The Swarm

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 Swarm is the second self-contained Galaxy of Fear novella after Project Starscream was finally put to rest. It expands on the previous book's style, focusing on gross-out horror and characterization. It's also notable for having the series' best cameo appearance: Admiral Thrawn appears as an anti-hero long before he's fighting the Republic in Zahn's original Thrawn trilogy, and he appears remarkably close to character. (Whitman usually tends to turn cameos into recognizable one-liners, but Thrawn here show more is tactical, smart, and an idealist.)

After leaving Tatooine, Tash, Zak and Hoole settle down on a planet ruled by insects. They're there to vacation (or hide) in the planet's gardens, and maybe study the planet's unique natives while they're at it. The inhabitants maintain what they believe is a delicate ecosystem, carefully tending native populations of competing species. Most notably, this includes a quickly-producing insect species called drogs, and its natural predators, the shreevs.

As our heroes land, the ecosystem is wildly veering out of balance; shreev populations are suddenly dwindling, and drogs are everywhere: Agitated swarms of thousands upon thousands of insects are overtaking all life, eating their way through everything.

Thrawn, true to character, uses Tash, Zak and Hoole for his own means. He's not necessarily bad, but definitely blinded by the ideals of the Empire he serves. Even when he's on our side, his later intents are still to imprison rebels like Hoole's family. He's the first non-movie cameo, and the best-handled of the series. (He also deserves credit for pointing out the flaws of the plot early on, noting that something bigger than a few dead shreevs was needed to throw the ecosystem this wildly out of balance. And there was.)

When this came out, I was an avid watcher of shows like the X-Files and American Gothic, both of which feature stupendous stories of creepy-crawlies and gross-out horror similar to this story. I remember tying the plots together very closely in my mind, as the overpopulating drogs start pouring from peoples mouths and eyes and other open wounds. Whitman makes these insects and the pain they inflict horrific.

This might be my favorite entry in the series.

John Whitman's Star Wars: Galaxy of Fear (1997–1998):
#7 The Brain Spiders | #9 Spore show less