[book rec] Sisters of the Vast Black
Dec. 12th, 2023 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hexmixbeen trying to work thru the backlog of books that have been on my to-read list for ages now and instead have mostly just been rereading books i've already read lmao. but i DID finally get around to reading Lina Rather's Sisters of the Vast Black, which was an impulse buy back in 2019, and i'm really glad i did because it's excellent. really can't praise this little book enough, and really hope that other people will pick it up too, thus: this frankenstein's monster of a rec/review.
what got me interested in the book in the first place was the premise: nuns in space. Sisters follows a small order of nuns dedicated to providing humanitarian aid across the galaxy, and their convent just happens to be a living (yep!) spaceship. it's just a really neat premise, but i can also see how it might equally make a lot of people pass this one up with a resounding 'nah' due to the assumption of the novella being a religious book (understandable).
but while Sisters is unavoidably a book that deals with faith and religion, it is much more concerned with examining the complicity of organized religion (read: Catholicism) in imperialism, which is placed at direct odds with the responsibility of members of that religion to navigate their duty to their church, and their duty to their mission prescribed by their faith. Sisters is a short book (just 155 pages), so it doesn't go into these issues in depth, but rather focuses on four individual characters and their personal relationships to faith, love, duty, and redemption.
if you're not one for books dealing with religion, i'd still suggest giving Sisters a chance, as it is not preachy (there's only one moment i rolled my eyes at, and it's very, very minor and not emphasized), and not all of the characters are even really believers (gonna get to that in a bit). also, pulling out my trump card here: there are lesbians.
but before we get to any of that, the worldbuilding:
[NOTE: mild/vague spoilers ahead]
the honorary main character of the novella is the spaceship, which is effectively a very large slug that has been bred to allow for space travel, modifications, and to carry around a dozen passengers (they remind me a bit of the silt striders in Morrowind). there's a distinction in Sisters made between deadships (more traditional spaceships) and liveships, and the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations is a liveship by dint of it being, well, alive. the novella opens with the sisters ending a meeting regarding their ship's sudden desire to mate, which has them at odds, as several believe that since the ship is consecrated it should not be allowed to procreate, while others are just like "yo it's a slug tho, it didn't take a vow of chastity."
we're introduced to the Reverend Mother first, and after her the Sisters Gemma, Lucia, and Faustina, who are the POV characters for the entirety of the novella. they're members of the Order of Rita, which is dedicated to humanitarian acts, and typically the sisters spend their time hurtling around to backwater moons to preside over weddings and baptisms, though two of the principle characters, Gemma and Lucia, have also been working on finding a cure (with the help of their ship) for the disease ringeye, which decimated both Earth and the colonies 40 or so years prior at the end of a disastrous civil war between the Central Earth Governance (CEG) and those same colonies.
Rather introduces the war and its effects in glimpses scattered throughout, and while there's nothing particularly new about the setup/setting, the perspective is interesting: Sister Faustina, in charge of communications, discovers that the Vatican is sending a priest to oversee them, which implies a renewed desire by the Church to rein in and control the sisters in a way it hasn't since the war, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing for Faustina. Faustina has no love lost for either the Vatican (she's no True Believer), nor for the CEG. and she's not the only one.
the Reverend Mother, who we quickly learn is most likely suffering from Alzheimer's, is caught up in a fight against herself to keep ghosts from her past silenced. her almost entirely internal conflict is contrasted with the other Sisters' who become much more involved in the machinations of the CEG and the Church, who, unsurprisingly, are working together.
(and in the midst of all of this, there's also a surprise love story! no more on that tho, that's for y'all to enjoy the surprise of lmao.)
Rather's prose is immensely readable, and her characters are interesting, if not quite as fleshed out as they could be (some have stronger voices than others), they do feel distinct and believable. in addition, Sisters balances its sincere look at faith and criticism of organized religion quite well, and Rather is also very successful in weaving in the drama of the plot; the narrative progresses naturally towards a satisfying conclusion. (although i was also pleased as punch to learn there's a sequel; i am more than happy to spend more time with these characters.)
at it's heart though, Sisters is most concerned with the issue of what the individual can do against a looming, impossible evil, and with the small acts of goodness and compassion that tie us together. "We're all just scattered, lonely specks out here, unless we try to be more," one character says. "We shouldn't be brutal just because the universe is."
and reading this little book right now, when i did, this sentiment felt especially resonant. it's a simple enough message, but i also think it's one that bears repeating, and it's certainly one that Rather handles with grace.
