Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 15, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars by Lina Rather
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars is the sequel to 2019's Sisters of the Vast Black (Reviewed Here), scifi novella featuring a convent of very different nuns traveling the outskirts of human space on a living ship, who found themselves struggling with their pasts, their faiths, and their duties towards religion and to helping other most of all when they find themselves in the middle of a conflict between a corrupt Earth government and a distant colony world. It was a solid story with some very nice themes and pretty good characters...but it was also so short that it didn't really make as much of an impact as it might have otherwise.
Sisters of the Forsaken Stars follows up on that first novella (don't read this one first) with a story that feels more like the middle of a trilogy, and again feels awfully short. Still it's again a solid story, of a group of women now seemingly adrift on the run, unsure what to do now that their circumstances have changed, with their faith challenged, and with their life on the run hindering them from the one thing that kept them together - helping people, especially with the galaxy on the verge of war due to their actions and the actions of the tyrant Earth government. It's again very solid, but again feels almost too short for what it's trying to do, in addition to feeling like a middle chapter in a longer story.
Quick Plot Summary: The Sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on the run, now on a nameless child ship, after their Reverend Mother and their former living ship, Our Lady of Impossible Constellations sacrificed themselves to help them get away after saving a distant colony from a plague created by the tyrannical Central Government of Earth. They still want to answer their calling - to help people - but how can they do that without being arrested for their actions? But as their faith remains shaken, they soon discover that the story of what they did is starting to spread, in various forms, and that they will not have the option of merely remaining on the run and hiding forever......
Thoughts: Sisters of the Forsaken Stars has some very interesting ideas and character developments behind it, with its main plot following the remaining Sisters on their new nameless child ship, and a subplot dealing with ex-sister Gemma, trying to adjust to life with the woman she loves, but without the cause of helping people (the two plots never fully intersect, with that presumably set to happen in a third book, but their themes work well together). You have a group of women whose faiths were shaken by the atrocities they've seen, whose faiths were shaken by a reveal that their former leader was an ex-war criminal (who then sacrificed herself to save their lives), and who still want to help people....but are deathly afraid of being caught. You then have those people interacting not just with each other, but with various others - a survivor from the colony who wants to use their actions to start a revolution, two cast outs who join their ships for various reasons with potential ulterior motives - and well you have a pretty good story about faith, about healing, about whether redemption is possible, and about how they should all find a path moving forwards and if they can avoid taking a side. This is still very enjoyable while it lasts.
But not only is it seemingly clearly a middle chapter in a three novella story, but this novella itself is so short that you rarely have time for big events and character developments to hit. And so we go from discovery of new things and new developments for 2/3 of the book right to a climax, and it just feels like this novella again could've used more pages to explore things. And so this again doesn't hit the feelings or whatnot enough to really be super memorable, even as it's still fine and good.
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