If I’m being honest, there are two reasons I do advance reviews of books. The lesser of the two is that I want to build sufficient reviewer cred so that I can get advanced copies of highly anticipated blockbusters. The greater of the two is being able to be the first one to discover something amazing and tell all you people about it. Nerd bragging rights and all.
If that is my goal, my reviewer career may have peaked fairly early, because it’s hard to imagine me ever being first out of the gate on something as amazing as The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis.
The letter at the front of the ARC from the Skybound books editor (thanks for the ARC, by the way) compares the book to Handmaid’s Tale, Red Rising, and Ancillary Justice. OK, I thought, that’s fine, it’s his job to sell it after all. But that’s a high standard, and that’s with me knowing Ancillary Justice only be reputation. I’m a big fan of both Margaret Atwood and Pierce Brown, and expected that comparison to be hyperbolic. I went into this expecting to be disappointed. I was not.
Spoiler-free synopsis time. The book is set some centuries after humanity wrecked the Earth, and nearly did the same to Mars when Earth leaned too heavily on the new Mars colony for resources. While Earth and Mars were limping along and killing each other, a bunch of scientists said “fuck this shit” and went and built colonies on Mercury and Venus, using Unobtanium to build technological utopias. (Warning: TV Tropes) But since the humans of Mercury and Venus (the Icarii) aren’t interested in sharing their technology with the humans of Earth and Mars (now united as the Gaens), there’s been a long running war. There’s also the Asters, humans who live in the asteroid belt and are adapted to life in deep space, looked down upon and exploited by both sides.
The Gaens are part military dictatorship, part theocracy, and the First Sister is the ranking priestess aboard a Gaen warship. The Sisters have no voice (literally – they’re rendered incapable of speech, though they can sign among themselves) and serve as … let’s call them comfort women to the Gaen military. The Sisters are there to hear the confessions of soldiers and offer forgiveness, so they don’t go into battle with a guilty conscience, and they’re available sexually to any soldier who wants them, so they don’t go into battle horny. The First Sister is an exception, of sorts, being reserved for the personal use of the captain. The captain of the warship Juno is retiring, however, meaning a new captain is coming aboard who will select a new First Sister. Our protagonist is determined to retain her position and not go back to being available for free use.
Lito is part of the Icarii Special Forces, recovering from physical and mental trauma sustained during the Gaens’ recent victory in conquering Ceres. Icarii Special Forces serve with partners, to whom they are empathically bonded through a neural implant. Lito’s partner Hiro has been off on a classified mission for some time, and Lito is really feeling his absence. Then he receives word that Hiro has turned traitor, and Lito is given the chance to prove his loyalty by hunting his partner down.
The book follows our two protagonists (I don’t think there’s really a “primary” protagonist, despite the book being titled “The First Sister”) as each gets caught up in the machinations of their governments. I’m not going to go any deeper into the books than that - everything I’ve laid out here, save some of the ancient history, is laid out in the first few pages. Read and find out.
Are you a fan of the thrilling action of Red Rising? You’ll find that in The First Sister, though not to the exaggerated Michael-Bay-movie levels you sometimes get from Darrow. Are you a fan of the social commentary of The Handmaid’s Tale? You’ll find that in The First Sister, though it’s not nearly so bleak. There’s a strong dash of The Expanse thrown in as well, primarily in the Belters Asters.
The plot kept catching me off guard - Lewis subverted my expectations at every turn. I kept thinking I had a sense of where the book was going, and then suddenly Lewis would give me a literary punch in the stomach and floor me. And then she did it again.
This book is extremely LGBTQ positive. Gender and orientation are both presented as fluid, and physical intercourse isn’t the be all and end all. Lewis herself identifies as queer, making this book good for the #OwnVoices bingo square (though since it’s not supposed to come out until August, I’m not sure that’s going to help anyone but me).
I really can’t rave about this book enough. It's the first in a series (though it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, thankfully - I hate cliffhangers) and I can’t wait for the next one.
Seriously, this is amazing.