Red Sister

Mark Lawrence

Apr 2017 · Book of the Ancestor Book 1 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

To elaborate on the previous reviewer. Synopsis free to boot, I have been reading RA Salvatore since I discovered the genre 14 years after Drizzt Du'urden was created, and developed a craving for comlplex entertainment that grew with my age as a result. JRR martin has the complexity but at times too much depth.....the sister of the son of the uncles cousin plus the verses of their family hymn......Anyways this is is so good I bought it twice, at full price no less, as I left the kindle at home on a trip. Mark Lawrence is that deserving. I think Mark may have surpassed Joe and I don't say that lightly. An even greater creative leap than the last series in developing new characters results in a great reward for the reader with a similar but not too familiar setting, theatre, and cadre of characters. Mark is on the cutting edge of fantasy entertainment...whether by word or video, and not simply based on the violence quotient. I could heap more praise but put it this way...if Popular Mechanics or Popular Science focused on novels, this would be the proposed future of 2017 realized while we still wait for the hovercars of the early aughts.

Mark Lawrence has become one of my favorite authors. I'm an avid fan of both of his trilogies set in the Broken Empire. I'm anxious to learn more details about this new world he's created. I love the way he melds fantasy into post-apocalyptic scifi.

Beyond the excellent storyline, the presentation of everything was expertly well done. I love the glimpses of the future in certain chapters. Even when I know what's coming, there is still enough left out to keep me in the dark. I couldn't put it down, and I can't wait for the sequel!

About the author

Mark Lawrence is a research scientist working on artificial intelligence. He is a dual national with both British and American citizenship, and has held secret-level clearance with both governments. At one point, he was qualified to say, “This isn’t rocket science—oh wait, it actually is.” He is the author of the Broken Empire trilogy (Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns, and Emperor of Thorns), the Red Queen’s War trilogy (Prince of Fools, The Liar’s Key, and The Wheel of Osheim) and the Book of the Ancestor series (Red Sister).