The people of Abeth descend from 4 tribes; the Gerant of great size, the Hunska of impressive speed, Majal of lesser magic and Quenovil of greater magic.
Nona is a 10 year old girl, a misfit, sold off by her own family from her small impoverished village only then to be saved from hanging by one of the Sisters of Mercy. She therefore ends up in the nunnery as an apprentice. Her rapid movement and fighting skills suggests she has potential, which with education and coaching could make her very useful indeed.
The Convent of Sweet Mary is where novices work through Abal classes to become nuns. They are taught in martial combat, poisons, stealth and path; a type of religious study. In reality they are raised to kill. This is a 10 year process, so the students are sought and taught from a young age, initiated following there being some wisp of an indication that they have inherited descendent tribe skill and abilities.
The story follows Nona, as she is brought to the nunnery - her training path, the friends she makes and the trials and tribulations this involves. Much is cloak and dagger and survival is not guaranteed. The path isn’t easy and there is much to learn about the Abal arts and indeed about her herself.
This is an intricately woven world, with very strong and memorable characters, of which there are rather a good few. Whilst this is a magic school/academy esque setting, it is extremely violent and unflinchingly bloody. What with the relationships formed via her training both with her friends and the teachers, the backdrop of not knowing quite what happened in Nona’s village, along with the risk of betrayal amidst a prophecy make it very realistic. The bestselling author of the Broken Empire & Red Queen trilogies has delivered another very fine fantasy fiction feast.

"I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin" At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

If that short description whetted my appetite for this book, the opening paragraph of the prologue caught me hook, line and sinker,
'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.'
Red Sister follows the tribulations of Nona Grey, a small peasant girl with dark and dangerous secrets. Nona has been bought by Giljohn, the child-taker. Abeth is a harsh world, much of it now covered in ice, its people are forced to live in a narrow corridor. With little space and a climate that makes crop growing near to impossible, starving families are often forced to sell their children. We learn of this in flashback form as Nona remembers the events that have led her to the gallows, convicted of murder. She has been rescued from execution by Abbess Glass and brought to the Convent of Sweet Mercy but why would a nun save her, and is she really safe now? The answer to that latter question is quickly apparent, Nona has powerful enemies and she will need to learn not just the skills taught at Sweet Mercy; she will also need also understand and come to terms with who is she is, and what she is capable of, if she is going to survive.
Much of Red Sister follows Nona's education alongside the other novices at the convent. Novices move through four classes on their way to receiving their holy orders, classes are named after the four orders of nun. At just eight, Nona joins Red Class and we learn that there are four paths nuns eventually follow - a Bride of the Ancestor (Holy Sister) honours the Ancestor and maintains the faith; a Martial Sister (Red Sister) is skilled in armed and unarmed combat; a Sister of Discretion (Grey Sister) is skilled in espionage, stealth and poisons,and a Mystic Sister (Holy Witch) can walk the Path and manipulate threads. Novices quickly learn which path they are likely to follow and this is generally decided by whether they show any sign of bearing the distinguishing features of the four tribes the people of Abeth are descended from. The tribes who came found an unforgiving world even before the ice spread and were forced to mix their blood to breed people who could survive. Their descendants may still display touches or more obvious signs of the attributes that differentiate them. The tribes are described as:
Gerant - distinguished by their great size
Hunska - distinguished by their speed. A dark-haired, dark-eyed people
Marjal - distinguished by their ability to tap into the lesser magics.
Quantal - distinguished by their ability to walk the Path and work greater magics.
A book set in a school that teaches magic, with four categories pupils can be determined by, with the principal character a child from a difficult background will inevitably be compared to Harry Potter. While I think this book will appeal to Potterheads it's a much darker and bleaker book, not something I'd recommend to younger HP fans. This is a brutal world with cruel and violent characters. Nona suffers some horrendous attacks, without giving anything away there is one particular scene that is really quite difficult to read. Nona is a remarkable lead character, she is bright - she often seems much older than her years but her hard life has doubtless caused her to grow up fast - skillful, brave and principled. She is also impetuous, finds in hard to trust people and is frequently an unreliable narrator. Her vulnerability and need for acceptance means she is desperate for friends and must endure some hard lessons about truth and trust. There are several other strong characters in the book, her friends are diverse and believable, often with their own secrets, the nuns are a fascinating bunch and far removed from the pious expectations we have of holy sisters. That one (my favourite) is nicknamed the Poisoner, should be enough of a hint that these are nuanced characters. Their enemies are, in various ways, terrifying. Whether its a deranged High Priest, a vengeful rich man or a warrior able to take on and beat several attackers at the same time, the tension and danger is palpable.
So superb characterisation then, but Red Sister is also beautifully written, This is a world brought vividly to life, visceral, menacing and thrilling. There's always a risk with the first in a series that too much world building goes on at the expense of an exciting plot but here the balance is perfect, there is much to look forward to with the next instalment but this is a gripping and immersive story from the very start. There are twists and turns, a breathtaking conclusion and an epilogue that has me desperate for book two! I highly recommend this book, if you're looking for a new fantasy series then look no further, this should hit the spot.
Many thanks to the publishers for my copy received through Netgalley in return for my unbiased review.

Rating: 5/5 stars

I was late to the Mark Lawrence game. And I was missing out.

Red Sister is Lawrence’s seventh full-length novel, and the first in a new series entitled “Book of the Ancestor.” Reading his other trilogies has definitely made its way onto my agenda, because this book was fantastic. I hope you write quickly, Mr. Lawrence, because I’m dying to read more of Nona’s story.

“There is a thread that runs through all things, that binds each story to every other, a thread that runs through the veins and the marrow and the memory of every creature.”

If X-23 ever donned a habit, she would be Nona’s twin. Nona is perhaps one of the most intense children I’ve ever read. She’s as savage as Arya Stark, but far less selfish. Here is a girl who is different and deadly, but would lay down her life for a friend without a second thought. With all she had been through, Nona could have been cold and closed-off, but she is anything but. She might not understand people, but she values those she loves more highly life itself. And she is not a character who skates easily through life. More than anything else, Nona has known pain. She has endured things that would break most people; but they don’t break Nona, because she won’t let them.

“Every star, turning in the black depth of heaven, burns for no better reason than that humanity raised its face to look. Every great deed needs to be witnessed. Go out there and do something great.”

Although this book is without a doubt Nona’s story, Lawrence has assembled an incredible cast around her, most of whom are women. The majority of the story takes place in a convent, and the nuns here are unique, to say the least. At Sweet Mercy Convent of the Ancestor, a nun’s education is more well-rounded, shall we say, than most. Here, a girl must learn the arts of warfare and poisoning and far more in addition to their religious education if they are to become Sisters of Sweet Mercy. The Sisters here, as well as Nona’s fellow novices, are an incredibly diverse group of females. There are women young and old, fat and thin, light and dark, spiritual and physical and both. These girls and women grow and change tremendously over the course of the book. I won’t mention any names, so that when you read this book (because you definitely should), you get to meet the characters for yourself and make your own judgements without my interference.

“Those that burn short burn bright. The shortest lives can cast the longest shadows.”

A trope that will never get old for me is the “special school” trope. I just always love it with all of my heart. It all started with Harry Potter, as it does for most people. I’ve read a plethora since then, some better told than others. This one was very well told, and diving into the training necessary to produce such deadly nuns was enthralling. The fighting instruction, the classes with the Poisoner, the scenes in the dormitory and the cafeteria, were all so much fun. Lawrence did an especially great job with the fighting in this book, both in the convent and outside of it. But honestly, one of my favorite smaller aspects of the book was every time Nona woke up in the infirmary. Not because I’m sadistic, I promise! This was another of the things that reminded me of Harry Potter without feeling at all like a rip-off of Harry Potter. Whenever Harry went through something traumatic and woke up in the infirmary, you knew that everything was going to be okay. I felt the same relief every time Nona woke up under the care of Sister Rose. And those times were many.

“‘Tell me a story’ began every seduction ever.”

