Queer Book Club #33 – ‘Sisters of the Vast Black’ by Lina Rather

Join us for dinner and discussion about queer books! For our next book, we will be reading ‘Sisters of the Vast Black’ by Lina Rather.

Blurb
The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita captain their living ship into the reaches of space in Lina Rather's debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black.

Blurb
Years ago, Old Earth sent forth sisters and brothers into the vast dark of the prodigal colonies armed only with crucifixes and iron faith. Now, the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own.

When the order receives a distress call from a newly-formed colony, the sisters discover that the bodies and souls in their care—and that of the galactic diaspora—are in danger. And not from void beyond, but from the nascent Central Governance and the Church itself.

The Plan
19:30 Meeting @ the restaurant
19:45 Dinner & discussion
21:15 Choosing a book for April
21:30 End

Dinner
The name of the restaurant will be announced in the WhatsApp group chat.

What to do
1. RSVP on this event page.
2. Read the book :) and think about your suggestion for the discussion in April!
3. Come to the event and share your thoughts about the book with us.
4. Please enable DMs from other members and turn on notifications so that our team can communicate with you.
Hope to see you there!

Amy (she/they) & Izabella (she/her)

Please note…
1. Tandem is a community of volunteers; everything you see is created by our members giving up their time and labour. None of our organisers profit from events; any charges listed are those from other parties and we never add a mark-up. In this context, we need attendees to do their best to reduce the workload of our volunteer team by reading the event description and these notes carefully; and follow the instructions in order to register a place on the event. Please be considerate and helpful with our team – we are all volunteers.
2. We run all our event communication through WhatsApp. Please keep track of event related messages in the Whatsapp event group and respond to requests and instructions from organisers within 24hrs. Please don’t put the chat on mute. If our team don’t receive your response within 24hrs, we will move you to “Not Going”.
3. If you require special accessibility accommodations for the event (i.e., accessible venue, accessible restrooms, noise levels, lighting conditions, etc) and are unsure whether they can be met, please reach out to the organiser/host.
4. We encourage language inclusivity at all our events. If you aren't confident in English, please let our team know. We will try to provide bilingual support where possible and/or will try and introduce you to other language speakers you're more comfortable with. Please be mindful that we might not be able to accommodate all languages at all events, but we will do our best to make everyone feel welcome and heard.
5. If you sign up, but can no longer make it, please update your RSVP as soon as possible and tell the organiser. Updating your RSVP well ahead of the event allows us to manage the waitlist; allow other people to attend; know who to look out for at the start of the event; and manage any relevant bookings, such as table reservations.
6. If you don’t have a clear face pic on your profile and/or your username doesn’t match the name you normally use, we can’t identify your payments nor match your RSVP with who you are in real life. If this is you, please ensure the organiser knows who you are. If we can’t work out who you are within 24hrs of your RSVP, we will move you to “Not Going”.
Only group members and their guests with an RSVP may attend events; people who aren’t signed up will be refused entry to events.
7. If you don’t follow the conditions above, we will move you to “Not Going” for future events until you message us to confirm you will follow these conditions.