#THE SCOURGE BETWEEN STARS BY NESS BROWN

[betterbooksandthings]

"Do you want to read something bite-sized and impossible to put down? If so, may I offer you a list of 11 Queer books under 250 pages to solve your plight? It is wonderful to be able to pick a book up and finish it in a sitting or two. These books do just that and they are queer. What more can you ask for?

With Pride month in full swing, many readers opt to celebrate by adding more queer books to their reading lives. However, June is a busy month full of work, travel, Pride celebrations, and summertime ennui. Sometimes you want something small that you can take on a trip, or something short to read in your downtime. In case you have a busy month or need a short book as a break, this list of queer books under 250 pages is here to help you out. Ideally, it will let you accomplish your queer reading goals and still make it to all the events on your calendar."

[quirkycatsfatstacks]

Review: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

Author: Ness BrownPublisher: Tor NightfireReleased: April 4, 2023Received: NetGalley Book Summary: Jacklyn Albright shouldn’t be in the position to be the acting captain of the Calypso, yet here we are. The Calypso is one of several ships limping home to Earth – where they hope to find a better home than what they left. The trip has been long (literally centuries) and challenging. Starvation…

[gcantread]

when a book does this and it's like oh boy!! a page evoking what the character sees through typography!! thereby enhancing my reading experience!!

[ofliterarynature]

January read for my irl book club!

A bite-sized space thriller in the vein of Alien - good for an afternoon of reading, but not the best or most original of its genre.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

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

[raydrawsdaly]

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... ⚠️

[snipsbird]

the scourge between stars by ness brown

aliens, lesbians, robots, oh my

[hasmoneanbulbasaur]

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.

[haveyoureadthispoll]

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.

[tinynavajoreads]

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?

[tigger8900]

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!

[rosepetals1984]

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 –…

[kamreadsandrecs]

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

[dylanobrienisbatman]

5 & 17 for book asks :)

Thanks!!!!

I got asked 5 twice, so I'm doing a fiction and a non-fiction! For you I'll do the non-fiction!

5 - A book you recommend to everyone

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

This book sent me into a RAGE while I was reading it but it is something absolutely everyone should read at some point. It explains just how much the world absolutely does not even CONSIDER women when making decisions or plans that impact us. It talks about everything from city planning, to crash test dummies in cars, to medical testing and medical advice, the list goes on. It also gives really incredible examples of how much it can benefit everyone when women ARE consulted and included, including a really interesting story from a town in Sweden (i think, sorry its been like 8 months since i read this) that simply changed the order of when they plow snow (starting with sidewalks and then doing the streets, instead of streets first) and how it literally ended up saving the city MILLIONS. Everyone should read this book.

17 - New Author!

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown

I got recommended this Novella in a book recommendation service i use (Tailored Book Recommendations, if you're interested! I love it) and I read it with my best friend. It's sci-fi horror, very much Alien vibes (creepy monsters board a space ship, start killing people, female heroine, etc). I picked this one though mostly because this is the authors only book, aside from a Warhammer 40,000 short story, and her day job?

Yeah, she's a freaking astrophysicist.

Basically, if you like sci-fi horror, this little novella packs a PUNCH, and im trying to get everyone to read it so that she will come out of her lab/telescope/observatory/super special science place where she's discovering the secrets of the universe and hand us down another banger.

[bekah-reading]

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.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE SCOURGE BETWEEN STARS by Ness Brown.

Devoured this in one intense sitting last night! It gets right into the "fucked up shit happens in space" (as I was promised it would!), and I liked that you could see the author's astrophysics background peeking through without derailing the tension.

(And, for real: Don't Open The FUCKING Door, holy shit.)