A grim but effective tale of interplanetary conflict and societal loyalties

Content note: Sexual Slavery, references to rape and sexual abuse

The First Sister opens on a solar system at war between the Icarii, humans who live on Mercury and Venus and have harnessed advanced technology based on a mineral that's only found there, and the Geans, who claim Earth and Mars and rely on scavenged tech and a radicalised religious population to maintain their own strength. With poverty and inequality rife in the societies of both sides, two very different individuals are thrown into the war for their own survival, and both have their already fragile loyalties tested as they start to uncover the reality behind the structures that govern their cultures.

The first of these characters is the titular First Sister, who serves on a ship as part of the Gean's religious order, and is effectively a comfort woman for the soldiers who use her to confess their sins and are then entitled to her body. The Sisters undergo an ambiguous procedure which removes the memory of their names, and prevents them from being able to speak; even the title "First Sister" is a transient one, a position which she has won by ingratiating herself with the captain of her ship; if she loses the position, the protagonist would go back to being completely nameless. Because of her rank, First Sister has made herself exclusively available to the Captain, winning herself a reprieve from sexual assault from the entire crew, but at the opening of the book her former Captain leaves, breaking his promise to take her home with him, and she is forced to try and build a relationship with the unorthodox new captain, Saito Ren. It should be noted that while the threat of rape hangs over First Sister due to her position, and she euphemistically mentions a couple of past assaults, there are no depictions of rape or anything more than brief unwanted physical contact during the story's present. There also aren't any instances where "safe" characters suddenly turn on her for shock value. Lewis does an effective job building up the horror of the Sisterhood and what they are expected to do without having to resort to the shock value of actually depicting rape, and I'm grateful to the book for treading that line so effectively.

Providing the view from the Icarii side is Lito Sol Lucius, a man from a poor family on the Venusian city of Cytherea who has risen to become a duelist, training at an elite academy to become one of the Icarii's Special Forces. All Icarii soldiers are given neural implants and in the case of the duelists, they are paired with another soldier, one becoming a "rapier" and the other a "dagger", both playing slightly different roles in their missions with the rapier given tactical command. Lito has recently lost the dagger he was paired with, Hiro Val Akira, after a mission on the contested asteroid Ceres; now it turns out that Hiro is not dead but that they may have defected from the Icarii, and Lito is given a new partner and charged with tracking them down. Interspersed with Lito and the First Sister's chapters are "recordings" which it quickly becomes apparent are from Hiro's point of view, as they recollect the events that led to their disappearance, as well as their own family history as child of the dynasty which created the implants and much of the other technology that makes Icarii society function.

The First Sister sets up a grim world, where at least for the first few chapters its hard for us to think beyond the characters' survival. This is particularly true for First Sister, whose distress at being abandoned and put at risk of losing her tenuous sense of security is incredibly hard to read. However, as the characters start to get a little more comfortable in their circumstances and find the space to start questioning broader elements of their situations, things start to get juicy very quickly. The relationship between First Sister and Saito Ren, while uncomfortable in some of its romantic elements (this isn't a romance plotline, just to be clear, and those feelings seem to be largely one-sided), sets up some really interesting questions about Ren's history and current views; equally intriguing are the glimpses we get of the Sisterhood, and the motivations of the Aunt on the ship who attempts to use First Sister to gain information on the captain. As Lito is less confined, it is through him that we see some of the wider world of The First Sister, including Ceres - which has recently changed hands from Icarii to Gean control - and the Asters, a culture of humans who have undergone extensive genetic modification to live in the less habitable parts of space, and are now considered a separate species and constantly discriminated against in Icarii society. Both characters' positioning is effective in showing the war crimes and oppresiveness of their respective societies, from the horrors of the Icarii neural implant process, the threats made against Lito's families, and the treatment of the Asters, to the normalisation of sexual slavery in Gean religion and the secretive, misogynistic nature of the power structures behind it.

