Name: Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, Book 1)
ISBN: 9780008152314

Mark Lawrence

It's not until you're broken that you find your sharpest edge

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, Book 1)

The international bestselling author of the Broken Empire and the Red Queen's War trilogies begins a stunning epic fantasy series about a secretive order of holy warriors... At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls. A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass's care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family--and new enemies. Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona's secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself. Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.

Red Sister

Mel 

4.5 stars
I thought this was a very unique and fun perspective on many classic fantasy tropes! 
Assassin training in a convent - ✔️
Fun badass main character - ✔️
Huge focus on friendship and sisterhood - ✔️

Colleen

2.5 Stars

This review contains spoilers.

I was excited to read Red Sister, but my feelings by the end of it were very mixed. The synopsis certainly caught my attention. Assassin nuns? Yes, please! Think of it like Shaolin monks who spend years training only these nuns are bloodthirsty and eager to kill. I am always looking for books with skilled, spirited female characters, so I was definitely ready to yell "Send in the nuns!"



Oops, wrong nuns. Anyway, the book opens with an awesome 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."
 The book did not exactly line up with the synopsis though. Red Sister is about a young orphan with dark hair who is neglected before discovering that she has special powers, is taken away to a special place to learn how to use her powers. And she may or may not be The Chosen One from a prophecy. It also features a group of kids going around breaking rules because they are convinced they are the only ones who can save everyone, and they even brew potions in secret.

"Wait a minute," you may say, "That sounds an awful lot like Harry Potter," before peaking under the dust jacket to make sure no one pulled a switcharoo. 

It's not.

Despite many similarities in the outline of the story, the two are nothing a like, so strike that from your expectations. Even the cover is misleading. The first half of the story follows Nona at age nine, the second half covers Nona at age eleven, and only a teeny tiny bit peeks at Nona as an adult. But that certainly is not an eleven-year-old on the cover. This is being marketed as an Adult book, but it felt so Young Adult. Yes, there was some violence and some mature content, but there are far worse books that are marketed as YA. It was not just the characters' ages, but the fact that the characters lacked depth. And the story itself seemed to have set off with the intention of being complex and intricate and somewhere along the way suffered a head wound and forgot where it was going and instead spent four-hundred some pages walking in a circle around the convent courtyard. 

I never particularly cared for Nona. She had no personality and was a total Mary Sue. She also came across as a possible psychopath... which could have been interesting if that angle had been explored. Instead, they offered up some half-assed explanation that her rigidity and lack of emotions were supposed to help her fulfill her potential roll in the prophecy. So instead of an interesting, morally ambiguous character, you get an annoying little brat who has zero qualms about killing people but freaks out if someone lies or steals (even though she does more than her share of those activities herself). Some of the tertiary characters showed potential for being interesting, but their page time was mostly truncated by Nona's lumbering journey.

The story skipped around some at first and it was hard to tell what was going on. Then there were random flashbacks that switch to 1st person, present tense which were horrendous. Nona was off-putting in third person. Hearing her clumsy first person narrative in atrocious present tense felt horribly hollow, made her even less likable, and less convincing as a character and certainly less convincing as a nine-year-old. The content of those sections should have been emotional and engaging. But those sections were far too self-aware, and most of all they were what put me off liking her as a character. 

The pretty quotes were mostly self-aware philosophical meanderings. I liked them at first, but as the story went on, they lost their luster. And the content and tone did not always fit with the rest of the story. Plus I became frustrated by the lack of real description. This world never came alive for me.

The action was alright but not amazing. I expected more from a bunch of allegedly badass assassins. They are not even really assassins. Red Sister certainly did not fulfill my expectations of baddass women. And that was such a lost opportunity and the most disappointing part of this book. A book of almost all female characters, many of whom were trained at various deadly arts, should have left me giddy. At the very least, it should have left me wanting to go play with my throwing knives. 

Throughout Part I, there were a lot of things that I gave the benefit of the doubt. I remained hopeful that the story would improve. However, Part II got extremely repetitive and Nona had hardly any character development. From about 2/3 - 3/4 got extremely repetitive and predictable. Really, the majority of the story focuses on Nona's training. It was alright at first. But when the story skipped ahead two years and yet still focuses on the same training, I started to lose interest. And on top of that, the two year gap did little to change the characters. There were some shifts in relationships, but the character development and depth was barely there.

