Scourge Between Stars

It's a special kind of satisfying when you enjoy a book exactly as much as you expected to going into it.

We open with a protagonist that initially rubbed me the wrong way with her short temper and abrasive attitude towards everyone around her until I realized that she was coming into this book stressed out and at her limit before the inciting incident even starts. Then the shit just keeps piling on her plate of responsibilities of varying degrees of importance as Murphy's Law saw fit to manifest in every possible opportunity. It wasn't long before I came back around to the "can she catch a break for like a minute?!" camp.

The setting and premise also did a lot of work in establishing the stakes; humanity has successfully made it out to the stars, realized that that was a mistake, and is now desperately trying to get back home. It felt appropriately claustrophobic and was so - for lack of a better word - alien to me to think of a massive spaceship crew that knew they would die on this ship and never see earth because of how slow they were going. And this was already the fourth generation of people into this journey, so even their grandparents lived their entire lives on one ship!

The spooky bits were good and made full use of the sci-fi setting provided. My only complaint is that the very final chapter had what felt to me like a completely out-of-left-field deus ex machina moment that felt like a, "oh shit, time to wrap things up!" moment. But if you're just looking for a quick romp in a high-stress environment where even oxygen can't be taken for granted, this will fit the bill.

The Scourge Between Stars is a fast-paced sci-fi horror that takes place on a generation ship limping its way toward home after a failed colonization attempt. Despite the ship’s vast size, the writing builds suspense and atmosphere masterfully to convey the horror of being trapped inside with something else.

The setup of a missing and unresponsive captain and a first mate filling in and already in over her head made for an excellent story and I loved Jack as a lead. She was competent and assertive but also compassionate and listened to the experts around her. The way she worked with her crew gave me a compelling group of people that I rooted for and worried for, and served to make the tension throughout the story that much more intense.

I found this to be a very enjoyable horror story in space. It delivered its revelations in such a way that I went from doubtful of its direction to truly surprised. Its pace and characters had me fully invested in the outcome. I didn’t feel that Jack’s history and backstory had quite enough page time to really have the emotional effect that was intended, and I do have some minor complaints about the conclusion that left me just a bit disappointed, but overall it was a highly enjoyable read that I’d recommend to fans of Alien-style space horrors especially.