Sisters of the Vast Black (Our Lady of Endless Worlds Book 1)

This was a really solid read. I was a little hesitant to pick it up because of its length (I *like* novellas, but this one juggled several characters and a plot with some big repercussions), but I ended up really enjoying it, and have already ordered the sequel.The story, set a few decades after a devastating war between Earth and its space colonies, follows a spaceship full of nuns who are dedicated to helping colonies in the outer reaches of explored space. The plot feels intimate, but you quickly begin to realize that these nuns are a small part on the edge of something huge, with the threat of new war lurking.The book had, I think, four POV characters, and none of their sections felt rushed; the pacing of the story felt pretty mellow, but I didn't realize until the end how much worldbuilding had been slipped in along with a plot. The writing was lovely and, despite the length, took its time to linger with each character even in small, quiet moments. I think saying much more would end up spoiling some of it, so suffice to say I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes quieter space scifi.

This was a most entertaining novella combining things familiar to present day Earth (nuns, priests and religious cultures), but then adding in space travel and a spaceship that is a living thing. When the story began to focus on how the ship was showing signs of wanting to mate, my brain went off into so many tangents that it took me a bit to snap back into the story. Needless to say, author Lina Rather made the explanation clear.For only being about 160 pages long there is a lot of plot packed into this story. Each of the nuns has a distinct personality which makes them fit into their individual parts of the crew. This spaceship and crew are traveling among space settlements providing medical care as well as support for new colonists on some planets that aren't exactly located in a friendly environment. Politics begin to press the sisters lives back into more of a mainstream course when a priest is assigned to Our Lady of Impossible Constellations (the name of the spaceship) and the sisters discover a deadly plague has manifest itself on a tiny community they recently visited. How will they follow their faith and their orders?Lina Rather has accomplished an impressive feat by taking an unusual set of characters and meshing them with a multi-strand plot. All in such a short story. I would gladly read more about the sisters and certainly hope she plans to write more adventures for this intrepid group of women.

This Golden Crown Literary Society Award Finalist novella introduces us to the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita, who are nuns on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard the living ship <i>Our Lady of Impossible Constellations</i>.While the nuns are only trying to peacefully help the colonists of the outer worlds, they can’t avoid being drawn into the political realities around them.The violence forty years after the first war that ended in sorrow and bloodshed shows nothing has changed as earth tries to regain control. The impressive amount of world-building, character development and unique ideas crammed into a story this length is astonishing.

One of the best aspects of “Sisters” is that it is not written to a formula, like so many genre novels. Rather, the author has dreamed up an original idea—a living starship crewed by a religious order of nuns, far from Earth and home. Earth has been in decline for some time, and is interested in regrowing its influence. Like empires in the past, the Earth Central Government is using the church as an arm of imperialism, and the nuns do not care to be used in this way. I hear, in “Sisters of the Vast Dar,” echoes of Heinlein, Asimov, Anderson and other writers of the golden age of SF. The author shares their notion that SF should be *about* something more than escapism, and give you a good ride through the stony as well. This is the author’s first published long work (actually, a novella), and bodes well for her future growth and development. Read it.

I loved this book, very much. The protagonists are the dozen or so members of a small convent housed within a living starship, out in the boondocks of human civilization. Yonder is Earth, out that way is a plethora of teeny little settlements scraping by, relying a lot on luck and trade. There was a massive civilization-wide apocalyptic war a generation or two ago, and recovery is pretty lumpy.The sisters have some secrets. One's in love and struggling with whether to renounce her vows. Another has the inside scoop on aspects of the big war that darned few people know about. And like that. Further, it looks like some powerful forces on Earth think the time is right to rebuild real imperial control by amazingly foul means.This is a book of wonders. Rather conveys both big wonders, like the astonishing living ships, and small ones, including smoothly doing the routine work that sustains life in hostile places and making homes in unlikely conditions. There are horrors here, with war and conquest coming back into the lives of people who'd have hoped they'd stay history, but at its heart are love, devotion, and cooperation.

SISTERS OF THE VAST BLACK was a highly enjoyable read that managed to pack a great deal into its diminutive frame.Missionary nuns travelling the frontiers of space, inside an intergalactic slug in heat. Add to that forbidden love, crises of faith, plague, more secrets than there are stars, and a morally-void empire in resurgence.The level of atmosphere and depth of worldbuilding was very much a surprise given the low page count. Without any real info-dumping you soon have a very vivid appreciation of the historic schism, which caused the 'Earth Central Governance' to lose its previously controlled systems. You also get a very really sense of the 'darkness' of frontier life and as a consequence the purpose of these roaming convents.All of the main characters had a good amount of complexity and individuality, despite the confines of the narrative. Secondary characters were a little less memorable and faded into the background but it would have be impossible to do them all justice without weakening others.The ship itself was gloriously weird and reminded me a little of the organic ship in the show Lexx from the 1990's. Some of the internal scenes and descriptions were a little unsettling, which I liked, I'm mean they're living inside a creature, so it's going to be odd.As a standalone novella SISTERS OF THE VAST BLACK is a great read, but there is so much potential for more works from this universe. Whether there are are or not though, Lina Rather is definitely an author to keep your eyes on.

‘Sisters of the Vast Black’ is her debut novella. I found it exciting and moving and filled with real people trying to do the right thing.The writing is accomplished, confident and accessible. It avoids being either didactic or polemical while still exploring the nature of personal responsibility, service, duty and different ways in which we come to love those we serve with. It positions hierarchy as an instrument for centralising power and reducing individual freedom, making people abdicate their personal judgement and do things they would normally be ashamed of.‘Sisters Of The Vast Black’ follows a small group the Sisters of the Order of Saint Rita as they travel the outer reaches of mankind’s colonies in the stars, tending to the sick and carrying out marriages and baptisms. They travel aboard their convent, Our Lady of Impossible Constellations which is a vast, genetically engineered mollusc called a Liveship.Lina Rather does a great job of making the Liveship feel real rather than a magical whimsey without resorting to infodumps or slipping into technolust.Her main focus is on the Sisters themselves. Who they are as individuals. How they behave as a group. What called them to serve and the different ways in which they feel that calling.As the story progresses, we learn that humanity has been through an interstellar war between Earth and its colonies. A war that killed billions of people, destroyed habitats and unleashed deadly diseases. Most of the story is about how the aftermath of that war and the re-awakening ambition of Earth reaches out even to the remote regions that Our Lady Of Impossible Constellations travels through and confronts the Sisters with difficult choices.The novella builds to a tense, action-packed, emotionally powerful conclusion that left me both satisfied and hungry for more.

A short-novel or long-novella (the next one is Sisters of the Forsaken Stars) which focuses on the slightly motley crew of nuns who travel the stars to bring faith and healing to colonies. The focus is very much on the trials and decisions that they make, and the faith behind it; and how faith might warp and change out in the void, or how a central authority might try to control it. It's a good read, and the characters - and their choices - are all interesting; worth a read if you're into the slightly more philosophical-concept sci-fi - and living ships.

A novel about nuns in space on a living ship. It felt a bit Farscape, for those of us old enough to remember, but that's no bad thing. It was good fun, easy reading, great escapism. As this looks to be a series, I will happily by book 2 when it comes out.

Beautifully written. There was even a moment, on the reveal of a secret, that had me pause in my reading to appreciate how wonderfully executed the reveal was. I could have read a whole novel-sized version of this story and its characters, but what we have here is still great.