it has taken me a long time to write this review. mostly because i couldn't bring myself to do it on my phone which would take FORever and i'm too lazy to be on a laptop when not at work. but here we are on a sunday and i feel it's my chance.

i actually received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review but did not manage to read the dang thing until it was actually out for real. this is my bad. i saw the synopsis on netgalley and was like, "yes. that. please. thank you." and was super excited but have a boatload of a backlog and it took me a while to get to. i am depressed now at the delay because this was FAR better than any of the other books i read in the interim.

i have never read anything else by mark lawrence. this needs to be remedied. immediately. (i'm on the library wait list for Prince of Thorns.)

at the beginning of Red Sister, i started highlighting passages which i liked a lot. i stopped after page 6 because i was highlighting too much. the writing is glorious. the characters are fucking heartbreakingly stunning. i cannot say enough good things about this book.

disclaimers for people with issues: there is rape/female sexual abuse mentioned more than once. there are lesbian characters. there is child slavery. there is animal abuse.

the story follows a young girl named nona who is a semi-unreliable narrator with a confusing and partially made up back story for most of the book. she is awesome. she's like a fun little sociopath with a kick ass attitude and PTSD. she also has special abilities. she goes to live at what basically amounts to a nunnery but with sisters who are maybe sort of being trained to be assassins. the VAST majority of characters in this book are female. it is DELIGHTFUL. a lot of them are messed up psychically, some physically, definitely emotionally, but they are also strong and caring and loyal to each other. the main characters the reader gets to learn about are nona, arabella, clera, and hessa. i've only just noticed all these characters end in the letter A. the other sort of main character but she doesn't come in until the last fifth of the book is zola. (ALSO AN A. IS THIS ON PURPOSE?)

so basically it's a bunch of girls at a semi-magical boarding school/nunnery learning combat, psychic magic, and meditation. they play pranks. they practice running an obstacle course. one of them may or may not be the chosen one (there's a whole back story with 4 races that came to the land long ago that have different abilities and someday there will be a person with 3 or 4 of the blood of those races running through their veins who will save them from the moon/light refractor falling out of the sky or something. honestly, the whole world building was awesome and interesting but also sparse on details which i think is just because our main character is basically an illiterate plebe from the sticks and what she knows about history is what we got to know about history.)

there's some other backstory about politics and rulers and stuff which impacts the girls at school. there are quite a few battle scenes which are written with a high degree of danger and drama. it's all tense and nail biting a lot of the time and i loved it.

the beginning starts with a bang and has a scene from the current/future and then we go back to learn about their childhood and then at the end it picks up again with that first chapter and then BAM it ends. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL.

really, really good. highly recommended. i am excited to read Prince of Thorns!

This is one of those books that just grabs you and won't let you go.

It's a truly epic dark fantasy - violent and knife-sharp.

Nona was wonderful I didn't just love her...I wanted to be her! And while the book is long at almost 500 pages, it's so fast paced that you're done before you know it - it certainly ends before you want it to! This was a two sitting read for me.

This is the first in a series and I truly with the other books were available now. I'd buy them all in a heartbeat.

Nona Grey is only eight years old but she's facing the hangman's noose. Angry but fierce, Nona is ready to fight when she is saved by Abbess Glass and brought to a convent where young girls are trained for years to be expert mystics, spirit walkers and fighters. Nona has a destiny and she's about to learn how to walk it.

I'm a huge fan of Mark Lawrence's writing and loved his two previous protagonists from his other trilogies - Prince/King Jorg and Prince Jalan. However I was so, so excited and intrigued to follow his first main female lead who seems to have all of Jorg's fierceness, Jalan's talent and something all of her own. The world of Abeth and the Corridor was just as wide and detailed as I would expect from Lawrence with tribes and lands far off and near as well as a ruthless emperor with many enemies, some of whom share his blood.

I think the first half of this book would be a 5 star for me while the second half slipped into a 4 star. I loved learning about Nona and who she was (not sure if it was just me, but at times she came across a bit on the autistic spectrum in the way she found it difficult to connect to and understand people). Her classes and what they did in them I loved of course - a bit of fighting and a bit of magic is just a recipe for a great book in my opinion!!

This book only reached up till Nona being 10/11 so I really can't wait to see what happens as she gets older as already so much has happened to her. I liked the glimpses we got into the future though I did guess the end as I thought it was too shocking and easy. I think I felt slightly underwhelmed by the ending but it left me wanting more all the same so job done.

Awesome book by Mark Lawrence! Had a great time reading it!

Mark Lawrence's name springs to mind, two of the bloodiest and the most enthralling protagonists sketched in modern fantasy. Jorg, the prince of thorns, a cunning and deadly player of politics and Jalan, the laid-back self-centered young man forced to the ways of magic and politics to save an empire.

Both these series are very dear to me. For numerous reasons but the special manner in which Mark writes about the grim truths of life laced with dry acerbic wit and fantastically violent action is just amazingly compelling. And it's his dramatic departure from using the tropes of this genre, spinning his own original stamp on the twists and turns of the events in these remarkable stories that makes him stand tall above others writing today.

With Red Sister, the first in the Book of Ancestors, Mark's chosen protagonist is a young girl, growing up in a convent, learning the ways of faith and war simultaneously and also discovering truths about herself amidst all the brutal cold whipping in around her world and the treachery and backstabbing that defines her world. Did that make you sit up and take notice? It should. Because yeah - Mark's doing something different this time.

“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.”

And hell, the very first sentence in the book grabbed me by the throat and from then on, it was a headlong flight - through the life and times of Nona Grey, a special young girl who is cast-away by her own mother to a child-taker and then ends up being saved from the hangman's noose by a nun who smuggles her away to a far-distant Convent to begin her eventual training in the ways of faith and violence.

It is a fascinating coming-of-age story - and yes, it has it's fill of prophecies about the Chosen One, the daily grind and extensive training within a 'special' school for the gifted that reminds you of many other books. (Harry Potter - and mix it up with Anthony Ryan's Blood Song!) And yet even as I dove right into the depths of Nona's tale, I knew I should just blindly trust this guy to pull a jack-rabbit out of the hat - and twist things up. And does he do exactly that, by Gods.

So the narrative cleverly crisscrosses across three different time-lines and Mark also goes in for a dramatic shift from first-person to third person, yet sticking true to Nona’s point of view, the nuances of her compelling personality shining through everything. So stylistically we are reminded of his previous books but this time, somewhere along the way, I got the feeling that Mark is striking out for something really special, very ambitious. The characterization is where Mark usually shines best: Flawed, human but with a spark of goodness, somewhere buried deep within their exterior flaws. But this time in addition to giving us Nona and her friends, Mark has also painstakingly created a glorious world, well thought and beautifully fleshed out, an exceptionally detailed wire-frame on which hangs this perilous and stunning story of Nona and her sisters.

Abeth, a world where the sun is dying and ice encroaches upon the living from both the poles forcing men to live within this narrow corridor, whipped on by the brutal cold winds and inhospitable terrains, is the world that the living fled to, from across the stars on their “ships”. And originally there were four tribes who landed in this world: Gerant, known for their brute strength. Hunska, for their unmatchable speed. Marjal, for their ability to fashion and use lesser forms of magic. And lastly Quantal, for their ability to ‘walk the Path’, the higher form of magic that lends people inhuman energies and power. Now with time, the blood has been diluted but there are still births that has traces of these magical abilities. People with one or more such abilities. And are highly sought after by academics, the Church and the Emperor’s people alike.

Nona, as we first meet her, is a young eight-year old who is about to be hung for a heinous crime, unthinkable of a young girl: Accused of trying to kill the son of a nobleman. Nona is a hunska, perhaps a full-blood and cannot stand to see wrongs committed against her friends. Her bonds of friendship and loyalty runs very deep and hence, the uncontrollable surge of anger that leads her to commit acts like trying to kill an eight-foot gerant ring-fighter who was hurting her friend. But she is saved by Abbess Glass, a nun of the Convent of Sweet Mercy where they train nuns to channel such magical abilities to become part of orders like the Red Sisters ( Martial ), Grey (Assassins) or dedicated to the Path.

But the slights committed against Raymel Tacsis, son of a powerful nobleman who by the way, has also got the Emperor’s favour, are never easily forgotten. Nona comes to know this the hard way, even as she grows from strength to strength under the brutal training of the different Sisters within the convent. Bonds of friendship, the hesitant explorations of the Path, the trails of the Blade-Path, the myriad poison concoctions, all of these that she has learned and all the new bonds she has formed and treasures, are tested with time.

Initially, I admit I was thrown off-track by the manner in which Mark started gathering the genre tropes and stacked them on. He went on to build the aura of a prophecy and the chosen one, then brought in the concept of a school for gifted and then tacked on sisters as teacher stereotypes. And I was like, I really hope Mark is going someplace good with all this. But you needn’t worry! After all, he has a legacy of skewering the genre tropes bloody.

So in terms of characters, if you thought Nona was the star, then Mark, just as he built the Band of Brothers for Jorg and Jalan’s counterpart in the Vikings gang, paints up some of the most interesting and compelling side-characters, making the tale really come alive. They are mostly the different novices within the Convent that Nona has joined up. Arabella, who initially is the ‘ice-princess’ and the ‘competition’ in the Convent quickly rises up the ranks to be part of Nona’s inner circle. I loved the balance and maturity that Ara’s character brings to the tale. Woven in to the same is also, the impetuous and highly ambitious Clera as well as Hessa, the girl who can best walk the Path who was also Nona’s companion from the days of her capture by the Child-taker. Then of course there are the various sisters in the Convent – a lot of them draw comparisons to the teachers from Hogwarts but be warned, that within the Convent, there are no soft spells – there is only pain, broken bones, shaved heads and worse, poison.

