Announcing The Scourge Between Stars
Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars, a tense, claustrophobic sci-fi/horror blend in the vein of Alien and Event Horizon, will be published by Nightfire in April 2023!
Don’t open the door…
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 Proxima b.
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.
Here’s what Ness Brown has to say:
“I wrote The Scourge Between Stars in lockdown of 2020, in the midst of uncertainty about if, when, and how I would return to my livelihood teaching about the stars. The combined barrage of political dysfunction, social upheaval, and global health crisis felt like being beset on all sides. In the midst of that turmoil, I revived an old idea about humanity struggling through mortal danger back to their ancestral home to metabolize my feelings of helplessness, overwhelm, and vulnerability. The story unfolded in a few short weeks.
I drew heavily upon my lifelong interest in science fiction and horror as well as my career as an astronomer, but mostly I used my own dread and burnout to spin this tale about humans going up against cosmic forces with all that we really have: our enduring sense of community, our relentless drive to survive, and our refusal to succumb even to problems much larger than ourselves. Jacklyn is my reminder to myself to keep going even in the dark and danger. I hope readers are reminded too.”
And from Kristin Temple, associate editor at Nightfire:
“Loved Alien’s Ripley? Meet Jacklyn Albright. The Scourge Between Stars delivers everything I love in a space horror adventure – wonderfully complex characters, creeping claustrophobic terror, and a high-stakes, heart-stopping monster hunt that I couldn’t tear my eyes away from.
Ness Brown has an incredible knack for character and setting – in a short word count, they’ve managed to create a world that feels familiar, but still full of so much mystery and wonder. I’d follow Jack and her crew into the void any day. Trust me, you would too.”
Ness Brown is an astronomer teaching astrobiology at several New York City colleges. The Scourge Between Stars is their debut and draws upon their expertise as a scientist and experience as an educator encouraging others to wonder who else might be out there in the universe.
Website: ness-brown.com
Twitter: @nessthenovelist
Photo by NY Headshots
The Scourge Between Stars will hit shelves in April 2023!
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