Felt like I was reading Jay Kristoff's Nevernight Chronicle which I enjoyed a lot more. Red Sister wasn't bad, but didn't blow my mind either. The characters were often indistinguishable to me.

I love everything by Mark Lawrence. The worlds that he creates are amazing. You feel submerged and he brings his story to life in such a vivid way. I read his Broken Empire series and I knew that I would have to read this book.

Sorry for so late but I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed learning more of this world and the slight romance. I loved seeing all the women and even the red sister. Great book.

This is going to be a hard book to review. There's so much about it that I adored, but a lot that I just feel so 'meh' about. And seeing that it comes so highly recommended from my friends, I kinda don't want them to know that I almost DNF'ed this book.

The beginning and end of the book are so badass. Great opening line, great action, great questions. It begins and ends with high stakes, high drama. The writing is so brilliant and I can see so much artistry. I love the magic system of the book, the worldbuilding around the corridor and the focus moon.

But the middle bit was so, so long. And repetitive. It just goes on and on and I don't feel like any progress is being made. Plus, Nona's age means she rarely gets the full picture of what's happening, which makes for an interesting perspective but a slog to read.

All in all, I want to know what happens next, but I'm not sure I want to take the time to read it. If anyone can give me details about the focus moon, that's what I want to know more about!

For my first read of a Mark Lawrence book, Red Sister had me hooked from start to finish. But I likely would have taken ages to finish it if not for the audiobook.

We're introduced to Nona, a young girl taken into train as an assassin nun. Yes, you read that right. With a cast composed almost entirely of women, I was delighted to see how Nona's story would play out in the hands of the Sisters of the Sweet Mercy Convent. I'm a sucker for fantasy schools and one where you train as an assassin from a young age? Count me in! It actually reminded me a bit of Nevernight in that regard, and as I loved that book, I had high hopes for this one.

Nona starts the book young, around eight years old, and while the book spans many years with scenes set in the future scattered throughout (they were my favorite by far, so succinct and intriguing), she didn't age much by the end of Red Sister. Yet despite her young age, I felt the maturity of her voice through the narration. She changed a lot in just this book alone, developing friendships with the other girls at the convent and growing as a person.

I really loved the characters in this one. The story took its time meandering about but the characters, that's where this book excels. Beyond Nona, there are her classmates and teachers, each with distinct personalities and histories that all weave together to form a bond of sisterhood that stands to defy the world. To be perfectly honest, I get a tad worried with adult fantasy and male authors writing female characters as protagonists. I've read too many epic fantasies where the women are poorly written and fall into offensive stereotypes, so I was pleasantly surprised with Red Sister and eager to read the next book now!

The plot itself was less exciting and more background for something greater to come. Much of it focused on Nona and her relationships with the other students, how she began growing up doing something she never expected. Story-wise it wasn't the greatest of plots but I still found it interesting enough to want to read the next book.

But ultimately. . . I wouldn't have finished this novel if it weren't for the audiobook.

I tried reading it time and again but never made it very far before putting it down. The world-building is great, but it's written as though the entire book is setting up for a later book. That's especially enforced with the future scenes that indicate something will go down but it's going to take some time to get to that point. Possibly another book entirely before the story is even close. All that set-up is needed, but doesn't make for an especially engaging read. But listening to the audiobook, I was able to do other things while the book played and finally got through Red Sister.

Don't get me wrong, once I actually read this book, I really liked it. Assassin nuns and schemes and sisterhood and strong female characters, all good stuff! I'd absolutely recommend Red Sister with the understanding that it's a lot of set-up for what is sure to be an exciting sequel! And I definitely recommend the audiobook, the narrator did a great job!

I was craving a good fantasy book and this was perfect for it!

School setting, fun magic system, badass nuns?! YES!!

Loved the characters, the world (although I need to know more!), the magic system, the story... I need the second book ASAP!

Totally recommend :D

Convent of nuns, where children learn how to become killing machines and "walk the Path" to mystic abilities. Very "British boarding house" vibe, ala Harry Potter, other than the learning to kill part.

What is different from Harry Potter? The Abbess that should be this book's version of Dumbledore. In the first half of the book? She was PRESENT. She was ACTIVE. She was PROTECTING the MC and the other students as best as she could, wielding political and religious power, as well as the ability to be able to tolerate extreme pain.

The second half of the book? WHERE DID SHE GO?!? Unless she was doing things in the EXTREME background that no one could see, she was either allowing to happen or didn't even know, that the enemy she had to invite into her convent was going to rob them of the most precious thing that made the convent so special.

The kids had to save the day. And I give the author credit, while the characters were all training to become, or were already, deadly fighting machines, they didn't kill if they could help it. The MC, who thought she was a killing monster, had MULTIPLE opportunities to kill someone who was severely hurting her, but she didn't. She rather be beat up badly, than kill the person doing the beating, because she recognized that killing them was not the right thing to do. She knew that being beat up, but not in danger of death herself, that the person beating on her didn't need to die. She was a true Sister of Mercy.

So while violence is a big part of this book, it isn't willy-nilly, and neither is it a convent of killer nuns who don't kill, even when it should happen. It's balanced. Violence fits into the harsh world in which they live, but it's not senseless.

I also really love how the MCs aren't special snowflakes, even when they are part of a prophecy. They all come into their own power with hard work, hard knocks and time. When they get uber-powerful, it's earned. And it's not super power forever. There is a time limit and a price to be paid after it's been gained.

I'm not sure I like the whole, all the nun characters have two names thing, if only because I put this book down for a while and when I picked it back up, I had no idea of who was who with the teaching nuns, since their names go back and forth, depending on if they are in class or not. The two names thing makes sense, but I need a list of characters. There may be one in the eBook, but I am lazy and don't want to flip back and forth in an eBook to find out, so this is more a character flaw of me than a flaw of the book.

All told, I really enjoyed this book and will be starting the second one soon. 4 stars, because I didn't like how the Abbess let potential bad guys have access to the convent without having some obvious to the reader protections in place. She was a bit too hands off in the second half for me. I don't understand her change in action. Maybe the second book will get into an explanation. I hope so.

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group Ace for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Can I give a book six stars? Is that allowed? Mark Lawrence is up there with my all time favourite authors so when I got the chance to read a proof of Red Sister I jumped at the chance and waited eagerly by the letter box for it to arrive. When one of your favourite authors releases a new book you always have that little bit of nervousness, what if you don’t like it? What if it doesn’t live up to your expectations? After just a few chapters I was completely hooked and Red Sister blew me out of the water.

As always the writing is captivating, drawing you in so that I found myself sitting for long periods of time completely absorbed in the book. I neglected my dissertation and any house work in order to get back to reading this magnificent book. It’s a wonderful first instalment, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. The book is predominantly set in the Convent of Sweet Mercy, and Lawrence really brings to life the sights and sounds of life in this fascinating setting. This convent is of course no ordinary place, and these nuns can kick some serious butt.

Red Sister focuses on Nona, a young girl who is saved from execution and brought to stay at the Convent of Sweet Mercy. She is the most wonderful protagonist and I loved watching her grow and train to become a deadly assassin. She’s a fiery heroine and I instantly liked her. Lawrence has concocted a really bright and daring main character, and I know fantasy fans will just adore her.

Much like The Broken Empire Trilogy and The Red Queen’s War, Red Sister has plenty of action and plenty of blood and gore. There’s magic, fighting, mystery and just pretty much everything you could want. The book is dramatic, and definitely had me on the edge of my seat a few times. If you’re a fantasy fan or you’ve read previous books from Mark Lawrence, you are bound to adore this book. Your only problem will be waiting for Grey Sister to be released next year.

Wow! Red Sister is my first book by Mark Lawrence and it was full of awesome! There are so many things that I love, that I shall try to keep my list to a manageable length 🙂

Nona, is our main character and she’s eight at the start of the story. She’s had a hard life, always being an outcast due to her looks and almost feral attitude. She’s rescued by the Reverend Mother from hanging after attacking the member of a very wealthy and powerful family and she becomes a red novice. Friendship is everything to Nona and she values her friends above all else. She learns SO much in a short time. She’s so complex, so strong, so smart. Oh, and she likes hot baths and food. I loved her!
There is magic! This magic world is so different! It depends on your blood, and might give a person speed, the ability to walk the Path, to control shadows, understand poison, and more…
The world building is incredibly detailed and intricate. It’s sometimes not easy to remember it all, but I managed.
There is an incredible host of characters. The main setting is a school/church called Sweet Mercy and most of our cast is female. From the kick-a teachers to the novices of various ages and skills. So many awesome, varied, diverse characters.
Assassin magical nuns
The writing is – pardon the pun – magical. Words are strung together in such a way that they convey feeling, movement, suffering, pain, happiness, in a lyrical way. Nona is often snarky, her thoughts are honest and fun. Need proof? Read the quotes at the end of the post!

What I didn't like:


There isn’t much that I can say in this section, except for these two things and they are particular to my reading experience:

I wish I wasn’t reading an eBook. Why? Well, there is a really nice section at the beginning of the book with a glossary of terms and such that would have been very useful. The problem, at least with me is that going back and forth in an eBook is not easy. I wish I’d had a physical copy of the book (I will probably get one!)
The pace is slow. If you start reading and feel like you cannot get past the detailed worldbuilding and the story seems to drag, stick to it. Believe me when I tell you that it’s worth it. It gets SO good, with insight, action, friendships….


Overall

Red Sister is a story of a world that is narrowing due to an unexplained cold, a world undergoing change, a cruel world that values and fears magic. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, of the power of learning and understanding ones own powers and capabilities. It is SO good and I can’t wait to get my hands on Gray Sister, to be published in April.

This story was very slow, and difficult for me to get into. That said I enjoyed the characters and their relationship with each other.

I enjoyed this. It's a good fantasy "school story" and the friendships between the characters were particularly rewarding. However, I did find the whole thing slow, slow, sloooooowwwww, and I wasn't particularly impressed with the world-building. I mean, it was just fine within the girls' school/convent itself, but I was intrigued by the bits of information given about the world outside that cloistered environment -- bits which also helped give some much-needed context for the existence and nature of the school itself -- and in my opinion these bits were far too few for a book of this length.

I also didn't really get why the "school" had to be a "convent". I mean, I understand that the fictional religion is super important in this story-world and that everything springs off of that, but... why? Perhaps I missed something, but see above re lack of outside-world context. Sometimes a school is a school, and always calling it a convent does start veering into sexist territory upon deeper examination.

Loved this! Can't wait for the next one! It is not as graphic as some of Mark's previous work, which I enjoyed as well, but seems to have put some people off.

I received an advanced copy of Red Sister from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. And I apologize for the delay to NetGalley, Mark Lawrence, and Ace for the delay in my review. As you will see, it was not due to any dislike for the book. It’s just that becoming a dad has slowed down my whole reviewing process.

And while I’m making disclaimers, let me say up front that I am a big Mark Lawrence fan. This is the seventh book of his that I have read, and he has yet to let me down. I’ll try to minimize the fanboying, but you should probably know all of this before we begin.

So, with all that being said, yes, I loved Red Sister. This is a different direction for Lawrence, but a lot of the details that made me a fan of his (the dark edge, the black humor, the capable protagonist discovering just what he or she is capable of) are still here. Red Sister works both for fans of Lawrence and for those who have never read his previous two trilogies. Red Sister hooked me from the very first line, and I can’t wait to read the rest of this new trilogy.

The Story
This is the story of Nona, a very young girl accused of murder taken from the gallows by a nun to a convent. There, Nona learns magic, weapons, poisons, and the extent of her abilities. While training to become a killer, Nona makes friends, and her enemies gather, eager to exact revenge over her bloody past.

The Review
With Prince of Thorns, Lawrence began the telling of a terrific trilogy. With Prince of Fools, he took a tangent approach to that tale, and spun it out into another trilogy. But what happens when Lawrence decides to take a new path? After all, there was no witty, self-centered, or violent young man at the heart of this book. Instead, our hero is a girl. There is no broken empire, only a new, cold, and dying world. Nona doesn’t travel all over the known world. Instead, she (mostly) travels within a few buildings on the campus of the convent. Lawrence also changes to third-person POV.

But despite all the changes, Lawrence stands at the helm of Red Sister. It’s like seeing a band evolve across albums. It’s still the same band, but their sound evolves. They’re trying new tricks, exploring new ideas. Sure, it’s risky, but deep down, if they didn’t evolve, you’d grow tired of them.

While Lawrence does play with a few tropes here–stern teachers, Nona’s new friends and bullies, a chosen one–he does something interesting to keep readers hooked and to avoid boredom. He plays with the timelines, hooking readers with a glimpse of the future in the very first line:

“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.”

If that doesn’t pique your interest, I don’t know what will. Yes, it does mean there is a sort of double-prologue here, but c’mon, aren’t you curious about the kind of women it takes 200 men to kill? Besides, Lawrence handles the slow reveal of Nona’s past and her abilities in a skillful manner, and the book has a solid and dramatic ending.

The Bottom Line
Red Sister is exactly what you want in the first book of a trilogy. It sets up the world, the players, the conflict. It points them all in a direction and creates a sense of momentum–like a boulder that has just been pushed over the mountain’s edge.

I enjoyed watching Nona grow over the course of the story, and I want to see the woman she becomes. Similarly, I can’t wait to see how Lawrence grows and evolves in his writing. I can’t wait for the other two novels in the Book of the Ancestor trilogy and the books that come after.

An interesting new series. Will definitely consider reading the next one.

Review in Grimdark Magazine Issue #11. Unavailable to me now due to computer virus.

http://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/grimdark-magazine-11/

This book is really remarkably similar to Jay Kristoff's 'Nevernight.'

In that book, an orphan girl joins the religious order of the Red Church to be trained as a deadly assassin, and we follow her progress, learn about the painful secrets of her past, and see her deal with the more quotidian issues of coexisting with her colleagues as she works to attain an elite status in her religious order.

In THIS book, an orphan girl joins the religious order of the Sweet Mercy Convent to be trained as a deadly assassin known as the Red Sister, and we follow her progress, learn about the painful secrets of her past, and see her deal with the more quotidian issues of coexisting with her colleagues as she works to attain an elite status in her religious order.

Of course, there are differences. The main one is in tone. Nevernight was much funnier; this one uses a more classic epic fantasy style. I still think that a fan of one would like the other - although you may not wish to read them too closely to one another to avoid a sense of deja vu. I know many of the tropes are common to the genre, but the extent of the similarities is really quite a coincidence.

I personally like this kind of story; so I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it - although I do think it could have used a few more assassinations and a bit less 'school story.'

Many thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

Wow, this was definitely an adventure. This was my first Mark Lawrence book and boy did it make an impression! It was witty, heartbreaking, and downright engaging from the very first line to the last page. I can see this book being a great crossover read for anyone who reads YA and is looking to branch out into more adult fantasy.

The one thing that knocked a star off for me was the way that the author used past and future scenes. I will not go into more detail because that would seriously spoil the book. Suffice to say that the way that it was used confused me and made me disengage from the story to look back to see if I was actually reading things right. But after I got used to it, it didn't bother me as much but it does require the reader to pay attention to what is happening and make notes of things.

Altogether such a great book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a coming of age story that involves kick ass nuns and a girl who finds a place for herself in their Order through blood, sweat, and betrayal.

"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."

Hotdamn.

The story centers around Nona: a young girl sentenced to death for killing a nobleman, only to be saved by the Abess of the Sweet Mercy Convent and taken to the named convent to learn about faith, magic and different ways of ending people.
The start and the end of the book were superb. I loved the fast-paced action and the way Mark Lawrence makes his characters deal death is masterful. However, the middle-part of the book was slow and dragging, if not to say boring. That, however, might change on the second or third reading, as it did with the first book of the Broken Empire. In overall, Lawrence's style of writing is sure something to admire. I will definitely re-read this and it sure has peaked my interest in a sequel. Will surely order this for our shop.

“It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient bravery. For when Sister Cage of the Sweet Mercy Convent steps onto the battlefield courage is often found to be in short supply.”

I've tried reading this several times now but something about it just isn't engaging me - I don't know why, because a book about assassin nuns sounds like everything I've ever wanted, but something about Lawrence's writing style isn't letting me into the story. Considering how many excellent ratings it's been getting I don't know if it's simply a case of the finished book being edited and of better quality or if there's something I'm missing, but right now this book isn't for me. However, I'm still very intrigued by the premise so I'm likely to pick up a copy in future and give it a second chance.