John Whitman (1) (1967–)

Note: While the below text represents a brief review of this specific Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear entry, a greater retrospective on the entire series, complete with images and footnotes, can be found here on my site, dendrobibliography.

The Hunger is a highlight for the Galaxy of Fear series, but a sad way to end the 12-novella YA series. There's not much closure, for one, but some acknowledgement that the stories of Tash, Zak, and Hoole were in safe hands, and would continue in readers' imaginations. It's also clear by this entry that John Whitman had evolved a lot as a writer since he wrote the first Galaxy of Fear novellas a year before. The narrative structure is tight, the story clever and creepy. Gaping plotholes and leaps of logic were staples of the earlier entries, and by this book are all-but-gone (except in the unavoidable context of the movies that came later).

By the Hunger, Tash, Zak, and Hoole are on the run from the Empire, who have finally put a bounty on their heads, even going so far as to personally send Boba Fett (previously seen in book two, City of the Dead) to collect them. Our heroes meet an unfriendly bounty hunter while exploring the spaceport of Nar Shaddaa, and, barely escaping with their lives, decide they must find an obscure corner of the galaxy to hide. With the help of DV-9 (Deevee from the first six books), they fall in with a team of smugglers and rebels escaping to Dagobah, the swamp planet known only for housing Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back.

Dagobah is a crushing environment. John Whitman paints the swamps as being overwhelmed by hunger. Every living thing there is starving for food, including the surviving children of a long-ago research party that got stranded on Dagobah decades before. Our heroes run into these friendly children early on, who resemble rotting corpses with how thin and emaciated they look. Despite appearances, the Children (as they're known) are supernaturally strong and able to care for themselves.

Boba Fett is, of course, hot on their trail, and the the heroes know it. They spend the novella trying to secure themselves safely on Dagobah, looking out for the threat of Fett and the wildlife while repairing their own ship. We also get an extended cameo from Yoda, who surprises Zak and Tash in his friendliness and guidance (particularly for Zak, who at this point we begin to understand has an inkling connection to the force of his own!).

The Hunger is another fine gross-out horror entry, with careful attention paid to advancing both Tash and Zak's growing depth as they deal with personal fears and jealousies. As the horror unfolds, we learn that the true enemy is not Boba Fett, but a desperate horde of ignorant cannibals. The Children themselves, who are so starved with hunger, and whose only positive memories of their parents are a final cannibalistic feast, are eager to feast on our heroes, even going so far as to think Tash and Zak should want to be eaten simply because the Children are capable of eating them. Those are some warped minds, to be sure.

Galaxy of Fear had its ups and downs, but I'm happy with it, only wishing it went on longer. Despite being a cash-in on the popularity of Goosebumps, I actually feel like John Whitman did more with the genre as an outsider than R.L. Stine did. His messages tended to deal with far more complex issues like the deaths of loved ones, or adolescent jealousies and hatred, or even the complexity of our memories and how we can sometimes build false memories to rely on -- all complex, adult themes to be dishing out to a middle- and elementary-school audience. As the twelfth and final entry, the Hunger was an excellent note to send Tash, Zak, and Hoole out on.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#11 Clones | The End.… (meer)

Note: While the below text represents a brief review of this specific Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear entry, a greater retrospective on the entire series, complete with images and footnotes, can be found here on my site, dendrobibliography.

Clones is, like the Doomsday Ship, another fun Galaxy of Fear yarn held back by a couple significant issues. While Whitman's writing and attention to narrative structure are still improving since the first few novellas in early '97, Clones features a story that would immediately be removed from EU canon by the Phantom Menace and the prequel's timeline and use of cloning. It also features some really tacky and out-of-place stereotypes.

Tash, Zak and Hoole land on Dantooine hoping to return to Hoole's comfortable life as an anthropologist. They spend weeks living with a local nomadic tribe. The tribe come off like a mash of tribal stereotypes from Earth, speaking in broken English and getting terrified of anything technologically or magical. (It's silly, bad writing -- but not exactly out of place for Star Wars (hello, Jar Jar; hi Watto). To its credit, Clones does go out of the way, however condescending the method may be, to say that technology and cultural advancement do not necessarily reflect intelligence.) Nearby are some ancient Jedi ruins, as well as a more recent abandoned rebel base. The mystery of the ruins draws the twins away from the nomadic tribe, who are particularly drawn by Tash's force sensitivity: Something not-quite-right is occurring there, and a wave of Dark Force energy fills the Jedi ruins themselves.

The title and cover are a bit of a spoiler. The longer our heroes stay within distance of the ruins, the more clones they run into: Of the rebels who lived there before, of themselves, of Hoole...of Darth Vader. And none of them are quite right, mentally. Everything and everyone is only half there.

After Zak's somewhat uneventful story with the Doomsday Ship, focus returns to Tash and her growth into her Force sensitivity. Clones develops her masterfully, and she'll spend the novella struggling to come to grips with the lure of the Dark Side: By channeling her frustration and anger against the Empire for killing her family, her Force abilities multiply ten-fold in an matter of seconds. The lure of the Dark Side offers an easy way out, and Tash has to come to grips with balancing that pull with compassion and empathy.

