The Scourge Between Stars

November 21, 2022
Brown’s eerie debut takes readers aboard a doomed generation ship. The Calypso is part of a struggling fleet trying to return to Earth from the failed colony on Proxima Centauri b. With the ship already badly damaged by mysterious forces, perilously low on stores, cut off from the rest of the fleet, and dealing with persistent unrest on board, the last thing acting captain Jacklyn Albright needs is another problem. While helping with repairs from the latest catastrophe, however, Jacklyn hears scraping and banging noises inside the ship’s bulkheads and soon thereafter, what precious stores the ship has left are going missing and crew members are turning up eviscerated. Fragments of panicked, despairing messages from the rest of the fleet reveal that the Centauri ships have been harbouring something terrible that lives in the walls and is very fast, very clever, and very hungry. Now someone on Jacklyn’s ship has just let it out. The claustrophobic, locked-in environment of a generation ship makes an ideal setting for this tense, gory, and genuinely creepy novella. 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.

February 17, 2023
Jacklyn ""Jack"" Albright reluctantly stepped into the Captain's role on board the Calypso, a starship embarking on a doomed mission to return to Earth, fleeing a failed attempt to establish a colony elsewhere. Jack is barely holding things together in between ""engagements,"" sudden attacks that threaten to rip the ship apart, and increasing tension erupting into violence between different ship factions. She gets through each day hoping that the next will be when her father, the rightful Captain, steps back up. Unfortunately, something evil is lurking inside the ship's walls, and Jack's father is holed up in his cabin, unreachable and unresponsive. Jack must form quick and unlikely alliances with others on the ship to fully realize the threat coming after the entire crew. That includes Watson, an android with an impressive amount of knowledge, more complex than initially meets the eye, which adds a surprisingly poignant twist to the story. Brown's debut novella progresses at lightning speed, making it a quick one-shot read. Nothing is missing from Brown's masterful storytelling.

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Starred review from December 1, 2022

DEBUT Both eldritch and mundane horrors stalk the decks of the generation ship Calypso as it makes its way back from a failed colony on Proxima B, carrying its passengers to an uncertain future on the Earth their ancestors left centuries ago. Acting Captain Jacklyn Albright is doing the best she can to keep her ship heading home, in spite of meager fuel, dwindling supplies, sinking crew morale, and random attacks from invisible enemies. It gets even worse--someone is stalking the crew, leaving behind eviscerated, half-eaten bodies. Jack has to rally her fractured team to eliminate the threat in order to have any chance of reaching home. The creeping horrors are all too real even before the aliens are revealed. Out of food, fuel, hope, and options, Jack feels failure stalking her at every step, only to discover it's a xenomorph after all. Following in Jack's desperate footsteps will have SF, horror, and thriller readers on the edge of their seats waiting to see what explodes out of where next. VERDICT Brown's debut novella is highly recommended for readers who like their science-fictional thrills to be both real and out of this world at the same time.--Marlene Harris

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