events in the movies so it is hardly a prequel. The book also follows the history of the movies rather than events contained within the first 12 prequel novels. Or perhaps the author simply didn’t read those books as evidenced by his having Indy recall his past girlfriends and failing to even mention his one-time fiancée, Dierdre Campbell from early in the series. At one point he also wonders aloud if he’s ever dated a witch, apparently failing to recall the events of Indiana Jones and the White Witch by Martin Caidin. But that’s fine. It is what it is.

If you really need an Indiana Jones fix while awaiting the 5th movie…you could do worse than reading this novel.

[Caleb Likes Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was pretty much exactly what I’d hoped it would be: a fun Indiana Jones adventure!

There’s a lot I liked here. First of all, Indy is written very well and feels just like he does in the films. You also get some fun side characters here like Mac, Marie, and a few German and Japanese characters. They’re all well done and I enjoyed their interactions. The action here is excellent, also. I also think the supernatural elements here were handled well and were relatively believable for an Indy story—essentially, he travels to an island where there are zombie creatures that are controlled by local voodoo practitioners. I think what this book does best is providing a fun adventure that feels just like the movies: exciting and action-packed, with lovable characters and an interesting quest involving some supernatural elements.

As for negatives, I don’t really have much to say. I suppose some of the more supernatural elements didn’t quite come across right to me, but otherwise I don’t have much negative to say.

Overall this was a very fun read. It’s not the most interesting or deep book out there—but if you’re an Indy fan and you just want an exciting adventure, this will absolutely scratch that itch for you.

Rating: 8.5/10

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Man I really wanted to like this book. I really did. But I just found myself skipping pages to get to the end. I was really disappointed with this one. I thought it would be interesting because it involved zombies in an Indiana Jones adventure, come on, you can't go wrong with that!

I've always been a big Indiana Jones fan, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade were my favorites out of all 4 films.

I just thought they focused way too much on the villains and not enough on the story.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first saw a movie called " Raiders of the lost Ark" It was way before the internet made any impact on the public. Word of mouth had impact on audiences and this one has quite a lot of impact. Later I got the Republic Zorro serials on dvd and they explained a lot of what Lucas/Spielberg had in mind. Their hero was extremely a visual character with a bit of story to move the adventure along. As such novels about the vaillant archaeologist should be actioners and less about character building. Which this novel does not do with Indy or Mac. However the German & Japanese leaders do get enough of character building to see the man from Nagasaki as tragic and the German Nazi as unsympathetic.

The story in short: Indy and Mac travel to Haïti to find a jewel called "heart of darkness" and save it for future public to enjoy the artifact.
There is a German & Japanese Doctor on the island that want to know the secret of the zombi, which would be a terrifïc weapon for an army.
Then there is an ancient wizard living on the Island who wants the treasure that Doctors Jones & McHale are looking for. Who team up with some locals and Marie. She turns out to be a great ally when the final confrontation takes place.
The axis baddies get time to breathe and create a character, as does Boukman the wizard.
Mac & Indy remain 2 dimensional characters but yet having seen the 5 movies they are welknown persons which the writer succesfully uses. This kind of book can easily be considered a guilty pleasure and can be read to enjoy with brainpower tuned off.
This was the seemingly last of the Indiana Jones novels in this series, and a well written one by an accomplished writer who does dweil in other franchises who I enjoy.
even if Disney does reboot the franchise with a new actor, Harrison Ford will remain the True face of this boyhood guilty pleasure.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the more recent Indy adventure novels, this one penned by veteran sci-fi author Steve Perry, "Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead" pits Indy and his pals against the walking dead. In this episode, set during WWII, Indy, a new agent with the OSS, and his pal Mac crash-land in Haiti, where they search for a legendary Black Pearl that supposedly has supernatural powers (of course). Hot on their trail (of course) are Nazis, Imperial Japanese soldiers,.. and zombies! This book is great fun if you are a fan of Indiana Jones AND zombies.

