Rick Riordan's Reviews > Red Sister

I've been a fan of Mark Lawrence's gritty 'grimdark' fantasy novels for a long while now, but I think Red Sister may be my favorite. (Sorry, Prince of Thorns. I still adore you.) Elevator pitch? Okay, it's reductive, but imagine Hogwarts as a nunnery that trains young girls to be assassins. The world of Abeth orbits a slowly dying sun. As a result, most of the world is encased in ice except for an ever-shrinking corridor along the equator, where humanity is squeezed together, fighting for survival. A satellite mirror, the "Focus Moon," passes over each night, reflecting the dying sun's concentrated light along the corridor in a losing battle to keep the ice at bay. It's a world in which magic and science co-mingle. Four bloodlines, from the original human inhabitants who came ages before, sometimes manifest themselves in present-day children. Gerants are huge and strong. Hunsa are fast and dexterous. Marjal control shadowy and elemental magic. Quantal have the ability to walk the Path -- pulling on the subatomic strands of the universe's fabric to see the future, connect their minds to others', or even manipulate reality. Our hero Nona Gray is a child from the edges of society, sold into slavery by her own mother for reasons not quite clear. She is about to be hanged by a local constable for a heinous crime when she is rescued -- if 'rescued' is the right word -- by the Abbess of the Sweet Mercy Convent. Nona is taken in, and her training begins . . . Fabulous, in-depth world building, great characters, and as always with Lawrence, plotting that is fresh and unpredictable. Upon finishing, I went out immediately and bought the sequel, Gray Sister. If you like fresh, take-no-prisoners fantasy, this is for you.