In the final installment of the Book of the Ancestor, Mark Lawrence proves that his talent just keeps growing. The first novel set in this world "Red Sister" introduced us to Nona Grey, sold to the highest bidder to feed her family. We follow her and the cart full of fellow orphans and outcasts pulled by a faithful donkey who provided the most memorable scene I have ever read, though as with much of Lawrence's greatness, I could have lived the rest of my life without that brilliantly written scene in my memory. Still, I wouldn't go back and unread it if it meant missing the rest of the story. Our story orbits around Nona, following her from her poverty-stricken home, to the surprisingly tight-knit attic of a street-fighting hall, to the depths of the Capitol's dungeons, to the convent of the Sisters: Red, Grey, and Holy.

Here, in one fell swoop, we finally have the resolution that not only the donkey demands, but what may be the best opening line ever constructed for a novel: “It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size."

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

Shenanigans will ensue. Neck hairs will stand. Storylines will be tied off with blood-red ribbons. Plot holes will be filled or at least cleverly camouflaged. No one will apply for the money-back guarantee; satisfaction will be had by all.

Except a certain donkey-beating priest

The third and final instalment in the Book of the Ancestor series.

I've read a number of Mark Lawrence's novels, now, and I find myself in a strange position of not being able to come up with new things to say about his work. His writing? Excellent, fluid. His characters? Nuanced, engaging, and often relatable. His stories? Gripping, expertly constructed and paced.

If you haven't read the other books in the series, then go back and read them - you'll zip through them, and get to HOLY SISTER pretty quickly. One of the best fantasy authors writing today (who's also dabbling in some sci-fi as well), Lawrence's novels are must reads.

Nona Grey is reaching the end of her incredible story. Rescued from the hangman by the Abbess of Sweet Mercy convent, and trained in martial arts and unseen magics, now she must fight to save the Empire from invaders. Her world is one where only a comparatively narrow belt of land is fit to live on, the rest overwhelmed by ice sheets, one settled long ago by different tribes from another planet, but remains still exist of a civilisation which preceded theirs.

The world building is excellent, character development believable and well thought-through, the plot gripping and well-paced. Swapping between two timelines - one picking up where book 2 left off, the other following Nona as she and her fellow nuns prepare for war - doesn't leave time for a dull moment

One thing I particularly liked was that Mark Lawrence hasn't created one kick-ass heroine, but whole convent full to support her. Okay, some of these women are not thoroughly, or at all, on Nona's side, but they're still strong independent women, easily the equal of the male soldiers and spies they encounter. I'd maybe like to have heard more of Abbess Glass's story, but for most of the series she just exists in the background, although her 'long game' shapes Nona's character and actions.


Holy Sister is the concluding part of Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series (and you DO have to have read the previous two books - Red Sister and Grey Sister - to understand what's going on) but he's already started a new series based among the tribes who live on the Ice, so there's no need to say farewell to this world just yet.

It's a shame to say it, but this final instalment of The Book of the Ancestor trilogy was a bit of a disappointment for me. It tells the continuing story of Nona Grey and her bid to become a sister of Sweet Mercy.

The Positives: There were some great character arc moments in this book, particularly in the final section. I loved the revelation for Sister Pan and found Zole's arc particularly satisfying - she has always been the most interesting character for me. I also thought that the culmination of Abbess Glass's political machinations worked very well.

The Negatives: I didn't like the pacing of the book at all and found it really jarring for the narrative to be split into two timelines. Consequently, I felt like I was distanced from both plots and didn't really connect with either one. I also found it frustrating that key character development took place off page, again creating a distance to the action.

Overall, I have loved this trilogy and would still highly recommend it to anyone, but for me, this conclusion just didn't do it justice.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

As I mentioned earlier this week in my Grey Sister review – I binge read both books one after another, so I apologise if the reviews touch on both and the series as a whole.

So many plot twists! This book was filled with political drama and so much forward planning from characters was kept secret from our main character. This meant that the plan was revealed to me as a reader at the same time and I’d never even clicked that it could happen (a Dumbledore-esque plotter added so much to this book).

We’re back with Nona and her Sisters and it’s fully ramped up for them to finally do something about Sherzal. Whilst we’re not in the Covenant of Sweet Mercy for a lot of this book, we’re still with all the characters I loved in previous books.