[Megan Lowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

For an Indian jones book I really thought it would be more exciting to read. Not saying it was a terrible book or anything, but just that it was pretty slow in action and most of the book is jones and his team trifling through a boring jungle. I didn’t exactly enjoy the switching between povs but I understood why. I think reading the German & Japanese povs was probably the most boring parts to get through. Also there was a really odd part in the book that I just completely didn’t understand why it was written in but it was basically the girl Marie dancing naked(?) in the middle of the night while their camp was sleeping and Indy just randomly woke up to see her??? Idk man. That part was really weird. I also didn’t enjoy how there would be parts that the author would go off in a tangent about things that didn’t matter to anything at all. Also I found it odd that Indy had an internal struggle about liking Marie because he was….”old enough to be her father???” That was just….weird to me. Anyways, not a terrible book but just kinda boring overall.

[Michael Boerm · Rating 1 out of 5]

God-awful. I’ve read the entire series, and they’re usually fairly good. This one was just plain horrible. And if the author is going to pepper the conversations with French and German expressions and vocabulary, he should at least take the time to get them right. Hard to take the story seriously when a German soldier talks about the “Engländer und Amerikanisch“. For heaven’s sake, “Amerikanisch” is an adjective, not a noun!

[Luke Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this because I love the Indiana Jones series a lot and was really hoping for a fun adventure like the first three movies! But, unfortunately, it’s a lot more like the last two movies. It is very, very short and incredibly simple which would be a positive to me but the entire first third of the book was such a struggle to get through, because I just found it so bland, that I found myself putting it down and not wanting to come back to it for ages. I guess if you are going on a long train journey or something it would be good to take along, but other than that I can’t recommend. He’s a guy with a hat and a whip who raids tombs full of booby traps how hard can it be?

[Phil Elmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having never read any Indiana Jones novelizations before, I had no real preconceived expectations for Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead. I read it for one simple reason, really: it was written by Steve Perry, one of my favorite authors and creator of the Matador series (which begins with The Man Who Never Missed). Over the years I have enjoyed all of Perry's work, including those books he co-wrote with frequent partner Michael Reaves. (For that matter, I've also enjoyed work by one of Mr. Perry's family members -- Stephani Danelle Perry, his daughter, who has written several Aliens novelizations, some with her father, and the superb Resident Evil tie-in novels.)

Let us stipulate from the outset that it is very difficult to create a novel that conveys the same sense of larger-than-life screen action as do the Indiana Jones movies. (As we saw in the somewhat dreadful fourth Indy movie, it's apparently difficult to do this in a film with any degree of certainty, too.) Perry doesn't, I don't believe, try to do that, specifically. Rather, he gets to know the character of Indiana Jones, who by the time of this novel is getting older and is only too aware of it. (In this, there are shades of the thoughtful notes Perry writes in his blog, [...])

The book is set in 1943, after the events of the third movie but 14 years before those of the fourth. Jones is still single and unaware that Shia LaBeouf is his son, which would be a great relief to him if he had omniscient knowledge of it. The plot centers around Jones' trip to Haiti with not-yet-traitor George "Mac" McHale (who figures prominently in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), pursuing a legendary giant black pearl, the "Heart of Darkness."

Because this is Haiti, the area is under the sway of a Bokor, a houngan priest named Boukman. He has prolonged his life using his sorcery, can command small armies of risen corpses, and of course possesses the secret potion used by Haitian voodoo exponents to turn the living into willing slaves. He is at first curious as to why a distant relative of his, the beautiful Marie Arnoux, is helping Jones and McHale. When he realizes what they've uncovered -- the pearl is a magical artifact of great power -- he sets out to take it. Along the way he consorts with various dangerous spirits and lesser gods.

Jones and McHale are also dogged by both Japanese and German agents, as World War II is still going on. It's clear that author Perry is much more interested in the katana-wielding Japanese officer, a descendant of the samurai, than he is in the somewhat unctuous German team leader. Given Mr. Perry's background as a martial artist, this is not surprising, and I have to admit that I, too, was more interested in reading about the Japanese villain than the German one.

