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sophia_sol) wrote2022-10-25 08:29 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2022-10-25 08:29 pm
Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather
This book started out SO strong, with a bunch of space nuns living in a living spaceship grown from a species of slug, each of the nuns with their own personalities and foibles and strengths and weaknesses that make living together in a small, isolated community a fun challenge. And it was so good at this!!! So good!!!!!! But then we went and had plot happen.
First of all, it's a plot about plague, and I don't love that kind of thing too much anymore. And second of all, it's a plot specifically about how the government is trying to nefariously do horrible things to people via secret ingredients they put into vaccines, and I REALLY don't love THAT kind of thing anymore!!!
And then the conclusion is so depressing, that although yes they were able to save the lives of a scant few people, war and plague and death are inevitably coming on a vast scale, and they're just a few tiny insignificant people who will be doing what small acts they can to try to make everything slightly less horrible. And this conclusion COULD have been done in a way that made me feel hopeful? But it wasn't. It was just "yeah everything sucks now."
I also don't love that it was the mother superior's husband who invented the horrible deadly plague in question; she has enough of her own interestingly complicated backstory already, she doesn't need that to add extra tragedy/connection/whatever. Plus I guess I don't like that the plague IS a human creation from the start, rather than a natural plague that is being co-opted for evil.
But. The part where it was weird nuns in space each being their own very human person, that was SO good. I want to read more of that novel :(
I struggled with how to rate this book, because the first part of the book is EASILY 5 stars, but then the question is how much the rest of it pulls down the rating. I ended up deciding on 3 stars, but I'm really not convinced about that, because the first part WAS so incredibly good. Sigh.
First of all, it's a plot about plague, and I don't love that kind of thing too much anymore. And second of all, it's a plot specifically about how the government is trying to nefariously do horrible things to people via secret ingredients they put into vaccines, and I REALLY don't love THAT kind of thing anymore!!!
And then the conclusion is so depressing, that although yes they were able to save the lives of a scant few people, war and plague and death are inevitably coming on a vast scale, and they're just a few tiny insignificant people who will be doing what small acts they can to try to make everything slightly less horrible. And this conclusion COULD have been done in a way that made me feel hopeful? But it wasn't. It was just "yeah everything sucks now."
I also don't love that it was the mother superior's husband who invented the horrible deadly plague in question; she has enough of her own interestingly complicated backstory already, she doesn't need that to add extra tragedy/connection/whatever. Plus I guess I don't like that the plague IS a human creation from the start, rather than a natural plague that is being co-opted for evil.
But. The part where it was weird nuns in space each being their own very human person, that was SO good. I want to read more of that novel :(
I struggled with how to rate this book, because the first part of the book is EASILY 5 stars, but then the question is how much the rest of it pulls down the rating. I ended up deciding on 3 stars, but I'm really not convinced about that, because the first part WAS so incredibly good. Sigh.