The characterization of Clones keeps it up with the series' best, and continues to show where the series could have gone had we stayed with twins through their adolescence, and seen them grow and evolve a la Harry Potter. The story itself, though, never quite makes sense, and is, like the clones, only half there.

As a warning, this entry features some surprising violence. Clones of Tash, Zak, and Hoole are freely murdered without any care in the end. The story just throws away their lives as somewhat meaningless or not worth consideration. It seems like a dark choice. Also, an significant plotline about a mysterious stranger attacking the entire tribe is abandoned by the end.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#10 The Doomsday Ship | #12 The Hunger… (meer)

Note: While the below text represents a brief review of this specific Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear entry, a greater retrospective on the entire series, complete with images and footnotes, can be found here on my site, dendrobibliography.

The Doomsday Ship is the most isolated entry in the Galaxy of Fear series. After Project Starscream was laid to rest, the followup adventures have shown themselves to be standalone horror yarns, but still giving attention to character development.

Tash, Zak, and uncle Hoole are still trying to get a proper vacation after barely escaping their six encounters with Boborygmus Gog, and this time has them on an intergalactic cruise ship. The Doomdsday Ship focuses on the younger brother, Zak -- the more hands-on and tech-friendly of the siblings -- who's more interested in how the ship's engines and AI work. Early on, he's introduced to the ship's custom-made AI system, SIM, who befriends Zak and shows him some of the ship's nerdy luxuries (video games!). Before they can get too far, however, the ship suffers an emergency evacuation, forcing everyone but our heroes (of course...) off the ship.

Something murderous and psychopathic is gaining control of the ship's systems, causing the on-board robots to attack, siccing the ship's menagerie of predators on our heroes, cutting oxygen supplies and heating the atmosphere to the boiling point. Dash Rendar provides this entry's cameo appearance, and he's handled fairly well. (Not too difficult, as he's basically a younger clone of Han Solo with less catchphrases.)

This 10th entry keeps up the thrills and cleverness of the last three books, but has a share of issues, as well. Tash takes a backseat to Zak and barely says a word through the entire adventure. It's easy to forget she's even there. Neither Zak or Tash undergo much in the way of character development, which only makes this monster-of-the-week story feel even more isolated. Zak does learn to respect some of Tash's teachings in the Force, but they're short-lived lessons he'll forget by the next book. Hoole is also gone for most of the novella, and appears at the very end to uncharacteristically put both Zak and Tash into extreme danger by acting recklessly.

The implications of AI are a little out of step with Star Wars' canon or EU material. But still, the Doomsday Ship is really fun, and one of the more violent entries. The body count is massive and painful (and a little predictable -- anyone without a name will die). The real villain's identity -- SIM -- is falsely hidden for too long. The narrative makes it obvious early on (even to the target YA audience), but Zak densely ignores the obvious until he finally spells it out to himself. Time is wasted casting suspicion on Dash Rendar, who was a popular Star Wars hero at the time of release (1998), and readers were likely to be aware of that.

Despite the issues, the series was still fun by this entry, and worth reading for either young Star Wars or horror fans already invested in the characters. It's still better than the earlier stories, and I'll be sad to reach the series' end with the twelfth book.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#9 Spore | #11 Clones… (meer)

Note: While the below text represents a brief review of this specific Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear entry, a greater retrospective on the entire series, complete with images and footnotes, can be found here on my site, dendrobibliography.

Spore. The title and cover aren't quite as inviting in this novel. Spore surprised me by keeping up the quality and style of the previous two novellas (the Brain Spiders and the Swarm). Without the convoluted Project Starscream plot of the first six entries, author John Whitman seems to be pulling out stronger stories and stronger characterization (and spookier scares!).

Spore is the name of an Itharian -- the long, flat-necked species of the cover, nicknamed 'hammerheads' -- history lesson. Long ago, the Itharians created an immortal monster much like the critter of the Thing or the X-Files' "Ice" episode: An intelligent beast of nothing but tendrils that works its way through populations, infecting and infesting everything. Anything these tendrils touch join the hive-mind known as Spore.

Spore's been released from its tomb in the vacuum of space by witless miners, and nothing's safe. Friends and family become infected with this all-seeing single voice. Spore's cameo is, like Thrawn in the Swarm, another EU character not from the films: The blind sith Jerec from the Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight PC game makes an appearance here, seeking to use the Spore creature as a means of overthrowing the Emperor and becoming a new sith lord.

Spore's another creepy, enthralling entry in this series, and shows, I think, that John Whitman had been improving his narrative skills since the first novella. As this series continues, the stand-alone adventures are showing less and less plotholes, and finer attention to the source material, horror conventions, and the classic quest structure. It's a shame this series is out of print.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#8 The Swarm | #10 The Doomsday Ship… (meer)