The other thing that I gave the benefit of doubt to for the first half was the world building. There were a lot of things that were confusing, but I assumed they would be explained as the story went on. So the farther I got into the book, the more I realized that the world building was going to remain fuzzy and vague with a multitude of things refferenced many times without ever doing the courtesy of bloody explaining them! There so many things that were not satisfactorily explained: flaw blades, shiphearts, the Missing, the Corridor, a falling moon that apparently keeps the ice melted? Or something like that... I'm not sure because anything Nona was not interested in was glossed over. And the majority of the story took place inside the convent, so the world outside became segregated. Certainly there were things left open ended to be explored in the sequels. But there were so many other things that just seemed to be glossed over without elaboration. I would have rather had better world building than reading yet another description of Nona doing the same training classes over and over and over. As I write this review, it is clear to me that the things that annoyed me in Red Sister stuck with me much more than the things that I did like about it.

The cheat sheet at the beginning was helpful, because I never could keep the four types of magical bloods straight. The list of characters was not nearly as helpful since many of them are barely mentioned. And it lacked other background information which was sorely needed. It definitely needed maps both of the world and the convent.

The plot was alright overall although the twists were easily predictable. There was enough going on to keep me interested even with the leaden main character. The end improved but tried to cram too much in last minute and felt rushed even after such a long set up. (view spoiler)[I absolutely hated that the prologue became a flashforward then turned out to be the epilogue as well. That probably seemed cool to some people, but I found it annoying as hell. It made me feel that reading most of the book was pointless. And Nona sounds and acts the same as an adult as she did at age nine. Also, it was disappointing to find out what really happened in her past; it was anticlimactic and totally lacking in emotion.  (hide spoiler)]

I'm clearly in the minority of those underwhelmed and a little disappointed in Red Sister. I liked it well enough, but this series will most likely end up being significantly over-hyped. I will probably still read the sequel, but my expectations are much lower for it. Hopefully this does not end up being one of those series that you have to wait years in between books, or I might forget all about it.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

From the international bestselling author of the Broken Empire trilogy and the Red Queen's War trilogy, comes the first in a brilliant, breakout new fantasy series. "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.

Jamieson

tea .... "follows a girl who joins a school for nuns, where they train you to kill people" is a damn good premise

buddy read with the meme queen Chaima

review/rating to come!

Haley Murray

Magnus Dahl

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor)

Lia Yuliana

Update 20/08/2020

Find my reviews on :  An Ode to Fiction
Official Release Date : 27th March 2017
Buy the book :
 Amazon |  Book Depository

4.5 rounded up to 5/5 ⭐️


  
    "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size."
  


This first line gave me a fever dream of an experience while reading this book. The prologue itself gives no context at all with what is happening, it places the reader in the middle of a battle field. From there we jump back to the past following a girl named Nona Grey as she navigates through the harsh reality of the world she's in. She evaded death after she was saved by a nun to live in the convent where Nona learns to hone her skills to be a "Sister".

The majority of the book we spend time to understand the world, the magic system, and the other characters together with Nona. The magic system is very interesting, it took me a while to understand what has what ability and what term is related to what ability. I had to go back a few times to read the Author Notes, I didn’t mind doing this and it did not rob me from enjoying the story at all. Instead it helped me a lot to immerse myself in the studies with Nona as the story progresses and as she learns more about herself.

As a character, Nona manifested really well within the pages. It is clear that the author understood his character as a whole and he writes Nona with such consistency. I praise Mark Lawrence for writing Nona’s dialogue and thoughts so beautifully. I’m sure in real life I never met a Nona before but I could imagine her existing if the world that Mark created became real.

Some of my favorite moments in the book was probably the classes, personally I have a soft spot for school settings. It is much more interesting to learn as you go with the characters about the world and the skills they have to achieve. Because of this it kept me guessing on what’s gonna happen and kept me on edge. I want to praise Mark Lawrence on how he paced this book. It flowed so well from start to finish, the plot points was clear and delivered expertly. Which made the experience of reading this book much more enjoyable.

During the battle scenes it happened quick and brutal. When the characters get hit, they get hit hard. That specific scene with the candle still leaves me awestruck every time I think about it. There’s no miraculous recovery or anything like that, the recovery was slow and painful. I get goosebumps every time Nona had to fight because I could not guess the outcome because she was still a trainee. Sometimes though she surprises me with her rage that propels her to higher levels of grit and tenacity.

Even though Nona is a ruthless and savage killer, she values her relationship with her piers and her teachers. Her innocence and optimism towards the cold harsh world melted my heart to jello. She would go through great lengths for them as it is shown in many occasions. I want to point out a certain relationship she had with one of the characters, Hessa; Her and Nona completes each other like peanut butter and jelly. Hessa is calm and peaceful while Nona is a fire cracker of rage, they are opposites but the work well together. They care and looked out for each other from the beginning until the end. I did not expect the bravery from Hessa at all and what she went through still hurts. The last few pages of the book solidified Hessa as one of the other characters that stood out to me. I would protect her to the ends of the world just like Nona.

Mark Lawrence’s writing style is beautiful and the way he writes long monologues is like no other author. Each dialogue had purpose to give readers an understanding (in a not so info dump type of way) to push the story forward without it being corny through his characters. The world he created is well thought out, Sweet Mercy reminds me of the convents I used to go to spend the weekend with my classmates to pray and “reflect” back when I was still in catholic school (minus the hot pools and anything that encourages violence). This book is a perfect example of a very good start to a series. I made the right choice to buy the whole series because I certainly will continue reading the other two sequels after such a phenomenal first book.

Thank you to Mark Lawrence personally as I did not imagine for you to see my tweet. I apologize in advance for any mistakes I made while writing this as I am still learning. It’s a honor to receive encouragement from you to make this blog. WOW! Thank you thank you thank you!!

Celeste Richardson

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions. 

Upon rereading both the novel and my review of it, I stand beside every word written below. This is a phenomenal book that has catapulted itself into the company of my very favorite books.

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 am so insanely excited to continue this series.

“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 either of those things. 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 of such stories 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.

. 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 received an e-ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Alex Q

I really wanted to like this more. I found nothing interesting happened until at least 80% through.

Libby G

3.75/5

I struggled with what to rate this book. It was so intriguing a different but sometimes too different. There were concepts about the world that could have been explained in better detail. It would have been nice to have a nice world map drawn. 

That being said Nona Grey as become one of my favorite BA anti-heros ever and I have the 2nd book on hold at the library. I wish it wouldn't have taken me so long to complete. 

The reasons why it took me so long are why I only gave it 3.75. Because while I really really REALLY enjoyed the characters, their relationships and the whole Hogwarts for assassins vibe some of the chapters really dragged. I am all for long chapters but as soon as they start to FEEL long is slows my reading to a crawl. Every part of this book was interesting but for some reason it took me a literal month to complete.

Laura Kehoe

Originally reviewed at The Book Unicorn

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.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ace for the chance to read Red Sister in exchange for an honest review!

Maria

Ох, про это эпическое профеминистское фэнтези даже не очень понятно, с чего начать рассказывать.

То ли с того, что солнце планеты Абет погибает, поэтому сама планета почти полностью покрыта льдом, и только вдоль экватора тянется так называемый Коридор шириной 50 миль, где все и живут.

То ли с того, что когда-то на планету прибыли из космоса четыре племени, и до сих пор в жителях Абета встречаются их способности – джеранты очень высокие и массивные, хунска супербыстрые, марджалы владеют магией, а кванталы видят нити бытия и могут ими управлять.

То ли с того, что почти всё действие происходит в монастыре, где девочек учат драться, медитировать и варить яды.

То ли с того, что нашей героине Ноне 9 лет, и она способна убить голыми руками шесть человек.


  Когда собираешься убить монахиню, очень важным представляется собрать армию достаточного размера. За Сестрой Шип из монастыря Пресвятого Милосердия Лано Тацис привел двести человек. (с)

 
Короче! Марк Лоуренс взял и придумал боевой Хогвартс для девочек. Монахини в нём берут себе имена в честь разных предметов – специально, чтобы имена отличались от обычных. Аббатиса Стекло – эдакий привет Дамблдору (даже рука, рука!), преподавательница шпионажа и ядоварения Сестра Яблоко – добрый Снейп, но действие своих ядов демонстрирует прямо на ученицах, а еще есть пророчество про Избранного, то ли фейковое, то ли нет, много-много драк и кровища рекой.

Это практически полностью женский мир, из мужчин в монастыре – кот, петухи и свиньи, а те мужчины, кого мы встречаем за монастырскими стенами, почти сплошь отвратительные сволочи, ну может кроме парочки совсем третьестепенных персонажей. Романтической линии в этой, первой, книге нет – во-первых, у нас как-никак монастырь, а во-вторых, Нона еще слишком маленькая, и главная ценность в её жизни – дружба. 

Дружбу она очень ценит, можно сказать сакрализирует, очень беспокоится, как бы не задеть и не обидеть друзей, даже способности свои (конечно же у нее есть способности) поначалу не демонстрирует, чтобы друзья не позавидовали. Эта отношение к дружбе в Ноне удивительным образом сочетается с полным отсутствием рефлексии и угрызений совести по поводу людей, которых она убивает. Не, люди эти, конечно, все очень плохие, и жалеть их нечего, но вот это отсутствие смятения сразу добавляет в моих глазах дополнительные очки к интересности персонажа. 

Много еще могу написать, но лучше не буду, а то закончу пересказом в стиле «и тут она такая – ХБДЫЩ!». Единственное, что я могу вменить в минус этой книге – это манера, в которой написан текст. Он густой, плотный, чрезвычайно дексриптивный и детализированный, и я видела рецензии нескольких человек, которые его читать не смогли. Лоуренс может запросто потратить страницы три на описание того, как героиня отбивает рукой копьё: что она видит, чувствует, думает, как замедляет время, как принимает решения, как двигается её тело. Сущая медитация.

Читать такой текст, да еще и на неродном языке, довольно сложно. Когда я только начала, Киндл оценил мою скорость чтения и сказал, что до конца я доберусь через 15 часов (в итоге примерно так и вышло). Даже возвращаться к книге на следующий день непросто, нужно минут 10, чтобы сосредоточиться и понять, что происходит. В «Красной сестре» много рассуждают про необходимое для битвы чувство безмятежности и поиск Пути – так вот, чтобы читать, тоже надо немного впадать в транс. 

Именно поэтому вернусь к этой трилогии я немного погодя, отдохнув на других текстах – но обязательно, обязательно вернусь.

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor 1)

Sahi K

A definite 3.5. I didn’t love it enough to give a 4 😔

This series has literally taken over the fantasy readers community by storm and I heard so many of my favorite bloggers and booktubers gush about it, that I thought I would give it a try. I really love reading about female assassins, so Red Sister already had that going for me; but it’s also on a more darker side than I usually read, so my expectations were reasonable. I have to say that this book really surprised me in places, while not holding my attention for parts - but I will try to articulate what I actually thought about it.

The writing took some getting used to. I haven’t read any of the other popular series by the same author, so his writing style and way with words felt unfamiliar and I had to reread sentences sometimes to get the gist of it. However, the story also has one of the best / most memorable opening sequences and I just knew I had to read further. The world is also not fully realized from the beginning - we only get to know tidbits about the empire, it’s history, it’s enemies and the power hierarchy through some conversations and incidents that occur. This makes me feel like I still don’t know much about this world but I’m sure the author will expand it in the next one. We do however get a lot of information about the four tribes which practice magic and I’m quite excited to see more displays of the power in the series. The story also mainly features the training that occurs within the Sweet Mercy convent - which involves a lot of lectures on religion, spirituality (or the Path as they call it), hand to hand combat and other forms of fighting and academics - but it takes up almost 70% of the book, so it felt quite repetitive and sometimes maybe even boring.

What makes up for the slightly repetitive story is the eclectic group of women in this book. Nona is probably around the age of 10 when the book starts, but we already know that she is a survivor and has seen too much for her young age. We see flashbacks from her earlier life and we realize why she doesn’t think that she deserves love or acceptance, because she considers herself a monster. This makes her very very secretive, keeping everything very close to her chest, only divulging them when the time is right. However, despite being sold as a child and then almost executed for murder, she is truly very loyal and considers the bond of friendship sacred. The convent is full of other young women, some allies, some rivals, some bullies - everyone training together and when anyone attacks their faith from the outside, they all fight together too. Their teacher nuns are also a diverse group - caring to indifferent to maybe cruel to even fanatic - but the one thread that holds everyone is sisterhood.

The essence of this book is the strength of sisterhood, friendship and found family. All of these women - young and old - despite their differing ideas or alliances, will always stand by each other and that comes through in every interaction. And that’s why one particular instance really came as utter shock and I can’t wait to read more about the repercussions. The world is also casually diverse and it’s not made a big deal about - we have one f/f couple among the teachers and Nona is hinted at being bisexual, so it would be nice to see this explored more in the next books. 

Everyone seems to love this book a lot, so I don’t think I need to recommend this one. It has strong characterizations, the absolute best opening, middle and ending action sequences and the plot is interesting enough to make me want to read the next book. However, I got a little bored in the middle and I would have loved to know more about the world. Let’s see what Grey Sister has to offer.

Katarina Have Håkansson

Red Sister is amazing. It’s not a bedtime read as it can get a little hard to follow at times, but stick with it. I promise you won’t regret it 

Carol Bailey

I never had time to sit and read this with my eyes but I did pick up the audible version. I really enjoyed the storyline. The narrator was good, but I'm not the best judge as I tend to listen. At 1.5 or 1.75x speed, but even at that pace I was able to distinguish the variations in characters. I'd definitely consider listening to the 2nd in the series while working on another multi-day chore

Nat Welch

so fantastic! great twists, interesting characters and cool sounding world. only downside is I have to wait for next books!

Aleena Korell

Good grief, Mark Lawrence.
I kept seeing, in the reviews, people gushing about THAT ENDING. Well, THAT ENDING is indeed pretty gush-worthy. A lot of it is gush-worthy, though, and really this review is just a mess of my thoughts mixed in with said gushes.
Red Sister is the story of Nona Grey, a young girl who is saved from a death sentence by an abbess who sees her potential and is taken to Sweet Mercy Convent to train as a nun... which naturally means training in weapons, a sort of magic called The Path, and hand-to-hand combat, for starters.
Yeah, not that kind of nun.
It's an intriguing concept and an interesting new world-- but real investment into Nona's world kind of did a slow sneak-attack on me. I found the beginning of Red Sister quite slow. Which isn't a bad thing-- it was just unexpected for me. I think I'd taken my preconceived notions from Mark Lawrence's previous books and the idea of "assassin nuns" and had a certain expectation for where this story would go. Obviously, as the saying goes, Mark Lawrence knows best-- and he took it where it SHOULD go. But still, I didn't get 100% invested until two-thirds of the way through, and that last third tipped my rating from what would have been four stars to five (4 1/2). 
It felt like the all-female, nun version of Harry Potter for a while there, except with LOTS and lots of training. Finally in the second half of the book we're taken out of the convent a few times and get to explore more of this world. All of that slow background I appreciate so much more by the last 20%, where the importance of the relationships built and the strength of the friendships that had formed over the 2 years of the book really proved to be pivotal in the climax. And as always, Mark Lawrence has a way of putting on paper weird things that have gone through my mind that I could never articulate. Most of the ones that stood out to me are at the end-- so I CAN'T put them here otherwise they'd spoil the crap out of everything. But they're there. 
One thing that was really cool about Red Sister is that it's about girls. It's about girls and how they relate to each other and to the world. And not really at all about how they relate to men, unless by relate you mean kill. It's about things people don't say. Secrets they don't want to tell because they're too ashamed. It's about bonds that run deeper than that kind of shame, deeper than friendships-- bonds of sisters. I'm not trying to get all feminist but to get a book like this from an influential male writer known for his unique male characters, that's pretty cool. I feel like Nona could be/is Mark Lawrence's Buffy (with some Wolverine or something thrown in) which is something I can 100% get behind, and I'm definitely looking forward to book 2.

