Sisters of the Vast Black

Lina Rather
Completed 11/28/2025, Reviewed 11/28/2025
4 stars

I had a tough time getting into this “nuns in space” novella.  It’s only 160 pages, but it took me the first sixty to get into the story.  Then I was completely sucked in.  I have a fondness for rebellious nuns, and specifically, radical lesbian ex-nuns with guitars, having been friends with several throughout my life.  They take the Gospel message seriously, providing good works and focusing on peace and justice.  This completely replaced the image I had of nuns from my experience in Catholic school as mostly being castrating and abusive, perverting the Gospel for conformity and punishment.  The story began feeling conformist but jumped into a battle against an oppressive new government colluding with the Church for galactic control.  

The book begins with introductions to the sisters of the Order of St. Rita on their living, breathing space convent, the Our Lady of Impossible Constellations.  They travel in space providing services to those in need.  Despite their call to live open, honest lives, they all have secrets.  Mother Superior has a dark past associated with the destructive revolution on Earth.  Now she hides aboard the Our Lady in a vow of silence so as not to give away her true identity.  Sister Gemma, the ship’s maintenance-biologist, has a secret love on another ship.  Other nuns have varying gifts and inner demons as well.  They are all arguing about the theological implications of allowing the ship to follow its own instincts to mate.  Some of the nuns want to preserve its virginity because it is a consecrated entity.  Amidst this contact, they answer a call from a new colony to perform some marriages and baptism and to bless the colony.  Some time after their visit, they get a desperate call from that same colony that they have been infected by the horrible plague and need help.  However, a priest sent by the new pope to bring the Order under rein refuses to allow it, opting for proselytization over service, sending them into a conflict about following the Gospel message or kowtowing to the whims of the oppressive Church-backed government. 

Yes, that was a long plot summary.  For a novella, it packs a lot of information.  I think that may be part of why it took so long to get into it.  It also took a while to get into the idea that the nuns were living inside a living creature genetically developed to fly through space and house humans.  Quite the conceit to wrap one’s head around.  And then to be dumped in the middle of a heated debate about allowing the ship to reproduce, it kind of made my head explode.  But it all came together after the first third when I finally suspended disbelief.  I also got into the more when the secrets of the nuns were made more clear and more specific.  And yes, at least one of the nuns is lesbian 😊.  That made me happy.  

Mother Superior was a very interesting character.  It takes a long time to unravel her past, considering that she only communicates through sign language and is even spare with that.  Somehow, she escaped the massive bombing of London at the beginning of the revolution that radically changed life on Earth.  And while dealing with being head of this Order in a state of disarray, she seems to be experiencing the onset of Alzheimer’s.  Her mind gets unstuck in time and she panics, forcing her translator to figure out what’s going on with the slurred signing.  But you get the sense that she was a powerful force back on Earth and has been using that skill as the leader of the Order.

It is through Sister Gemma that we get the complete picture of the spaceship creature.  It has interesting little details, like the moss that grows around standing feet to help stabilize the person in zero-g and acceleration.  There’s also an intimate moment between Gemma and the ship when she goes into its reproductive area to observe the eggs being produced and to read the communications with her girlfriend from another ship.  It is because of the ovulating ship, Gemma falling in love, and Mother Superior’s Alzheimer’s that we learn of the conscience conflicts of the other featured nuns in the story.  This personal conflict sets the stage for the decision they all must make whether to answer the call of the plague infected colony or follow the new orders of Rome by acceding to the new priest on board.

I ultimately really liked this book.  It is the in-person book club selection for December.  Being so short, I may try to reread it before book club to get the full impact of its beginning.  I give this book four stars out of five.  It felt really good to read about nuns making the radical choice to follow Jesus’ message rather than the Church’s nationalist mandate.  It warmed my heart during this time of spiritual despair over current events.  

The Hyperspace Enigma Part 1: Destination Unknown

Adam Andrews Johnson
Completed 11/27/2025, Reviewed 11/27/2025
4 stars

This book was a hoot and a half.  I bought it at Beaverton Pride last June at the author’s booth, along with its sequel.  He was an hysterical guy and I thought his books would be too.  This one certainly is.  It’s not great literature, but it’s excellent fluff.  Imagine an out-of-control Star Wars in a queer-normative universe with tons of puns, glorious drag queens, hunky gay mandroids, tough lesbian bounty hunters, people-eating giants, abducted children needing to be saved, a ton of space pirates, and a lot of “pew pew” (laser gun battles).  Everything, including the plot, is outrageous and fabulous.  I read this in two days and wished I had brought the sequel with me on my Thanksgiving vacation because it leaves you on a cliffhanger. 

