Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1)

by Mark Lawrence

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.

Reviewed by Quirky Cat on

5 of 5 stars

Share

Book Summary:

The Convent of Sweet Mercy specializes in training Red Sisters. Essentially, they are warrior nuns of the holy order. It's the sort of life that Nona Grey could never have imagined entering if not for a series of extenuating circumstances.

First, she was taken, then sold. Then accused of murder. Then stolen again. Now she's at the Convent and has more than one grudge sitting under her belt. But she's determined to master her inner demons and come out on top.

My Review:

Can somebody please explain why I didn't read Red Sister sooner? This book had been on my radar since it came out (2017), yet I never read it (until now, obviously). Why?! It's SO good; I wish I had let it into my life sooner.

There's a lot I could say about Red Sister. I worry that a lot of it would be near the spoiler side of things, so I will try to be careful. Believe it or not, there are two points of time for this book. There's Nona's present, which takes up most of the book, and then there's a point set in an indistinct future. That future has some dark implications, and it'll take readers most of the book to get to the bottom.

In truth, I don't know how I feel about that future timeline. At first, I wasn't invested in it (not knowing the characters involved yet). But by the end, I could see how it all tied together and had more than one reason for caring about those events. Still, I hope the next book further explores the time leading up to that moment. There's still so much to learn!

I want to say that the first chapter of this book is outright mean. Once I realized what Mark Lawrence was telling us, I felt like I had been slapped in the face. So do try to be prepared to get hit right away. But also, don't let that discourage you from the rest of the book because it is so worth it.

Highlights:
Warrior Nuns
Fantasy of Epic Proportions
Stubborn/Determined Characters
“Chosen One”

Trigger Warnings:
Child Selling/Assault/Death
Poisoning
Graphic Elements
Animal Death

You Can Also Find Me On:
Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat's Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 3 July, 2023: Finished reading
  • 3 July, 2023: Reviewed