Despite the young age of the protagonist, the book is full of unexpected violence. There is the opening scene of Sister Thorn going up against two hundred mercenaries, there are the ring-fights that Nona witnesses and also takes part, there are the competitions within the Convent and that against other institutions – and a countless more. Some sinister and terrifying in its intensity. But for people who got turned off Mark Lawrence’s first series because of the grim nature of the narrative, this would be a wonderful point to get on-board.
What I badly missed, was the sense of levity, that grim humor that was the mainstay of both the Jorg and Jalan narrative. The nuns tend to be serious – and Nona, earnest and straightforward. That left maybe, her friends at the convent but sadly no, Mark seems to have left that part out in entirety.

All in all, I do feel that this could be Mark’s most defining work yet. The world is limitless and there are so many threads that he can explore. The story of the Red Sister is just getting started – and with the series starter shaking things up quite a bit, the legion of Mark Lawrence’s fans are only set to grow further. This one’s all set to be one of my favourite books this year for sure.

Mark Lawrence is a name I’ve been hearing in the fantasy arena for years. So when the chance came to read one of his books, I figured why not? And now that I’ve read it, I find myself…a little disappointed. The world is really interesting, and the characters were definitely engaging. But the plot and writing? That’s where things went a little wry.

First off, let’s talk about flashbacks. Because there were a lot of flashbacks in this book, particularly at the beginning. For me, flashbacks are difficult to make work. And unfortunately, I think this was one of the cases where they just didn’t work well. The amount and length of the flashbacks jarred me from the story and I found myself losing track of what was happening in the present because I couldn’t always distinguish between the past and present.

The pacing was also really slow, which I think ties into the plot. In all honesty, not much actually happens in this book, despite it being a bit on the long side. I loved the idea of a group of young women training to be super powerful fighters and use magic, but I kept finding myself wondering what this book was actually about. I’m still not a hundred percent sure I could give a good synopsis of the story. I liked most of it, but I had a hard time staying focused because of the slow and somewhat wandering pace.

That being said, it was the characters that really saved Red Sister. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the flashbacks, I will say they did a good job developing Nona’s backstory. I felt like I understood her so well. And the rest of the characters were pretty developed and interesting as well. Everyone had their own specific motivations and I loved that.

So, would I recommend this book? Possibly. The story has a lot of potential and, since this is the first in a series I can understand some of the slower pace. So, while I got a little bored sometimes, I’m still glad I gave Red Sister a try. I still haven’t decided if I want to read the second one, but I think I might give it a go. Like I said, this story has a lot of potential.

I've heard it said that Red Sister is the adult version of Harry Potter, but I didn't see that correlation here. In fact, this book was much better written and the story was its own. The only common factor the two stories has is that the young girls are trained in a school like setting to use magic.

I enjoyed this world. It was full of mystery and darkness. The sisters of the convent were strong and full of power and I loved each and everyone of them. I do admit that I was a little lost some times with the progression of the story, but I quickly caught up.

Mark Lawrence has come up with an epic tale of magic and wonder and I can't wait for the sequel.

Red Sister
Red Sister, book 1 in Lawrence’s new Book of the Ancestor trilogy is amazing and a testament to his masterfully unique storytelling voice. Using his characteristic dark prose he’s made sure to dot all his beautifully violent world building i’s and cross all his mystical magical t’s eloquently locking together all the intricate story pieces. His noir-ish lead character(s) and amazing co-stars drive this fast-paced action packed start to another of his epic tales giving new meaning to Holy War. Nona is not his first child protagonist and like his first is an unapologetic combination of innocence and maturity garnering not only empathy from his audience but a bit of terrible awe as he takes Nona and her friends from wet behind the ear novices to full-fledged, licensed to kill, warrior nuns.

Abandoned by her mother, and sold by her village 9 year-old misfit Nona Gray eventually winds up in prison for the attempted murder of a despicable but noble bully. She escapes the hangman’s noose with the help of the Abbess of the Sweet Mercy Convent who takes her in as a novice with the intent to train her to become a fierce and deadly weapon to fight in the prophesied upcoming holy war.
Is the convent and the Abbess enough to keep her safe until she reaches the maturity and skill to fulfill it, or will the factions who want her dead succeed?

Maybe 4.5 stars. I could not put this book down! I loved the first part, the last part was good, the middle part a bit slower, but overall, thoroughly enjoyable. Anxiously awaiting the next in the series.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free e-ARC of this book: it's a definite winner!

Red Sister is the first installment in author Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor series. Lawrence is also the author of the Broken Empire Trilogy, which I have not read. Red Sister follows a girl known as Nona Grey. When readers first meet Nona, she is only (8) years old, but in reality, she comes across as a young woman twice her age. Lawrence takes readers on a journey that sees Nona taken away from her mother, and sold. Later, she is spirited away to a place called Sweet Mercy Convent after she is nearly hanged.

By the time Nona is saved from being hanged, and brought to Sweet Mercy, she had already faced more challenges than most students will face in a lifetime. Sweet Mercy is filled with girls from a whole array of backgrounds. Some rich. Some dirt poor. Everyone has their quirks and their issues. This is a story that features girls in a school. What happens when you have girls in a school? There are bullies. There is jealously. There is infighting, and hair pulling, and jokes played on the newbies, and it is a place where you better pay attention because you never know when your teacher might try to poison you.

