Sisters of the Vast Black

This was pitched to me as lesbian nuns in space, which was all I needed to hear, really. The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita captain their living ship into the reaches of space performing charity work across the galaxy; eventually, they discover a conspiracy that will test their faith. I loved the world building immediately. I’ve always had a thing for spaceships that have a mind of their own, it’s always been an odd trope that I’ve loved. The characters felt regal and colourful. The sense of history and the vastness of space was depicted here easily and simply. I loved the exploration of questions about faith, war, and penance in a far future setting. I loved how this story explored conversations between faith and science through science fiction elements and story beats. There are many inner conflicts that surround people of the faith that are relevant to our past and present, that are smartly explored and questioned through futuristic storylines and setting. This is an elegant and eloquent novella, tightly focused on its characters and their world, which is at once strictly bound by the rules of their religious order, and by the constraints of living in space. The story examines questions of ethics and responsibility, and the tension between questions of conscience, respect, and love. It’s a generous novella, warm and forgiving, with an explosive conclusion that still somehow manages to fit precisely with what came before. I enjoyed it immensely, and I hope to enjoy more of Lina Rather’s work in the future, and I hope that she continues this as a multiple book series.

"Let us do what we know to be right," sister Lucia said. " If we die, we will know we died doing good works, and that is all any of us have asked of this life." Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather, follows nuns traveling aboard a living spaceship that can mate and produce baby spaceships. Yes, you heard that right. And these nuns also happen to be in the business of fighting evil, even when it means going against the word of the Catholic Church itself. Note to reader: No, this novella is not the least bit campy. As mentioned, Lina Rather’s debut novella follows a crew of sisters from the Order of Saint Rita as they journey through space, responding to calls for help from newly established colonies (and I idea I absolutely love). The cast of characters includes the enigmatic Reverend Mother, whose vow of silence keeps her mysterious past shrouded, the pragmatic Sister Faustina, the pious Sister Lucia, and Sister Gemma, who pines for a life outside the Order. Each character is fascinating in her own right but Sister Gemma to me is the glue of this story. Her role has led her to specialize in the living ship and its functions, and who has been researching whether the ship’s immunity to diseases can be used to help humans, but who is currently wrestling with the contradiction between her faith, her commitment to the order, and her growing affection for a woman outside the community of faithful (the Catholicism of the future has, it seems, finally gotten over the idea that queer relationships are inherently sinful). This is an intensely personal and focused novella that is focused on the individual sisters. The story’s heart lies in the sisters’ community formed within the flesh walls of their spaceship and in their struggles in remaining faithful to themselves, each other, and the Church as they learn that bodies and souls in their care- and those of the galactic diaspora -are in danger. And its not some aliens from beyond but from Earth's own Central Governance and the Church itself. This is a warm and forgiving, and intimate novel with an explosive, nail-biting and all too relevant conclusion for 2020. Sisters of The Vast Black explores the relationships between faith, imperialism, and love and gives us a glimpse of what our spacefaring future could look like (maybe minus the giant space ship slugs!). This was a book I needed to read right now, when our planet seems so filled with existential angst and panic. I need to read about a group of flawed nuns trying to do some good in the universe, trying to love others, trying to helps others in their time of illness. I needed to read about human kindness. This book could not be more highly recommended. I want to purchase a copy and reread it over and over again. I hope there are more stories set within this universe.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars. Second read of the year, second crappy rating! Woohoo and stuff!! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] Okay, let's try to make this as short and painless as possible, shall we? This is a story about nuns in space. NUNS IN SPACE! Who travel the universe on a organic/living ship-type thingie! Can you imagine the potentially wondrous potential here?! Yeah well, imagine it is pretty much all you can do. Because the author spends the first 60% of the book trying to lull their readers to the deadliest slumber ever. And when, finally, things start happening and the story actually starts, it bloody shrimping ends. So yay and stuff.

CW: mention of highly infectious viruses and forced infecting of people When I was looking for 2022 books to add to my tbr, I found the sequel to this novel and thought the premise was very interesting. So ofcourse I had to pick up this first book of the series. I was quite surprised to see that I already owned this novella as part of a Tor.com collection, so I had no reason to wait. And this turned out to be such an unexpected surprise. There’s not much to talk about the writing because it’s too short of a book and it reads pretty quick and easy. It’s the themes and characters that make a mark. Books with pervasive religious themes are not always my cup of tea because I find organized religion to be used as a tool of oppression too much in our real and don’t like the same repeating in the books I read as well. So it was actually very nice to see the space nuns in this book to be just overall nice people who want to genuinely help people, despite whatever questions they have about their own personal faith. They are a symbol of hope and service and just love for everything in the world, going wherever they are required and not just limiting themselves to religious activities. I admired them for wanting to remain independent of any central authority and even going as far as disagreeing with their superiors, because they remember the history of this world and how things can go wrong when one group tries to exert control over everyone else. The nuns are also such an eclectic group and I couldn’t help but love them. Sister Gemma is a self made scientist who loves her work more than her faith, and I admired her for confronting her dilemma between choosing her faith or her heart. She was also endearing with how she treated their slug ship like a real animal with desires and feelings. Sister Faustina places very less importance on her faith but her commitment to helping everyone is solid and even her brusque and cynical nature couldn’t make me dislike her. Sister Lucia is probably the one with the most belief in their order and religion and she is just such a nice person, with love for every being in the universe. And finally Mother Superior who is so much more than what everyone knows of her and I found myself unable to judge her for either her past or the choices she makes towards the end. Overall, I think this is a book to read when in need of some goodness and hope, and I like the depiction that religion can be a force of good even in the future (and maybe in our present too but I’m a skeptic). I can see that the series might go into more darker territory in the next book but I’m sure the group of nuns will remain a ray of sunshine in dark times.

I loved this book! It's so rare to meet characters who are truly loving and altruistic, and there were some in here. Even though there were quite a lot of main characters, each one felt well-rounded and had her own character arc and development. The biological, living slug-like ships people were flying around in were very cool (although a bit gross), as well. It may not have perfect science behind the story, but that wasn't really important - this is not meant to be hard SF. What was important here were the characters and their various decisions and secrets, and all of those were spot-on perfectly told. I'll happily read everything this author writes and would also love returning to this book universe again. I didn't actually expect to like it much, so I was very pleasantly surprised.