Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather is a novella about Nuns! In! Spaaaaace!!! Basically, a small group who travel in a living ship to be of service. So they do things like weddings and baptisms, but also healthcare, especially for nasty futuristic contagious diseases. They’re roughly a generation past a devastating war caused by Earth trying to bring all the other worlds, both in its solar system and two others, under their thumb. The effects of the war are still very present. The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita have almost no contact with Earth and get news from the Vatican only sporadically, but they’re beginning to see disturbing hints of another attempt at central governance, which nobody in the colonies wants. The characters were great, each one having a different reason for having taken vows, including one who wants to be of service but has no faith. There’s also neat worldbuilding around the living ships, how they’re grown, and how they’re modified to be used by humans.

With a bit of a spare writing style, this is an enjoyable sci-fi story. I found it unpredictable, which was good This has slow pacing, so readers should set their expectations, and be ready to get the next book to get more closure.

Thanks very much for the free review copy!!

Nuns living on a slug is space, already an interesting premise. Love the live ship concept. Wouldn’t mind learning more about ship biology and training/domestication. Excellent world building and good lead up to unexpected ending. Diverse and interesting characters, easy read. Recommended.

this was amazing, i can't wait to read the sequel. Lina Rather wove a short and incredibly impactful tale and i can't wait to see where it goes next!

The Sisters of the Order of Saint Rita, a group of space nuns flying in a biological yet non-sentient ship, receive a call from a new colony to bless the settlement. The nuns believe this is just a standard trip, and complete the blessing as intended. Soon, a priest shows up and knocks them all on their backs. The safety of the world post-war may be hanging in the balance.

Space nuns. Put anything next to “space” and I will read it. Sisters of the Vast Black is a very original story but contains all the stuff I love about science fiction—a group of diverse characters fighting against the government or corporation, a group of found family, and strong character development hiding behind secrecy.

As this was a novella, I felt like a few details weren’t fleshed out enough. I’m very excited to continue into the sequel, and I’m hoping some questions get answered! I would love to see more of this word.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this advanced review copy! Sisters of the Vast Black is available now, and the sequel Sisters of the Forsaken Stars will be released on February 15th.

CW: death, gore, war

This novella does what some entire books fail to do in an entire series. A full-fledged cast of characters, a relatable, and probably not too far off future, where the church has taken to space to spread their gospel. A group of nuns discovers what it really means to do good works for others in this life, setting aside their dogma to rebel against a corrupt government that would seek to control humanity even throughout the reaches of space. Can't wait for the next installment.

Nuns in space! Short, quite strange, often interesting but lacking real depth to the characters. Storyline has potential but personal histories are left intentionally vague so hints about hidden secrets aren’t too obvious.

This book is heartbreakingly good. I was lucky enough to spend about an hour fanpersoning all over Lina Rather on The Imaginaries Podcast (https://soundcloud.com/imaginarypod/episode-119-wed-rather-have-more-lina), and let me tell you, Lina is one of the most fantastic human beings to walk this planet (or write on it). Set on a living spaceship peopled with nuns of somewhat fringe beliefs and traditions, this book has some resonances with many other of my favorite science fiction stories: Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow" and "Children of God," Kameron Hurley's "The Stars Are Legion" AKA "Lesbians in Space," Molly Gloss's "The Dazzle of Day," and Nicky Drayden's "Escaping Exodus." I could go on for hours about how deeply human and compelling this little bundle of pages is, but I've already done that to LITERALLY EVERY PERSON I MEET. As in, I forced my podcast cohost to read it. I forced my housemate to read it. I forced a friend who I met through the library to read it. I told my MOTHER about it (and she was kind enough to say "That sounds interesting, honey" even though she never reads science fiction or fantasy). I read sections aloud, alternately cackling and crying stoically, to my cat. Basically, this book is the freakin' BEST.

This is one of the best science fiction novellas I've read. It's got so much packed into it. There's an order of mendicant nuns traveling in a living ship to minister to far flung colonies spread through the galaxy. There's the ship itself, a spacegoing sort of giant slug genetically engineered to provide a livable environment in space and tended by bio-engineer nuns and which now wants to mate- will it be allowed or will mating unhallow the ship? There's an old rebellion against Earth and a new government trying to gain a foothold among star colonies with both supplies and religion, as happens so often with would-be empires. There's a deadly plague that the nuns are helping to vaccinate colonies against, and a new priest who has a different idea than the sisters about the spacegoing abbey's priorities.

All of these themes are deftly handled and spun together. There's also a touching romance, nun politics, and past sins coming home to roost. It's a really impressive piece of work, especially in such a short space. I initially had a bit of trouble remembering which sister was which, but eventually their personalities became distinctive and I could follow different narrative threads. I'm really interested to see more work by this author.

The nitty-gritty: Nuns on a galactic mission to heal and offer comfort are forced to make some hard decisions in this stunning and thoroughly original science fiction adventure.

