The Brain Spiders

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.

After six books, Project Starscream is finally put to rest. Tash, Zak, and Hoole are without a greater purpose when the Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear series was renewed for another six novellas. It should have felt more like a death sentence than it was -- the Project Starscream stories were flimsy enough as they were -- but the Brain Spiders is a complete surprise.

Without Boborygmus Gog as a villain, the Galaxy of Fear series actually steps closer to horror and the supernatural, and away from silly mad show more science cliches. The Brain Spiders is also more character-driven than the previous installments, and the center story -- not just about the eponymous brain spiders -- is about the relationship between Tash and Zak as they start hitting the pressures of puberty.

After barely surviving Gog's Army of Terror in book six, Tash, Zak, and Hoole return to Tatooine and Jabba the Hutt, once again to ask a favor: Now that Darth Vader's interested in them, they need to think about finding new identities or erasing the records they have with the Imperials. The lovable depressed droid, DV-9, was weirdly cut from the series in this book, and he wouldn't show up again until the 12th and final novella. I'm not really sure why, but I felt like he was missed here, and added a good dynamic to the team.

Jabba promises that he can find our heroes new identities if Hoole translates an ancient B'omarr scroll for him. Undernearth Jabba's palace hides an obscure sect of monks called the B'omarr Order. Jabba took the palace from this order, originally, and simply allows them to persist in the underground tunnels below the palace as long as they're okay with Jabba occasionally bullying them (by, for example, stealing ancient scrolls).

Tash is immediately drawn to the order and their goal of a Buddhist-like enlightenment. She sees the B'omarr's ultimate ideal -- transferring the brains of the enlightened into mechanical spiders to quietly roam and ponder the universe forever -- as her own, and cozies up to members of the order who praise her for her wisdom and put her through trials.

It's a little convoluted for so short a story, but this series isn't a stranger to that.

The brain spiders aren't quite what they seem, however. Not only are there far too many of them milling the tunnels of the palace, but they're erratic in their behavior and threatening. Jabba, too, is his untrustworthy self, and soon Zak's friends and family are starting to act as erratic and threatening as the brain spiders.

The Brain Spiders may actually be an improvement over the last many books. The direction away from evil science experiments towards horror was a benefit, I think; and with a far less convoluted story, this book didn't have the same degree of plot holes as previous entries. (They're still there, however. The evil scheme still makes no sense.) Despite the ever-present issues, however, I'm continuing to enjoy this series as a wonderful trip down memory lane. Galaxy of Fear was one of my best childhood reading experiences, and every single book so far has been nothing but nostalgic.

## "Besides, how often does a guy get to pummel his own snobby sister and come out looking like a hero?"

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#6 Army of Terror | #8 The Swarm show less