so i'm 41 pages into THE SCOURGE BETWEEN STARS and my two (2) potential solutions to the problems plaguing jack and her crew are as follows, in the order they occurred to me:

1. throw gideon nav on board with her sword or

2. send murderbot and art

The Scourge Between Stars" by Ness Brown

I've had such a fun time reading this claustrophobic sci-fi/horror. Tune in as the Calypso crew is plucked off one-by-one by an alien hiding within the walls... ⚠️

Hey beautiful! Do you have any recommendations for supernatural horror with lesbians? Thank you for considering!

Hey there 😉

tysm tysm for asking this bc do we ever! Okay so literally just off the cuff, if we're talking movies we HAVE to plug Jennifer's Body (2009) and the Fear Street films. If we're talking shows, it might be redundant to call The Haunting of Bly Manor absolutely bone-chillingly haunting, but if by chance you haven't watched yet, it's gorgeous and beautiful and gay, which seems kinda like ur forte!

If you're into graphic novels...one-million-hundred percent please check out Monstress by Sana Takeda & Marjorie Liu! Adventure with hefty horror seasoning. Girl's arm is a monster and likes to eat people. Cruel world, good friends, and not-so-good friends! Chef's kiss of a series. C'est Magnifique~

Audio horror... The Magnus Archives written by Jonny Sims and produced by Rusty Quill has some wlw ships, though the cast doesn't really start pairing off until the later seasons. If you're willing to wait for your gay, check this one out! It's so so so so so so good. Pseudopod is an incredible podcast for short horror fiction and has a dearth of queer stories of every kind, but two recent ones that float to the top of the head are Episode 807: The Bleak Communion of Abandoned Things by M. A. Blanchard, and Episode 775: Miss Mack by Michael McDowell (screen credits include Beetlejuice and collabed on The Nightmare Before Christmas).

Okay. Now books because we are Tor Books lmao. While not expressly horror, more space opera with decidedly horrific elements, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and the entire Locked Tomb series about gay space necromancers kick so much ass! Also check out Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin—it's a gloriously gory genderplague apocalypse story about exhausted, desperate, often despairfully horny trans people fighting zombies and militant terfs.

As for upcoming books?? We are blessed, truly. The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown is horror with space lesbians. Camp Damascus by "World's Greatest Author" / almost black belt / dinosaur erotica extraordinaire Chuck Tingle is a story about a conversion camp designed to help steer those gone-astray queers back to holy God via means truly devilish. Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt is a gay AF story about trans identity and a house haunted by fascism. Good things are coming! And by good things, I mean bloody horror!

Wishing you a big sapphicly gay day 🌈

I recently finished read The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown.

A great sci-fi horror experience, that is short, sweet, (well, bloody), and to the point! Not only is it filled with thrills and chills, but also a hope for humanity. My review.

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the scourge between stars by ness brown

aliens, lesbians, robots, oh my

Currently Reading: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Acting captain of the Calypso, Jack needs to figure what is causing issues with the rations as well as the anomalies in the walls, while trying to figure out which direction to take the Calypso, forward away from Proxima b, or back towards Proxima b. Either way is death. And with death in the walls, there not much else Jack can do.

Space horror, aliens on a ship, wanting to eat and eat and eat, darkness all around. What other horror can reach the cosmos and the deepest, darkest parts of human life?

Review: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Quick review for a quick read. I’m backtracking a little bit because I originally read this Tor Nightfire novella back in June of 2023. I adored this short, sci-fi horror thriller from the perspective of a Black woman trying to navigate her ship back to Earth with limited resources, a irritated crew, and a mysterious threat looming over them. Jacklyn Albright has plenty of secrets as she’s the –…

