Chime is a bioengineered, possibly immortal child who serves the sisters of a religious order on a remote mountain. Chime is tasked with initiating the resurrection of each sister after death, by retrieving a “seed” from their skulls once the vultures have picked their bones clean. Chime then regrows the sister’s nervous system and places it in a printed body. However, over the years, Chime has developed her own ideas on how best to advance the order’s goals.

This is dark and bloody dystopian SF, though maybe not quite horror. The descriptive language is excellent, if grisly. I was curious about the guiding philosophy of the sisters, but scant evidence beyond a few suggestive allusions is present. This vagueness of purpose colored by reaction to the story, and to the decisions Chime makes. There is a reference to an “infinite wheel”, suggesting the cycle of death and resurrection is central to whatever it is they are devoted to. Otherwise, if the sisters are capable of creating an immortal body like Chime’s, why not resurrect themselves into one after death? The sister’s seem content to observe world calamity from their perch and do nothing about it, so perhaps the author is suggesting that religious devotion is self -indulgent and regressive. This begs the question of what Chime expects to achieve by changing the rules of the game. The ending suggests that Chime will “do more than observe” but still with little indication of her ultimate goals. It left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.