Hands down one of my new favorite sci-fi stories! "Sisters" is such a thoughtful and complex look at beliefs, humanity, and the choices people choose to make, all written in beautiful yet compact prose. I'm so impressed with this world Rather has woven together and would adore to see more stories set here! An absolute 5-star read, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves stories of women in space and cozy sci-fi. ( )

Decent, if Unoriginal Scifi

I don't have a huge amount to say about this other than it is written and performed to a good standard, especially for genre fiction included in the Audible library. It's a bit of a hodge podge of various scifi concepts from other properties combined with some skill, but little originality or deep interest. I'm intrigued about the universe, but probably not enough to pick up the second book unless it is added to the catalogue or I can get it from the library.

If you were being reductive you could say, what if Shepherd Book and the rest of the crew from Firefly were all Catholic nuns on a ship from Farscape essentially doing the storyline from Serenity. ( )

"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. ( )

This is a slim novella that is jam-packed with characters and drama. A group of nuns whose convent is a space-faring sea slug (which brought to mind Moya of Farscape, though less sentient and no empathic Pilot) travel among far-flung colony planets, rendering aid and performing sacraments as needed, after a great war that defeated Earth Central Governance (the opposite outcome of the war against the Alliance in Firefly). The religious dilemmas of the nuns brought to mind Canticle for Liebowitz a bit too, though in 155 pages, it has nowhere the scope and breadth of that novel. Though it uses some familiar space opera and other science fictional pieces, they’re recombined in a way that’s fresh and thoughtful, and the characters are interesting individuals, which is a lot to accomplish in such a short book. I’m definitely planning to read the second book in this series. ( )

This one took a little while to get going for me, but once I got locked in, I liked the book quite a lot. I did sometimes have trouble following the point-of-view changes in the audiobook, as very little changed about the narration or speech patterns. The idea of space-faring living ships is not new, but I appreciated the implementation here. And of course, the themes around evangelizing and religious abuse were completely believable.

This book reminded me of [b:The First Sister|52378525|The First Sister (The First Sister Trilogy, #1)|Linden A. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1584211465l/52378525._SY75_.jpg|71431861], and even some recent historical novels such as [b:Matrix|57185348|Matrix|Lauren Groff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617287438l/57185348._SY75_.jpg|87447766] and [b:The Rebel Nun|55016744|The Rebel Nun|Marj Charlier|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598675402l/55016744._SY75_.jpg|85798680]. ( )