Sweet Mercy is a place where the girls are separated into (4) classes: Red (9-12), Grey (13-14), Mystic (15-16), & Holy (17-19). Along with the (4) separate classes, there are also (4) paths for novices to take. Bride of the Ancestor, Martial Sister, Sister of Discretion, and Mystic Sister. Four is a key component of this series. The story is set in a world called Abeth. It is a fictitious world where the people of Abeth descend from (4) different tribes; Gerant, Hunska, Marjal, & Quantal. Also, there are (4) key characters that stand out among a large cast of characters. Besides Nona, there is also Arabella, Zole, & Clera. Please don't overlook Hessa. She really is an amazing character who is not only disabled, but one of the few friends that Nona has.

A large part of this story is centered around the actual teachings, while there are flashbacks interspersed here and there which tells how Nona's past is something that should be not be ignored. There is also something very important about Nona that makes her intriguing to those at Sweet Mercy and beyond. Because of her blood, she has much more of a future than most of the girls she meets along the way. I am just going to jump feet first and say this; The beginning and the ending are the most action packed and dramatic than most of the story. While there is a bit of a let down in the middle, I rather understand what the author is trying to translate to us as readers, rather than just take things as they come.

Upon finishing this story, I compared the book to Grace Mercy but with the girl from Logan as the lead character.

Red Sister is a novel which has (rightly so, in my opinion) been dubbed the new Harry Potter for young adults. And, without a doubt, it follows the familiar pattern of children growing up and being trained by wise teachers at a specialized school for youth; the narrative fully embracing the whole coming-of-age and Chosen One mythos for good measure. Our main character’s unfortunate past and current travails chronicled in excruciating detail: every friendship, every enemy, every struggle, every triumph, every doubt, every hope. Mark Lawrence taking great pains to create a close knit community of young and old women bound together by their order and their emotional ties; massive page time devoted to the tough training and wise teachings the characters receive. And while that probably sounds like sugar coated candy for Harry Potter lovers, it left me more than a little disappointed.

The tale is told through the eyes of Nona, a young girl, who is waiting her turn for the gallows after committing the terrible crime of saving her friend from a violent man; a man whose father just happened to be one of the most powerful people in the kingdom. All that rescues Nona from death the timely intervention of a nun from the Covenant of Sweet Mercy: a monastery devoted to training women to be the most feared warriors in the world.

Once in her new home, Nona quickly meets and befriends a host of girls her own age; people whom she grows to care about in different ways. Each of them sharing their hopes, dreams and fears to one another as they attempt to survive the brutal training of their teachers; women who will do anything to train their pupils – even poison them when necessary. But while Nona attempts to lose herself and her past in the confines of the convent, her past will not leave her be; powerful people bent on revenge, not only against her but against the order itself and the nuns who run it. Much of this hate driven by an ancient prophecy and the social, political, and ecological events transpiring in the world outside.

Just as with The Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War, world building is a real strength of this narrative; Mark Lawrence outdoing himself with a unique, compelling setting for his characters to play in. Nona’s world quickly becoming an intriguing place, filled with ancient mysterious, ominous prophecies, environmental issues, and technological abnormalities, which are only loosely explained; all of it blending together to create a panoply of lands and people which a reader will desperately wish to explore and learn more about. This fact made even more impressive when you realize the whole book basically takes place inside the walls of a convent with only the character’s conversations and brief flashbacks and flashforwards to future events being used to accomplish all this.

Populating this fantasy world is a cast of characters cut in the cloth of realism. Our main protagonist, Nona, a more normal person than prior Mark Lawrence leads. No sociopath princes to be found here. No cowardly heroes either. Rather, we have a girl with no family, no future, and no real idea who or what she wishes to become. A youth who grows and matures before a reader’s eyes, guiding by strong women; many of whom are involved in mature same sex relationships. (These relationships normal and matter-of-fact affairs.) Nona slowly revealing her troubled past, sharing her feelings, admitting her fears, and learning the cost and worth of real friendship. Her and her young companions slow march toward maturity drawing you into their demanding life of constant training.

And so we come to my main difficulty with Red Sister: the training. Once Nona arrives at the convent, nearly every moment is consumed by training. We learn about the different blood lines the girls come from – each with their own unique abilities hardwired into their genes; the “levels” each novice must go through during their training; we experience the numerous classes with the unique teachers – some friends and some foes; the “Paths” these youths must one day choose from when they finally become nuns. Nona’s martial education conservatively taking up around 75% of the narrative. Which might not be a bad thing if you love Harry Potter-like books or just really love endless training sessions. Unfortunately, I’m not a Potterhead and a little training is more than enough for my tastes, so the bulk of this novel was a horrendous chore for me to get through.