After an uncertain start, I was intrigued enough by the character-driven mysteries of The First Sister that it kept me reading very effectively. Being the first book in a series, the climax of this novel answers some questions, but it leaves the character arcs hanging to some extent, particularly when it comes to a reveal around one specific character which upends a lot of what we thought about them throughout the book. In a way, both First Sister and Lito achieve some of their initial goals, only to have the realities of the world they live in make those goals far more complicated than they first thought. It's an odd climax in some ways - that character reveal mentioned above didn't do much for me at all - but satisfying enough for a series opener even while I might have preferred some more closure for the amount of emotional turmoil some aspects of this story put me through. That's probably me expecting too much from grimdark adventures though - and if you go into this expecting that to be the case, I think you'll enjoy it just fine.

Having noted above that I think The First Sister deals sensitively with the sexual violence inherent in its premise, I was much more disappointed with its depiction of disability, which comes across as much less thought through. One of the defining characteristics of the Sisters is that they can't speak, due to the mysterious operation conducted on them when they enter the sisterhood. They have a sign language, but knowledge of this is restricted to the sisters themselves and their Aunts, and writing is considered taboo, meaning that there is no way for First Sister and her kin to communicate with the soldiers around her. This inability to communicate freely with the sisters she doesn't think she can trust and the Aunt who is actively putting her into a dangerous situation is an effective part of the book - but it's done in a way that minimises the role of sign languages as complete, useful languages in their own right. There's nothing to suggest that the sign language that the Sisters use is incomplete or limited in vocabulary, but even in the opening chapter First Sister laments that it's their "only" language. More frustratingly, a late plot point involves some sisters regaining the ability to talk, and these characters immediately express relief and jump to using spoken communication even though they already had the ability to sign and mutually understand each other. What starts out as a rather on-the-nose symbol of the Sisters' powerlessness becomes tied up in an assumption that sign languages are an inherently lesser form of communication, and that's an inaccurate and deeply unfortunate portrayal given the number of people who use sign languages either exclusively or alongside verbal communication and most certainly aren't "voiceless" in any metaphorical sense.

That aside, The First Sister is a book that's highly effective in telling the story it wants to tell - and it's a story that I found myself drawn into despite not initially being convinced by its grimness. While I'm reserving my full judgement to see how things play out in later books, this is a story that's got a lot of interesting places it could go and, linguistic ableism aside, I'm intrigued to see what First Sister, Lito and their friends get up to next.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +1 Feels a lot of care went into sensitively writing the sexual slavery aspects

Penalties: -1 An ending reveal that didn't really do it for me; -1 Throws sign languages under the bus for the sake of its metaphor around "voicelessness"

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10

POSTED BY: Adri, Nerds of a Feather co-editor, is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy

Reference: Lewis, Linden A. The First Sister [Hodder and Staughton/Skybound Books, 2020]

Another one I was late about. Now I will stay up to date! It was a good one, maybe a bit slow pace, but a story worth reading that I would recommend to my science-fiction geek friends!

The book did not really work for me. I DNF'ed it. I wasn’t able to connect with any of the many characters in the book and I found myself putting down the book a lot because it was never really catching my attention.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-arc of this book. My opinions are my own.

Let me start by saying I'm so glad this is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy! After finishing it I can't wait to read more about the characters in this book and to get to know them better!

At the beginning of this book we meet the First Sister of the 'Juno' spaceship. As an important priestess, she has no name and no voice. None of the sisters do. They are tasked with offering comfort and forgiveness to the soldiers aboard the space ship, in every way they can. When the spaceship First Sister is assigned to gets a new captain, Saito Ren, the Hero of Ceres, she must choose what's more important: loyalty or love?

We also meet Lito, an Icarii soldier. The Icarii are based on the planets Venus and Mercury and have long been at war with the Geans, of Earth and Mars. Lito has returned home after losing Ceres to the Geans. He is assigned a new mission - to find and kill his former partner-turned-traitor, Hiro.

I enjoyed this book so much. I loved the way the story lines came together and how there are so many twists and turns. I loved how there are queer relationships and a non-binary character in this book and how that's just a given. There's nothing weird about it, it's not used as a plot device. It's completely natural and fits the story perfectly.

It might have been nice to learn more about the backgrounds of the characters and the worlds they live in, but I'm hoping that will be addressed in the other books in this series!

I absolutely loved this book! It was just so gripping from start to finish, with so many unexpected twists and turns that made my jaw drop. Probably one of the best books I've read all year. I would say this book is a mix of Space Opera and Dystopian. It was set in space but the governing bodies had a dystopian feel about them. 

I really enjoyed the world building in this book, basically we found out stuff when it was necessary to know. There wasn't a huge amount of description but I still found it easy to imagine the places. The structure of this book also made it more enjoyable there was 3 point of views that gave us a full view of the world and what was going on. I loved how everything connected and came together really well. 

The story was really interested and I loved learning more about the different parts and the ongoing war between the different places. This book was full of lots of brilliant twists and turns but the one at the end I never would have expected but it also made so much sense! There was a lot of action and fight scenes, it was a fast paced book from start to finish.

Overall and absolutely fantastic book! I loved the setting, the story, the characters, the twists and turns were amazing and I literally have nothing bad to say! I loved every minute of it and cannot wait for the sequel!

Leí este libro por la recomendación de Susana de las Fata Libelli, que tiene ojo para según qué tipo de cosas. Nos encontramos ante una primera novela no exenta de fallos, pero muy atractiva para los que gusten de la space opera, como es el caso.

La premisa es cuando menos interesante, incluso diría que polémica. Uno de los tres puntos de vista sobre los que pivota la novela es el de la First Sister que le da título, una mujer perteneciente a una orden «religiosa» que le niega la voz y su propio nombre, y que está al servicio sexual de los soldados o la tripulación de las naves espaciales de su facción. Me resulta muy difícil comprender que una sociedad aparentemente evolucionada tenga que recurrir a esta esclavitud para satisfacer los deseos de los navegantes (aunque quizá esta sea precisamente su reivindicación) y este rechazo es uno de los principales problemas con los que me he encontrado durante la lectura. No porque no fuera interesante si no porque me provocaba repulsión.
Los otros puntos de vista, el de un duelista de la otra facción y las conversaciones grabadas de su pareja de lucha nos ayudan a componer una imagen poliédrica, en la que cada faceta nos permitirá comprender el universo completo. Y es un universo muy interesante, con la Tierra y Marte unidos tras una larga guerra y otros planetas y objetos del sistema solar colonizados y enfrentados a esta coalición. En este sentido, aunque la autora no se mete en muchas profundidades tecnológicas, es un posicionamiento verosímil.
También resulta un valor a tener en cuenta la crítica a la sociedad clasista que existe en ambas coaliciones, donde el dinero y el poder heredado te sitúan en una posición de salida en la carrera de la vida casi imposible de revertir solo por tus propios méritos. Es tan creíble que resulta doloroso, ya solo por nacer en las clases privilegiadas tu genética es eminentemente mejor. Puede incluso que tenga un carácter admonitorio, por que esto nos lo vamos a encontrar en un futuro cercano.
La narración y la historia resultan entretenidas, con algunos giros de guion inesperados y otros que quizá no lo sean tanto. El uso de implantes neuronales y la experimentación con ellos, como con cualquier tecnología novedosa, es un tema candente en la ciencia ficción y este libro trata el tema con ecuanimidad y mostrando pros y contras.
He pasado un poco por alto la orientación sexual de los implicados en la historia pero merece la pena mencionar el amplio espectro que se nos muestra, desde personajes no binarios a bisexuales.
En definitiva, recomiendo la lectura de The First Sister de Linden A. Lewis para conocer la obra de una nueva autora que dará que hablar.

The Geans, Icarii and Asters are pushing closer to war. Lito has to track down his old partner, and bring them to justice; and the First Sister will reveal the truth of her sect.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First Sister is one of the bright stars in a religious group, whose duty it is to listen to confessions and prayers of Gean soldiers, and to purge the lust from them, so they are not distracted in battle.
The priestess was taken from an orphanage when she was younger, had her voice removed (so soldiers can trust their confidentiality), and had to satisfy any of the soldiers who visit her, pretending that she welcomes the attention. Internally she is screaming, and looking for any respite. She won the favour of her previous captain, which meant she no longer had to service the crew - that task is left to the other sisters; but when he retires and leaves her behind, First Sister has to find a new haven.

