SciFi Novella Review: Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Sisters of the Vast Black is a short SciFi Novella from author Lina Rather featuring a religious convent in space (and not sisters in the familial sense).  It's a story about faith, about sin, and about purpose - in a universe which has just recovered from a major civil war.  It's really a story about a group of people whose goals are mainly to help others in whatever little ways they can, while trying to handle the other issues in their lives as well.  And as such, it does work nicely, even if it seems kind of too short to be especially profound.




Plot Summary:  The Sisters of the living ship Our Lady of Impossible Constellations are a motley bunch - a Reverend Mother who has taken a vow of silence,  a Sister who has no faith, another Sister who has fallen in love, etc.  But whatever their differences, and whatever their issues of faith, they each have dedicated themselves to doing good - traveling in their ship throughout the four systems to aid those in need.  But the sisters have collected a number of dangerous secrets that could change everything, and the arrival of a new priest from Earth, with different ideas about the importance of religion as compared to providing aid, threatens to change the balance.  So when a disaster strikes, the Sisters will have to make a choice as to what path to take, a path which may put them in greater peril all out on their lonesomes.....

Thoughts:   It's hard to describe the plot of this novella without going far too in-depth, but centrally it's the story about a group of women who have dedicated their lives for various reasons to helping others, only to be interfered with by central authorities with other - sometimes sinister - agendas.  It's a very likable cast, even including the one member who has a terrible secret history, and they're easy to root for as they face interference from men and governments who try to get in their way.  And the plot works well, with plot developments early on setting up later reveals nicely and leading up to the final conclusion, which arguably could lead to future stories in this universe, though I suspect it won't.  Still, despite this novel featuring some nice characters and a plot that works, it's so brief (Amazon lists it as 162 pages, but it reads like significantly less) that it made little impact on me overall, and I suspect I'd forget all about it if I didn't keep track of books I read on a spreadsheet.  Maybe there was no longer version of this that could've worked, I don't know, but as it is, this is just a novella that is solid....and nothing more.