Mckayla Eaton has been on my TBR for a while, but I never realized she lived nearby until I encountered “Mi’kmaq” in this novella. A quick google confirmed my suspicions: she lives in my area!

Local fantasy authors are a little difficult for me to find online.

The last ones I discovered and loved were A.T. Duguay (with The Guardian, which had indigenous inspirations that made me happy to see in fantasy) & Rachael Arsenault (with She Who Rises)

(*I consider authors local when they live in Mi’kma’ki, the land of the Mi’kmaq. My birth province is New-Brunswick, but I prefer using non-government names and borders wherever I can. New-Brunswick was always a place I wanted to escape from. Mi’kma’ki is the land I love, the land I live on, the land I owe to wonderful beings before me. It holds a different meaning to me.)

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SYNOPSIS

EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST AND EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE—EXCEPT MAYBE THE CREW ON BOARD THE ST. LAURENTIA.

Earth is divided between the allure of a spiritual resurgence and the out-of-this-world high of an alien drug. When the spaceship carrying Celestine the VI, the new Pope, is commandeered by a drug lord, he find’s himself facing possibly the shortest papacy in history. Isi Hudson, a young nun on board the ship, is hoping the new planet ahead of her will bring more promise than the one she’s leaving behind, but the mutiny has her facing things about herself she was sure she’d managed to leave behind on Earth. Being a Knights Hospitaller, life and death situations are nothing new for Srgt. Edmund Hope, but when he’s woken early from cryogenic sleep he expects to be punished for war crimes not tasked with saving the very man destined to excommunicate him. He has to decide quickly whether or not to save the Pope or join in the mutiny.

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REVIEW

I really enjoyed this one! The structure was satisfying, the world-building was well crafted & the characters were engaging.

It was nice to see a character who’s taken a vow of silence. It was also nice to see someone adopt a new faith and find solace in it. I wish I saw more of this in books (seems more common to see characters abandoning their faith)

Natan made me laugh a little. What a pope.

I wish we saw a little more of Isi’s life before becoming a nun, but that’s the nature of novellas. They’re short! I would love to read more stories in this universe.

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