This is literally just to tell everyone to read The Scourge Between Stars (or listen to the audiobook, like I have, if that's more your thing). It's a short sci-fi novel by Ness Brown and everything about it is perfect and I can't scream at my friends about it because none of them ahve read it and I want to spoil nothing, but it has fiercely reignited my love for longer fiction and I am ravenous for Brown to release more. And like, just, read the author's about-me: https://ness-brown.com/about/ Everything about them is as amazing and perfect as their book. There're a lot of reviews comparing it to Alien(s) and yeah, I... definitely see that influence, but it's also definitely not just an Aliens riff. It's. ARGH it's so hard to talk about it because yes it's short but it's short because they have INCREDIBLY condensed, compact writing, there's little to no fluff or faffing about in any of the writing so everything actually feels meaningful. Bear in mind, I'm freaking out about this book's brilliance but I'm only halfway through. There is t e c h n i c a l l y a chance that the ending is fumbled, but I highly doubt it. So, yeah. If you've read it, please tell me if you've liked it. If you HAVEN'T read it, and you like sci-fi, diverse casts, and slow dread horror, please consider adding it to your to-read list. This has been a PSA.