Red Sister - Mark Lawrence

"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.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

My thoughts:

First, I so did not like another book I tried by him. I read a few pages, the main character, a lad of 14 brutally rapes a girl and I was all wtf. Yes it was grimdark, yes he is not a hero. But no, I do not want to read about a rapist going around raping and killing. F that.

SO you can see why I hesitated giving him another go. But hey, I have been burned before and tried again. And I am glad I did.

Nona ends up in a convent where they make assassins, spies, or just the regular sort of nun who prays. She is obviously made for the martial part as we meet her when she is about to be hanged for murder...at 8. Instead she is whisked away and gets to live (of course things are not that easy, someone plots revenge). We then follow her for a bit, she grows, she learns, she makes friends.

Around her a world is crumbling. I did wish it had been even more fleshed out. I just love a good world. But maybe it is made to be vague (and yes we do get lots of info but hey I want to feel it, oh and maps! I love those.) What we have is a planet where the people got to from the stars. But why is the tech gone? What  is the shiphearts under the convent for an instance? Oh and where there 4 different sort of aliens that arrived? Cos one race was big and strong. One race was fast. One had magic and the 4th I forget. That does not sound like the same race...but then again they can have children together so they must be the same. Also why is the moon falling down? So many things to ponder.

Conclusion:
There is action, there is blood, there is poison and from blood she rises. I read it fast...as fast you can read when I only read when she is asleep. And I want more.

Cover

Eh, it makes me think of Soviet, like she is some red sister growing up in Siberia, in a gulag

Hardcover, 500 pages
Published April 6th 2017 by Harper Voyager (first published April 4th 2017)
Book of the Ancestor #1
Fantasy
Library