Scourge Between Stars

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My main criticism is that the plot wasn’t that original and the ending felt very abrupt and wrapped up too neatly. It was also hard to connect with any of the side characters since the book was so short, so when deaths started happening there wasn’t much of an emotional impact for me.

Thank you to the publisher, Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. For readers worried about it being too dark and gruesome, you get just enough detail to know what's going down but the body horror isn't too graphic. You know what I'm going to say: I would absolutely recommend the audio format. I'm serious though. It's great! 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.” I trust you understand the magnitude of this moment,” Otto said, closing Watson’s mouth and cutting off the transmission.

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

There's some word choices that feel a little off, one of those first-book, pre-hard-editing kinds of things (' stared at a horrible noise,' and my personal peeve, an inappropriate 'smirked'). Hopefully, that will improve in the final edition, but I'll note that it seemed better than the average first-book. 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." The static buzzed in her ear again, but this time it fizzled into clarity. The last fragment of the message came out loud and clear. 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. There were literally times when I gasped out loud, and wished I could read it with my hands over my eyes.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." 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 World Building is minimal in the story. While much world building is usually based on the physical world, this world building focused on the history of the ship and mankind in general. This sets the stage for a grim mood that helped play to the story’s horror theme. All-in-all the story is definitely a character driven story with well enough build world that can be found believable for the reader. 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.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 Something about it made her gooseflesh turn into an outright chill. With astrophysical and instrumental sources ruled out, there were only a few things it could be. If you liked the fast-paced action and horror elements of the Alien movies, I think you’d really enjoy The Scourge Between the Stars.

The emergence of this sinister lifeform is a scientific breakthrough, the first proof of extraterrestrial life and therefore worthy of study. However, it is also a menace to everyone aboard the Calypso spacecraft, so the crew must debate about whether the alien should be destroyed or preserved for scientific posterity. Horror details are skimpy, and are more about suspense of both mystery and situation than body-horror. Personally, that's exactly the kind of book I'm looking for.He’d explained it to her before—the decades that the fleet had spent on Proxima b, exposed even at the terminator to the host star’s radiation tantrums, had corroded a number of systems and machines. The nitty-gritty: The Scourge Between Stars had plenty of thrilling action, but the story itself was too big for the short format.