Somewhere between the solar system and Proxima b the generation ship Calypso slowly limps back to Earth after failing to colonize an extrasolar planet. Carrying what may be the last of the human race, the Calypso is besieged by mechanical problems and caught in the crossfire between two unseen galactic forces. The ship’s problems are further compounded when a handful of xenomorphic stowaways make their presence known. The only person keeping everyone’s shit together (including their own) is Jacklyn Albright, who steps up to lead the Calypso against all odds when her father, the captain, falters.
And thus the premise of The Scourge Between Stars, the debut space horror novella by Ness Brown and published by Tor’s Nightfire imprint in the spring of 2023. Borrowing the stalking xenomorph from Alien, the decaying ship from Dark Star, and the uniformed humans who occupy a variety of functions a’la Star Trek, The Scourge Between Stars feels familiar, but Brown, whose professional background is astrophysics, keeps the narrative fresh, grounded, and throws in their own unique genre vision.
There’s no FTL in The Scourge Between Stars, which adds to a sense of futility and hopelessness to the story. If the Calypso will not make it back to Earth for hundreds of years, why bother? Main protag Jacklyn keeps the fire of hope burning despite all odds, and oh boy, are the odds against her, the crew, and the ship. Jacklyn is excessively critical of herself, comparing herself negatively to her father who, despite apparently having once been a great captain and leader, has sequestered himself in his quarter, forcing his daughter and crew to face the hardships on their own.
Yet, Jacklyn is extremely resolute, and this is demonstrated through all her relationships – be them platonic, professional, or romantic. Jacklyn puts everyone before herself, which overtime does take its toll on her. She is carrying a burden and Brown excels at depicting Jacklyn overcoming all the ordeals she is faced with by using her leadership and trusting others to do their roles.
These are the more action-oriented elements of The Scourge Between Stars. Jacklyn and her crew are also being hunted by xenomorphs that have made themselves hidden in the ship’s supplies, only surfacing now to lay eggs and stalk the Calypso crew. They bang inside the walls, dismember alone crew members, attack from the darkness, and even have a few unexpected tricks up their sleeve. Jacklyn and her crew take a competent approach to handle the alien menace, going ship section by ship section, locking down areas and trying to contain the aliens. Try as they might, things inevitably go awry, and the book has no shortage of alien attacks.
If there is a fault with The Scourge Between Stars is that the ending does feel rushed and resolved in a too tidy of package. Aside from this, The Scourge Between Stars expertly alternates between action and horror, finely maintaining an atmosphere of hopelessness and hope. Jacklyn is an excellent character, sympathetic and admirable, a model of a person acting against all odds. As a story proper, The Scourge Between Stars leverages the tropes that make space horror a fun genre to indulge in, but there is a unique authorial stamp from Ness that distinguishes the story from other space horror texts.
For more information about Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars, check out our H. P. Lovecast Podcast interview with them:
The monthly Transmissions episode of our H. P. Lovecast Podcast is online.
In this episodes we interview Ness Brown about their debut space horror novella, The Scourge Between Stars. The episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded player below, or via your podcast app of preference.
In September or October we *should* be resuming our twice a month schedule. This summer has been crazy with projects, obligations, work, and prepping for CoKoCon.
Scholars from the Edge of Time
Michele and I did a second episode of Scholars from the Edge of Time in August. Michele talked about The Swordsman and I talked about the video game Starsand. Check it out on YouTube.
Publishing Recap
Below is a recap of my publishing endeavors so far in 2023.
Published in February, this collection contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling.”
Published in late March, the first issue of the zine Footage Fiends, contains my essay “Analisi Della Cosa: Found Footage in Caltiki and Italian Theater Going Practices.”
Published in early August, Dark Dead Things #2 contains my essay “Correlating the Contents: Mimetic Desire in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Call of Cthulhu’.”
Here is a round of autographed ephemera I’ve shared on social media the last two weeks.
First up is my copy of Bizarre Sinema! Horror all’italiana 1957-1979:
This is an incredible book. There’s an entire chapter + interview with Antonio Margheriti which I’ve cited in my masters thesis on Castle of Blood and in other essays as well.
Michele and I met Barbara Steele at a Hollywood Collectors Show back in July of 2010. She signed many of my movies but also my copy of Bizarre Sinema! in which she penned the foreword:
And, here is a picture of all of us from way back when. Queen!
Next up, part of my comprehensive Oliver Gruner library, is Crackerjack 3.
This DVD is signed by Gruner along with Bo Svenson, director Lloyd Simandl and WWE Diva Amy Weber. We met Amy Weber back in 2010 at a celebrity show in Burbank:
The folks at Boundheat Films coordinated the director signing my DVD. His auteur elements of including WIP/Lesbian Slave elements in his films are found in Crackerjack 3.
Next is Bikini Beach signed by the grooviest babe of the AIP beauty party films, Donna Loren.
These movies are always a lot of fun, especially when old guard folks like Buster Keaton show up.
Any finally, for this week, I have The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 3 signed by Gary Myers and George R. R. Martin.
Gary Myers is the bloody man and I would say is the most instrumental of me getting into the work of Lovecraft and cosmic horror. Myers’ Dreamlands stories are the best iteration of the Dreamlands and I suggest folks check his collection out.
George R. R. Martin was the guest of honor at StokerCon 2017 and that is were I got his autograph. I’ve never read Game of Thrones or watched the series, so his short story here is the only work of his I am familiar with.
CFP List
Here are a few interesting CFPs I want to help proliferate.
Music Medievalism In Popular Culture at ICMS in Kalamazoo (May 9–11, 2024)
Sponsoring Organization: Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture Organizer: Anna Czarnowus
Jonathan Le Cocq (forthcoming, 2024) defines music medievalism as either the influence of the medieval on later music, or the impact on medieval music (real or imagined) on any later cultural practice. In popular culture, we can find both the music that has been influenced by the actual medieval one and music influenced by some folk music imagined as medieval. Medievalist music such as pagan folk music (Troyer in: Meyer and Yri, 2020) can be used in various media and there are various genres of it. Some music videos can be an example of the cultural practice that is influenced by the imaginary medieval music. Medievalist video games also contain “medievalized” music.
Please consider such topics and similar ones:
medievalist music as background
medievalist music and similar videos
medievalist music/folk music as medievalist
Please send your abstract to: annaczarnowus@tlen.pl by September 1, 2023, but an official proposal can only be made and accepted through https://icms.confex.com/icms/2024/cfp.cgi by September 15th.
Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (virtual)
Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan
Call for Papers – Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2023 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan) Hybrid event: Thursday, 9 May, through Saturday, 11 May, 2024
Session Objective
Although we often refer to the Matter of Britain as the Arthurian tradition, the figure of King Arthur is merely the center point of the story. The tales are in fact about the community that Arthur builds and the ways those inside it (and outside as well) interact with each other. Through Arthur and those he surrounds himself with, Camelot becomes a living thing, and we experience its birth, maturity, and death, as well as its re-creation across the ages. In this session, we’d like to highlight the multiple ways that Arthur’s realm has been constructed from the Middle Ages to the present. Submissions can explore the Arthurian legends from across time and/or space as represented through diverse genres and media. We seek contributions from a range of scholars–those within the disciplines of Arthurian Studies and/or Medieval Studies as well as those in outside fields, including beyond the humanities–as they consider at least one of the following questions:
● What are the origins of Camelot? How do Arthur’s literary and/or historic predecessors (Ambrosius Aurelius, Arthur of Dal Riada, Constantine, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Lucius Artorius Castus, Riothamus, Uther Pendragon, Vortigern, etc.) influence the creation of his home base? What real locales inspired the idea or site of Camelot? ● Moving forwards, how has Camelot been built as a physical place whether in the Arthurian past or in post-Arthurian re-creations? What does the site look like? How does it function as a space where individuals live and work? ● Also, how has Camelot been shaped as a communal space, a location for people to come together in fellowship, and who has been included within this group? In what ways does the community grow and change under Arthur and/or his successors? ● Alternatively, who has been excluded and/or expelled from the space(s) of Camelot, and in what ways have those individuals dealt with this loss? ● Similarly, who has been invited to join the community at Camelot but resisted its entreaties and/or rebelled against Arthur and his rule (or that of his successors)? What are the reasons for their rejection of Camelot? How do their actions impact the Arthurian world? ● Lastly, do those removed from and/or repelled by Camelot ever integrate (or re-integrate) and become part of the community? How does this acceptance shape them and/or the world of Camelot?
Submission Information
All proposals must be submitted into the Confex system at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call by 15 September 2023. You will be prompted to complete sections on Title and Presentation Information, People, Abstract, and Short Description. Be advised of the following policies of the Congress: “You are invited to make one paper proposal to one session of papers. This may be to one of the Sponsored or Special Sessions of Papers, which are organized by colleagues around the world, OR to the General Sessions of Papers, which are organized by the Program Committee in Kalamazoo. You may propose an unlimited number of roundtable contributions. However, you will not be scheduled as an active participant (as a paper presenter, roundtable discussant, presider, respondent, workshop leader, or performer) in more than three sessions.”.
Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com.
For more information on the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please visit our website at https://KingArthurForever.blogspot.com/.
For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please visit our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/ and consider becoming a member of our organization.