The story begins on a spaceship that’s an all-male “reverse harem.”  One mandroid named 5NTR0M  (pronounced Phentrom) experiences a programming snafu and experiences real falling in love with Lyoth.  The ship’s computer declares him a danger to the crew and needs to be decommissioned for study.  But when that fails, the compassionate captain chooses to place the two lovers to a cozy island world, away from nasty computers that want to harm Phentrom.  However, they are abandoned there when a mutiny happens.  They discover that the planet has become a haven for space pirates.  They meet Stawren and her father Jintrin, who runs a drag bar.  Stawren, Lyoth, Phentrom, and a few others decide to lead a revolt to wipe the space pirates off the planet.  It turns out Lyoth is not just a lover, he has quite the heroic past.  Then they discover the mutiny plot and pursue the ship to save the captain and the faithful crew.  This leads them to a prison lab at the end of the known universe, an unreliable wormhole, and a plot to overthrow the governments of the known universe.  

Yes, it’s all very silly, but it’s also very enjoyable.  The characters are rather wooden, but still somehow, very sweet.  For most of the book, they are all unbelievably amazing at getting out of jams and leading rebellions.  Things don’t get dicey for them until very end, during the lead up to the cliffhanger.  One of my favorite scenes is when a bounty hunter tries to capture Phentrom at the drag bar and it turns out Priestess the drag performer is the bounty hunter’s boyfriend.  He humiliates him into surrendering up Phentrom, throwing enough shade for an episode of Drag Race and threatening to withhold sex.  It’s quite hysterical.

There were times when I thought the writing was clunky, with statements like, “They had a great time,” or “They really enjoyed themselves.”  But I forgave the author those unnecessary obvious statements because the overall effect of the romp is just so fun.  I think if I was a hardcore reviewer, I would say this is maybe a three-star book.  But I also like to support the indie writers, especially in the LGBTQIA+ community.  So I give this book four stars out of five.  To me, a fun, fluff novel is just as worth the investment as serious genre literature.  The escapism is worth it to me.  It is more fulfilling than a 600 page, dark, depressing, heavy handed space opera.  And I must say, the world building is absolutely terrific!

Baldr's Secret Mate

Blake R Wolfe
Completed 11/26/2025, Reviewed 11/26/2025
4 stars

This third and final volume in the Mated to the Viking Alpha series is a surprisingly terrific ending to the trilogy.  The plot closely resembles that of the second book, Loki’s Enemy Mate.  However, it also provides a stunning conclusion to the conflict between the three brothers and Tyr, the maniacal leader of the rival pack.  I was impressed by the imagination of the author and his ability to incorporate Norse mythological concepts besides the characters’ names.  Yeah, it’s still a spicy M/M romantasy, but it transcends the mundane for an exciting climax.  It almost relies on a deus ex machina.  I won’t explain how because of spoilers, but I will say that the conclusion is more powerful than I expected.  

In the last book, we discover that Tyr is grooming and abusing a boy witch with amazing but uncontrolled chaotic powers as a secret weapon to destroy the brothers and their pack.  Unbeknownst to Tyr, Baldr, the third brother who is part werewolf part witch, has been visiting the boy, named Mist.  Every day, Baldr sits outside the dome and keeps Mist company, reading science fiction and fantasy and telling him about his pack.  He does this because Baldr has visions of his impending death and Mist is part of that vision.  In the process, Baldr gets the strong sense that Mist is his fated mate.  The two fall in love, but of course they hide it from each other, as they have no way to break through the dome.  After a devastating attack on the spa, Baldr finds his mother’s spell book and finds a way to cut into the dome to free Mist.  But Tyr catches them in the act and Baldr opens a portal into which they escape.  They end up in a different dimension.  The two must find a way back to their home dimension and put an end to Tyr’s rampage against the brothers.

