Scourge Between Stars

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If Otto was right, then Watson had just discovered their first confirmation of something else out there in the space between the stars, perhaps the very thing that took the Calypso between its teeth at random and shook. Their systems hadn't been powerful enough to detect anything during engagements, until now. If they could finally sense them, they could survive them." When the engagements first started, the engineers had hypothesized that the fleet had encountered some kind of interstellar energy fluid, though their forebears hadn’t reported anything of the kind. As the engagements got worse, conservative explanations were replaced with the harrowing realization that they might not be the only ones roaming the void. But in her dreams she had always emerged from the Calypso after her father and mother, with her sister beside her. No matter the promise this signal held, that dream would never come true. She was painfully reminded of that by the eerie sound floating out of Watson’s familiar face, a face stolen from the grave.

The Scourge Between Stars is a SF-Horror novella from Ness Brown. I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook, which is performed by my favorite narrator, Bahni Turpin.There are many things to love about The Scourge Between Stars. What really pushed me over the fence to read this book was when I saw that not only was it a sci-fi thriller but that it was a short one at that! It seems hard to find bite sized sci-fi in today’s world with all the space operas coming out. (Not that I don’t enjoy a good space opera!) However, having a manageable story for all types of readers was certainly a plus. Finally, take the weird sparseness of the 1998 Alien ripoff movie Legion, the movie only I remember because Trevor Goddard was in it (though I never finished it because he was the alien’s first kill 🙃 and if TG is out, so am I bb), and set your alien horror story in an equally unestablished, textureless environment.

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 trust you understand the magnitude of this moment,” Otto said, closing Watson’s mouth and cutting off the transmission. 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 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.If Otto was right, then Watson had just discovered their first confirmation of something else out there in the space between stars, perhaps the very thing that took the Calypso between its teeth at random and shook. Their systems hadn’t been powerful enough to detect anything during engagements, until now. If they could finally sense them, they could survive them. While I enjoyed the characters and the setup of The Scourge Between Stars, the horror elements were not developed well enough to leave a lasting impression. The novel would have benefitted from being more thoroughly fleshed out, with emphasis on providing greater deviation from the familiar plot points of Alien. Tense, gory, and genuinely creepy…. Brown handles the astronomy and exobiology equally as competently as the interpersonal dynamics and trauma. The result is a sci-fi horror mash-up that holds its own with the classics of the genre.”— Publishers Weekly

NESS BROWN is a speculative fiction author by day and astrophysicist by night. They are a proud New Mexican living in New York City (and missing green chile) with their husband and two cats, Faust and Mephi. They are currently studying graduate astrophysics after several years of teaching astronomy and encouraging students to wonder about worlds beyond our own. The Scourge Between Stars is their debut. 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. 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. 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. 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 DelightsWhile the ending is a little hmmm and reminds me a bit of An Unkindness of Ghosts (vaguely), the beginning and middle parts are straight up out of a horror movie and I LOVED IT.

Generation ships have been a popular science fiction trope for a long time, but would you really want to live on one? To spend your entire life in the confines of a single vessel, never knowing anyone outside your crew? Never knowing if your descendants will make it to your ultimate destination, let alone establish a successful and thriving colony? Each of the ships in the fleet is named after goddesses and I liked the references. The characters also had distinct personalities and were fleshed out nicely, even for ones with limited appearances. The real spotlight however is in the story and intense atmosphere throughout the book. It perfectly captured the claustrophobia of being trapped in a hostile environment with nowhere to go. Normally I do a plot summary to remind myself of the story, but this one can really be summed up by the description "monster on a sinking ship". There's lots of scary broken-down ship chase and jump scare horror, also the horror of someone you know betraying you. That, plus a very realistic description of the quotidian problems of an aged generation ship and a diverse cast round out the strengths. I will definitely recommend this novella to my friends, and I can't wait to see what else Ness Brown has in store for the future.is… the Atalanta. Something—ssssss—ollow… xima. It’s… the ship. Wa—ssssss—epeat, warning… ssssss—ssssss—ssssss… on’t… epeat, don’t… ssssss. This is Captain Isidora of the Atalanta. I—ssssss—anyone listening. Please. Don’t open the door.” Claustrophobia. Mysterious monster. Banging in the walls. The call is coming from inside the house and we are not alone in here. It’s a nonstop ride and does not let up on its heroine or the crew. The captain had stopped answering his comms and leaving his quarters last week. As the first mate, she could only cover for him for so long. She stared at the closed door, wondering for the nth time if she should rip out the panel next to it, scramble the wires controlling the mechanism, and force her way in. I’m doing much more than that,” he insisted. “I’ve developed and imported into Watson a processing library more sophisticated than anything Data has ever run before. This morning I put the finishing touches on a new series of tasks that should be able to find what we’ve been missing.” The Scourge Between Stars starts off feeling a bit like a haunted house story - there's inexplicable noises coming from within the walls, things malfunction seemingly without cause, panels explode, etc. It's an effective opening that primes us for Brown's ultimate reveal, even if that reveal isn't particularly surprising, shifting gears from haunted house to violent creature feature. It's very much an Alien clone (in fact, Jonathan Barkan opines that Alien is the perfect haunted house movie in his piece for Bloody Disgusting. If you're going to copy somebody's template, you may as well copy from the best, right?), but Brown puts in just enough of their own touches to make the story feel more like pastiche than pure derivative. Sadly, Brown's few attempts to make the story their own aren't quite enough to salvage the whole enterprise.