Lito val Lucius is from a poor family, and has had to fight and scrape for his place as a famed duelist. He knows that he's always just one mis-step away from returning to the slums, with his dear sister in tow.
He is brought in on a special mission: his ex-partner Hiro appears to betray the Icarii, and it's up to Lito to track them down and kill them.

I love the diverse rep in this book, the characters are confident in who they are.
I found it incredibly positive, that the worlds already accept people as equals, regardless of their gender/non-binary/sexuality.
I really enjoyed Hiro's little narrations, as you learn more about them and the connection they treasure with Lito.

The plot is good, and doesn't get too bogged down in constant romance.
There's a revolution brewing, as Asters are fed up with their place, being lesser citizens, and the victims of scientific experiments. They are not welcome amongst the Icarii or the Geans; and it will take some powerful, sympathetic allies from each world to create a positive future.

But I got the feeling that the author wasn't sure what this book was about. We get a good character piece from Hiro. We get the budding romance between First Sister and Saito Ren. Both of these I thought were the strongest bits, but not enough to carry the book.

Likewise, the rebellion and the intergalactic conflicts weren't enough.
For the first 40% I had no clear idea what Geans and Icarii are, except that they all originated from Earth and are vaguely "enemies". They're all at war, and have been for a century or so.
It never felt like they were at war, and the background it is again kept very vague.

The First Sister finds the Sisterhood an atrocious order that steals young girls and forces them into glorified prostitution. As a reader, I can sympathise with her. But then... the Second Sister is happy with her calling?
I thought this could be explored more. Throughout the book, you never get a sense of what the other sisters are thinking or feeling towards their Sisterhood. First Sister spends so much of her time avoiding them, so she can't be implicated in any treason or punishment.

Overall, despite its subject matter, I would class this as a light read, with a sci-fi flavour. It has some interesting ideas, and doesn't get bogged down in the details.

A wonderful meditation on personhood and voices against a sci fi setting: the Handmaid's Tale comparisons are apt, however, I found that First Sister's anger and paranoia made a much more compelling character than Offred (though really, they're both great). If anything, I found myself rushing through Lito's sections to get to hers. Not that I have anything against Lito as a character- only that First Sister's story is much more interesting and original, while Lito's at times seems in danger of just becoming a standard sci fi thriller.

Overall, though, I highly recommend this book, and I regret that I left it so late to read it.

THE FIRST SISTER is probably most easily described as a cross between THE HANDMAIDS TALE and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE.

While it’s not technically hard sci-fi (more a space opera) it was closer to the science fiction end of the spectrum that I usually read, so it took me a little while to really find my feet.

The POV of THE FIRST SISTER is split been First Sister herself, and two soldiers from the other side of the intergalactic war, Lito and Hiro. While the first two are told in a standard format, Hiro’s sections are told through found recordings and tended to run a little shorter. The danger of using multi-POV in a story is that, if the reader prefers one POV to the others, those can feel like a drag. While I found parts of Hiro and Lito’s stories interesting, I was always more interested in getting back to First Sister.

I found First Sister to be a fascinating character. She’s complex and clever, and the fact that she can’t fully express herself to most people makes for all sorts of bubbling internal tension. The Juno, the starship on which she’s stationed, is a dangerous place: not just because of the war going on, but because of the in-fighting, spying, and betrayal within the ranks of the Sisters (and the Aunts) as they try to secure the best positions for themselves.

And you can’t blame them! The Sisters have a horrid life. Stripped of their voices at puberty so they can’t reveal secrets, they have to provide both confession and sexual comfort for their crew unless they gain the Captain’s favor.

What I really liked about THE FIRST SISTER was that Lewis made sure the internal logic wasn’t completely outlandish. The way the Sisters are treated is awful but, like in THE HANDMAIDS TALE, you can see how — in this world — they got to that point, even as it’s horrific. I think that’s why I preferred her POV sections: it felt more ground and real, more relatable even though the others are great characters too.