Baldr is the gentlest brother of the three.  Having a different mother than Thor and Loki, and being part witch with terrible visions of the future, Baldr has developed into a kind, sensitive werewolf.  His flaw is that he believes he can’t allow himself to fall in love because he has seen his own death in the battle against Tyr.  He keeps this info from Mist, hoping to prevent him from being hurt when Baldr’s death comes about.  However, when he and Mist escape from the dome into the other dimension, they can’t help the natural progression of their love for each other.  The strength they derive from their mating helps them survive getting back home where they try to put together a plan to end Tyr’s tyranny once and for all.

I have to say that I was surprised and pleased with the plot of these books.  What I first thought would be silly, sexy fluff turned out to be very satisfying.  Yeah, the spicy parts are good, but ultimately, you want art.  While not as prosy as, say, Fourth Wing, this trilogy was well thought out and integrated Norse mythology more than just using the names of the gods.  The characters have depth and inner conflict and embody the characteristics of the mythical beings they are named after.  Even Tyr, the violent sociopath, turns out deliciously evil in how he manipulates the fear in all the good characters.  I give this book a surprising four stars out of five.  While not a literary masterpiece, it is surprisingly well constructed with a terrific ending.  For full enjoyment, I suggest if you read these books, look up all the names of the characters as you come across them.  It will give you insight into the characters’ personalities, motivation, and flaws.  This was definitely a good find.   

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir
Completed 11/23/2025, Reviewed 11/25/2025
5 stars

Like The Martian, this book was an exercise in using science to solve problems in space.  While The Martian was engineering-based solutions, this book was based on pure science.  It’s perhaps the reason that I absolutely loved this book.  It was thrilling and fast-paced.  The characters were multi-dimensional.  And it was a book of hope.  It’s a first contact novel where both the human and the alien person cooperated to solve an apocalyptic problem affecting both their home planets.  It didn’t follow the trope of the alien being superior or inferior.  Instead, the human was better at pure science and the alien was better at engineering the solutions.  I found it an exhilarating experience.  This book was nominated for a 2022 Hugo Award.

Ryland Grace wakes up with almost total amnesia.  He doesn’t know who or where he is.  His two companions are dead, desiccated to mummy-like remains.  In the first 50 or so pages, he wanders around trying to piece together what’s going on.  Through a long series of sudden flashbacks, he finds out his name and that he is on a spaceship to figure out how to stop tiny organisms from feeding off the sun, which is causing quick cooling on Earth.  Once he gets close to the destination star, a star that seems to have those organisms without suffering any loss, he spots an alien craft.  He approaches the craft and sees a creature inside.  Through a series of gestures, he approaches.  The alien builds a tunnel between the crafts.  When they meet, they do so between a wall to separate their atmospheres.  The alien lives in an ammonia heavy atmosphere twenty-nine times that of Earth.  They slowly learn to communicate.  The alien speaks in music and uses touch and perhaps something sonar-like to see.  Grace uses a spreadsheet and music software to create a rudimentary dictionary as they communicate with music and touching through the wall.  Once they’re successful, Grace discovers the alien, whom he names Rocky, is there for the same reason.  Together they try to find the solution, Grace with his superior science background, and Rocky with his excellent engineering skills.  But as Grace’s memory continues to return, he finds out the devastating truth of his involvement in the mission.

The progress of the relationship between Grace and Rocky is amazingly well-crafted.  Weir wrote a near perfect first contact story.  They find a way to communicate despite the vast differences in their makeup and senses.  They are nearly equal in intelligence.  Each knows some things the other doesn’t.  And both are willing to give their all to find the solution that will save their home planets.  It was interesting that both are in similar circumstances.  The other two crew members on Grace’s ship died during the journey while in medically induced comas.  Rocky came with 23 other crew members and all of them died for unknown reasons.  Grace figures out why they died, having more knowledge of the dangers of space travel.  Rocky, on the other hand, is the better engineer, having the knowledge and equipment to create the solutions Grace proposes.  Rocky also is the better linguist, figuring out how to speak in idiomatic American English through his musical language.  It’s all quite remarkable and believable how they come to a partnership with a common goal and eventually become friends.