Nona and Zole are by far my favourite characters because they’re such strong female characters, whilst also being very different from one another. Each of the novices are grown in this book and very different to the children we meet in Red Sister. This is really down to Lawrence’s amazing writing, as we see them mature but also recognise them as the same people.

We also get to visit the Ice in this book. Lawrence had skirted around how vicious it was and why everyone stayed in The Corridor in the previuous books, but this time we got to visit and explore. Whilst Zole feels in her element, Nona struggles at times and I loved the dynamic throughout these scenes.

Holy Sister was a wonderful ending to The Book of the Ancestor series!

Positives of Holy Sister
Character Arcs ending
World Building

Unfortunately I really didn't get on with this series in general, so my rating for this book is not a reflection on the quality - which is great - but just the fact that it wasn't the sort of thing I enjoy.

After a fantastic two books, I was delighted to finally finish the story in Holy Sister. Of course, I was also incredibly sad to say goodbye to such wonderful characters and such an interesting world, but without giving anything away, it was a fantastic ending. I am very satisfied with how the book ended and the entire journey getting there in the first place. I sincerely hope that the author will return to this world, but if not then the way he wrapped up the stories of the characters was brilliant.

This is a wonderful trilogy and I would highly, highly recommend it. My Kindle broke while reading and so I struggled away reading on my phone as I just couldn't put it down!

The finale to one of my favourite series, Book of the Ancestor. Holy Sister rounds off the story started in Red Sister, bringing a conclusion to Nona Grey’s journey. There is so much to love about this series – a complex world, powerful women, assassin nuns and a beating heart in Nona Grey and her friends. We see Nona grow from a young girl to a woman that isn’t afraid to take on the world, and the bond she has with her found family is one that stuck with me throughout the series. The secondary characters each stand on their own and the story is an intricate blend of magic and scheming. It is told across two timelines, bringing them together with skill that only served to heighten the tension and keep me reading. I laughed, I cried and I will definitely be rereading.

Many thanks to Harper Voyager for a copy of Holy Sister in return for an honest review.

I first read ‘Red Sister’, the first instalment in the ‘Book of Ancestor’ trilogy, in 2017. I immediately fell in love with the tumultuous adventures of our protagonist, Nona Grey, who manages to find herself with mortal enemies before she exits single figures. A worker of dark magic and adopted by a monastery of fighting nuns, Nona’s story is spread across a trilogy and ‘Holy Sister’ is the final work that brings all the threads of her story to a stunning conclusion.

By the start of ‘Holy Sister’ we have followed Nona through her childhood and teenage years, through her education in fighting and magic and her journeys along the length and breadth of the Corridor. Nona is a strong and impassioned young woman who has developed a sense of person and her own brand of right and wrong. Surrounded by fierce and complicated characters, such as her fellow magic worker and former nemesis Ara and the shadow touched Sister Kettle, Nona has reached the prime of her power and the understanding of just how much the world has to fear from the plots spawning on all sides. Lawrence manages to bring the complex storylines to a conclusion that is eminently satisfying.

Through the course of these books I’ve laughed and cried in equal measures. The relationships between characters are complicated and fraught in all the best ways. I won’t spoil the final relationship status of Nona at the end but it’s beautifully resolved and, honestly, made me well up with happiness. It’s a conclusion that makes beautiful sense considering how well it had been seeded through the rest of the trilogy.

The ending of this book will make you feel something. There is overwhelming loss and terror. No character is safe in a realistically destructive battle that will make you feel sick to the base of your stomach in fair measure. I’ve always loved how these books meld both science fiction and fantasy and the ending of this book brings those threads together wonderfully. It’s a dark, bleak and emotive conclusion to a series that I will read over and over again.

If you enjoy dark fantasy with complicated heroines, interesting world building and stunning writing then I deeply suggest you pick up the ‘Book of the Ancestor’ trilogy. I’ll be interested to see whether Lawrence writes further novels in this world and, if he does, I will be picking them up in a breath.

The 3rd book in the book of the ancestor.

Orbiting a dying star is a world slowly being consumed by ice, as the ice closes in the inhabitants are being squeezed together, and war for control over what's left is well on the way. There is only one hope, to gain control over an advanced long-lost technology called the moon with which control over the ice’s advance can be halted or reversed but what can be the salvation of all can also be the death of all.

