Adventures in Wild Space: The Nest

  

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time: 18 BBY, a year after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The Empire is beginning its rule.

Place: Xirl, a (mostly) uninhabited planet in Wild Space.

In this next installment of the Adventures in Wild Space series,  Lina and Milo Graf are still on the hunt for their parents, who were abducted by Captain Visler Korda. They intercepted an anti-Empire transmission at the end of the last book. Their new goal is to find the source of the message. They hope that person may be able to help them.

They end up on the planet Xirl. It's basically a big jungle. There is a landing strip but only one building: a hunting lodge. It's filled with taxidermied creatures from all over the galaxy. The children don't spot anyone, so they go exploring. They find the wreckage of a freighter. They don't need the giant claw marks and splattered blood to tell that something's clearly not right here.

They meet the owner of the lodge (and the planet): Gozetta. She is a big game hunter who bought the planet so she could populate it with exotic animals and then hunt them all. She's also a jerk. Gozetta didn't think there were any large animal native to Xirl. She has no idea what sort of creature is on the loose. So she decides to use the children as bait.

Guided by slimy bugs known only as Stinkers, Lina and Milo venture deep into a cave where they discover a gigantic slimy bug. It is annoyed that people are invading its domain. It attacks. Gozetta thought she wanted to hunt it, but she realizes she's in over her head. She tries to escape in her private shuttle. The giant Stinker brings it down. Gozetta and the Stinker fight as Lina and Milo flee with the rest of Gozetta's hunting party. Maybe she died, maybe she survived.  I guess we'll never know...

Once everything has calmed down, Lina and Milo talk to Sata, Gozetta's communications technician. She tells the Grafs that she's not a rebel. It was actually her (dead) coworker who knew about the transmission. Sata can't help find Lina and Milo's parents, but she can point them to their next destination: the source of the message, a little planet called Lothal.

Quotes: 

• "I have two [veermoks], plus two rancors, a krayt dragon, and four gundarks."
• That's the problem with recycled air...

Final Judgment: 2 out of 5 vocabulators. This book was never boring, but I wish it advanced the plot or the Grafs' character arcs in a more meaningful way. I know that it's a children's series and The Nest probably exists just to sell an extra book. It could've been better.