I also found the use of the amnesia to justify the flashbacks to be masterful.  It spread the info dumps over the course of the plot with Grace and Rocky, eventually revealing an amazing twist that could completely derail Grace’s motivation to succeed.   Flashbacks can be clunky.  Here, they were perfect.  They also introduce other characters from Earth, from the early days of the discovery of the organisms to the launching of the Project Hail Mary spacecraft.  The major character handling the crisis was named Stratt.  She was basically made a god-like program manager by the UN, forcing the project to move forward regardless of the cost in money, resources, and lives.  She has a great statement later in the book that when this is over, she’s probably going to jail for her iron fist approach and reckless spending.  However, it’s all justified in that she has to make this happen to save the Earth.  

I give this book five out of five stars.  I was completely sucked into Grace and Rocky’s psyches.  Though the book is narrated in first person by Grace, Rocky was just as loveable.  And the ending is incredibly uplifting.  I won’t give it away, but it’s awesome.  This book is very readable, with easy prose and science told in layman’s terms.  I CLEP’ed out of college biology 45 years ago but still understood everything that was going on.  I read this for online book club and it had 100% agreement on liking the book, which is very unusual.  Some people pointed out some flaws, but I thought they were far overshadowed by the spirit and execution. 2022 was a year with some excellent nominees for the Hugo Award.  I wouldn’t have minded at all if this book had taken the award.  

300,000 Hits!!

Wow, I can’t believe I got another hundred-thousand hits in less than six months!  For all the real people out there reading my blog, Thanks So Very Much!!  I’ve been cranking through an awful lot of books.  Having been unemployed now for just over four months, I have a lot of extra energy to devote to reading.  As promised, I’ve started on some gay romantasy, alternating with more reputable titles😂.  And I’m getting through books I picked up at Seattle WorldCon...which was awesome!  Well, I did get sick, probably COVID even though I never tested positive for it.  I’m still planning to go WorldCon next year in Anaheim and Montreal in 2027.  

Anyway, thanks again to my loyal followers.  I hope this blog gives you some ideas for your own reading pleasure.  

Loki’s Enemy Mate

Blake R Wolfe
Completed 11/18/2025, Reviewed 11/23/2025
3 stars

Second book in the Mated to the Viking Alpha series.  Another spicy M/M romantasy featuring the second werewolf brother Loki.  This book began more seriously than Thor’s Unexpected Mate and ends with an intense cliffhanger.  The overarching plot is more complex than I expected.  I have to give the author props for coming up with tragic family dynamics that make this short novel better than simple erotica.  The prose is straight forward and the enemies to lovers trope is well done.  

At the end of the last book, Loki left the family to get revenge on Tyr by himself against Thor and Baldr’s wishes.  He can’t handle that Thor has mated with a descendent of werewolf hunters.  He goes to confront Tyr who is out with his son Heimdall.  Tyr commands Heimdall to kill Loki.  During the fight, the ground opens up below them, leaving them trapped in a cave.  Tyr just walks away.  When they recover, they begrudgingly cooperate to escape.  In the process, an attraction between them grows, realizing they are fated to be mates.  Once consummated, they realize they have to compromise over what to do with Tyr.  Loki wants him dead, but Heimdall doesn’t, being his son.  And we know Tyr isn’t going to accept their relationship.  So they must come up with a plan to punish Tyr without killing him so that they can bring the two families together.

I was impressed by how well the author got Loki to go from angry, bitter, and grieving to realizing how he let his emotions put a wall between himself and his family.  The softening process takes most of the search for an exit from the cave.  It’s slow, steady, and more believable than I expected.   Heimdall, on the other hand, is quite the sensitive soul.  He cries easily and allows himself to feel his emotions.  Despite blindly believing in Tyr, he also undergoes a transformation.  He comes to recognize his father is not a good person, and is in fact, a brutal, narcissistic murderer.  But cognitive dissonance remains, which is what softens Loki’s drive for vengeance.  

Most of the action takes place in the cave.  It’s quite claustrophobic for the characters and the reader, as they try to avoid gaping holes in the floor while looking for an exit, all with a single cell phone’s flashlight feature.  This book is just over 200 pages, but it takes its time with changing belief systems and plotting ways to stay together as mates, despite what their families may say.  I give it three stars out of five.  It’s intense and sensitive and occasionally fun.  I’m looking forward to the next book wrapping everything together.  