The world Mark Lawrence has crafted is a masterpiece and certainly stands up alongside other well crafter fantasy worlds in books like Game of Thrones and the Wheel of Time. The characters are all very complex and have their own unique and compelling backstories, these backstories not only form the choices their characters make, but their history is also built into the book's main narrative and has a significant impact on the twists and turns that all good stories have.

This book is a gem of the fantasy genre, and even if you haven't read the other books in the series this one will undoubtedly leave you wanting to, it did me.

Alex

Breakaway reviewers were supplied a copy for review.

This is the third and final book in the Book of the Ancestor trilogy. I thought this was a fantastic concluding chapter to this story and I would definitely recommend it to any fantasy lover. The character development continues to be great and I enjoyed the direction of the plot. The world is an interesting one and Lawrence has done a great job of developing it through the three books. Overall this is a great book and it concludes the trilogy really well,

Mark Lawrence writes amazing novels and I always enjoy reading them,

Holy sister was no exception. The story is wonderfully written and I would recommend this series to everyone who enjoys fantasy novels.

This has been one of the most eagerly awaited books of 2019 for me. It was the perfect end to what has been a pretty much flawless series for me – a series based on female rage, loyalty, conspiracy and stabbing thing.

Nona Grey is an exceptionally complex character and she has matured throughout this series and grown into her power, she’s grown from being a feral child with poor impulse control to a formidable force. It’s been one hell of a journey and Nona Grey has forever earnt her place as one of my all-time favourite heroines.
She and her fellow nuns have to make some difficult choices and fight some brutal battles to save the world as the corridor in the ice narrows and the different empires fight against each other for space.

The narrative jumps back and forth between the present and events from three years prior, so we get to see the how events immediately following Grey Sister have led to the final scene. I think I love the author’s world building above everything else, this world has a strange combination of science, magic and general medieval-ness that just works. Throw in the artful building of suspense, devilishly well laid out plot lines and then a handful of battle nuns with magical gifts and I’m one happy reader.

*I received a copy of this title via NetGalley. All opinions are my own*

A nice end to the trilogy. The book continues the story threads left off from the previous two books as the culmination of the story approaches and the timeline becomes the present. It still uses the multiple timelines to tell the story, but as I said they do merge into the present by the end.
In this book, we see the consequences from the end of the last book. Zole and Nona head into the ice, the Abbess passes away, war has arrived and is on the doorstep of the convent. There are death's, not all the characters we've been reading about survive.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I didn't use to like Mark Lawrence books. I found them slow and full of purple prose. I loved this series though and was sad it had ended. Well written great characters and a great ending.

I adore this series: I can proudly say that I’m the owner of all three of these books, which is most definitely not the case for most of the things I read. Holy Sister is the final instalment of the Grey Sister trilogy and it is a smashing piece of work. It takes everything you loved about the first two books and ratchets it up another level: more gore, higher stakes, more danger and the chance to save the world.
Though I’m sad that there aren’t as many classroom scenes- aka, the elements I enjoyed most from the previous books- and the plot timeline skips around more than a demented rabbit, this is a great read. I may or may not have had a little tear in my eye by the end. Who knows.

"Nona, my fierce little Nona, remember mercy. Mercy for others in victory. Mercy for yourself too. You deserve happiness, child. Never forget it."

* * * * *
5 / 5

Holy Sister sent shivers all the way down my spine. We have been travelling down the path towards the encounter that has threaded its way through the first two books: Lano Tacsis and his two hundred men, coming for Sister Thorn. Sister Thorn, it has been revealed, is Arabella Jotsis and Sister Cage is none other than Nona Grey. It is epic. It is heart-wrenching. It poked at my soul and wouldn't stop.

"The Book of the Ancestor says that for everything there is a season. This was a time to reap. A time for death. A time to die."

Initially the book jumps back and forward in time, between the present with Nona in Holy Class about to take her trials to become a full nun, and three years ago when they fled the Emperor's sister. The past segments are about Nona and Zole fleeing with the shipheart and they are action-packed whilst shedding a light on Zole, the Missing, and the Ice. The present focuses on the build up to the Scithrowl invasion, the state of the convent under the control of Abbess Wheel, and the woman that Nona Grey is becoming. 