I’ve heard some mixed opinions of Lawrence’s prose, which was actually one of the reasons I hadn’t yet picked up any of his books. Some people love it; some people struggle with it. Most agree that it’s lovely. Thankfully I fell into the category of those who love his writing style. I thought it was beautifully written, and I respected the fact that he made writing decisions that weren’t safe. He plays with language and has fun with it. Take this quote, for instance:

“A lone chicken strutted in the shadow of the scriptorium, pausing to scrape and peck as if looking for any dropped punctuation.”

That sentence delighted me. The image he invoked there was just so fun that I couldn’t help but grin. Lawrence’s writing style is different, even from itself as he moves through the story. But I think that the beauty of stories is that they can be told in such vastly different ways, and I loved the choices Lawrence made here. I also enjoyed the setting much more than I expected. This is firmly fantasy, and yet the arrival of alien races and space ships has made its way into the history of world. Seeing science-fiction as a backdrop for a predecessor to a fantasy setting felt very original.

This book was without a doubt a 5 star read for me. I highly recommend it to any fantasy fan. I’ll leave you with one of my absolute favorite quotes from the book:

“But be warned…: a book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat books with respect.”

I really wanted to get into this, but it felt a bit flat at some points. It took me a while to really understand the characters and generally see their personalities, but I don't think it was a case of bad writing, just "It's not you - it's me".

When Nona is saved from the hangman by the Abbess of the Convent of Sweet Mercy it isn't through some pure-minded, altruistic concern for a wrongly-accused child, for Nona is far from innocent of the charges against her, and the Abbess is interested in the special 'talents' (an inborn aptitude for killing) that led Nona to this point, and the possibility that Nona may have a part to play in fulfilling a prophecy. Neither is the Convent the tranquil, contemplative place you might expect - the young girls who are admitted there are trained through martial arts, stealth, magic and poisons to become killers,and it's only through becoming one that Nona will be able to rid herself of the enemies she's created.
This is the first book I've read by Mark Lawrence but I saw folk enthusing about him on social media so, feeling in the mood for a little fantasy adventure, took a risk and really enjoyed it.

After the dramatic opening, the story slows somewhat as Nona becomes settled into her new life as a novice at the Convent. Yes, there are echoes of Harry Potter in the training for the various skills a novice must master, and there are similarities with the many other fantasy series centred on a special child who will rescue the princess/save the world/dispose of the bad guys, but the Convent of Sweet Mercy is a bloodier, more violent place than Hogwarts (Red Sister certainly isn't a story for children) and the story individual enough to stand up to other fantasy novels.

Red Sister is the first of a new series, The Book of the Ancestor, set on a world almost totally enveloped by ice; only a narrow corridor is habitable, this is warmed, not by the red sun, but by an artificial moon which reflects light down to heat the land at night. Civilisation seems to be at the vague medieval level of most fantasy novels but there are hints of a more technological past - for example, the different off-world 'tribes' that settled the planet, the 'ships heart' that provides heat for the convent and the circling artificial moon. Another aspect hinted at is the mysterious prophecy which Nona may or may not be in line to fulfil - again it's a familiar fantasy trope but handled well and I liked the fact that there's a lot more doubt about which novice it refers to than in, say, Harry Potter or Eragon. The strange columns which guard the approach to the Convent, especially with Sister Thorn facing down her enemies there, reminded me of the fight scenes from The House of Flying Daggers set in bamboo groves, and so my whole imagining of setting and characters was tinged with this - it's probably not at all how the author envisaged it but one of the joys of fantasy is creating your own world out of the writer's words.
As the story builds to its dramatic close, there are more glimpses of the future which awaits Nona, with hints of invaders and war, and possible treachery among both the rulers of her world, and her friends. So although the first part of Nona's story has come to an end, I'm left wanting to read more...

A solid 4.5/5 stars read !

Red Sister is the first book of Mark Lawrence's new series : The Book of the Ancestor. If you haven't read Mark's other trilogies (The Broken Empire and the Red Queen's War), no worries ! Red Sister takes place in an entirely new world so you are safe to start with this one if you want to discover Lawrence's work !

"A book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one."

The action takes place in a pretty harsh world, Abeth, where the ice had took hold of most of the globe thousands of years ago and humanity was forced to live and adapt into a narrow strip of land. A map would have helped picture the world but as the story progressed, Lawrence subtly introduced elements of history and geography and at the end, we end up with a pretty detailed understanding of the world.