The pursuing Germans and Japanese soldiers of course meet with various horrible fates in pursuit of Indy and McHale. I'm not giving anything away by telling you that, because that's how this kind of story works.

Steve Perry's writing is engaging and recognizable as his. Interestingly, I found the most fascinating character to be the bokor, Boukman, and a great deal of time is spent on characterizing him. Supernatural events and entities are nothing new in the world of Indiana Jones (the awful fourth movie gave us freaking space aliens, for crying out loud). The zombis and their voodoo master are a welcome addition here, giving us something truly dreadful to fear as Jones and McHale engage in a relatively conventional go-through-the-jungle-over-these-creaky-rope-bridges trek to an obvious burial location for the fabled pearl.

Throughout the book, Perry makes an earnest effort to develop further the character of Indiana Jones and to give him interesting villains against which to test himself. There is the obligatory whip work, a supernatural climax, and a fittingly thoughtful ending. Little touches that are the kinds of realistic things one expects from Steve Perry -- such as Jones' rumination on the efficacy of his Webley revolver versus that of the Smith and Wesson hand-ejector he carried previously -- remind you who you're reading, and not just who you're reading about.

I enjoyed this tale and would read others like it, provided Steve Perry continues to write them. I can recommend it to you, as well.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan. To the tune of Raiders of the Lost Ark remaining my all-time favorite movie ever, and collecting every one of the novels I could get my hands on. I even went to go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull twice.

So this should give you the proper context when I say that I really, really wanted to like Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead. It combines two of my favorite things: Indy and zombies! Plus, it's a story that's set during World War II and which included Mac, the character we saw in Crystal Skull. So, cool, I thought, we can get a glimpse into what actually happened to Indy during World War II, which was one of the interesting little side details about the movie.

The big problem is, the character occupying the lead role of this story is not the Indiana Jones I know and love. He's too prone to bursting into dry, didactic lectures, a habit we never once saw him have in any of the movies, including the last one. This character failure alone distracted me a lot from the story, and made it difficult for me to enjoy some of the other aspects of this version of Indy that I did like--for example, since this is an Indy up in his 40's, it did seem reasonable to me that he was starting to get sensitive about his age and yet was still quite capable of being charmed by, and charming to, the young female lead.

A similar lack of character development pretty much plagued the bad guys as well, for the most part: the German and Japanese commanders. Since this is a WWII setting, it's pretty much inevitable that we'd have Japanese forces involved along with the Nazis, and to be fair, this does add a bit of nice variety. And there's quite a bit of plotting and counter-plotting between the two commanders as they both try to catch up with Indy and Mac to get the final MacGuffin. But none of it had quite the punch it should have had for me, and only occasionally did either of the commanders ever seem like real characters. They definitely paled in comparison to the actual primary bad guy: the voodoo sorcerer who was controlling the zombies.

And I will say that okay, sure, the zombie part of the plot was entertaining enough. But on the whole the story didn't feel enough like a proper Indiana Jones story to me--because Indy just didn't feel enough like Indy. Two stars.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indy and Mac are in the West Indies in 1943 in pursuit of an artifact, a large black pearl, they'd traced to a small island near Haiti. They hire Marie, a beautiful young, educated woman, as a guide and set up an expedition.

Unknown to them, an expedition of Germans are following them. And an expedition of Japanese are behind them.

Then there are the zombis, both real and chemically induced, sent by Marie's uncle, that are following all of them. He's a two hundred year old voodoo priest.

They all want a fist sized black pearl for their own reasons: Indy and Mac for the museum, the Axis powers for a hidden formula for the chemical zombi, and the old priest for the power it will give him, making him a virtual god.

All that and throw in a hurricane.

[Max Brautigam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a weak book.

