★★☆☆☆
(Space Opera) The Reverend Mother is fighting dementia and hiding a terrible secret; one of the nuns has lost her faith, another has fallen in love, and their living spaceship wants to reproduce. (34,938 words; Time: 1h:56m)
See related articles on Tor.com.
"Sisters of the Vast Black," by Lina Rather [bio] (edited by Christie Yant), published on October 29, 2019 by Tor Publishing.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.631 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The last part of the story has plenty of excitement and tension. The big revelation about the Reverend Mother makes sense and her story winds up in a very satisfying way.
Sister Faustina’s moment of faith during the confrontation with the soldier was pretty moving too.
Con: The story doesn’t get interesting until 65% of the way into it, and the first two-thirds is really dull. None of the characters is particularly interesting, and their individual conflicts don’t really help drive the story.
The science is very poor, and gratuitous bad science turns up every few pages, so it’s a systemic problem. For example, the threat of cows knocking a space station out of orbit. Or California falling into the ocean. Or helium being a nutrient for a giant space slug.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Lina Rather Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: The last part of the story has plenty of excitement and tension. The big revelation about the Reverend Mother makes sense and her story winds up in a very satisfying way.
Sister Faustina’s moment of faith during the confrontation with the soldier was pretty moving too.
Con: The story doesn’t get interesting until 65% of the way into it, and the first two-thirds is really dull. None of the characters is particularly interesting, and their individual conflicts don’t really help drive the story.
The science is very poor, and gratuitous bad science turns up every few pages, so it’s a systemic problem. For example, the threat of cows knocking a space station out of orbit. Or California falling into the ocean. Or helium being a nutrient for a giant space slug.
Other Reviews: Search Web, GoodReads.com
Lina Rather Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
No comments (may contain spoilers):
Post a Comment (comment policy)