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Between Points of Light
After years of uninspiring findings, Harlon's position on a survey ship has lost its appeal. Vaulting to unseen star systems to investigate their potential for mining and terraforming sounds exciting in theory, but in practice it's just another corporate job. His life outside of work isn't much better.
When the crew's astrobiologist quits, Harlon arrives for his mission to find that he knows the replacement, Dexter—from a recent one-night stand. As they begin their mission thousands of light years away from any colonized star system, Harlon tries to keep things professional, but Dexter has other ideas.
♦ 34,000 words.
When the crew's astrobiologist quits, Harlon arrives for his mission to find that he knows the replacement, Dexter—from a recent one-night stand. As they begin their mission thousands of light years away from any colonized star system, Harlon tries to keep things professional, but Dexter has other ideas.
♦ 34,000 words.
- GenresScience Fiction
109 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 29, 2019
13 people want to read
About the author
Lore Graham
13 books23 followersLore Graham is a queer author who lives in Massachusetts. Ze writes sci fi and fantasy romance, poetry, and rpg settings.
Lore is passionate about spectacular worlds and queer characters.
Outside of writing, Lore enjoys cooking, reading, and spending time with zir cat.
Lore's poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Liminality.
Lore is passionate about spectacular worlds and queer characters.
Outside of writing, Lore enjoys cooking, reading, and spending time with zir cat.
Lore's poetry has been published in Strange Horizons and Liminality.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 4, 2020
3.5 Sci-Fi Hearts
For space loving readers of MM romance!
As per the blurb, Harlon is a lot jaded, seemingly stuck in his static life of work and solitary play that he doesn’t see a way out of it. Harlon is employed by big corporate and is in a constant cycle of going out into the vast reaches of space to discover viable planets. This sounds fabulously interesting and adventurous but in reality, quite mundane, and Harlon finds very little in his life that is professionally, or personally, fulfilling.
When a rare, wonderful one night stand becomes a surprise awkward work situation, Harlon doesn’t know how to reconcile his mortification with his desire to want more than his boring lonely existence. His new coworker Dexter, is full of enthusiasm regarding all the possibilities of space exploration, and his earnestness for the job and desire to continue his and Harlon’s recent intimacies slowly starts to rub off. Harlon resists and resists, but Dexter and surprise discoveries bring about a much needed and wanted change.
I adored Graham’s Under the Midnight Sun, and I had no hesitation in reading this story because of it. Now granted, the former was all about Nordic lore and this was serious grounded sci-fi. I admit I didn’t love this as much, perhaps due to the very nature of the hardcore science and Harlon’s initial surliness, but Dexter’s open emotions and absence of cynicism were a big win here.
Overall, I still found this story very smart, with a romance to root for, some nice smexy, and a satisfying happy ending - all the reasons I’ll continue to explore Graham’s backlog, as well as be on the lookout for future works!
Thank you to the author for a copy in exchange for a honest review
For space loving readers of MM romance!
As per the blurb, Harlon is a lot jaded, seemingly stuck in his static life of work and solitary play that he doesn’t see a way out of it. Harlon is employed by big corporate and is in a constant cycle of going out into the vast reaches of space to discover viable planets. This sounds fabulously interesting and adventurous but in reality, quite mundane, and Harlon finds very little in his life that is professionally, or personally, fulfilling.
When a rare, wonderful one night stand becomes a surprise awkward work situation, Harlon doesn’t know how to reconcile his mortification with his desire to want more than his boring lonely existence. His new coworker Dexter, is full of enthusiasm regarding all the possibilities of space exploration, and his earnestness for the job and desire to continue his and Harlon’s recent intimacies slowly starts to rub off. Harlon resists and resists, but Dexter and surprise discoveries bring about a much needed and wanted change.
I adored Graham’s Under the Midnight Sun, and I had no hesitation in reading this story because of it. Now granted, the former was all about Nordic lore and this was serious grounded sci-fi. I admit I didn’t love this as much, perhaps due to the very nature of the hardcore science and Harlon’s initial surliness, but Dexter’s open emotions and absence of cynicism were a big win here.
Overall, I still found this story very smart, with a romance to root for, some nice smexy, and a satisfying happy ending - all the reasons I’ll continue to explore Graham’s backlog, as well as be on the lookout for future works!
Thank you to the author for a copy in exchange for a honest review
July 16, 2019
A Joyfully Jay review.
4 stars
It’s the small touches in this story that sell it. The casual mention of a planet’s orbital cycle or the way cars slide into place, driverless and silent, gives us just enough of a glimpse of an almost Star Treckian future without bombarding us with descriptions. And yet, even with all the mentions of labs, probes, and drones, it’s the characters who are the main focus of the story.
Harlon is getting close to middle age, hovering closer to 40 than 20. Even though humans may live well into their 100s, middle age is still middle age. Time and failure have beaten out any sense of joy at his work. He does what he does well, is loyal to his crew, and only asks for his paycheck to be on time and his VR game to be happy. While he is lonely, it’s a tolerable loneliness eased with the occasional bursts of company at various bars. Besides, even if life was found — even if was Harlon to find it — the corporation who owns him, his ship, and his debt would just take the credit.
Read Elizabeth’s review in its entirety here.
4 stars
It’s the small touches in this story that sell it. The casual mention of a planet’s orbital cycle or the way cars slide into place, driverless and silent, gives us just enough of a glimpse of an almost Star Treckian future without bombarding us with descriptions. And yet, even with all the mentions of labs, probes, and drones, it’s the characters who are the main focus of the story.
Harlon is getting close to middle age, hovering closer to 40 than 20. Even though humans may live well into their 100s, middle age is still middle age. Time and failure have beaten out any sense of joy at his work. He does what he does well, is loyal to his crew, and only asks for his paycheck to be on time and his VR game to be happy. While he is lonely, it’s a tolerable loneliness eased with the occasional bursts of company at various bars. Besides, even if life was found — even if was Harlon to find it — the corporation who owns him, his ship, and his debt would just take the credit.
Read Elizabeth’s review in its entirety here.
July 3, 2019
I really enjoyed this story. The characters had a lot of personality, and the conflicts that they had were super reasonable--they seemed realistic and well-grounded, in that the ways the characters fucked up were ways I have known real people (including myself!) to fuck up. I also really appreciated a lot of the autistic-coded-ness of Dexter, the love interest. "Socially awkward" characters are often just terrible people or awful caricatures; it's nice to have representation with a character that learns quickly and means well, but still has problems with reading the room and blurting things out. The worldbuilding is also a particularly poignant distillation of the modern Western dystopian corporate landscape, in a way that manages to not sugarcoat things while still remaining fundamentally optimistic. If you hate the news, but love crotchedy and/or autistic gays in space, you should really read this!
....Also there are a couple sex scenes that I REALLY enjoyed. FYI!
....Also there are a couple sex scenes that I REALLY enjoyed. FYI!
September 12, 2019
** 3.75 Stars **
I wish it were longer!
I wish it were longer!
Read
May 14, 2019Content warnings: Mild danger; explicit sexual content.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews