The Tale of the Pulsating Gate

Are You Afraid of the Dark? #18

by Diana G. Gallagher

Scott Fong discovers the dangers of alternate dimensions.

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Diana G. Gallagher was an American author who wrote books for children and young adults. She also wrote the space opera The Alien Dark (1990), but was best known for her tie-in work for television properties including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Star Trek and The Secret World of Alex Mack, among others.

She was also a prolific filk creator, winning Pegasus Awards in 1986 and ’94. Gallagher won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist in 1988 under the name Diana Gallagher Wu. She sometimes also wrote under the name Diana Burke.

Born in 1946, in Paterson, New Jersey, she lived in Florida with her husband, the writer Martin R. Burke, who predeceased her in 2011. Gallagher was married four times; her third marriage was to author William F. Wu (divorced 1990).

Gallagher died December 2, 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 75 years of age.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to do a read I truly wanted to do so today I went back to the Are you afraid of the dark book series. That new one was cool but let’s go back to the past. I picked this one cuz the concept sounded fun so here we are. Author is  Diana G Gallagher, who has a Wikipedia page and has done tons of author works for other franchises like Buffy. How does this fare on this one?

In this Gary tale: Scott Fong has recently moved and is adjusting to a new life. His sister doesn’t hang out with him as much and dad is out for a year on some job while his mom isn’t quite around as much to get breaks from being the sole adult around here. His grandfather is an inventor but a wacky one whose latest invention is mocked as Fong’s Folly since it’s not quite working yet.

Scott finds out that invention is a gate that is a path to the multiverse. Yep, we’re doing it. He has trouble fitting in, with his new friend being a bit of a loser and he wants to fit in with the cool kids who aren’t the best people. After all, don’t wanna be a picked on loser kid. 

He hopes perhaps the gate will take him to a better world where he’s popular or made better choices. He gets it working and discovers that perhaps the grass just seemed greener on the other side.

This was a mild good. Off the bat my comparison points are Don't Go to Sleep and Tale of the Misfortune Cookie. It certainty feels like the better version of the later. The sister is literally also named Tersra and the family is also Chinese.

It's like they just rehashed this but made it worse lol. Anyway, this does have a fireworks factory problem as it takes a while to go through that gate, with a bunch of pages of him having to look for the keyboard for it.

The moral is obvious and a bit hammered in and Scott does have to be off at first to learn his lesson. It's not too bad tho. It does mention him being “on-line” a lot and has a “internet friends aren't real” implication that is thankfully only touched on.

He mostly spends time in chat rooms and one of the topics mentioned is politics. Even in 1998 that sounds like hell.

I like the setup and it cooks when we get into Everything Dark at Once. It starts small with his choices just being different and escalates. The section with his family going to crap was effective but the highlight was the last portion which goes Full apocalypse. That was cool 

As obvious as the moral is, it's a good one. Scott focuses too much on what others think and that informs his mistakes. That works and we see a nice friendship forming here.

The ending is kind of abrupt but works with a nice epilogue. It's all Nothing to great but after a slow start it picks up. I do find it odd we don't get a big payoff with main Theresa as we don't fully know why she isn't as chummy and that was an issue out of his control.

It could have gone more wild with the multiverse stuff but it does end up having fun with it. It's a more mild good but ends up working well enough.

These Dark books tend to be nothing too special yet each time I'm excited to read more. It's weird that way. I guess each is at least interesting and fun despite the flaws. Still waiting for that really good one.

Until then, this worked. Hopefully I can pick at more as time goes on. So next  us same as always: Don't know but I got ideas as well as blog reviews in the oven. 

Not much more to say so…see ya then.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been holding on to this book for over a decade. It has pestered me that I never even bothered to read it as a kid or even ask for it to be read to me (because yes, I’ve had it for this long in my possession). Now having finally gotten to this long-awaited read of mine… yeah it’s good. This absolutely read like an episode of the show, which is a huge compliment. This is legitimately an Are You Afraid of the Dark? book in both name and story, which is commendable for not even being based off an episode. The writing is great and there’s some risks here involving lack of setting change and mentioning slurs (not the words, just the word slurs itself), war, and semi-fat phobia—but they don’t overstay their welcome nor ruin anything about the book, and gives it its own flair. Huge props for that, and same goes for the arc. It’s good and partly why this reads like an AYAOTD episode. The characters are very good and the ending is a nice cherry on top, let alone the whole concept of reality shifting and alternative universes just rubs me the right way. Science Fiction geek over here, by the way. But there’s some faults, such as the lack of a clear focus. The message is apparent from the get go and it doesn’t feel earned, which is sad even if it’s a good message that I take to heart, and beyond that point, the story is just, “let’s get back to our main timeline and stretch it out for as long as needed.” It’s a good read but really lacked some clear ump and direction. There’s some issues involving the lack of sensibility in mechanics and how things work. Imagine the Scott at the absolute bottom of bad timelines got shifted—where would he go? To the best? Spawn a new universe? That doesn’t make much sense, but nonetheless, who cares? It’s a kid book, even if things don’t add up and the mechanics are a bit confusing. And if there were any other issues, the book has its boring bits. Combined with lack of direction, it can feel boring when you’re on, say, the fourth timeline. But still, these aren’t big issues—but notable and do take off points. Overall, 8/10. I really liked it and I genuinely recommend it if you can get it which, let’s be honest, isn’t gonna happen unless you wanna drop sixty dabloons at the very least on it. Not worth that lol.

[Lacy Lovelace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story but felt it would be too advanced scientifically for most kids. It’s all centered around a multiverse theory. If you build a machine where you could go forward in time but each phase would be worse than the last. How would you get back? You would have to build an emergency reverse mechanism and hide it somewhere.

That’s basically what the story was about . The morale being that you need to enjoy when and where you are and YOU are the only one that can change your perception and reality.

Gary told this one and I gotta say I agree. I’m surprised that none of the novels have David or Kristen telling any stories. They were apart of AYAOTD? for a good amount of seasons (at least 2 or 3.) Kiki has only told one in this whole series and it was AWFUL! I think Frank has only told one or two as well.