Excellent. What else can I say about sisters of the Forsaken Stars? This is the follow up to Sisters of the Vast Black, which I gave a very enthusiastic review for a couple years ago. Just like Becky Chambers, this author creates hopeful SF- a future that doesn't sugarcoat problems, but makes you feel better after you've read it. Here we pick up after the events of the last book- it's been a year or so and the Sisters are on the run, having made themselves a target by interrupting some very bad events.  

I loved revisiting the Sisters. Lucia is now the abbess and it just felt like revisiting old friends. I love how small yet vast this setting is- not as expansive, say, as Becky Chambers' universe, but big enough to evoke that sense of awe. Water worlds, planets with strange skies... this is why I read SF. Anyway, the Sisters are on the run, but they have to make a decision- keep running, or make a stand (and stand by their story, because news of what they did is leaking out). 

Just to recap- the Sisters are an itinerant order of nuns who travel on a liveship- an actual living organism that plies the starlanes. They help others in need, but after the events of the previous book they are no longer in the good graces of the Church. They've been keeping a low profile, but things are changing. And meanwhile something is happening in the far reaches of space that could change everything- and one who has left their number is there to experience this.  

I could honestly take more stories in this milieu. There is an exploration of faith- what does that mean when you're such a vast distance away- or not even a part of your religious order now? And don't let the church thing dissuade you from reading this- there are universal aspirations and questions we're dealing with here, not just Catholic ones. And this story moves fast- arguably too fast, for here (as in the first novella) I thought they get places a little too fast- the story moves a little too quick- but honestly- that's my only complaint. Anyway, again, this has to be experienced- it amazes me how much I can care for these characters in such a short time. 

One of my favorite reads of the year- not a surprise- and I really hope we get more stories in this universe. This world and the Murderbot milieu- there's some optimistic science fiction going on at the moment and I need it. The biggest thing for me with this is the sense of hope- and the sense of wonder- that's what I read SF for.