For me personally, THE FIRST SISTER really was a book of two parts. I loved First Sister and the claustrophobic, untrusting world aboard the Juno. Five stars. However, while there were good moments here and there in Lito’s POV, I found Hiro’s section’s pretty dull. These two felt like a far more average story.

The ending though! The ending was action-packed and full of twists. I’d absolutely pick up the sequel to find out what happens next. I just hope we either get more of the POV that worked best for me, or that the others become more intriguing.

I do think THE FIRST SISTER is worth a read for most people, especially if you’re a fan of space-based science fiction, multi-world/culture world-building, or dystopian futures.

Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to DNF this one.
That's not to say it was a terrible book by any means. I've read the reviews over and over to give myself the motivation to keep on reading it, and the reviews have been good. I do know that a lot of people have quite enjoyed it and thought it to be amazing. However, for me at some point I felt I should probably stop forcing myself to keep going.

I do want to say this much; I feel like the author has put an awful lot of work into this story and it shows. It was such an elaborate plot with a whole lot of world-building, which I certainly appreciate, but I feel like it was too much Sci-Fi for me. I used to think I loved the genre until I realized I only read a few books in it and they were more focused on human interactions rather than intricately creating a very convoluted plotline with different paths going out at the same time.

I tried to see if listening to it in audiobook form would help, but sadly, the sample sounded too robotic and monotonous I couldn't keep going.

In the end, I definitely need to praise the amount of work the author put in, but also acknowledge that this story was just not meant for me. Maybe watching too much Doctor Who spoiled me into thinking I love it, but yeah, such an extensive and entangled storyline based in outer space with a sea of terminology I kept getting lost in and trying to make sense of wasn't my cup of tea.

Lewis crafts a formidable exploration of power, personal identity and the possibilities of futuristic tech in this wickedly sharp and sprawling space opera, set to the backdrop of interplanetary war.

The First Sister is reminiscent of the world’s found in Red Rising and The Handmaid's Tale, but the author puts their own unique and wonderfully queer spin on them. The queerness in this book is overflowing, a joyful celebration of identity in a terrifying world.

The story is told through three POVs. A priestess of the Sisterhood, a religious group who’s sole purpose is to pleasure soldiers taking part in an endless war. An elite soldier on the opposite side of the war hunting down his turncoat comrade, and the turncoat. It was fascinating trying to puzzle out how these three POVs would collide, and they do in the most satisfying and spectacular fashion.

The two former POVs are told through a straightforward narrative, while the latter is told thorough transcribed audio recordings. I really enjoyed this unique approach to the structure of the story. Lewis also does a fabulous job of making all three characters engaging, well developed and easy to root for.

The plot is perfectly paced. Full of action, twists and betrayals. This is an oppressive and sinister world and the story isn’t shy about reaching into the shadowy corners of it.

Lewis writes such striking prose for a debut, her words sparkle most in more intimate moments of the story where they are given room to fully explore character’s depths, emotions and dreams. The action sequences are equally dazzling, when the prose takes on a more crisp and cinematic shape.

The First Sister is an impressively thrilling debut in what has potential to be an epic and impactful Science Fiction series. I cannot wait to see what the author has in store for the second book.

Do you like large scale worldbuilding, including observations on class, society, gender, belief systems, military doctrines and the like? Yes? Well, you might just be in the right place. One last question though – how about all of that, but twice over?

That’s essentially what you’re getting with The First Sister. The titular character herself serves on a Gean ship – Geans being one of the human factions – acting as confessor and counsel to the crew. Unable to speak thanks to the extreme doctrines of the mysterious Sisterhood, she is forced to communicate through sign language and gestures, and is strictly a non-combatant. Her elevated position at the captain’s side keeps her safe from the sexual advances of the rest of the crew – unlike her fellow sisters, who are expected to dutifully fulfil their needs. Abandoned by the captain, she is thrown into a world of uncertainty, subterfuge and tenuous alliances. Our other main character is Lito, an Icarii soldier. The Icarii are a rival, technologically advanced faction of humanity, with neural links pairing soldiers as rapier and dagger to form deadly fighting units. Despite all of his combat training and conditioning, Lito, a rapier, still relives the memories of a traumatic defeat at the hands of the Geans, as well as mourning the absence of comrade-in-arms Hiro, his dagger.

Both the Gean and the Icarii sides of the story are extremely compelling. Chapters alternate between the two, and you will grow to love the characters on both sides. It’s clear from the outset that them being on opposing sides in a galactic war sets them on a collision course with one another, but the nature of the conflict means neither side seems particularly in the wrong. The fact that we get both sides of the story from Lito and the First Sister makes several scenes much more impactful than they would have been if Lewis had opted to champion one side over the other. When we see a Gean Ironskin tearing through the quicksilver warriors of the Icarii, for example, it’s much more than just another action scene – these are Lito’s allies being cut down, and we feel their loss much more keenly than if they were just the faceless goons of “the bad guys.” Hiro – a non-binary character who I just could not get enough of – offers still another perspective on events. Hiro is funny, quick-witted and sharp-tongued, as well as being every bit as deadly as Lito. The bond between the two goes far beyond the neural link they share, and the glimpses we get of their relationship often show Lito at his most vulnerable, adding nuance to his character and making him much more complex and interesting than he might otherwise have been.

This is really the crux of what’s great about The First Sister. As good as the action is (and trust me, it is really, really good), Lewis never loses sight of those at the centre of the maelstrom. Without ever resorting to overt proselytizing, this is a story of the very human cost of war and conflict; not just in terms of the lives lost, but also in the toll it takes on those who survive. Individuality and personal agency are subsumed by governments, dogmatic and zealous religious institutions ruthlessly enforce their doctrines and the war machine grinds all in its path. Shadowy power plays and politicking are also present throughout, and never feel dull or slow. On the contrary, the tension in many of them is likely to set the heart racing just as much as any of the high-octane action sequences, even as they provide well-judged changes of pace.

With more ideas than some other series manage across their entire length, The First Sister is a work of considerable ambition. Despite the extensive, excellent worldbuilding, it never feels like we’re given an overwhelming amount of information, with the introduction of new concepts perfectly paced. There are hints and threads aplenty to be picked up in subsequent books, all of which would seem to foreshadow an even grander expansion of this already hugely immersive and well realised world. I can’t wait.

Full review available on my blog from August 27th.

Rating: 4.5 stars!

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for the review copy of this book, it has not affected my honest review.

Trigger Warnings: violence, death and graphic injury, implied torture, amputation, PTSD, denial of bodily autonomy in various ways (prostitution, plastic surgery, neural implants, experimentation), blackmail, execution, untreated mental illness, mentions of child abuse, dysphoria, gender expression denial.

This book. This book. I’m so glad that I had a friend who’d read The First Sister already, so I could shout in their DMs about it whenever this book punched me in the heart. Which was all time, damn. Reading The First Sister is an emotional roller coaster, and while it’s definitely important to note the trigger warnings for this book, the payoff is unbelievably good. The First Sister is a dark book. The lack of personal autonomy is a huge theme within the story and impacts all of the characters to varying degrees, from the First Sister who has her voice taken from her, to Hiro and their…. whole life. It’s hard to explain the specifics without delving into plot points that are just too well revealed for me to be willing to ruin them for any readers, but I audibly gasped when I reached a particular reveal and sent about forty messages to my friend to scream about it before I could even bring myself to turn the page. Any book that can get such a strong emotional response from me is an absolute favourite, and I finished this book and immediately ordered a finished copy.

I don’t quite know what I was expecting when I started this book, but what I got was a complicated and well-developed space epic, with tangled politics that extended across planets and dragged characters from across cultures together in ways I could never have predicted. I think this is the kind of book where I’ll read it again and find more and more things I missed. Every time I was absolutely certain I knew what was happening next, Linden pulled the rug out from under my feet and then tipped me down the stairs for good measure. I had no idea what was going to happen, and I loved that. It made for constant surprises, and meant that every single twist swept me away until I was so deep in the story I couldn’t shake it from my bones.