I know, I know, every fantasy reviewer out there seems to adore Red Sister. Five star ratings everywhere one looks. And I certainly understand why some readers would adore this story. But, on this occasion, I can’t jump on the bandwagon. For me, this novel was an okay read. Only reaching 2.5 stars due to the great ending. So while I know people will vehemently disagree with me about Red Sister, I’m perfectly okay with my opinion being in the minority here, because the bulk of the narrative left me cold. No, the book wasn’t bad at all, mainly because Mark Lawrence can make a discussion about menstrual cycles seem interesting (Yes, there is exactly this type of discussion in Red Sister.), but it just did not read with the same fire, same passion, same energy as other Mark Lawrence stories. Hence, the low star rating.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I’d like to thank them for allowing me to receive this review copy and inform everyone that the review you have read is my opinion alone.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is a new story in a new world by an author who is trying (and succeeding in my opinion) to stand out as one of the premier fantasy storytellers of the last few years. It is a story set in a world of great challenge, where the environment itself works against the people who rely on it, about a bunch of gifted individuals who can do great things when they work together. This is, yet again, a supremely accomplished story by Mr Lawrence which I will have no problems recommending to any reader of fantasy novels.

The story follows Nona, a young girl cast out by her family and village because there is something not quite right about her. Her agency is taken away from her as she bounces around from village to slave master to fighters guild to death row before finally being taken in by the sisters of the Sweet Mercy convent, who immediately see the potential that Nona possesses and pledge to make the most of it. Thus begins the story of a young girl, fighting not only to make the most of her potential, but fighting just to prove herself amongst a cohort of young girls who would love to see her fail.

Red Sister is a magical academy story. Young farmgirl born into a situation where the world is against her finds out she has magic powers and is part of some great prophecy, which she can only fulfill by completing her magical training. Lawrence does plenty to differentiate his story from the standard fare of magical academy stories, but its still hard to think of this story as something other than Harry Potter meets Earthsea / Name of the Wind. There are a few stand out scenes, such as the scene with the candle or the first time Nona takes a few steps along the path, but the rest are just what you would expect from a magical academy story.

My favourite part of a Lawrence story are the characters, and for Red Sister its no different. Nona is fantastic, more serious like Jorg than free-wheeling like Jalan, but with so much personality that she can stand on her own as a big-hearted warrior without the need for comparison against other Lawrence characters. What I liked most where her relationships with her friends, and her relationships with her teachers - it felt far more realistic than other magical academy stories and made this book so much more readable. I think I would have preferred to experience Nona's story in first person like we did with Jorg and Jalan - I got everything I needed in terms of story but I missed the truly personal storytelling that Lawrence gave us in the Broken Empire novels. Also what I think was lacking was Lawrence's dry wit, something very present in Jorg and Jalan's stories but fleeting in Nona's story. If this story had been written by anyone else I probably wouldn't have noticed, but because it's a Lawrence story I was hanging out for more of his cutting insight than what was delivered. Its a very small detail, but one that sticks out to me simply because of the calibre of the author.

In short, Mark Lawrence proves once again that he is a master storyteller who can craft amazing worlds and fill them with awesome characters. While I might have liked the Broken Empire stories more than Red Sister, this book is clearly superior to many of the fantasy stories that have come out in the last few years. I can't wait to read more of Nona's story - I have no idea where it's going but I'm desperate to find out.

9.5/10

A fare warning before you start reading this book. Once you take it, you will not be able to put it down. And it's quite a long book, so be prepared to shut the world out for a day or few. And I'm being serious. Say goodbye to eating, working, sleeping, even breathing is optional. All you'll want to do is read this book. Nothing else will matter.

And man, what a book. I really couldn't put the book down. If you haven't, pick it up and read it. This is actually the first Mark Lawrence book I've read. I own a few of them but they're all on my TBR list.

And I am in love. Marks' writing is incredible, gripping & few other things that I have no words for. Descriptions and attention to detail puts you right there as the story unfolds. And that is all you can ask for in a book. In words of W. Phelps, if you're reading to remember or to forget, pick up this book, you will not regret it.

The story is fluid and simple. Characters are introduced and developed in a way that you get to know each of them. And periodic looks into the future and time skips only add flavor and intrigue to the story. Keeps you second-guessing yourself as you try to figure out where the story is taking you. And you can't, or you don't really want to, cause the story is pure brilliance. Prepare for the sleepless nights cause they are coming. And the best thing about the book is it's number one in the series. Of the rest of his book are this good then I don't want to miss not reading a Mark Lawrence book, and neither should you

Red Sister, the first book in Lawrence’s Book of the Ancestor series, which is a brand new world and completely unrelated to the Broken Empire. That statement was for all you people that couldn’t get past Jorg Ancrath’s callous exterior to his broken interior and find out that he was only about 90% the bastard you thought he was. Rest assured, Nona Grey is much more likable than Jorg but just as much a killer, thus fulfilling all your grimdark needs.

Seriously people. Battle-nuns. I didn’t know this was missing from my life until it was there. Nona Grey comes to the Convent of Sweet Mercy at a tender young age, having narrowly escaped the gallows for the attempted murder of the son of a wealthy and powerful man. At first glance you may think that going to a convent will tame Nona and turn her into a pious girl, but nothing could be further from the truth. You see, the Convent of Sweet Mercy trains girls who have the blood of the ancient tribes to be killers.