Kendra Jones

In the world of Red Sister four tribes came on four ships to the world. Each tribe has a speciality that have been past down to their offspring. Hunska speed, gerant strength, and the magic powers of the marjal and quantal. These offspring can have as little as a touch of one of these powers, whilst others can be full blooded. In this world there is only a corridor running along the earth that isn't completely covered in ice. This corridor is where the people live, with very few of them brave enough to face the ice. 
Red Sister follows Nona, a nine year old girl, who is taken from her mother and village by a child taker. She is then taken to a fighting ring where she is forced to save her friend by killing one of the more sadistic gerant fighters. This leads to both girls being sentenced to death. At the last moment, Nona is saved from the noose and is taken to the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where they teach the novices to fight, learn about the world and to walk the Path. This story follows Nona whilst she is in red class and grey class, where she makes friends and finds how far she is willing to go to save their friendships. Nona also has to deal with the repercussions of killing the fighter.
I loved Nona and her friends, and the complicated threading of their relationships with each other. I also quite enjoyed the magic system and how it was a hard magic system but not too complicated.
The writing style was good, but didn't always mesh well with me.

dead line

I liked it, but...

It felt all too familiar. Young child taken and raised to be a killer. Child is also exceptional. Which I could overlook, but the child must also know no joy in their life.

Nona is a bundle of pain and trauma, that we never really get to see enjoy life with her friends that we're told she loves. Can she please have *one* hobby?

Only pain, misery, loss and betrayal for this young girl. At a certain point it becomes comical.


I found the prose odd. When Nona enters the convent she doesn't know what a 'sphere' is, but she can tell an engrossing story that puts words to primal fears and how moon rays scatter through leaves. It was so flowery, and out of character each time.

The killing is also written in flowery language. Which could have provided a contrast to the foulness of the acts. But it mostly read as 'isn't this so cool'.

Zero reflection on the ethics of forcing children to fight each other. It's not common in the genre, but it still irks me. Grown ass women making children break each others' bones, and not even a couple lines on their internal justifications? Ok.

I did actually like it though. Just could have been more.

Tom Turner

Wasn't expecting that

To be honest, despite the good reviews, I wasn't expecting to enjoy Red Sister. I'm not certain why. Thankfully I was massively mistaken! Sure, this book is not for the faint hearted, but it has as much heat as it does bleak. Every character feels real and well rounded, and for me, as a person with a disability it was an absolute joy to read a character with a disability who is neither a villain, or has her disability define who that character was. Here, in a fantasy novel, you have the best depiction off living with disability I have found up to now (and I know the author has life experience with disability, and of course, it shows!) I'm so pleased I have the two follow ups waiting for me so I can continue the story immediately!

Cat H

Full 5 Stars! AMAZING! The action, the plot, and the friendships (characters) are all beautifully crafted in this book. The world building can be a bit awkward because it takes a good chunk of the book before the reader understands the set up, which adds to the mystery and tension that is built up throughout the story. It’s a unique magic system that draws in bloodlines and the characters attunement to a sort of “force”. We have bad ass “nuns” whose faith takes them to paths of magic, fighting, poison study, and “shadow work”. It’s all great fun and the main characters lense allows us to fully immerse in the unknown as she is discovering this magic system and learning about people and friendship. Truly one of the best books I’ve ever read and a new favorite!

Trigger warning: gore, child abuse, and animal abuse.

Nickie Mohler

This book was even better the second time!!

Faith

'I was born for killing - the gods made me to ruin'. At the Convent of Sweet Mercy girls are raised to be killers. Some have inherited old bloods, which bestow upon them special talents. Sweet Mercy hones it's novices' skills with care: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the deadly arts of blade and fist. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't fully understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a child of eight, accused of murder but guilty of worse. In her short life, Nona has made powerful enemies, and despite the security and isolation of the convent, her violent past will one day find her out. Nona must face her demons and become a deadly assassin if she is to survive... - Publishers description.

Sofia Pereira

I really cant believe i finished this in time for the OWLs! 

this was more of a 3,75 cause the battle scenes are just way to much in detail and that throws me off quite a bit but the story is awesome and i am picking up Grey Sister soon!