Brigands and Breadknives

Travis Baldree
Completed 11/17/2025, Reviewed 11/17/2025
4 stars

This is the official sequel to Legends and Lattes.  Baldree’s other book, Bookshops and Bonedust, was a prequel.  This book features Fern, the owner of the bookshop in the prequel.  She has a foul mouth and is discontented.  This is her accidental exploration of what she does and does not want to do with the rest of her life.  It’s another cozy fantasy, although there’s more action than in the first two.  I didn’t feel very engaged with it until the end when I wished it would go on.  I think books about discontent make me feel discontent, even with the book itself.  It is almost meta, where I have the same feelings of the main character to the point that I stay as disengaged as they do.  This book was just released and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.  I really like Baldree’s prose.  I think he has become the epitome of the cozy fantasy genre, the way I feel that TJ Klune has become the epitome of cozy LGBTQ+ fantasy.

Unhappy where she is, Fern sells her bookstore from her sleepy coastal home in Murk in hopes that Viv, the Orc owner of the Legends and Lattes coffee shop, will welcome her and help her start a new bookshop in Thune.  However, Fern quickly becomes restless again.  She has a night out drinking with Cal, the handyman, revealing her dilemma and gets quite drunk.  She tries to wander home but ends up passed out in a parked carriage.  Next thing she knows, she’s riding with the legendary Astryx, a thousand-year-old elf with a long, storied past as a mercenary and bounty hunter.  Astryx has captured a goblin named Zyll who is wanted in a town about three days away.  With Thune already being a day and a half behind them by carriage, Fern reluctantly agrees to go with them rather than try to walk back alone through the dangerous woods.  This time away gives Fern the opportunity to reflect on her life choices and determine if she really wants to go back to the bookshop in Thune and Viv’s generous circle of friends.  However, Zyll is being pursued by other bounty hunters, putting the party in continuous danger.  

Fern is quite an interesting character.  She’s depressed with no sense of what will satisfy her restless longing for something else.  Astryx is famous throughout the land.  Fern has read many stories about Astryx’s exploits and is excited to be part of an adventure.  But again, she questions her decision to remain in the party once they begin encountering danger.  However, she more or less bonds with the aloof elf, becoming a sort of squire, although she doesn’t exactly feel worthy. She’s exhilarated and terrified with each attack on the party.  She constantly questions herself and her motives, but is always intrigued by Astryx, Zyll, and the other creatures they meet.  

Astryx is larger than life and two dimensional to Fern, but there’s more to Astryx than meets the eye.  It takes a while, but her depth comes forth as the bond between the two women tighten.  While I thought Astryx was pretty cool, I found Zyll to be much more fun and entertaining.  The goblin wears a patchwork jacket with tons of pockets.  Zyll regularly reaches into her pockets which are much deeper than they appear and retrieves something that the party needs to escape their pursuers.  She feigns not speaking the common tongue and surprisingly disappears from the carriage, free from her bonds, only to return later with her hands once again tied together.  Zyll is a mystery, but fun and amazing to the reader and Fern and Astryx.  She has a penchant for stealing silverware and kitchen utensils.  Her antics and insights made the moroseness of Fern and the aloofness of Astryx seem tolerable and humorous.  

Besides Zyll, comedy arises from the talking sword and breadknife.  Nigel and Breadlee, respectively, were imbued with sentience during forging and are powerful weapons.  However, they are also overly chatty and stuffy with foppish egos.  Nigel prides himself by being the sword of Astryx while Breadlee, a former sword diminished to a breadknife, is jealous of Nigel and wants to be the primary weapon of the elf.  They provide commentary that’s both hilarious and annoying.  Fortunately, Baldree knew how to use them in the right amounts throughout the narrative so that they weren’t as obnoxious to the reader as they were to the main characters.  

I basically saw the end coming, though the adventures and self-discovery were a good journey for me as the reader as well as for the three main characters.  Though I had trouble getting into the story in general, I didn’t want it to end as much as Astryx and Fern didn’t want it to end.  Despite being chased by dangerous bounty hunters trying to steal or kill Zyll, the book is still a cozy fantasy.  I enjoy Baldree’s prose and the universe he created.  I give this book four out of five stars.