Lina Rather’s debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black is a beautiful little story of faith, love and hope in the midst of endless, cold space, featuring secret-keeping nuns, living spaceships and a sinister government trying to reclaim power. The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita travel the edge of space in their sentient ship Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, offering medical aid and religious comfort to scattered colonists far from the main systems. After answering the call of a brand new colony, the sisters find their peaceful lives threatened by the shadow of a war long thought over.
A novella is the perfect length for this sort of story. It’s long enough for Rather to explore a little bit of how this universe works – the nature of sentient ships, and history hinting at the slow recovery from a terrible war – and to delve into her characters beyond what a short story would allow. In their quiet world of routine and duty the sisters debate the spiritual dilemma of whether to allow their ship to mate, while the secrets in several characters’ pasts gradually come to light with varying degrees of consequences. There’s an impressive amount of depth to several of the ensemble cast, and through their eyes we see not just the physical spaces and events around them but the complex political and religious issues at play in their world.
At the same time, while there’s room for the story and the characters to breathe – especially in a calming, quiet first half of the story – the narrative remains quite tightly focused, drawing an evocative picture of this universe without going into too many details and derailing the plot. It’s only short but Rather packs a lot in, telling a story which works perfectly as a standalone while offering a tantalising glimpse of a richly detailed universe just begging to be explored further. Perhaps its greatest achievement, however, is the way it’s brilliantly character-driven while retaining a coldly beautiful sense of the vast, empty expanse of space. It’s a powerful story about faith, control, consequences and second chances, and a reminder that the very fragility of life is often what makes it so fascinating.
Sisters of the Vast Black is out now from Tor.com in ebook and paperback formats.
