Red Sister Review

Paperback, 475 Pages
Adult/ Fantasy
By: Mark Lawrence
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

“Trust is the most insidious of poisons. Trust sidesteps all of your precautions.”

I have a weird experience with Lawrence’s books. I started with his Impossible Times trilogy which I really liked and is one of my favorite sci-fi series ever. I then jumped back to his Broken Empire trilogy which was not as good as I wanted it to be and I decided stopping after pushing through book two. I am also not interested in his second trilogy so this left me with the Book of the Ancestor trilogy and for some reason, I had a good feeling about this series. I even bought the whole trilogy prior to starting book one which I stopped doing ages ago because I don’t want risking not finishing it but that shows how much I had hopes for it and fortunately it did not disappoint me.

I don’t know if it is the fact that it is written in third person rather than first person or because the author had much more experience when he wrote this. But the prose and quotes in this one were on a whole different level compared to his first series. I just loved the way the story is written and there were many quotes that I really loved starting with the opening line. (And I am a big fan of great opening lines.)

“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.”

Magical schools is also one of my favorite tropes of all time and this is kind of a magical school for assassin nuns! How cool is that!! The story follow Nona Grey who is saved from the brink of Death by Abbess Glass and is put under her wing to nurture her along with other sisters to become badass fighters for the church.

There is a heavy focus on the world-building in this entry but it does so smoothly and quite effortlessly without overwhelming the reader. I specially liked the beginning and ending of this book and to be honest, the pace slowed a bit in the middle which affected my enjoyment of it as it was a bit redundant.

“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 them with respect.”

Summary: I had high hopes for this book and I can proudly say it met them. The world building was very interesting, the writing was graceful and the characters are to be loved. I am very happy to start the next book soon!