This book is emotional. There were a few scenes that I read over and over: Nona choosing which kind of Sister to become, Sister Pan standing against the Scithrowl forces (I cried, not gonna lie), and Arabella and Nona standing together. There are more, but to tell would spoil it. Needless to say, this book is beautiful and tragic and strange. It is almost entirely focused on the war, but it managed not to be consumed by that. Holy Sister isn't an endless sequence of battle scenes, it's a treatise on love and friendship and growth. 

"A million words won't push the ice back, not even the breadth of a finger. But one word will break a heart, two will mend it, and three will lay the highest low."

The world of Abeth becomes both stranger and familiar. The details of how the bloodlines work and whether their gifts are entirely natural; Lawrence threads together a typical fantasy setting with the mystery of The Missing and modern technologies in a way that seems eerie and not overdone. I still find the idea of the Moon seriously cool, as well as the shiphearts and the Ark. Top job. 

Above all, Holy Sister brought me closer to the characters that I love. My heart has been torn asunder. Wild, angry, beautiful, kind Nona surprised me over and over. Nona, who was sold into slavery, who has become a full nun, who has trusted and been betrayed, who has found love and companionship and shed her literal demons. More than that, my love for Abbess Glass, Kettle, Apple, Ara, Jula, Ruli, Sister Pan, and even Sister Wheel grew and grew. A special place in my heart is reserved for Sister Kettle, Sister Pan, and Arabella Jotsis. 

"More of those who leave the Corridor die on the ice than below it. Walk with respect here, Nona Grey. The white death awaits."

I don't really have words enough to describe how much I loved this series. I have them all on Kindle and Audiobook and I think I will read and re-read them for years to come. Holy Sister was a stunning conclusion to a fantastic series.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Holy Sister.

Marl Lawrence is a must-follow author if you love his genre of books. I do both - follow and love.
The story is gripping, the characters are full and flawed, and the pace builds toward a momentous climax. The setting is imaginative, and the various tribes, traits and specialities are the product of a highly fertile mind.
I could not put it down and highly recommend it.

Received ARC from Harper Collins UK and Netgalley for honest read and review.

Wow what an ending to such a brilliant and beautiful series from Mr Lawrence.I have read most of his books so far and this is as good as any other of his series and must be on your TBR list soon.

I don't want to give any spoilers at all, but have to say it was a cracking read and you really have to give it a go.Even if you have not read any of his other series.

This was such a great book on such an epic scale.

Absolutely brilliant

"It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men."

This is how Red Sister starts, and I fell in love almost immediately. Mark Lawrence's writing is beautiful, almost poetic. He writes the point of view of a lost, scared, hot-headed, stubborn nine year old that slowly grows with much care. Lawrence pays a lot of attention to detail, and you can tell he chooses each word meticulously.

Let's talk about Lawrence for a moment. He wrote a grimdark trilogy called The Broken Empire which starts with Prince of Thorns which may as well be written by a different author. The tone is so very different, I wouldn't guess they're written by the same author if I didn't know. In fact, I'd ask, "Are you sure?" He's also brought out a science fiction novel which dabbles in time travel this year, called One Word Kill, and again, the tone is completely different. He's a bit of a chameleon and hence on my list of 'will always buy.'

Red, Grey and Holy sister form the Book of the Ancestor series. It's a dark story. It says it right there in the premise of course: a convent where young girls are raised to be killers.

But it's a beautiful story. The themes are mostly loyalty, friendship, forgiveness and second chances. At no point is the violence excessive.

The protagonist is a young girl, Nona. She's a terrific character and not only feels real but is well developed and someone I could immediately connect with. She's damaged, but fiery and passionate and fights for what she believes in. She's filled with energy and witty. She's often unpredictable, but intelligent and one of my favourite fantasy protagonists despite her young age. She grows throughout and turns into a young lady I wouldn't mind being friends with. Especially while encountering a bandit late at night.

A very important aspect of the series is how to overcome your inner demons, and how your friends can support you while doing so.

The magic system and world building are both mesmerising and full of potential and possibilities. It's a captivating world. A dying world. Ice is closing in from all sides and not much more than a corridor is left.

Now, I will not lie: I wasn't as enamoured with the third book as I was with the other two. A character I loved and cherished died off-screen. Something, I don't think any character deserves. It's hard to end a great series in a way that every fan is happy, and for the most part I was happy.

I can't recommend this trilogy enough. This is well worth your time, especially because in today's world the message of friendship, loyalty, second chances and forgiveness is an important one. Finding the light in the darkness and being brave enough to give each other another chance.