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Little Sisters of the Apocalypse
A motorcycle gang of nuns rides out on a mysterious rescue mission in this dazzling work of metaphysical science fiction by Kit Reed. This scarifying trip into the near future provides an extraordinary look at women in the contemporary world. Marooned on Schell Isle in a pre-apocalyptic near future, the women are waiting. The men have all gone to war - the ultimate sexist act. When he comes back will he be welcomed? It's an open question. But today is the day everything begins to change. What unknown force is rushing towards the island? What do the women have to fear? Is it the murderous Outlaw family, riding their way and bent on revenge, or the men, or an enemy within? But the bikers are coming: sixteen in all, in black helmets emblazoned with a silver cross, metaphysical infonauts who run computer programs in a ceaseless search for the name of God. They pray for the dead and when they have to, they ride out on their bikes to defend the living. Until they lift the face plates you will not know who they are. Watch out for them. The Little Sisters of the Apocalypse.
- GenresFiction
176 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Kit Reed
195 books54 followersKit Reed was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.
Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.
Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 14, 2019
Postmodern feminist cyberpunk for the ambiguous semi-apocalyptic wartime American Southwest. Another from FC2's Black Ice imprint and its very much the smart snappy avant-pop showpiece you might hope for, focusing on the internal politics and conflicts of an all-women semi-utopia isolated by geography and uncertainty somewhere in the desert, balanced against a gang of biker nuns seeking to compute the name of god. Establishes a rhythm of its own drifting out of the narrative for flashes of contemporaneous autobiography and a lot of thinking about the ways in which the characters are variously defined by men or their absence, or not, the semantics of relationship. Initiates too many intriguing plot points to really tie them all up in a completely cogent or compelling way by the end, but its not the sort of story that demands that either. Begs the question of why I'd not heard of Kit Reed earlier.
Did not finish
November 3, 2021Lockdown #2 (of 2 in our remote rocky fastness down here at the edge of the known world) kind of fucked with my head, as I realised in retrospect, and one of the things I did was a lot of trawling through indie booksales sites looking for cool stuff I had previously missed.
Some of the cool stuff was absolutely not for me.
Some of the cool stuff was absolutely not for me.
May 31, 2022
This is an odd tale and I will have to read it again to get some of the detail. Not your typical battle of the sexes or apocalypse story.
July 23, 2015
Computer hacking, motorcycle riding nuns; sounds like a pretty dumb concept. Kit Reed manages to handle the topic with aplomb,making it an enjoyable and insightful ride.
The women of Schell Island have been alone for 5 years - all of the men are off at some unspecified war. Without knowing why, the Little Sisters are drawn to Arizona to help the women out. With the imminent return of their men? With the Outlaw family who has sworn vengeance upon the families of the men who first evicted them from Schell Island? The women don't know, and the sister's don't know. But eventually,the pieces of the puzzle fall together the only way they can.
Pro-tip: Unless you are an incredibly open-minded man the unrepentantly pro-female agenda this book has will make you want to twist the book in half.
The women of Schell Island have been alone for 5 years - all of the men are off at some unspecified war. Without knowing why, the Little Sisters are drawn to Arizona to help the women out. With the imminent return of their men? With the Outlaw family who has sworn vengeance upon the families of the men who first evicted them from Schell Island? The women don't know, and the sister's don't know. But eventually,the pieces of the puzzle fall together the only way they can.
Pro-tip: Unless you are an incredibly open-minded man the unrepentantly pro-female agenda this book has will make you want to twist the book in half.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews