Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
My Review: 4.2/5
Genre: High Fantasy, Adventure, Fiction
Summary
Nona is a peasant from the Gray; a territory on the outskirts of the Corridor where impoverished farmers reside, mostly forgotten in the merciless cold. Nona is rescued from the hangman’s noose when a mysterious nun interrupts her execution. She is then taken to a convent that trains gifted young women in the ways of the Ancestor. It is there that she becomes a warrior.
What I liked: (No Spoilers)
Okay, so this book is jam packed with interesting world details. I love a story that genuinely makes me feel like I’m there and I can see, smell, feel everything vividly. Lawrence introduces geography, environment, climate, science, and religion in a way that is never info-dumpy or boring. I also enjoyed how he does something similar to Dune, where the idea of ‘prophecy’ is played with. Is it real because people believe in it even if the truth is entirely different?
What I liked: (Soft Spoilers)
The concept of a ‘focus moon’ and the strip of land that is the corridor was so f*cking refreshing. I felt the heat of the moon and saw the band of ice free land that wrapped around the planet. There was also a forest of solid columns in the middle of a mountain pass and nobody knows how they got there. I mean, the level of detail in the geography that bleeds into the characters and their struggles is so expertly done and so impressive! I hope the origin of the four races: quantal, marjal, hunska, and gerant is explored more in the rest of the series.
What I disliked (No spoilers)
That being said, this book struggles with pacing. We follow Nona, the protagonist from age 9 to 12 and everything is shown. Everything. To the point that it weighs down the story. It’s definitely not a carefree, easy read, because there is so much info and Nona’s story is slow to progress. It was tiring to trudge through certain points. Also, since this story is told through third person Nona often feels distant. There isn’t much internal dialogue or a lot of sharing how she’s feeling. That’s just a personal nitpick because I like a nice italicized mental map of where the character is at. Another nitpick is that all the children speak like adults. You mean to tell me that Nona, an uneducated girl from the Gray, also has the same vocab as all the higher born girls?
What I disliked: (Spoilers!)
It’s revealed at the end that Nona did not trust her friend Clara who was planning to betray her. Huh? Why not show the reader this distrust? Why give us all the paranoia that Clara is heading into something bad and she has no idea? I understand Lawrence wanted the reader to react like: ‘oh, wow! Nona, look out for Clara’ — sike! Nona knew this whole time. I would have liked to see her figuring this out beforehand. She mentions that she stole more poison than was revealed to us and that frustrated me. I don’t like to feel duped by the protagonist. I’d prefer if they were duped (lol) and we were in it together. Then I get to see their realization of the betrayal and how they solve the resulting problem! Instead it’s already been solved behind the scenes which feels like a cheap and easy twist.
Final Thoughts
Mark Lawrence must watch a lot of anime! I say this because the fight scenes and blood shed are described like how the pages of a manga are illustrated. I don’t know if that judgment makes sense to anyone else. So, would I recommend it? Well, I enjoyed it. I know I will never reread it but I can say that about a lot of books. The main thing is that I came away inspired to create my own world and improve my magic systems. That’s the thing that has stuck with me, how involved and thought out the magic in Lawrence’s world is.