'Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear'

Galaxy of Fear is an attempt at a Goosebumps-like Star Wars series for young readers. The twelve books, published by Bantam Spectra from 1997 to 1998, were written by John Whitman and take place shortly after the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Although characters from the films make occasional cameos, the story focuses on Tash and Zak, Alderaanians whose parents died when the Death Star destroyed their planet. They now travel with their Uncle Hoole, a shapeshifting Shi'ido alien and scientist.

The first six books of the series -- Eaten Alive, City of the Dead, Planet Plague, The Nightmare Machine, Ghost of the Jedi and Army of Terror -- make up one story arc where the main characters learn bits and pieces about Project Starscream, a secret Imperial weapon. After the events of the first book, another Shi'ido scientist, Borborygmus Gog, wants revenge on Hoole and the children for destroying his work.

Eaten Alive is a particularly weak opener for the series. Tash, Zak, and Hoole land on a planet called D'vouran, whose inhabitants' motto is “our goal is to serve” -- and even if you've never seen The Twilight Zone, you know the ending as soon as you've read that. The storyline gets more interesting after that, both for the individual books and the overall plotline, but the ending to the Project Starscream arc is overly simplistic and contrived even for a young readers series.

The second half of the series, which doesn't follow a story arc, is better than the first. The main reason for their success is the change in tone. The first six books are full of jump scares in place of genuinely scary moments, and the plot device where the characters apparently die only for everyone to find out later that it was all just an illusion of some sort is beyond overused. In a children's book, such a tactic doesn't even create suspense the first time it's used; by the fourth, it's tedious and silly as well as ineffective.

To his credit, the author seemed to realize that something wasn't working. The last six books of the series stop relying on false scares and instead focus on developing a creepy atmosphere or situation, such as man-eating bugs (The Swarm), evil doppelgängers (Clones), or cannibalism (The Hunger). The books still aren't terribly scary -- although they might be a bit more frightening for children than adults -- but the premise seems to work better.

Perhaps the one thing that saves Galaxy of Fear from being terrible is that it stars original characters -- Tash, Zak, and Hoole -- who don't appear elsewhere in the Star Wars universe. When the main characters of the Star Wars films do show up for obligatory cameos, these mark the low points of the series. Luke, Leia, and Han become simplistic caricatures, overwhelmed by problems that our twelve- and thirteen-year-old heroes can handle readily.

The Hunger is the worst offender, with Boba Fett chasing Zak, Tash, and Hoole to Dagobah, where they meet an out-of-character Yoda -- despite the fact that the Jedi Master managed to keep both his hiding place and the planet's existence secret from the Empire until his death. It's unfortunate that this is the last book in the series, since it leaves such a bad final impression. Still, the fact that the main characters appear as cameos, not stars, keeps the out-of-character action to a minimum, preventing the series from becoming another Glove of Darth Vader.

On the other hand, one of Galaxy of Fear's fun points is the appearance of background characters from the Star Wars films, as well as minor and major characters from the Expanded Universe. Some of these cameos are still quite contrived -- particularly Dash Rendar's appearance in The Doomsday Ship -- but a number of them help flesh out the characters and become a nice bonus for fans who recognize them. The series also helps flesh out the universe because of its focus. Tash is interested in discovering the legends of the Jedi -- and slowly discovers her own Force-sensitivity -- but the story isn't centered on either the Jedi or the Rebel Alliance, and so it gives us a picture of what other people were doing during the Galactic Civil War.

Overall, Galaxy of Fear is often cheesy instead of scary, and neither the faux-cliffhanger endings that lead nowhere nor the cringe-worthy appearances of the movie heroes help matters. But the series is still fun even for adult fans, and the good books within it (including City of the Dead, The Brain Spiders, and The Doomsday Ship) help make up for its low points. It's not a must-read series, but a quick and entertaining read nevertheless.