At the convent Nona meets many other girls around her own age and surprisingly makes a solid group of friends. I anticipated a rivalry between Nona and another girl, but was pleased to find that they end up being closer than any of the others. That was definitely a petty, mean-girl catfight that I didn’t want to deal with for an entire series and I breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t happen. I greatly enjoyed all the characters, whether student, teacher, or enemy. Nona in particular was wonderful and as many reviewers before me have said, Red Sister was a classic coming-of-age story. Abess Glass is cunning and if she were in Game of Thrones, she would sit the Iron Throne or run the spy network. The Sisters who teach each class are ridiculously proficient and tough and the whole teaching system reminded me of that featured in Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

Mark Lawrence also managed to squeeze some fascinating world building in between all that nun training. Abeth is a planet on the brink of death- the sun is dying and ice has encroached on much of the planet. Only the nightly heat from the focus moon (which I suspect is a type of satellite or space mirror) has kept the ice at bay from a narrow strip around the planet and even that can’t hold doom at bay forever. Abeth’s magic is fueled by the blood from the ancient tribes (gerant, hunska, marjal, and quantal) and enhanced when in proximity to the shiphearts. Most of the shiphearts are lost under the ice, but one resides below the Convent of Sweet Mercy, providing toasty warm water and easier access to the magical Path. Did I mention that there’s intrigue, prophecy, and some exciting subplots?

Overall, Red Sister was an excellent book and definitely one that will appeal to a broader audience than Mark’s previous two trilogies. This is one series I’ll have to have hardcover copies of, because they’re too good to not be gracing my shelves. If Red Sister sounds like your cup of tea, check it out on April 4, 2017!

I have been looking forward to reading Red Sister for almost a year. I have only read one other book by Mark Lawrence, Prince of Thorns, and while I really, really enjoyed it, I just haven’t had time to read the remainder of that trilogy. Red Sister didn’t work as well for me, and it has what I call, “The Harry Potter Syndrome.” A large part of the plot revolves around the protagonist learning how to use her not insignificant skills for slaughter in a classroom setting. I have just read so many magic school series that the format doesn’t work for me anymore.

Nona is a peasant who is sold to the child-taker after a bloody incident in her poverty stricken village. She is then sold to a fighting house for a few pennies, where she makes only her second friend. When Saida is threatened by one of the fighters, Nona’s rage gets the best of her and she mortally wounds him. She and Saida are sentenced to death, and after Saida is hanged, Abbess Glass from the Sisters of Mercy convent saves Nona and takes her back to the convent. There, the uneducated, illiterate nine year old is expected to attend classes taught by the sisters, classes which include meditation, poisonous compounds, geography, history, and martial arts. Martial arts? Did I forget to mention that the nuns are kick-ass fighters, with the Red Sisters being an elite group of battle hardened warriors? No? Well, that’s the hook that got me geeked on this book.

While the endless classroom scenes didn’t completely hold my attention, they are, thankfully, broken up with intense, no holds barred action bits. Nona’s would be victim is not only a champion ring fighter, he’s also the son of a wealthy, power hungry noble. He’s not about to turn the other cheek after Nona sliced his son’s throat, forcing him to spend many many gold pieces on mages to keep his heir alive and help heal him. Most of the hardships Nona faces in this installment of the series are a direct response to her attempt at saving her friend from Jaymel Tacsis, a handsome, brutal warrior who loves causing others pain, especially those much smaller and weaker than himself.

The world-building was a bit confusing for me. Nona’s world sounds, to me, like hell. The sun has failed and the population lives within a strip of land not covered in ice fields, 50 miles wide and thousands of miles long. There is a focus moon a night, when the land is bathed in the warm red glow of the manmade moon. The rest of the time, it’s cold and bitter, with howling winds ripping through the corridor made by the ice fields. No. Thank. You. Forget the warning that winter is coming. In Nona’s world, it is never leaving.

Some of the population show the characteristics of the four original people to inhabit the planet. Nona is hunska, which means she’s really, really fast. Some others have gerant, powers, and are huge, hulking creatures with unbelievable strength. Others have magical abilities, or are able to walk the Path and absorb its magical powers for their own use. I wish we were told more about these ancestors, and how they arrived at Nona’s world on their ships. It reminded me of Pern, where the population was once highly advanced, but outside forces, in this case the failing of the sun, throws everything into such a state of chaos that most technology is lost. I’m all about the how this all happened.

I thought that pacing was the biggest problem with the story. The classroom sessions and Nona’s struggles to fit in with her new classmates just got old after a while. Just when I was ready to put the book down, some outside force intruded on the somewhat predictable life of the novices, throwing everything on its head. Intense action usually followed, so I found myself looking forward to changes in Nona’s daily routine. Learning about the shape of the planet and how the moon revolves around it is fun and all, but gosh darn it! I just wanted an awesome fight scene where Nona is forced, with little training, to dodge spears, morning stars, and arrows launched at her by large, professional warriors. And near the end, where she had to face TWELVE seasoned warriors to save her friends. Yes! That was awesome

So, despite not living up to my admittedly high expectations, Red Sister offered enough excitement to keep me around for the next book in the series. I hope Nona and her new buddies are finished with classes though and that she’s a full fledged Red Sister, ready to take on enemies of the convent. The class instruction? I don’t know. Maybe because I wasn’t a huge fan of my own school days the thought of reading more about someone else’s school schedule just doesn’t earn a lot of enthusiasm from me.