I had no idea what to expect when I started reading Sisters of the Vast Black, touted as “nuns in space” by the publisher. But it didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that I was going to adore Lina Rather’s unique world, filled with interesting world-building ideas, living, breathing characters, and even some unexpected nail-biting action. This is another novella that felt just right to me: just the right length, a perfect blend of character development, action and mystery, and just enough emotional depth to hook me good.

The Order of Saint Rita is on a mission to bring spiritual support and healing to the colonists scattered throughout the galaxy, after a devastating war made Old Earth an unfit place to live. Now the Reverend Mother and her Sisters travel from colony to colony aboard a living ship called Our Lady of Impossible Constellations. But their comfortable and predictable lives are about to change. Sister Faustina receives a distressing message from the Pope stating that the church will soon be sending a priest to board their ship to manage their day-to-day lives, and that Central Governance will be watching and guiding their every move. After years of freedom in the black, Sister Faustina knows nothing good can come from this, and so she keeps the message a secret.

At the same time, several other events are unfolding. The Reverend Mother is starting to show signs of mental decline, and the Sisters fear that if anyone in power finds out, they will remove her from the ship. And Sister Gemma, whose main responsibility is to care for Our Lady, discovers that it has imprinted on another ship and wants to mate with it in order to fertilize it’s latest clutch of eggs. Because the ship is considered a holy vessel, the Sisters aren’t sure what to do. Let nature take its course and allow it to mate? Or deny it the freedom to act on impulse to ensure it remains a consecrated vessel?

When the Sisters get word of a deadly ringeye breakout in a nearby moon colony, they know they must help in any way they can. But Central Governance doesn’t want them to help and will do anything to stop them.

That’s about all the recap I’m willing to give you, so as not to spoil the story. There is so much to love about Sisters of the Vast Black, but let’s start with my favorite part of the story, the living ship. I’ve read other “living ship” stories, but what makes this one so special are all the scientific details about how ships are “bred” and grown, and how the Sisters take care of it. I loved reading about baby ships—almost tadpole-like in their egg sacs—being raised in farms and sent out into the world to be used as actual ships. I never actually got a sense of what the ship looked like, but it felt like some big, lumbering beast, like a giant cow. Rather describes the feeling of living inside the ship, listening to its never-ending heartbeat, hearing the blood pump through its arteries, touching its moss covered walls and feeling it breathe. It was both intimate and magical. And let’s just say there is a mesmerizing scene of the two ships having sex—yes, you read that right—that blew me away with its beauty.

Rather's nuns are a wonderful group who love and support each other, although there is friction from time to time. We know from the start that Sister Gemma is hiding a big secret and is being pulled in two directions. Should she follow her heart? Or stay with her “family” where she can continue to do good? Making her decision even harder is the fact that she and Sister Lucia are working together to develop a vaccine against the dreadful ringeye virus, using tissue samples from the ship’s immune system. Leaving the ship means she won’t get to finish her research. And then there’s the Reverend Mother, a woman who took a vow of silence forty-three years ago (although no one on board knows why) and is slowly being crushed by the big secret she’s been keeping all these years. I really loved her backstory and everything that happens when her shocking secret is finally revealed.

I also loved Rather’s beautiful writing, simple yet evocative. Because the Sisters spend so much of their time eating rations on the ship, the times when they get to mingle with other people and try new foods were delightful. The author’s descriptions of an alcoholic drink called honey wine, for example, had me salivating:

She swallowed another mouthful and this time the honey came to the fore, sugar and muskiness coating the inside of her mouth. She had tasted real wine only rarely, and had never understood the words in the old cookbooks and romantic novels that came across the relays. Oakey or dry or soil-tasting. This was sweet, then warm, then bitter in the back of her mouth, gently encouraging her to take another sip for the sweetness.

Rather brings up such weighty subjects as how religion is used to control people, but she incorporates it seamlessly without bogging down the story. Certainly her characters are strong enough to think for themselves and make good choices, and even during some tense scenes where I worried about their fate, I never gave up hope that Gemma, Lucia and the rest would do the right thing.

The novella ends in such a way that suggests Rather has many more stories about these characters to tell, and I’ll admit I will be devastated if she isn’t already writing a sequel. This is a quick but immersive story that is one of my favorite novellas of the year.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.

I’ve never been a religious person by any stretch of the imagination. Our family only went to church on Christmas, and that was about it. As a result, finding myself excited about the prospect of the Catholic Church in space was a weird experience for me. Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather scratched an itch I didn’t know I had (ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley). Rather wrote an engaging novel about a small group of nuns learning the meaning of their faith in a galaxy reluctant to embrace the larger Catholic Church.

Sisters of the Vast Black takes place on a living ship, Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, and follows the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita as they travel to a new colony in distress. Along the way, they deal with adapting earthly church doctrine to spacefaring life in big ways and small. The Catholic Church, defeated years ago along with Earth in a war for control of the space born colonies, is resurgent and willing to test its new sense of power and reach. The sisters of the Order begin to feel the influence from the Church themselves, causing them to question their faith. Individuals’ secrets are brought into the light as pressure starts to mount and their loyalty to each other and the church is tested.

