"Faith and Fire"

Faith and Fire (James Swallow)

I have yet to be disappointed by a James Swallow book, and this one's subject matter - the W40k Sisters of Battle, basically a bunch of nuns with guns - gave me high hopes. Most of the ink in 40k novels goes to SPACE MARINES, so it's nice to see a book without a single one, and, oh yeah, some female characters who aren't Rememberencers. Given that, I'd love to say that this is an instant classic, but this is one of Swallow's good, not great, books. The plot feels a little bit low-stakes and predictable, and although Swallow does make an admirable attempt to fill out all of the Sisters, I didn't get a good sense of their personality except for the two leads. (Also, although this passes the Bechdel Test, it would do so with flying colors if it had a female antagonist, since a good chunk of the Sister's dialogue with each other is "I really want to get [antagonist]!") I can also nitpick a few small, strange details - Swallow has the Melta gun operating as a microwave - but overall, this was pretty good, if only recommendable for fellow 40k nerds.

Grade: B+