Grade: 3.5 – 3.75 stars

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.

Nona has a natural ability to fight and at eight years old she’s already convicted of murder. She finds herself whisked away to a special covenant that trains young girls to become assassins, and herein lies the base of the plot and all I can say is WOW. I was absolutely blown away by Red Sister.

The world building in this book is phenomenal and I want to know so much more about it. The sun is dying, the planet is slowly being enclosed in ice and with it humanity is changing, becoming desperate and looking to prophecies. There is a focus on the four races, each with unique talents in combat. The magic system is complex and is split between two schools of magic, and there is a plethora of diverse specializations for both.

On top of the detailed world, the book also nailed atmosphere. I felt a sense of wonder as Nona learned not just about fighting, but about magic and the world around her through her classes. It gave me a nostalgic feeling about a certain school of magic that I had also enjoyed in the past. I actually liked Nona a great deal. Even though she is a tiny little ass kicker she’s also extremely flawed and has a difficult time dealing with interpersonal relationships. Having a heroine who wasn’t perfect in every way was really rather refreshing. Experiencing her school days as she befriended other girls at the covenant was just plain fun and I liked most of the characters.

As Nona’s opinions of certain friends fluctuates as the story goes along, I found my opinions of those same characters changing as well. Does Nona hate this girl because she’s truly awful? Or is it because of petty jealousy and pressure from friends that her view of this other girl is distorted? I found these subtle details about Nona’s change of heart to be really clever – it really shows how her character develops over the course of the story while also making me as a reader realize just how invested I was in the character.

Oh and of course, this book is full of action. Lawrence truly has a gift with words and reading descriptions of action sequences was exhilarating. The fights are extremely violent and rather brutal. I love the way this author writes. I couldn’t get enough of it!

I think the only thing that I found frustrating was how slow the characters were to seek help when faced with danger much larger than themselves. There were several points where it was obvious certain characters were up to no good, but no one ever went to the abbess or the other sisters with information. Even worse, several characters even mention to Nona that she should tell someone and she never does. I’m talking about the kind of danger that puts folks in danger, or even gets some killed. I can kind of forgive the characters because all of them are young but it’s just frustrating because it feels intentional in order to draw out the story.

Overall, Red Sister has become both one of my favorite reads of the year and now one of my favorite fantasy books. I’m excited for the rest of the series and I’m very interested in exploring more of Lawrence’s work. I may have a new favorite author!

*** 5 STARS***

PLOT

My very 1st Mark Lawrence read & boy was it something! nothing could’ve prepared me for what lay ahead but the first few pages in the first chapter did manage to leave me wide eyed. Right off the bat we are introduced to a 8 year old Nona & the harsh reality of the world she lives in. The opening scene had me asking strangers on the train “oh! so no man, woman, or CHILD is safe under Mark’s pen huh?!?!” well the answer to that is NO! no one is safe & plenty are hungry enough to sell their children to avoid starvation. Nona is literally saved from the noose at the very last second by a Nun from Sweet Mercy Convent which is by no means your typical convent. This also won’t be my typically styled review, I finished this book days ago & have gone above & beyond to avoid a book hangover. I will try my best not to fangirl all over this review, back to the Plot…

Sweet Mercy Convent gave me Hogwarts mixed with a Ludus (like in Spartacus) vibes. The nuns at Sweet Mercy all specialize in one skill or another ranging from fighting to magic. Everyone in this world is a descendant from of the following four tribes:

Hunska: Speed (faster than your average human)

Gerrant: Physically large & strong

Marjal: ability to do magic on a smaller scale

Quantal: ability to walk the path & more complex magic

The students who enter are sorted by the abilities they’ve shown a inherent skill towards or in the case of Gerrant & Hunska, are visibly on display. The girls also attend classes in various subjects pertaining to each skill and go through ranks in the following order: Red Class, Gray Class, Mystic Class, and Holy Class. Nona will have 10 years of education in the convent in order to become a Red Sister. During her time & training in the convent there are outside forces at work seeking retribution for old wounds. Nona has secrets, ones that she doesn’t want her peers to ever find out for fear they will see the darkness within her. Nona has a bloody violent history leading up to the noose where she would be hung for her crime. We follow her progress in Sweet Mercy Convent as she learns to hone her skills all the while dealing with inside & outside threats.