The story itself meandered a little for the first half of the book. It didn’t feel like it had a lot of direction, and the narrative often takes a backseat to the worldbuilding. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but since it is a novella I was a little worried about where the story was going to end up. Fortunately, Rather pulls it in for a tighter second half. She uses everything she explored in the first half to hone in on the characters’ individual stories as they grapple with the tightening control from the Church and reignition of war. Any concerns I had about losing the thread were washed away in the succinct but open ending that focused on individual faith in the shadow of the Catholic Church.

The narrative’s success depended on the characters themselves. Rather takes the time to develop the characters by giving them a weight that makes them relatable. I found myself enmeshed in their lives with the day-to-day of maintaining the ship instead of waiting for something to rock the boat so to speak. The daily repetitive tasks and the small conversations about church doctrine and coming changes helped to build the identity of the characters quickly without throwing a quick succession of events at the reader. The hushed ways they whispered to each other about their lives, or rumors they have heard built a sense of community among them that set them apart from the world they inhabited. It was a really nice touch that made me care about who they were as people instead of just pieces to move the story along.

The real star of the book, for me, was the setting. The world Rather created was subtle yet incredibly enticing. Not only did the church feel important to the characters, it felt like a living presence within the solar system. There was a history that felt raw and immediate, like an open wound that had not been properly tended. Rather wrote a distinct lack of finality to everything that made the world really come alive. There was also a lot of understated interplay between the characters and the setting, making the characters feel present within the world while also being very affected by it. I think that without the deft handling of the setting and its effects on the people living in it, this book would have fallen short.

Sisters of the Vast Black is unfortunately brief, but it packs a punch. The themes of sin and redemption are cleverly explored through the characters and the world. Rather’s sense of history and ability to portray the longstanding effects of past events is admirable. I want more of this world, more of the people living inside it, finding their way in the dark. I want to watch it change in the small subtle ways that mirror the real world. Needless to say, I recommend Sisters of the Vast Black especially if you’re looking for something a little different that feels human at heart, and otherworldly in scope.

Rating: Sisters of the Vast Black – 8.0/10

"We should go because I would want someone to come for us. We're all just scattered, lonely specks out here, unless we try to be more. We shouldn't be brutal just because the universe is."

The sisters of the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations live a life of austerity and piousness aboard their living ship—and they face decision points that threaten their internal and external way of life, bringing relief to the pockets of humanity scattered about the vast black.

I don't know what it is, but this is the second book about queer nuns in space that I've read this month. And I loved both books!

This one is very much a bleak dystopian of humankind after the nuclear holocaust, when those who left Earth tried to break away from those who stayed, and the aftermath of that struggle. It's a book of choices and sacrifice, of centralized government and decentralized command, of second chances and trying to make the world a better place. Of theology and humanity. Of small worlds intersecting with a larger one, and small actions beating rapidly into something much, much bigger. Of insignificant and significant consequences.

It's also vaguely a biohorror book? The sisters live inside a living creature, and some of the descriptions of the ship made me not want to eat ever again, along with descriptions of the many diseases plaguing humankind in this brave new world.

All of the sisters had their own motivations and desires, and for the most part felt real (at least the ones who were given more page time—others felt like names on pages). I did like the deep mystery involving the Mother Superior, and the idea that every single sister had a past that informed and influenced her present.

Anywho, this was a very bad review, but the book was enjoyable. If you enjoyed Kameron Hurley's The Stars Are Legion or other hard-ish sci-fi stories, try this one out.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Nuns...in...spaaaaaaaaaace. Sorry about that, but it had to be said. Now that I've got that out of my system, don't let the idea put you off. Lina Rather's novella about a ship of nuns doing good works, but more interested in helping people in need than depositing Bibles around the outer colonies is just plain good space opera.

Full review available Oct 1, 2019:http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=18756

This was a really interesting read! The representation of a religious institution and how it can be commandeered by government was really fascinating. I loved the living ship concept and liked how the characters had to discuss the sentience of the vessel. And I loved the LGBT relationship, it was very sweet!

As interesting as it was though, I think it could have benefited from being longer. The living ship idea ended without a satisfying conclusion of sentience: it's just like a flying space cow that people travel in, without rights of its own. The characters could have been more fleshed out, which is not to say I didn't like them--I did, I just would have liked to get to know them better. The twist is one that I saw coming halfway through, but it was still a cool idea.

Overall: cool ideas, could've been longer. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC.

Sisters of the Vast Black has space nuns, deadly plagues, dementia and romance, and, oh yeah, living spaceships that can get pregnant and have baby spaceships. Need I say more? It's everything I didn't know I needed in a sci/fi novella. Every page is perfectly crafted. I'm absolutely astounded. This novella is so quality, it should be curriculum for creative writing classes. Wow.

Well this was awesome. Space nuns, living ships, horrific plagues, evil earth empires, queer romance, secrets everywhere... what more could you want? I would 100% read a full novel with this crew.

This reminded me slightly of "Escaping Exodus" by Nicky Drayden, in that humans are moving through space on living ships. That is where the similarity stops. I was intrigued by this novella and it kept my attention as you learned about the Nuns who inhabit a living spaceship. There is more to be explored here and I hope that there are more books to come.