Sisters of the Vast Black is a very enjoyable read (it gets a score of "made me cry twice") and one that i do strongly recommend. if "nuns hurtling thru the cold void of space in a giant space slug and also there are lesbians" isn't enough to hook you tho, idk what else will lmao.
anyway, if you read the book (or have already read it!) please let me know what you think! c:
what got me interested in the book in the first place was the premise: nuns in space. Sisters follows a small order of nuns dedicated to providing humanitarian aid across the galaxy, and their convent just happens to be a living (yep!) spaceship. it's just a really neat premise, but i can also see how it might equally make a lot of people pass this one up with a resounding 'nah' due to the assumption of the novella being a religious book (understandable).
but while Sisters is unavoidably a book that deals with faith and religion, it is much more concerned with examining the complicity of organized religion (read: Catholicism) in imperialism, which is placed at direct odds with the responsibility of members of that religion to navigate their duty to their church, and their duty to their mission prescribed by their faith. Sisters is a short book (just 155 pages), so it doesn't go into these issues in depth, but rather focuses on four individual characters and their personal relationships to faith, love, duty, and redemption.
if you're not one for books dealing with religion, i'd still suggest giving Sisters a chance, as it is not preachy (there's only one moment i rolled my eyes at, and it's very, very minor and not emphasized), and not all of the characters are even really believers (gonna get to that in a bit). also, pulling out my trump card here: there are lesbians.
but before we get to any of that, the worldbuilding:
[NOTE: mild/vague spoilers ahead]
the honorary main character of the novella is the spaceship, which is effectively a very large slug that has been bred to allow for space travel, modifications, and to carry around a dozen passengers (they remind me a bit of the silt striders in Morrowind). there's a distinction in Sisters made between deadships (more traditional spaceships) and liveships, and the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations is a liveship by dint of it being, well, alive. the novella opens with the sisters ending a meeting regarding their ship's sudden desire to mate, which has them at odds, as several believe that since the ship is consecrated it should not be allowed to procreate, while others are just like "yo it's a slug tho, it didn't take a vow of chastity."
we're introduced to the Reverend Mother first, and after her the Sisters Gemma, Lucia, and Faustina, who are the POV characters for the entirety of the novella. they're members of the Order of Rita, which is dedicated to humanitarian acts, and typically the sisters spend their time hurtling around to backwater moons to preside over weddings and baptisms, though two of the principle characters, Gemma and Lucia, have also been working on finding a cure (with the help of their ship) for the disease ringeye, which decimated both Earth and the colonies 40 or so years prior at the end of a disastrous civil war between the Central Earth Governance (CEG) and those same colonies.
Rather introduces the war and its effects in glimpses scattered throughout, and while there's nothing particularly new about the setup/setting, the perspective is interesting: Sister Faustina, in charge of communications, discovers that the Vatican is sending a priest to oversee them, which implies a renewed desire by the Church to rein in and control the sisters in a way it hasn't since the war, which immediately sets alarm bells ringing for Faustina. Faustina has no love lost for either the Vatican (she's no True Believer), nor for the CEG. and she's not the only one.
the Reverend Mother, who we quickly learn is most likely suffering from Alzheimer's, is caught up in a fight against herself to keep ghosts from her past silenced. her almost entirely internal conflict is contrasted with the other Sisters' who become much more involved in the machinations of the CEG and the Church, who, unsurprisingly, are working together.
(and in the midst of all of this, there's also a surprise love story! no more on that tho, that's for y'all to enjoy the surprise of lmao.)
Rather's prose is immensely readable, and her characters are interesting, if not quite as fleshed out as they could be (some have stronger voices than others), they do feel distinct and believable. in addition, Sisters balances its sincere look at faith and criticism of organized religion quite well, and Rather is also very successful in weaving in the drama of the plot; the narrative progresses naturally towards a satisfying conclusion. (although i was also pleased as punch to learn there's a sequel; i am more than happy to spend more time with these characters.)
at it's heart though, Sisters is most concerned with the issue of what the individual can do against a looming, impossible evil, and with the small acts of goodness and compassion that tie us together. "We're all just scattered, lonely specks out here, unless we try to be more," one character says. "We shouldn't be brutal just because the universe is."
and reading this little book right now, when i did, this sentiment felt especially resonant. it's a simple enough message, but i also think it's one that bears repeating, and it's certainly one that Rather handles with grace.
Sisters of the Vast Black is a very enjoyable read (it gets a score of "made me cry twice") and one that i do strongly recommend. if "nuns hurtling thru the cold void of space in a giant space slug and also there are lesbians" isn't enough to hook you tho, idk what else will lmao.
anyway, if you read the book (or have already read it!) please let me know what you think! c:
