Scourge Between Stars

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A perfect blend of science fiction and horror…Short, fast, engaging, wildly entertaining, and unexpectedly gory, it almost demands to be devoured in one sitting.”— Locus Are you afraid of generation ships? And outer space? And dying airless, stranded in nothing? Then keep your eyes out for The Scourge Between Stars , which crosses The Expanse with Pandorum by way of Event Horizon and emerges darkly victorious.”— Gemma Files A perfect scare to swallow up in one sitting. Filled with blood galore while holding tender humanity at its center, this is my favorite type of horror.” — Chloe Gong, #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend set aboard a doomed generation ship harboring something terrible within its walls. If you enjoy sci-fi sprinkled with a light bit of creepiness, The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown might be the book for you, but as someone who was initially drawn to its horror-in-space premise, I confess I was left feeling disappointed. The novella format was also perhaps not the most ideal for the author’s vision of the story, which recycled far too many genre tropes making the plot feel unoriginal and predictable.

Now... I am not a stem girlie, but surprisingly, Ness Brown did a fantastic job utilizing engineer and scientific language without overwhelming me. I wouldn't have initially expected this story to be a debut because it has a strong overarching plot with great spaceship world building. You can tell that Ness is a scientist purely from her writing style because she's very direct. The writing doesn't have any lyrical prose because she's describing the scenes as concisely as possible and then jumping into what's next for the characters. This type of writing style, in my opinion, is less common because people like to create lush descriptions of the scenes, so Ness was refreshing in that she doesn't mess around with her writing. Moreover, this writing style led the story to be fast paced with constant action around nearly every corner and sometimes... even within the walls. This novella has everything I want in a sci-fi horror: lots of action, excellent character arcs, and a solid resolution.” — Buzzfeed That was absurd, since infrared sensors in the captain’s bunk would’ve alerted her already. But it was a stain she couldn’t wash from her mind. What I did need details on, partially because it seemed the set-up for the reason the protagonist is captain and partly because it seems to play a role in her psychological state, is why a crew would allow their captain to isolate during a time of crisis. It didn't make sense to me on any level and very much had the feeling of being saved for Later Dramatic Reveal. The Scourge Between Starshad so much potential, but unfortunately it ended up being way too ambitious for its length. Still, Ness Brown’s writing is really good, and despite my reservations about this book, I’d love to see what they come up with next.She had seen corpses before--that was the reality of war, even if they were just the ones caught in a cosmic crossfire beyond their perception--but never with viscera hanging out like the wires of an opened console." The ones behind the engagements probably weren’t gods, even with the ability to make interstellar war, but they were definitely too advanced for the fleet’s antiquated systems to detect or hail. The Calypso had no way of sidestepping the invisible crossfire of the skirmish that had drifted into their neighborhood since their species had last crossed this empty space.

Are you afraid of generation ships? And outer space? And dying airless, stranded in nothing? Then keep your eyes out for The Scourge Between Stars, which crosses The Expanse with Pandorum by way of Event Horizon and emerges darkly victorious.” — Gemma Files I absolutely loved this little novella. It's the perfect amount of suspenseful and horrifying. I'm definitely going to be purchasing a physical copy when it comes out in April. Science fiction and horror go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s a delicious concoction that begs to be devoured whenever it makes its way to my plate. And much like the sandwich, there is no perfect ratio of jelly to peanut butter, each sandwich offering its highs and lows, but always delectably finishable. But every now and then, you manage to perfect the unrepeatable ratio and create heaven for your tastebuds. The Scourge Between The Stars, a debut novella by Ness Brown, is one of those sandwiches with the right ratios, smashing together well recognized tropes of the combined genres, while adding her own spin to the tried and true formula. If Ness Brown ever writes a sequel or an additional book in this universe, I will definitely be buying it. I cannot say enough positive things about The Scourge Between Stars! I had such a good time reading it. 🙂

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I’ll keep the themes of this novel fairly short. Main ones being: how far is to far when it comes to saving humanity from extinction? Is technological advancement enough to save humanity? Are the decisions of a leader greater than those of their followers because they have the whole picture? Other smaller themes include love, LGBTQ+, diversity, sacrifice, bravery, fear, depression, and more.

unfortunately, this is arguably one of the worst periods to be captain of this ship. their communications array has been down for years so they can't speak to their sister ships, and any long-range scanning equipment quit working forever ago. there's windows that human eyes can peek out of but they can't see what's around them with any technological detail. is the flotilla still with them? are any of their silent sister ships nearby? nobody knows. The signal-to-noise ratio was abysmally low. This was nothing like the scrubbed-up audio she had heard in Data. Punches in the static vaguely reminded her of words, but she couldn’t make out anything coherent. Just as she leaned closer to the garbled sound, the transmission cut out. However, I really liked the ending and the way most of it tied together. Honestly, though, there was enough to flesh this into a Robinson/Stephenson sized-novel if Brown would have been up for it. (That said, as a reader I appreciated just a bite-sized chunk). As it is, I'd definitely read more of her writing, particularly if Brown puts out a full-length novel in this world. This would make a very solid 0.5 kind of story in a series.While Brown does a nice job of building the world and the ship, this is one of those that I'd say falls under 'sci-fi' light as it doesn't get too far into the mechanics and details of the technology. There's enough to give us the parameters for the set-up. That's okay; I didn't need Aurora level technical details, but some might want more. I, for instance, found myself wondering more about the crisis that launched multiple giant colony ships without better resources. Otto’s lips pursed at the interruption. “Watson is the most advanced post-zettascale system ever constructed.” He didn’t have the decency, as its creator, to blush as he said so. “It’s about as difficult for her to ingest the data as it is for you and me to take a biscuit with our coffee.” A perfect scare to swallow up in one sitting. Filled with blood galore while holding tender humanity at its center, this is my favorite type of horror.”— Chloe Gong , #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights Trust me, if you think you know where this story is going, you're wrong. Combines the sudden, heart-rending fear of immediate danger with the freezing spun-out dread of being lost in infinite space. Just wonderful.” — David Wellington, author of The Last Astronaut

With a setup like that, it’s hard to believe this book didn’t strike the right chord, but not only did I struggle to engage with the story, there were parts that I found tedious and frustrating. Many of the issues stemmed from the length of the novella—namely, I felt it was too short to truly explore any of its elements in depth. First of all, the reader is thrown headfirst into a situation about which they know very little; all we know is that the colony at a planet called Proxima b failed and that the fleet has been limping along home for quite some time yet nobody in the story appears to be reacting convincingly to what has transpired. Human beings can exhibit a wide range of reactions to a desperate situation, but the attitude on the Calypso feels oddly indifferent considering their captain has not been seen or heard from in more than a week. The Scourge Between Stars has some nice jump scares and cool action sequences whilst recycling a well-used science fiction trope to favourable effect. The story nails the claustrophobia and loneliness of space, but I am unconvinced the cosmic horror-style vibe the ending connects with the rest of the narrative. Ultimately it is a solid read but has the potential to be much better if expanded and fleshed out. Grades: Speaking as someone who is already deep in Alien/Salvation Day territory, this book was everything I hoped it would be. I appreciated the no-nonsense pacing that didn't drag out for no reason what would be an immediate, crisis situation. The writing style was mostly matter-of-fact, but not without lyrical shine at times. It managed to be gritty and dark without crossing the line into exploiting the grief and depression felt by its characters. There were literally times when I gasped out loud, and wished I could read it with my hands over my eyes.

Read The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

A perfect blend of science fiction and horror…Short, fast, engaging, wildly entertaining, and unexpectedly gory, it almost demands to be devoured in one sitting.” — Locus The doctor asked for you.” The android stood up in a well-oiled stretch of repurposed metal. “He’s made progress.” It had been cheaper to take to the heavens than try to undo the environmental sins of twenty-first century capitalism.” This was a really fun sci-fi horror. Reminiscent of the Alien franchise--and, to be honest, if you've seen any of those movies you kinda know how it goes--Ness Brown utilizes some of the typical tropes of sci-fi horror, but it in no way bores you. The Scourge Between Stars is short, sweet (well, bloody), and to the point.