There’s so much rep going on in this book that I honestly can’t remember it all. First Sister is white, Lito is Italian and Spanish, Hiro and Saito Ren have Japanese ancestry and no attempt is made to westernise those cultures or languages. The main characters include non-binary, bisexual and pansexual rep and all kinds of LGBT+ characters and relationships are scattered casually throughout, and there’s also what I swear is a QPR between Lito and Hiro, two soldiers who have a unique bond that’s made them closer than close friends. Diversity leaps out of this book, but doesn’t feel forced. I absolutely love the relationships in this book, and I’m honestly really glad that it’s plot-first and not romance-first because the plot of this book is so complex and interesting that it deserves all the page-time. Despite my very fierce desire for Lito, Hiro and First Sister to retire to a space farm somewhere and live happily ever after, this book doesn’t lean on HEA at all. The book ends on a solid, hopeful note, but I know things are going to be absolutely terrible throughout book 2 and 3 and while I’m dreading it I’m also looking forward to having my heart ripped out over it.

This gave me queer Red Rising vibes and it more than lived up to expectations. Bring on book 2! Thanks to Hodder for the review copy.

I’m in a scifi mood at the moment and this did not disappoint. The First Sister is a fast paced adventure in space, featuring a complex travelling sisterhood of nuns who do not speak, trained members of a the military trying to destabilise a planet their government lost in a previous war, corruption, intrigue and cool technology.

This was a really quick read, definitely one which I would describe as bingeable. Also it features a non-binary protagonist who uses they/ them pronouns and no one seems to focus on this or find it strange. It’s so cool to see they/ them pronouns normalised and to see non-binary characters in stories that are not focused on their gender identity. (Obviously stories about gender identities are valid, it’s just cool to see nb characters out there living their lives in a future sci-fi universe.)

What didn’t really work for me was the world building, I would have liked things to be more fleshed out in places, in particular in relation to the sisterhood. Also some of the twists and reveals that were meant to be shocking were things I had seen coming.

One thing I will flag is that the author is white and has written a POC perspective character in Hiro. I am white so I would not presume comment on how well this has been done. Nothing in particular stood out but I would suggest checking ownvoices reviews from Japanese reviewers to get their thoughts.

*digital arc received via netgalley in return for an honest review

What I loved about The First Sister:
- Queer love
- Non-binary MC
- Tackles rape culture
- An #OwnVoices story
- And space politics!

Linden A Lewis establishes a political sf world using two viewpoint characters on opposite sides of a human war for the solar system.
The author writes great prose, describing the horrors of this society and making the reader empathise with the struggles of the characters. The numerous action sequences are engaging and written with an urgency that led to that “just one more chapter” as I had to see the resolution.
I enjoyed the well disguised twists towards the end of the novel.
A very promising start for a new voice in SF, I’ll certainly be joining them for the rest journey.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the early copy.
Just wanted to update this one to say I’ve ordered a signed copy from Forbidden Planet, keep thinking about this novel and am so happy to be getting a signed edition For my collection.

This book is so much more than it appears at first look. I'll admit, when I read the blurb and first started it, I was expecting some sort epic space battle (Forgive me - I really have not been a sci-fi reader in the past!). Instead, I was met with complex worlds and hierarchies, a super diverse cast of characters and action packed undercover missions. Not to mention the scattering of LGBT characters on top of it all!

As complex as the worlds were, they were expertly laid out within the plot - Snippets of information scattered throughout the story giving you enough to grasp the concept of life on the different planets and the ways of living of the different races, without overloading you with lots of information. Perfect for a sci-fi newbie like me, one of main worries with this genre is having to deal with complicated info dumps that boggle my poor little brain!

Split between two P.O.Vs, the story focuses on Lito, an Icarii solider, and the First Sister, a priestess on a Gean ship. The elite of the Icarii soldiers work in pairs, a Rapier and a Dagger, their brains linked by high tech implants in their brains. It's interesting to see the working relationshi that blossoms between a duo after they have been linked, able to communicate without speaking, making them deadly opponents to anyone crossing their path. 

