Red Sister

Often, novels focus on the evolution of characters from total nobodies into well-respected and lauded magicians. They shed their peasant heritage and earn a place among the elite. With Red Sister, Mark Lawrence refuses that trope. Like many characters, Nona has had a tough life. She’s been passed around slave-owners, been beaten, and cast out. But rather than turning it around, she channels it. Adopted into the Sweet Mercy Covenant, she is taught not to do good, but instead to kill. You would expect this to breed distrust and violence between students, and it does, for a time. But Lawrence shows his hand as a master storyteller, weaving rivalries into friendships and characters into complex beings. Nona is the shining example of this, fiery yet unsure, a killer, yet intensely loyal. When her past begins to catch up, those friends come into play, and they do so with substance. Lawrence doesn't just throw in the stereotypes used by some writers; he imagines each one as complexly as the protagonist, and this gives the world an uncanny real-ness. Telling an uphill battle to assassin-hood against the rich and powerful, Red Sister conveys a story few will want to miss.

Books in Book Of The Ancestor Series (1)

Booklists having this book

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Other books by Lawrence, Mark

Prince Of Fools

Mark Lawrence's newest 2014 release in his new The Red Queen's War trilogy, set in the same world as his Broken Empire trilogy. This time around he focuses his efforts... Read more

Broken Empire / Red Queens War

Mark Lawrence doesn’t use an abundance of technical explanations and diagrams, but that doesn’t make his magic system any less interesting. In fact, it lets him focus on his astonishing... Read more

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Prince Of Fools

This first entry into the Red Queen's War trilogy is about a layabout, womanizing, alcoholic prince. He's also just funny enough not to think he's an utter bastard. Okay, he's... Read more

Red Queen's War

Mark Lawrence's newest anti-hero fantasy, with the first book out so far (2015 as of this writing). It's not as good or genre pushing as his first trilogy The Broken... Read more

The Broken Empire

If you want some seriously good fantasy (extremely gritty, grimdark fantasy), The Broken Empire Books are some of the best out there (the books top our Top 25 Best Fantasy... Read more

The Wheel Of Osheim

Felt so so about the first book, loved the second book, and I also love the final book in Lawrence's new take on an anti-hero prince. Jarl, the hero of... Read more

Red Sister

The Liar's Key

The Wheel Of Osheim

Grey Sister

The second novel in a brilliant fantasy trilogy from the international bestselling author of Prince of Thorns.Behind its walls, the Convent of Sweet Mercy has trained young girls to hone... Read more

Red Sister

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... Read more