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Title: The Scourge Between Stars Author: Ness Brown Genre/s: science fiction, thriller Content/Trigger Warnings: murder, gore, death, sexual assault (implied) Summary (from publisher’s website): As acting captain of the starship Calypso, Jacklyn Albright is responsible for keeping the last of humanity alive as they limp back to Earth from their forebears’ failed colony on a distant planet. Faced with constant threats of starvation and destruction in the treacherous minefield of interstellar space, Jacklyn’s crew has reached their breaking point. As unrest begins to spread throughout the ship’s Wards, a new threat emerges, picking off crew members in grim, bloody fashion. Jacklyn and her team must hunt down the ship’s unknown intruder if they have any hope of making it back to their solar system alive. Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-scourge-between-stars/18835221 Spoiler-Free Review: I remember coming across the announcement for this novella early this year, and knew I HAD to read it, because I’m a fan of things like Event Horizon and Dead Space, where horror intersects with scifi. (Though tbh I had to watch the former in broad daylight with the volume on low, and I haven’t played the latter because it scares me too much. Yes I’m a scaredy-cat why do you ask?) As it turned out, this novella is more Alien than Event Horizon, which was not what I was hoping for, but it’s still an amazing read regardless! The prose reads very cinematic, and the novella format makes it feel like you’re more watching a fast-faced scifi thriller film than reading a story. I did find myself wishing that there’d been a bit more time devoted to developing some of the other characters, like Jolie and Michiko (especially Michiko, who seems like a total badass), as well as exploring the sociopolitical dynamics of the people onboard the ship, but I understand that there’s just not enough room for that sort of storytelling and development in the novella. If this’d been a novel though... Regardless, the way the novella developed Jack and especially Watson over the course of the story hit a nice sweet spot for the format: enough that they felt fleshed-out, but without eating up too much of the action and the thrills of the plot’s main events. To be honest I found the circumstances around Watson’s creation and its (their?) relationship with Otto Watson a lot creepier and freakier than all the intruder on the ship, but then again isn’t that usually the case? Unknown intruder, you can kill, but there’s just something entirely terrifying about what goes on in other people’s heads - and how they enact what goes on in there. So overall, this was definitely a fun, quick read that made for a good break between the historical romantic fluffiness of my ongoing Pink Carnation reread. I find myself wishing that there’d been more to it, that some aspects of it had been explored a bit more, but that’s mostly just me wanting more of this fabulousness. I hope Ness Brown puts out something longer soon; I like the way they tell a story, and I like the stories they tell. Rating: four and a half knocks on the hull

109/120

4/5

This is a short novella horror sci-fi. I gave this 4 starts because it was quick, fun, and what I needed at the time.

The characters were meh, the plot and everything was very much like a bunch of the Alien movies mashed together. It felt almost reminiscent of Mass Effect as well, especially if you played the Omega DLC of ME:3.

This didn’t make any lasting impressions, but I will say if you wanted something quick and fun and good for spooky season this is a good solid pick. I’d recommend trying to an e-copy and not a physical book. This is less than 200 pages.

The Scourge Between Stars, by Ness Brown

⭐⭐⭐⭐

After the captain locks himself away in his quarters, Jacklin finds herself acting commander of a failed colony mission. Limping back toward Earth with what remains of their supplies, ships have been dropping out of the fleet one by one, their communication channels going dark. As supply shortages loom and the crew inches toward its breaking point, a bloody discovery thrusts the ship into immediate danger, its crew fighting for their very survival.

Let's be clear: this is basically Alien, but I'm not mad about it. Personally I found the horror to be well done, eerie and claustrophobic at times while shifting into the all-out chaos of a firefight at other times. The pace was perfect for the novella's length — my copy came in at a snappy 163 pages — and, while I admit I didn't devour it in one sitting, I did read it in one day. And really, I only stopped because my lunch break is, unfortunately, finite. If I'd had the choice I would have gone straight through, because I was desperate to find out how Jacklin was going to survive.