The story of the First Sister drew me in straight away, the strange ways of living within the Sisterhood, having their voices taken away and devoting their lives to working under the Goddess. There's a large amount of competitiveness between the Sisters, each wishing to become one of the favoured ones, to gain a title.

Both Lito and the First Sister face many hurdles during their journey; their loyalties being testing to the extreme,  unsure who to trust or what decisions to make, with lives at stake no matter what they do. This was an exceptionally exciting read and I cannot wait to see more from Linden Lewis, this has been a really promising debut novel!

I found this to be a tale with quite a few twists and some very believable characters making for a subtle mix that has many parallels with our world.

Religion, subjugation, power and war make for a heady mix and that is The First Sister. One could simply replace the words "The First Sister" with "the world today" and it would become history!!

I've got very mixed feelings for most of this book and was actually contemplating 3 stars. But decided to lower my rating after reading the last 20%, which I highly disliked.

So I'll talk about that last 20% first: basically, a major plot twist occurs regarding our nonbinary MC, Hiro, related to their gender identity. Just want to make a few points clear: to my knowledge, the author is nonbinary so this is an ownvoices portrayal of that rep. I really liked Hiro's character - their personality stood out to me the most from the cast; their strength and determination, their self-confidence, and how they fully embraced their gender identity in a rigidly binary gendered world. I also liked the occasional use of Japanese words and phrases in their dialogue. Also, I'm a cis woman so won't go too much into this as it's not my place. I was just extremely uncomfortable with what is revealed about Hiro towards the end (although it fits the theme of loss of bodily autonomy that the author tackles in this book). Apart from that aspect, the plot twists in general and the climax as a whole did not work for me at all.

**Check out this ownvoices take by a nonbinary reviewer**: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3268061804?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

Other things I didn't like:

- This novel is HEAVILY advertised as being inspired in part by The Handmaid's Tale with queer characters at the forefront, and it definitely is - but it never really explores those themes? Like, we learn about the cruelties our protagonist the First Sister faces in the Sisterhood; how she is stripped of her voice, name and identity, groomed as a child, forced to sexually service all the soldiers - but that's just it, we learn about what happens to the First Sister and not all the other women similarly stolen from their homes or sold by their families. There are only perfunctory mentions of other girls. It almost felt like individualizing an institutional and societal failure. Even in the end, there's no mention of abolishing the Sisterhood but reforming it instead.

- Rather than interrogating the misogyny, patriarchy, and institutionalized sexism that can bring about such a system, the author decides to focus on some of the *other* ways the Sisterhood mistreats the Sisters, e.g. taking away their voices, denying them education, killing those who dissent.

- While I appreciate how the sexual assault and rape are implied rather than graphically shown, I personally needed to see an explicit discussion on these things. Instead, it felt like it was avoided? And what about other things like the threat of pregnancy, abortion, etc? It's not even mentioned, which I thought was really strange.

- So the whole Sisterhood thing felt kinda gimmicky and tacked on to me, honestly. Not only was it barely explored, it didn't really mesh with the main plot of bringing an end to a centuries-long space war.

- The overarching plot was fairly simple and I don't think it warranted all the meandering that happened in this story.

- There was a little too much introspection with the MCs for my taste.

- The villain's character was poorly done, in my opinion: hardly intimidating and way too easily defeated (maybe cause this is a planned trilogy? since the real villain didn't have a huge role here...either way, I'm judging this book on its own).

- Lito as a character had a lot of potential but was ultimately a pretty bland guy. He just felt very passive to me; reacting to people and events around him rather than taking action on his own. That's part of his character arc but even after facing some major revelations, I didn't see much growth in him.

Despite all my issues though, these are *my* issues at the end of the day. If you want to see a queer dystopian space opera with easily digestible world-building, I'd say give this a shot! The writing is pretty good and I liked the pacing. Also, I found some of the side characters super interesting. I absolutely loved the premise and the themes the author set out to examine. Sadly, the execution fell short for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.