"Hunger lies beneath all of our ugliest transactions."

Red Sister is your typical school and coming of age trope in a Fantasy setting. And yet it's not that typical ! There is a lot of training and learning and routine but what dominates the book in my opinion is a tremendous character development and a deep contemplation of human nature, human duality and human passions and motivations. Mark Lawrence was not merely writing a story: he was reflecting on life and he put a lot of introspection, analysis and underlying humor in his characters introspection and retorts.

"What good is holy if it watches my friend die– not because she did something wrong but because her blood wasn’t good enough?"

The tone is in turns narrative, philosophical, spiritual and sarcastic. I couldn't be happier !

Which brings me to my next point. The writing ! There is undeniable beauty and poetry to Mark Lawrence's writing. When he doesn't try too hard ! The beginning of the book was really tedious to go through !! Interminable sentences, complex explanations and convoluted metaphors made me re-read whole paragraphs and pages ! It was the slowest progress I made in a Fantasy book in a while !! LOL Luckily the writing got easier and simpler after the first quarter.

The story is told from Nona's POV (both 3rd person and 1st person). In the beginning of the book, Nona is 8, sentenced to death and wild as an injured animal. And I loved Nona soooo much !! She reminded me of a young, untrustful and wild Vin (Mistborn, The Final Empire) ! Nona was secretive, combative, loyal, observing, silent, sharp, clever and oh so broken ! And Nona came with a load of secrets, magical potential and funny reflections ! I loved how we knew little of Nona at first and that her background was slowly revealed (mostly told by her) throughout the narrative!

“Truth is a weapon and lies are a necessary shield.”

This book is so full of badassery ! A bunch of young girls undergo a rigorous training in a Sweet Mercy's convent to hone their skills and become deadly nuns !! How cool is that !! The magic systems are fantastic and intricate and a lot of fighting scenes made for an exciting ride !! And even if I still haven't a clear image of the different magics at the end of the book, I loved reading about the different uses of magical abilities and different paths the confirmed nuns could choose !

" believe the word most often used against me is “cunning”. So it pains me to see you leap so swiftly to the conclusion that I stand before you yoked by my own stupidity."

Conclusion
This is my favorite Mark Lawrence book so far ! I spent an amazing and exciting time reading Nona and her friends' journey in the Convent. If you love your Fantasy to be character-driven, complex thought-provoking and filled with spiritual and philosophical meditation and dozens of fighting scenes, then you'd absolutely love this book, as much as I did !

‘Do not be deceived. No real fight is bound by four walls. No real fight ends at a particular doorway or when we wash off the sweat and the blood. Fights end with defeat. And death is the only defeat a warrior understands. While we draw breath we are at war with our enemies and they with us.’

This is only a mini review because... well, you will see.

The story centres around a young girl called Nona. After being rescued from hanging by a nun she now finds herself in the Sweet Mercy Convent...
Perfecting her powers and being trained in the art of killing.
I was desperate to get my teeth into this book; after hearing the storyline and reading the reviews but I just couldn't get to grips with it. I know that so so many of my fellow book-bloggers and book-reviewers absolutely raved about it. It wasn't the plot of the book or any major character flaws that were the issue, I just couldn't click with the writing style. I would go so far as to say I found it difficult to read.
I found the majority of the book not intriguingly mystifying but just plain annoyingly cryptic. If I was Nona I would be pulling my hair out; everyone speaking in riddles and telling half truths constant.

I desperately tried to carry on reading the book but sadly I gave up around the half way mark. I found myself reading a couple of pages and finding something better to do and began putting off read I g altogether. So to fight the impending reading slump that was fast approaching I decided to cut my losses and bail.
Keep in mind I didn't finish but overall I found the general idea of killer nuns with powers genuinely exciting however the book was just to hard going for me and I put the purely down to my person taste.

Thank you NetGalley.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Publisher: Harper Voyager

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler free.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive… *

I admit I've only read one of Mark Lawrence's books, Prince of Thorns, and it wasn't quite my cup of tea. However I have been following his writing career -- he's a good guy and very active on social media -- and when I heard about this book it intrigued me. I grabbed a copy and am so glad I did. It is compelling from page one; Nona gets her hooks in you and doesn't let go until the very end.

