Review: Sisters of the Vast Black

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"The Reverend Mother shook her head at her crucifix. She and the small Lord, they shared an understanding."

Although it does say it right there in the title, before I actually opened up the book, I was not expecting to read 'Nuns in Space.' That's on me.

"Before she took vows, Sister Gemma had grown up on a shipyard in orbit around Saturn. Her first job, ...was coaxing juvenile ships from their larval stage ...to the stage where they could be introduced to the vacuum."

The ships are alive which is cool and we get to learn a lot about their reproduction and life cycle. This story has a fascinating world and great characters but a bit of an odd plot.

There's a plague about and worlds or colonies are being quarantined but the nuns aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations want to help anyway. They've been clandestinely working on a cure and they want to test it.

"She was an asteroid in the form of a woman, and Sister Gemma was fascinated."

It's more of a character study than an adventure. The Mother Superior is beginning to experience dementia and we follow a sister who is uncertain about her faith and there's some guilt in more than one character's past.

"Sister Faustina did not suggest again out loud that it might be better if they just killed the priest and feigned ignorance, but she would have to say another set of prayers in penance tonight."

Is this a bit 'Zombies in Space' too? Not really, but the story ends with a bit of a horror vibe around a gory plague scene and there is plenty of dark introspection in the narrative.

Themes like questioning one's faith, the personal nature of faith and individual expression of faith are briefly raised but not really dived into. I guess you could say faith in general is a main theme that is lightly discussed.

I found this on a list of Space Opera stories and at my first impression I didn't think it was, but it seems to fit the first definition google returned:

Space Opera: a futuristic melodramatic fantasy involving space travelers and extraterrestrial beings.

I really liked the world enough to continue on and find out what happens in the next book, but I wasn't particularly drawn in by this story.

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