One has to give the author some slack, considering he is writing this story around a character he didn't create, and he probably has some high-level company breathing down his neck, making him churn out this sludge. Still, that doesn't change the fact that this book is indeed sludge. It features weak characterization, indecipherable pseudo-spiritual hogwash, and a plot so bland that if you ate it, your tongue would go numb. The only reason I finished this book was because I felt I owed it to the author to finish his work, regardless of how I felt about it it. That doesn't change the fact that starting the book was a bad idea in the first place. Unless you are a rabid Indiana Jones fan (and not a purist), then stay away.
Far away.

~ LizardtheWizard

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really care much for this. Steve Perry is a good writer, but this did not feel like an Indian Jones adventure at all. Indy's personality was totally off as well. The story was okay, but I just could not see Indy and Mac in this setting on this adventure. It didn't even really feel like an adventure, more like a bad horror movie that wasn't even scary at all.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

One time in my teens, I got a stack of Wolfgang Hohlbein's books as a birthday present from my sister, all of them extra adventures about my favorite fictional character, Indiana Jones. Until then I had no idea that there were books about him. In the years that followed I collected them all, 24 in total.

Last year I discovered that in 2009, after the release of the fourth movie "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", a final book was published: "Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead" by Steve Perry. No, not the singer of Journey, but the fantasy and science-fiction writer. He has also written books in the Star Wars universe. I ordered it right away and I've been reading it for the past month.

Indy and Mac are sent on a mission in the midst of World War II to prevent the Nazis or the Japanese from getting their hands on a mysterious black pearl, dubbed the "Heart of Darkness" by writer Joseph Conrad. In addition to the story of our heroes, we also read from the point of view of three antagonists, one from each enemy camp: the German, the Japanese, and that of the local population, a Caribbean island where strange practices take place. That interaction is quite cool and ensures variation and tension build-up in the story.

Perry gives quite a lot of details about weapons and planes that I didn't necessarily need to be in there. The rest of the book is pure escapism. I recognized a lot of terms in the book from the computer game "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers" that deals with voodoo practices in New Orleans. He gives the three antagonists in the story enough background so that they don't become superficial, caricatural villains.

What unfortunately remains somewhat superficial, is the character of Indiana Jones himself. It's not your typical globetrotting adventure, no quests in hidden temples full of booby-traps. The setting is limited to Haiti and a neighboring island where only the jungle and storm weather - besides the zombies of course - thwart our hero. This adventure could just as easily have been experienced by another fictional hero, there's nothing that really makes it Indiana Jones.

[Mike Futcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had almost been put off by many of the online reviews I read, the most prominent of which seemed to be exclusively negative, but ultimately "Indiana Jones vs. zombies" was too tempting a concept to ignore. And I'm glad I succumbed; I don't know if it was because of my lowered expectations, but I quite enjoyed Steve Perry's Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead.

The book sees Indiana Jones in Haiti in the middle of World War Two, searching for a mythical black pearl which has voodoo power, and contending with not only German and Japanese rivals (having both was a bit of overkill, in my opinion) but with a powerful voodoo priest who can command an army of undead. These are classic 'voodoo' zombies rather than modern pop-culture 'Romero' zombies, and utilised fairly well as a threat.

If you wished, you could rattle off a whole number of flaws and gripes. It's quite a by-the-numbers story, there's little flair or ability to do the unexpected, and the character of Indiana Jones lacks the wit and charisma of his silver-screen embodiment. However, I've felt all of the tie-in novels struggle to capture the character of Indy, even the better ones, and I don't feel inclined to hold pulp like this to too high a standard. The idea for Indiana Jones was of course born from the memory of Saturday-afternoon adventure serials from the 1930s, and while Spielberg and Lucas and Ford and others had the talent to make that something special and lasting, I'm also happy enough with a routine adventure-serial. Adventure stories aren't really written any more, and survive mostly in shallow pools like franchise tie-ins or formula-driven thrillers, so I take what I can get. After all, isn't that "they don't make 'em like this anymore" feeling what draws us to the Indiana Jones franchise in the first place? While it's definitely lacking in areas, Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead can be a fun amble for a reader with realistic expectations.