I love a well-written, strong female character, but I find them few and far between, especially if they're slotted into any kind of assassin or murdery role. They usually end up hating what they do and avoid it at all costs because killing is bad. Nona, however, is exactly the kind of character I'm looking for. She's fierce and intelligent and murdery, but also a child in search of a place where she belongs. She has friends, but a complicated relationship with them. She struggles through school, has nightmares, is fiercely loyal to those who are loyal to her. She is an ordinary girl in such a way that you forget she's living this extraordinary life. She is complex and has depth -- she is far from perfect, but you don't want to shake her every time she makes a decision. I found her so well-written, kudos to Lawrence for really hitting the nail on the head.

The world of Red Sister is one of the more unique ones I've read. Set on Abeth, a frozen planet orbiting a dying star, the world's earlier inhabitants left for the stars. They left behind an artificial moon, a mirror that concentrates the weak sunlight and melts the ice in a strip across the planet's center daily. This area is the Corridor, where the events of the book take place. The people of the Corridor scrape out a pitiful existence, but manage to survive in the harsh cold under the light of a red star.

Don't be fooled by Nona's age -- I wouldn't call this a YA novel despite its classification on Amazon. Red Sister is pure grimdark and fans of the genre will not be disappointed. Told in a style that is more a series of vignettes than a linear plot, Red Sister is among one of the most unique fantasy books I've read in a long time. It's a dark and violent novel that lacks the sexual violence that is often seen in these kinds of books -- long-time fans of Lawrence's books and new readers alike will enjoy this well-crafted novel. The only problem is now we have to wait for a sequel.

Rating: 4/5

*copy courtesy of Goodreads

Given away by her mother, sold into a pit fighting ring, and saved from the gallows by a nun – at 8 years old, Nona’s adventures have only just begun! Taken into the convent for training in fighting and ‘magic’ and poisoning, she’s not safe from external politics or threats from her classmates.

I’ve said it before, fantasy fiction can become quite ‘samey’ if you read a lot of it – and it’s therefore a double joy when you pick up something really really good, and this is.

Mark Lawrence – another author I really should have discovered earlier, it seems! – has created an immersive and intriguing world. With hints of a sci-fi ancient history, the planet is near ice-bound, with only sunlight reflected off the ‘focus moon’ keeping a 50-mile-wide corridor free for habitation.

Into this setting is set a school days tale as far from Mallory Towers as you could imagine! It’s sometimes difficult to remember that the characters are children – or nuns! – as the wider intrigues thicken around Nona and her classmates. Caught between the challenges of deadly school lessons and mysterious goings-on outwith the convent, there’s no shortage of action or blood or high drama – all written with great style.

There’s a nice framing technique used in the prologue, epilogue, and mid-way break, using a ‘flash forward’. To be honest, I sort of guessed some of the ‘reveals’, but it really didn’t matter. And while there’s a lot of completeness to the story told here, the scope for continuing the story is appreciated.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Lawrence.

That is all.

Kidding, but not fully.

Compared to Mark's other works (Broken Empire and Red Queen's War trilogies), Red Sister stands completely on its own and casts its own shadow on the genre. Never have I been so infatuated with a character such as Nona Grey and more interested in a school's teachings than with the Convent of Sweet Mercy. She is such a complex, yet simple character and you are on for the ride of your life with her story.

Much like the Harry Potter series (sorry, have to go there), the first book of the Red Sister trilogy takes place in a 'school' environment, along with teachers that are either loved or loathed, classmates who become friends or enemies, and lessons that are learned or ignored. But unlike Hogwarts, the students of Sweet Mercy are taught how to kill, and oft times ruthlessly. But before the killing begins, there must be a solid foundation of understanding the powers that are hidden and waiting to unfolded.

Though most of the novel takes place in the Convent, there is some world-building to be had, mostly through flashbacks and journeys. A map would've been useful but I'm sure we will get a better taste of the world in the sequel(s). There is also a magic system in place that takes a little time getting used to as it is complex yet fresh and riveting.