CHARACTERS

We follow Nona from age 8 to about age 11 in this first installment in the Book of the Ancestor series. She has only known violence & the need to survive when she is brought to Sweet Mercy Convent. She is shrouded in mystery & likes it that way, often times making up stories for her past. Perhaps Nona’s biggest weakness is her unquestioning loyalty to those that call her “friend”. In Sweet Mercy we are introduced to the Abess & sisters who run the convent & teach the classes. I found myself enjoying some of these characters like Sister Apple for her specialty which I won’t reveal since it is spoilery. Also, Sister Kettle who watches over the library, won me over with her threat to anyone caught folding pages in books. Besides the vast array of sisters, there were three other girls in Nona’s class we get to follow closely. There’s Clera who has a love/hate relationship with Nona, Arabella who fiercely watches over Nona, and Hessa who is connected to Nona & often plays the voice of reason. Friendships play a center focus in Red Sister, we see Nona learning the highs & lows all the while living in a competitive setting. Arabella was hands down my favorite & seeing their friendship unfold was awesome since as a reader of Young Adult, I don’t often see positive F/F friendships. This was a change of pace & there were definitely betrayals & double crossings in the mix but that’s to be expected in this world where violence is the law of the land. I like my characters flawed & complex and Lawrence delivers with Nona as well as her friends. No one is wholly “good” or “evil” & therefore nothing is ever black or white in this world, we get a ton of gray til the very last page.

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS

I finished reading Red Sister some time last week & was left speechless…so much so that I couldn’t bring myself to write this review. I needed to digest what was my first ever Mark Lawrence book & gather my thoughts. From start to finish, Red Sister held me in its grip for various reasons including the no holds barred violence that follows our main protagonist. The world building at first seemed like it would overwhelm me but Lawrence weaves in the ranks & paths so well, that there really was no need to refer to the glossary. About the glossary LOL! MAJOR points for placing the glossary at the very beginning of the book as opposed to the very end where no one ever thinks to look haha! although as previously mentioned, it wasn’t necessary other than as back-up info to this world. The writing is very detailed but in a useful way if that makes sense, it wasn’t overkill. The fight/training scenes were the most detailed & I was able to get a vivid picture almost as if I were watching a movie. Told in third person POV, Red Sister’s opening pages starts you off with a glimpse of events taking place in the future. This alone was a HUGE motivator for me as far a page turning goes, I needed to find out what that whole scene was about & how everyone managed to get to that point…WHAT WENT WRONG?!?!?! to say that I loved my 1st Mark Lawrence book is a HUGE understatement, I’m in it for the long haul my bookish peeps! If you’re a mostly Young Adult Fantasy reader & are considering taking the leap into Adult Fantasy, this may be a great place to start. For fans of bad a** female heroines, vivid fight scenes, positive female friendships, positive LGBTQIA representation and elements of the Potterverse…this book is for YOU! 😉

Some of my closest book blogging buddies have already read Red Sister & I will spend Monday visiting their reviews to finally read their thoughts & complain about the wait til’ book 2 haha! Is anyone else reading Red Sister? If you have a review up, please drop that link in the box below & I’ll gladly swing by for a chat 🙂

HUGE thanks to Ace, Netgalley, and Mark Lawrence for the eGalley of Red Sister in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.

"A long blade, thin, carrying a slight curve, its edge cruel enough to cut silence and make it scream."

RED SISTER by Mark Lawrence intrigued me, and I was thirsty for a dark fantasy featuring a kickass heroine. This is my first experience with Lawerence, and I quickly found myself wanting to savor this character driven tale with its dying world and magic. Fans of GRAVE MERCY and the Fair Assassin's series will find themselves slipping quickly into this world.

I am not going to be able to do this tale justice and will be vague as experiencing this world, and its characters are best left for the reader to discover.

We the meet our protagonist, Nona Gray as she awaits the hangman for killing a man three times her size when she is the tender age of eight. She is saved when the manager of the Sweet Mercy Convent, Abbess Glass offers her sanctuary and a place in the nunnery to train as a Novice. Nona is a hunska, and you will learn more about this ability and others at the school. This magical school trains young woman on the path, blades, poison, assassins and more. The magical elements are brilliant from what each girl possessed to what she can achieve.

The Convent was fascinating, and if magical schools thrill you from lessons to boorish teachers, you will devour RED SISTER as most of the setting takes place within its walls. From spells to training I was enthralled not only by the skills, but the worldbuilding, hierocracy, and political maneuvering that Lawerence developed within this world. A lot of what we learn is threaded throughout the tale, from lessons to conversations, avoiding the need for information dumps, and while not entirely understood the magical elements hint at more to come.

The world is on the verge of collapse, and their civilization has been pushed into this tiny corridor whose fate is dependent on the moon, which we are told keeps the ice that covers the remaining world at bay. Lawerence revealed a brutal world where the church and ruler have power. There are layers of plots as we devel into the social hierarchy, meet indentured humans, and learn that the blade rules.

Written third person, this tale can be dark and brutal at times, but Nona and other characters offer balance and pull the reader into their world. Prophies, villains, and uncertainty had me flipping the pages and eager to learn more. Lawrence cleverly added in flashbacks concerning Nona, and I thought they were well placed as were the dreams.

On a side note. Skip the prologue. I am not going to lie, I read it twice, and thought what the heck have I gotten myself into? Nevertheless, I continued, and yeah, I still don't understand it. Well, I do now, but trust me, read it at the end.

"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 wrapped up brilliantly while setting us up for the next installment. Nona is a compelling and complex character whose strength and sheer determination has me counting the days until I can reenter this world. This is a book you will want to add to your bookshelf.