[Tim Ristow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A prequel story to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Indiana Jones and George “Mac” McHale off on an adventure in the jungles of Haiti. It’s a bit unusual for an Indiana Jones adventure in that the bulk of the story takes place primarily in one setting, Indy is sidelined a bit in his own novel by the German, Japanese and Voodoo/Zombi characters, and Indy doesn’t do much adventuring or action at all until the end.

Still, all in all, it’s an enjoyable enough, if inconsequential, read. I actually preferred reading this more than some of the earlier Indy novels.

I really liked the dialogue, verbal sparring and character interplay between Indy & Mac. Wish there was much more of it. There’s an attack and gun battle late in the book that has Indy & Mac fighting side-by-side. Good stuff. I like Mac as a character and still find him to be one of the best characters to come out of KOTCS and the entire IJ series.

I certainly prefer Steve Perry’s writing to that of James Rollins, who penned the novelization of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I also prefer Perry’s writing style over many of Rob MacGregor’s Indy novels as well. The writing. Not necessarily the story. Mac McCoys Indy novels remain the gold standard, as far as I’m concerned.

This story is one long journey through the jungle. The setting fits an Indy adventure but Dr. Jones just doesn’t do much in the story. He sounds like Indy and acts like Indy, generally, but just doesn’t do that much action adventuring. More often he’s just along for the ride. It’s unfortunate because the opening and setup for the story has potential. It just doesn’t go anywhere, really, although the climax is a fitting Indy adventure closer.

Indiana Jones is a secondary character in his own novel and that’s really the biggest disappointment with this book.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was always going to be fighting an uphill battle with zombies being a central part of the story (in case you haven't figured that out from the cover and title). I am not too keen on zombies and I think that this was written when they were extremely popular - I'd look into that but I don't care. Also, being slotted into this prequel series was an interesting choice as this is a prequel to The Crystal Skull and takes place after the original trilogy and during the Second World War. The last point being a prequel to a movie I am not the biggest fan of and having Mac in it, which makes sense for how their friendship was in the Crystal Skull, but I didn't care for his character in the film and he's not too bad here but it also makes me a little resistant to the book as well. So with all that against it my rating is fairly good and probably as high as it was going to get. It did have a neat little story, not so globe-trotty but hard to do that with a war on so just a small condensed story. I expected a little more action with the Japanese and Germans on his tail so I think if I were disappointed in anything it would be that. It did have some fun moments but had a lot of others I didn't care for but Indy's character was dead on (pun intended) so it did the best it could with the material available. I am guessing the reception that the movie got was probably why there were no more books added to this series which left a lot of story on the table during these inter-movie years.

[Mike Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just an average thriller that, if it didn’t have Indiana Jones in the title, I would have taken a pass on.

Basically, Indy and his partner Mac find themselves in Haiti looking for a huge black pearl called the Heart of Darkness that has immense supernatural powers. This is in the middle of WW2 and of course the Nazis and the Japanese are also looking for this treasure, although they believe they are looking for a magical formula rather than an artifact. There is also a powerful 200 year old Voodoo witch doctor who wants the pearl too, only he can raise and control the dead (zombies).

Indy and Mac enlist the aid of a Haitian woman who also has Voodoo powers, but not as powerful as the witch doctor.

Most of the story is about the race to find the pearl and for our. heroes to stay alive fighting not only the Nazis, Japanese and the witch doctor, but also the torrential weather in the tropical rain forest.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've reached the end of the Indiana Jones novel series. That's a shame, because this was a good series. This volume differed from the others in that it took place after the events of the films and was based on the movie continuity more than the previous novels continuity. Cool story though, dealing with Japanese and Nazi spies mixed with zombies. Of course, there's a beautiful female along for Jones to hook up with as well.

Viewing the series as a whole, I think I preferred the earlier novels best. The continuity was tighter as far as seeing the same characters appear, etc. The later novels seemed to discount the earlier continuity and almost reboot things, which I thought wasn't the best idea.

I would give this novel series overall four stars, as it very much captured the adventurous spirit of Indiana Jones.

[kesseljunkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 but rounded to 3 for the Goodreads limitations.)

I enjoyed it! Good beach/vacation read. Really gets the zest of what makes Indy stories work in the first place. Obviously the intent was to give some more back story to Indy’s relationship with “Mac,” who was the surprise sidekick of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So far as that goes, it works.

A little too dense for its own good at points, and while it’s an obvious homage to “Live and Let Die,” a voodoo-tinged adventure for James Bond, who inspired Indy in the first place, it gets a little silly in its execution. Trimming some characters - for my money, the German Nazi contingent - would have given some focus and made me more vested in the stakes.

But if you’re an Indy fan, there’s some stuff here to love and if you’re looking for a light read while relaxing it’s also a win.

[Riddly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much of the book is devoted to the secondary villains, I’d say about 40%. In the end, they barely had any effect on the plot and not super interesting. seemed to just be there to pad the length.

If it focused more on Indy and more action happened it would be leagues better, but as is, you’d be better hearing someone explain the simple plot than spending a few hours reading it.

Also, I thought they missed the mark when they showed the hosts of some of the zombi can come back and be human again, and then immediately fade into an action scene where Indy and crew kill like 15 zombi. The moral implications are never even addressed after that “plot point” was addressed. Just felt sort of lazy.

[Alex Castley · Rating 3 out of 5]

On page 311, the author writes, referring to something happening in the story:

“It was bizarre. It was all bizarre.”

That’s my review of this book.

It’s not bad. Not bad at all. It hardly feels like an Indiana Jones story, though. It’s more a story of supernatural forces tied to an artifact and an island. For the first two-thirds of the book, Indiana Jones could have easily not even been in it … and I almost forgot he was at times other than the odd reminder from the author that, a) he hates snakes; and, b) he likes beautiful women.

Worth a read, but don’t plan to take it too seriously.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable story featuring the globe trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. This adventure is light in action. There are no high speed chases, clandestine missions or major history lessons. The story is dialogue driven with weather descriptions that have you reaching for a dry towel or wiping sweat from your brow. My only gripe is the title is a bit misleading as there is no army of zombies (zombis in the book). There are some no doubt but their presence do not drive the story as the title suggests.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Indiana Jones. 'Mac' MacHale. Nazis. Japanese Imperial Army types. Zombies. All on a mysterious Caribbean island. What's not to like? A fun read from Steve Perry, who I'll always remember as being the author of the first Star Wars novel I ever read, "Shadows of the Empire." He does a good job here, as a prequel effort to 'The Crystal Skull'.

[Donavon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indy Jones is after a pearl that has power to create zombies!!!!

This book is told mostly from various villians point of view, not something we see much in Indy stories.

Indy fights zombies and tornados here, so I guess aliens and Atomic bombs are not that silly anymore. :)

Love Steve Perry, but this one did not blow me away.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead had originally come out in 2009. That was 1 year after the release of the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In a way, this book acts as something of a prequel to that movie. Also, because it deals with Zombies, that makes it a good book to read at this time, with Halloween nearly upon us. I really enjoyed it.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Not the best fanfiction I’ve ever read. If Indy didn’t make occasional appearances to ruminate on his past adventures, how attracted he was to a young capable woman and do some adventuring, I wouldn’t know I was reading an Indiana Jones centered book. God, the villain sure did love his evil scheming. Yeesh.

[Shawn Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book telling a new Indiana Jones adventure, this time in Haiti. The characters are compelling, the story keeps you guessing, and the payoff is satisfying. It was a great book to read during Christmas vacation.

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given that this is a knock-off of the film series, it's not bad. It has that same Saturday matinee cliffhanger, action-packed flavor, and the Haiti settings with the zombies are very effective. I couldn't quite see this becoming a smash movie, but as a quick read, it was pretty good.

[Doug Winter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself was decent. The issue is that this was not an Indiana Jones novel. This was a story that just threw Indiana Jones in it. It made zero sense to include him in the story. The author could have put any character in it.