'There is, in the act of destruction, a beauty which we try to deny, and a joy which we cannot. Children build to knock down, and though we may grow around it, that need runs in us, deeper than our blood.
Violence is the language of destruction, flesh so often the subject, fragile, easy to break beyond repair, precious: what else would we burn to make the world take note?
Your death has not been waiting for your arrival at the appointed hour: it has, for all the years of your life, been racing towards you with a fierce velocity of time's arrow. It cannot be evaded, it cannot be bargained with, deflected or placated. All that is given to you is the choice: meet it with open eyes and peace in your heart, go gentle to your reward. Or burn bright, take up arms, and fight the bitch.'


Quotes like this are why I love reading Mark's novels.
It's just, simply put, beautiful. His writing is exemplary, genius, and will have you constantly coming back for more. My favorite parts had to be the prologues and epilogue, as they give you just a subtle taste of what is to come. Mark's a tease but I'll deal with it while he continues to write wonderful novels.

Red Sister, Mark Lawrence

Look, I am a bit of a Lawrence fan-girl. He knows it, I know it and the whole of Twitter knows it. When I am absolutely besotted with an author's body of work I always experience huge anxiety when they write a book for a new series. Talk about out of my comfort zone!

But blimey the #grimdark Count had done it again. I think this is my favourite so far and, it is not JUST because of the incredible female characters. I don’t believe female MC’s are strong because they swear like troopers and are incredibly rude to everybody. They become strong through a writer's talent to grow those girls into women who are credible role models.

Nona is one. I wish she’s been around when I was growing up. Even in the fantasy genre, her experiences of hardship, abuse and isolation are realistic. She starts off hollow and fills herself with a dedication to the Red Sisters and a desire to understand the complexities & risks of friendship. Her heart is never completely healed and her suspicion of her fellow humans is never completely resolved but she is worthy of the reader's respect and admiration.

Mark Lawrence writes with such authority. Every character he draws in Red Sister is substantial and worthwhile and he is a master at creating menacing players with just a few character details.

It was so refreshing to read a book that isn't over-gendered. By that I mean, there are characters of both sexes that are flawed and damaged. The characters are judged and written as individuals rather than by stereotyping gender. And by God! They are memorable.

I absolutely loved Red Sister. So much so that I slowed down to two pages a night for the final chapters and when I finished the last page I was truly bereft. Although, Nona has stayed with me and that is a comfort as well as the mark of great storytelling.

Well played, Mr Lawrence, well played.

This is the first book i have read written by this author and i must say i loved it. I will be reading more from him for sure. I loved the story and the characters. Nona is awesome and i cant wait to read more about her.

“Red Sister” is the first book I’ve ever read written by Mark Lawrence. And wow, what book it was. I always love finding new gems and this book certainly is such gem. I was pulled in to the story right from the start and I couldn’t stop reading. The world building is amazing and even if there is a lot of raining going on, my interest never wavered. Yeah, I could have done without a cliffhanger in the end. But as this is the first book in a series, it didn’t came unexpected. I’m sure I will read the next book. And in the meantime I will definitely find some of the authors others books to shorten the waiting time.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins UK!

So, I was a bit hesitant about reading this book as I didn’t really enjoy Prince of Thorns however the description was enticing enough I decided to give it a try. I was hooked from the first page as it has an absolutely fantastic opening (which I won’t post as I don’t want to spoil it for you). The opening is set in the future then it jumps back to the start to explain how we got to the situation we saw in the prologue and after such a great prologue, you’re hooked on finding out what happened.

The main character, Nona, is absolutely fantastic. She was about to be hung due to trying to kill a man that was harassing her friend and immediately I adored her. Nona is all about caring about her friends and wanting to help them and if there’s anything that will make me adore a book it’s female friendships and this book has plenty of them. It also has rivalry too, which is natural given that the characters are a group of girls being trained in a variety of skills so there will be competition between them. The rest of the characters are all really lovely too and I enjoyed seeing them all grow and their own motivations.