Another thing I loved about this book was the way the robot character was handled. Initially, Jacklin reacts with disdain, referring to the droid with "it" pronouns. We're conditioned in our media to read this as a character being somewhere between a luddite and a bigot, depending on how intelligent the robots in question are, and the subversion that took place here was fascinating to me. By the end of the story, I completely agreed with Jacklin in regard to gendering the robot — or not, as the case may be — and the cause of the rest of her discomfort was revealed over the course of the narrative.

Something that didn't quite work for me was the resolution for the matter of the attacks coming from outside the ship. I'm normally a fan of that particular trope, but it didn't quite sit right with me this time. Maybe it's because the story framed it like it was a solvable mystery. Intellectually I liked it, but emotionally I found it unsatisfying, if that makes sense? So that horror didn't really pay off, but fortunately the overwhelming focus was on the monster plot, so the book still packed plenty of thrills even if the ending is a little bit "hmm, okay." I did like how some threads were left loose at the end, and would for sure pick up a sequel that elaborates on what might come next for the mission!

Book Mail: NaNo Victory Edition, feat. Thematically Relevant Flora!

Book Review #104 of 2023--

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown. Rating: 3.5 stars.

Read on August 19th.

Let's just start with me explaining the synopsis so we can all be on the same page for this weird review. The Scourge Between Stars is a novella about a group of humans who are living in a flotilla of generational ships that were originally used to settle a colony on what was supposed to be a habitable planet following humanity's devastation of Earth. However, when the ships arrived they found the planet was just as inhospitable as Earth and voted to attempt the return to Earth with what supplies and fuel they had left. It's generations after those humans stepped back onto their ships and Jacklyn is trying to hide the fact that her father--the captain--has stopped reporting for work and has holed himself up in his bunk. But being the acting Captain gets dicey when they discover they're in an even worse situation than they thought.

I am a HUGE Scifi/Horror lover. (Which is a little weird since I read a Mystery/Horror as well this week and didn't like the Horror aspect.) Just something about being stuck in space with limited supplies and only your wits about you to save your life hits all the right buttons for me. And on that note the author did a great job. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire novella.

However, my common complaint will also fit for this one as well, find it copied and pasted here: the story wasn't long enough for me. I didn't have a chance to really connect with any of our characters. Even our main character fell flat for me which is a shame because I feel like she could be a favorite if she was just fleshed out more. I love the situation she's found herself stuck in and the struggle that she goes through in the novel to maintain control while also absolutely losing her shit about the situations she finds herself in. I just had no real connection to her and didn't really care what happened to her. That's not exactly the feeling you want readers to come away with. I'm realizing that for a story to really impact me I have to have a connection to the characters emotionally. I don't have to like the characters per se, but I need to feel something for them anyway.

Overall, I think this story is a good time and recommend it for other fans of the Scifi/Horror mashup. If you're mainly a character focused reader, I think this one just leans a little too heavily on the plot for you to come away feeling good about your experience reading it.

Review of The Scourge Between Stars

“Don’t open the door.” This warning comes just a little bit too late for Jacklyn and her crew in The Scourge Between Stars, a stunning debut sci-fi thriller by Ness Brown that came out in April. This tense game of cat-and-mouse between a starship crew and unseen alien intruders lurking within the vessel’s walls is perfect for fans of the Alien film franchise who have been waiting for something…

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The scourge Between Stars by: Ness Brown

Published by: Macmillan Tor/Forge This was such a good read!! I saw the cover, read the blurb and was hooked!! And the book absolutely delivered! Right off the bat, I’m going to tell people to read this. If you’re a fan of the Alien franchise, then you’ll enjoy this. We follow a ship with a farm set up, a med bay, a captain, crew, civilians, all that stuff. And they’re trying to get back to…

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The Scourge Between Stars

I was later finishing this than I would’ve liked, but this is one I’ve wanted to talk to for a little while now. Like, I feel like it’s obvious that I really like horror and this was the kind of horror that I just wanted to sit and chew on as I read it. So this was my chance to sort of go back and do that a second time and now I just want to read it again immediately. This one is courtesy of…

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