Review: Sisters of the Forsaken Stars

Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm, something is up with the writing. Or maybe some thing's up with this reader today. I could practically copy/paste my review of book one here and it would work for book two. I still love the detailed world setting, I still think the characters have been fantastic and I'm even willing to add that the plot was a bit more interesting this time, but it's still not engaging with me.

On the other hand there are moments like the opening paragraph, which just draw me in and make me want to keep reading:

"SISTER FAUSTINA WATCHED on the screen as the orbital station grew closer. She turned off the propulsion and let the ship drift into the docking bay until the skin found the airlock, connected, and made a seal. The ship jolted, and she startled, but all was well; it was still young and had a tendency to overreact to unfamiliar stimuli. Soon it would settle into itself. She restarted the gravity, and when she felt her weight again, released the moss holding her to the seat with a stroke of her hand."

But then I gradually get left behind in the events. I think a bunch of rogue nuns, splitting ties with the papacy and setting off to bring relief to those in need throughout the galaxy sounds conceptually excellent but so far I'm not enjoying the content very much.

"Too much of their procedure was based on being part of a network and a church they had now abandoned."

This time we meet some new nun recruits. We watch our protagonistic gaggle of misfit nuns try to evade but eventually get caught up with by the clergy. We also observe a bad person being transformed into a saint after they die - more to meet the needs of the order than to actually honour or recognise any of their actual work.

There is a character called Saint Ofra who is regularly referenced in the story and when my ebook reader was reading that name aloud I was hearing Saint Oprah and it struck me as an odd but acceptable cultural reference, so I almost ignored it until I finally convinced myself to check the text. Saint Oprah somehow works in this story.

"The floor beneath them hardened almost imperceptibly, the ship tensing its muscles as the main hatch opened and shut."

Don't forget the ships are alive!

"This isn’t Earth, we can’t live in a beautiful garden full of free oxygen and sing hymns behind a screen."

Well, overall I think it's getting better, slowly, more interesting, as a whole. So I'm going to say it probably would have worked better as a longer novel, and I'm including future parts that are sure to be released in that assessment. I think for such an interesting world and cast it was a terrible decision to limit the story to these bite-sized chunks.

"Sister Varvara gave her a look that said she was close to doing some things that would break their vows if the trustee did not let them in."

So, would I recommend these? Yes, probably, but.... I think it'll pay if you wait at least until the third novelette is published and maybe even until the fifth, before you binge-read the series as a single story.

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