Because the setting is mostly at the convent, we don’t get to see too much of the world but we get a lot of tantalising glimpses of the worldbuilding which is fantastic and I’m definitely keen on finding out more about the world and the history of it. The main feature is that there were four different tribes that settled the area and every so often, children are born with the blood of one of these tribes prominent. Nona has Hunska blood which gifts her incredibly fast speed. The world is mostly covered in ice with just a small corridor of land that is suitable for living although some groups do also manage to survive out on the ice.

Tying all these fantastic elements together is some absolutely beautiful prose. It was a joy to read and I constantly found myself staying up late reading it as I just couldn’t put it down. I enjoyed this book so much that not only will I be eagerly awaiting the next in the series, but I’m going to go back and re-read Prince of Thorns and the rest of the Broken Empire books just because I enjoyed the writing so much.

Having been a big fan of Mark Lawrence since Prince of Thorns first hit the shelves, I was apprehensive to hear he was stepping into a new direction with this series. I shouldn't have been. When Lawrence is hanging young children if Chapter 1, you know this new world, while different, is going to be just as gritty and compelling as the Broken Empire.

He writes so effortlessly, his characters are believable and real, and the plot flows seamlessly at such a relentless pace.

Added to this, the book teases a possible sci-fi element as well, which only serves to heighten the excitement for book 2. Next year cant come soon enough!

Ah, this is going to be a hard book to review. I have a lot of mixed feelings about Lawrence's latest work and I'm going to try and organize my thoughts as best I can.

What I love most about Lawrence's writing is the fact he's - to be frank - dramatic as fuck. He knows how to create a nail-biting, bloody, on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of scene. Red Sister opens with an army coming to kill a nun:

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.


Then the novel's timeline takes a step back into the past as we join eight-year-old Nona on her journey from almost being hanged to her time training at Sweet Mercy's Convent for Young Girls, spanning several years.

Being someone who grew up alongside Harry Potter, magic boarding school books have a special place in my heart. I love the inevitable jealousies, rivalries and friendships that form between the students. And, hey, it's almost like the four Hogwarts houses because here the girls train to become either Red Sisters, Grey Sisters, Holy Sisters or Holy Witches.

The beginning and end of the book are awesome. It opens action-packed and dramatic, and ends likewise. The writing is superb. The more I learned about the world and magic system, the more excited I got to explore it further in the next book.

Unfortunately, it was the middle chunk of the book where I felt let down. To be honest, it was just quite... boring. It's a fairly medium-length book, and it's on the shorter side for adult fantasy, and yet it felt so very long. While I enjoyed the various character dynamics and the training/learning for a short while, it quickly became repetitive. Nona and the other sisters-in-training go to lessons, train, talk about the Path, train some more, go to more lessons...

I feel like the author has a great story to tell here, and the final quarter is where we get some payoff for the long, dragged-out wait, but for me, it wasn't quite enough. I found myself unfavorably comparing this book with other "dark" and/or "adult" magic school books like Skin Hunger and The Queen of Blood. I enjoyed both of those more.

Also, I found Nona - and the characters in general - to be a little stock. She interests me enough to pique my interest in the sequel, but she falls into the same old badass female assassin mold that's become the norm in fantasy. I look forward to her character being more developed in the next book.

I will definitely be reading the sequel. The ending drops off of a dramatic cliff and seems to promise many exciting things for the future of this story and world. Despite the pacing issues, it's hard not to want to come back for more of this bloody, nasty drama.

I received an advanced copy of Red Sister from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Quite frankly, I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I’ve previously read two books from Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy, and while I recall enjoying them, I don’t think they compared at all to this masterpiece.

I think one of the lines from the opening sums up just how incredible the story is going to be: “It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size”. This book is bloody, violent and pulse-pounding.

The plot revolves itself around Nona, a young girl who was taken to Sweet Mercy’s Convent to become a Red Sister. Throughout the book we meet a variety of incredible characters, including a few badass nuns – I never thought that would be a line I’d use in a book review!

The world building in the book is superb – with an intriguing magic system, and a world in which the moon is falling. Simply put, everything about this book is engaging and thrilling. By the time I reached the ‘finale’, I was turning pages faster than ever. I read mostly on my dinner breaks at work, and I tell you, I struggled to put it down and get back to work!

The only downside to this book is that now I have to wait for the sequel!

