Publishers make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley community to discover, request, read, and review. It follows the space-faring convent of Sisters from the Order of Saint Rita, on board their living-ship called the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations.
Readers will hope to see more of Sister Faustina, the Reverend Mother, and their unlikely crew. NetGalley helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. Sisters of the Vast Black is a novella by Lina Rather that manages to pack all the punch of a vast epic space opera into a very small 155-page package. The only significant flaw is the ending, which is chock full of philosophical meaning but perhaps too abrupt. Rather exhibits expert control over her characters and world, providing sufficient detail to feed the imagination without detracting from the steady pace of the story. The Reverend Mother, head of the order, took her vows for reasons other than faith, but as the specter of Earth’s violent past reaches across the star systems to intrude upon their mission of mercy, she finds she must confront the sins of her former life in order to provide the most vulnerable any hope of a safe future among the stars.
Sister Faustina, who has served for 16 years on Our Lady of Impossible Constellations and is an orphan of the Great War, suspects ulterior motives when the ECG emerges from its decades-long isolation to advocate radical changes in the Church. Forty years later, nuns in the Order of Saint Rita travel through space aboard a living space ship, providing blessings, humanitarian aid, and medical care to those in need. After a brutal conflict, the Earth Central Governance (ECG) has turned its back on four far-flung human colonies. Faced with staying silent or speaking up, the Order of Saint Rita must decide the role they will play-and what hand they will have-in reshaping the galaxy.Rather unflinchingly tackles questions of faith, war, and penance in this far-future novella debut. The sisters have been running ever since, staying under the radar while still trying to honor their calling.ĭespite the sisters’ secrecy, the story of their defiance is spreading like wildfire, spearheaded by a growing anti-Earth religious movement calling for revolution. The Order of Saint Rita-whose mission is to provide aid and mercy to those in need-bore witness to and defied Central Governance’s atrocities on the remote planet Phyosonga III. Decades later, trouble is brewing in the Four Systems, and Old Earth is flexing its power in a bid to regain control over its lost territories. Not long ago, Earth’s colonies and space stations threw off the yoke of planet Earth’s tyrannical rule. “We lit the spark, maybe we should be here for the flames.” The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita navigate the far reaches of space and challenges of faith in Sisters of the Forsaken Stars, the follow-up to Lina Rather's Sisters of the Vast Black, winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society Award.
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