Nona always knew she was different. Even as a little girl, she was shunned by the other children in her village. Then one day a man arrives with a caged wagon, and she is sold to him. Then, sold to another. A short time passes, events unfold, and she finds herself facing the hangman's noose. Rescued by the Abbess of The Convent of Sweet Mercy, her life will forever be changed. This was my first time reading anything by Mark Lawrence. After reading this, I will have to read everything written by him! This book was fantastic!! Character driven, filled with magic, everything about this made me want more. I will be waiting impatiently for the next book in this series.

Summary

Red Sister is the first book in a new trilogy by Mark Lawrence, Book of the Ancestor. Having read a previous book by Lawrence, I went into Red Sister expecting it to be good. I was not, however, expecting it to be as good as it was. I struggled to put this book down and, when I finally had to, I
was itching to pick it back up again.

Plot

Red Sister revolves around a convent of nuns where the inhabitants are trained to be assassins, control magic and worship the Ancestor. Everything about it sounded fantastic when I first heard about this book and, from the first line, it lived up to that (believe me, the first line of this book is probably one of my favourite first lines yet). While Red Sister does have a self-contained plot, it is very much the first book in a series and the build up to both are beautifully intertwined – there is very little distinction between the two.

The big bad of the novel appears throughout, although is not completely obvious to the end, along with the over-arching story-line. The novel is filled with twists and turns, not least a prophecy that turns the trope on its head, many times over. While there were some predictable aspects, I actually found that they worked both as a surprise and if you knew what the twist was all along. The novel is interspersed with three flash-forwards, each of the same moment and each partly related to the story in question. I loved these parts of the book as they added something extra that made me want to keep reading even more.

Characters

The characters of Red Sister really added to the world-building and plot development, not to mention that the vast majority of them were female. The main character is a girl called Nona who comes from a desolate village and a rough background; she is wild with a strong temper and unwavering loyalty but with a lot of uncertainty about herself and her place in the world. The girls she surrounds herself with are distinct characters for the most part; however, there are a couple which I did get muddled up (although whenever that did happen, there was always a reminder a few sentences later about which was which). I had the same experience with the nuns – a couple stood out, but I did get a few confused. The main disappointment with the characters for me was the abbess – while incredibly strong at the beginning, she gradually disappears from the plot and I would have loved to see more of her throughout the book.

One of my favourite parts of this novel is that while there is very little romance in the novel itself, the only relationships we really see are between women. No-one’s defining characterisation is their sexuality, it’s just part of who they are, and the main character is bisexual. On top of that, no-one else in the novel displays having any issues with same-sex relationships at all. Although it would have been nice to see the LGBT parts of this novel in a slightly more prominent light, I thought it was written really well and made sense given the focus on the plot on the training and primary story-lines.

World/Setting

For those who have read Mark Lawrence’s previous series, this will be a chance to see where else his writing will take you. It’s set in a completely different world, with new characters, new threats and an intriguing magic system. While it is a little difficult to get your head around at the beginning, the glossary is helpfully at the front of the book, and everything is gradually explained as the book progresses.

The only part that I did struggle with was getting a grasp of the land. While the land was explained, mostly in the context of the religion, I am still not entirely sure of the structure of the corridor, or planet itself. A map would have been incredibly helpful on that front (I was reading on a kindle – the print books may have that map).

That being said, I did really enjoy the world in this book. While the setting was mostly contained within the monastery, we do get to see glimpses of elsewhere through flash-backs and the odd venture away from the convent. I found the magic system really intriguing – based off of four tribes which arrived on the land, each with their own traits (giant, speed, magic and ability to see the path). While expressing the traits are rare, even rarer are those who show more than one. Everything about the magic system gives so much potential for future developments and, alongside the religions depicted in the novel, it makes me very excited to see what else Mark Lawrence will bring to the story in the next book.

Final thoughts

I came out of this book ready to read the sequel, desperate even. Which, given that Red Sister is not yet out, means a fair amount of impatient waiting. Mark Lawrence’s writing and world-crafting ability really shone in this book. Nona was a brilliant lead, the plot was gripping and the world felt like I could practically step into it. It’s exciting  and I would highly recommend it to any fantasy lover out there.