Holy Sister

It is a rare thrill to find an author who can keep your brain challenged, your feels fulfilled and your pulse pounding book after book after book. You know, the ones that make you hold your breath. Or ignore your family. Or get completely lost in another world because the book is so damn good. I am happy to report that I am able to pick up each and every one of Mark Lawrence’s books with the same expectation each time: This one will also be epic. The man and his characters and his stories have never let me down.Written entirely from Nona’s POV this time, the story is broken into two different timelines, three years ago and present day. But first, the prologue takes a few pages to remind us just how freaking kickass Nona is by having her kick some ass in a fighting ring. Lawrence always has the most memorable beginnings.Holy Sister picks up exactly where Grey Sister ended with the Abbess, Sisters and novices of Sweet Mercy making their escape from the palace. Always keeping her cards close to her habit as she plays the long game, Abbess Glass sends Nona and Zole to the ice with the shipheart.The story then jumps to present day with Nona preparing to take her final tests to become a Sister. I can’t say much about the present day narrative as it reflects what happened the last three years and some events are incredible twists. Fabulous twists. There are others that just plain broke my heart.The book weaves it way back and forth, past to present, until the day it connects. Then, there is the most epic battle. It’s bloody. Pulse pounding. Heartbreaking. The Path Walk from some of these women is stunning. And deadly. The writing is captivating. It’s page after page of Nona fighting what can only be described as a multi-layered, perhaps even multidimensional, battle as she walks the Path the Abbess knew she could. It was exciting and thrilling and ultimately exhausting. This is where we are once again reminded:“It’s important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.”This is a genius piece of work. It is complex but engaging with well-written characters that you care about, or hate, or hate to care about. It has a wicked sense of humor (hey, it made me laugh during a battle scene). And all the threads, all the pieces, all the clues—everything was in its place by the last page.This book perfectly completes the story of Nona, the dirty little cage girl, who grow to become a fighter, a loyal friend, a tactician, and a Sister. Can NOT wait for Lawrence's next trilogy!

the people that have enjoyed this series this far will not be disappointed with this book! It is exceptionally action packed, and it keeps you glued to your favorite reading spot from first to last page. The reason I give this book four instead of five stars might have more with my own preferences than the book itself. I have the same problem with this book that I had with other of Lawrence’s books. There are so many “secret plots” that we don’t really know anything about that are suddenly revealed to us at the end changing everything. Not a problem per se, but when you get the feeling that you have been kept in the dark for the whole book when every motivation have been different than you have been led to believe, it almost feels a bit like Lawrence is trying to wriggle out of a story he don’t know how to solve with substituting it for a different story. I don’t mind it if it is only a little, but sometimes it almost becomes an easy way to get your heroines out of sticky situation. It is almost a bit too easy in a way. It is like “oh you are in trouble? Here take this fragment of forgotten magic that we did not know excisted and magic yourself out of this difficult situation”, or “oh, you think you are dead? No no, this was kind of my plan all along”. Although not so bad as in the broken empire series, I still think it is just a bit too much. Although I really enjoyed this series I think this will be the last series of Lawrence that I read. It is good, but some of Lawrence’s storytelling techniques is just not for me.

I wish I could give this series more stars. I've said it before but as I make my way through Mr. Lawrence's books, they just keep getting better and better.The book alternates between the present time for Nona and what happened to her three years before as she wanders with Zole on the ice. It's a superb technique for keeping (and increasing) the pacing of events that weaves together in the end for a brilliant resolution. And we also get the ending for the various chapters through the series that foreshadow Nona's final battle with the Tacsis family.I've mentioned in each book how the author turns the Chosen One trope on its head. Nona is the peasant girl who achieves great things but is she the Chosen One of prophecy? Or is it Zole? Or Ara? The great thing about this series is that it could be any of them or many others who are the heroines of the story. Sure, the books are told from Nona's POV but I think the theme is that friendship and trust make heroes of all because Nona couldn't have done it without Abbess Glass, Clera, Apple, Kettle, and so many other friends and sisters.I do love Mr. Lawrence's writing style and I can already tell this isn't going to be just one read of his books, but I'll reread them over and over. But first it's onto the Impossible Times series.

I enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy (much as I enjoyed the author’s earlier series) but they were four star reads for me, somehow nearly but not quite delivering on the promise of their premise. I was therefore delighted that this final instalment does a great job of pulling together all the different threads of the story and reaching a satisfying conclusion in terms of both the big picture politics and the characters’ interpersonal relationships.Rather like in the author’s two Broken Empire trilogies, but unlike in the earlier books of this series, the book makes use of dual timelines. One picks up exactly where Book Two ended, with Nona and various other Sweet Mercy convent members and others fleeing the aftermath of the fight at Sherzal’s palace. The focus here is on Nona and Zola’s trek across and through the ice, half creating a diversion to allow the others to escape, half trying to get their stolen shipheart to safety. The second starts three years later, with Nona and her contemporaries preparing to become fully fledged nuns, and the Empire in the grip of a devastating war. The two strands had quite different vibes and complemented each other well. In the first, I liked that we got to know the rather mysterious Zola better as a person and got to understand more about the ice tribes, the black ice, and the demons that can possess people. In the second, I liked the ultra-high stakes, the scheming, and the way the great mysteries of the series are gradually resolved. I was also relieved that the “mean girls” and cruel teacher elements that sometimes felt a bit overdone in earlier instalments were toned down. There was still a bit of that, but on the whole, the convent was able to put pettiness aside in the face of an existential threat, which was refreshing. I think it also helped that Nona was a bit older and more experienced here than in earlier instalments, which made her prowess and the things she was entrusted with a bit more believable and the threats she faced a little less horrifying.It’s worth noting that one of my absolute favourite characters dies “offscreen” somewhere in the three year gap between the two timelines, which at first, I was horribly disappointed by. But it gradually became satisfyingly clear that they were still driving the plot from beyond the grave.Inbetween the general entertaining steady movement of the plot, there were a couple of standout punch the air moments: Nona deciding which order to join, Sister Pan showing how she got her reputation as one of the greatest quantals of all time, a couple of characters’ dramatic demises. And there was also the quieter satisfaction of seeing how plots and schemes came to unexpected fruition.I often find that final instalments end up being the weakest books in a series or that at the very least, the ultimate ending disappoints. But on balance, I thought this was probably the best book of the trilogy and wrapped everything up nicely. Overall, compared to Mark Lawrence’s other books, I’d rate this series somewhere between Prince of Thorns and the Red Queen’s War.I received an ARC of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review (though I had already pre-ordered it at Amazon, so for the record, was also willing to pay good money for it!)

I do not spend £11 on a kindle book EVER. But I did here. Why: 'Red sister'(1) and 'Grey Sister'(2), are both GREAT books. The intro price on 'Red sister' leveled out the price too. But ultimately it's the quality, intelligence, depth, characters, challenge, progression and rich detail, that both grip you and make it good value. This quality of writing is rare. The deep thought given to the plot build up are very impressive.There are 2 parallel narrative strands, alternating chapters: The continuation from Grey Sister and 3 years later. The simpler 'Grey sister' narrative 'device' of mysterious battle scenes from an unexplained defense of the convent, becomes clear (another 'wow' story angle). The most extreme challenges and traps are made understandable and credible, solved by sensible strategies not just by 'Deus ex Machina' artifice. Abbess Glass's long game is made clear in digestible snippets, at satisfying doses but not easily or quickly. We are kept gripped and engaged by a well paced weaving of so many people and plots.... It is exhausting to read this series, the adrenaline is never far from another jolt. And the characters are genuinely deeply interesting and each has their own voice and manner.Strongly recommended

I really enjoyed the first two books in the series. Both Red Sister and Grey sister had a great cast of characters, an interesting world and plenty of exciting moments that seemed to be leading to much more but the final book of the series Holy Sister never reaches the highs of the previous novels and many story threads finished a little flat for me by the end.Previously important characters are simply written out in between books with little fanfare, previously eluded to relationships never come to fruition or ever receive the impact they should and the Cage/Thorn monastery scene from the first book when finally reached was a little underwhelming in the end. That's not to say it's bad, I still enjoyed many aspects of the book, it's well written and has some pretty good fight scenes and set pieces and Nona is still a great and fierce heroine but it all felt a bit rushed in the end.Good, worth reading to conclude the series but didn't reach my expectations in the end.+ Well written.+ Some great action and set piece moments.+ Nona is still a tough great character.- Many story threads/relationships resolve disappointingly.- Story kind of feels rushed and yet feels like there was a mini book in between I missed.

The heroine pulls an amazing number of strings as she saves the Empire, as we knew she would.Although I enjoyed the book and its pace. There were a couple of things that brought the star rating down from 5*.I deducted 1* because except for the last few chapters, the author switches us chapter by alternate chapter between present day and a continuation of book 2. I can see no need for this device and the story would have flowed better had it been presented chronologically.There is a vague possibility that the inhabitants of the time could be descendents of people from our own planet in a future far away; though I think it very unlikely that a popular cuss word of today could have found its way into the mouth of our main character!I would however have liked to have been able to continue the story of the main character over time.

I really enjoyed this conclusion to Nona's story. The story is told as two timelines - one continuing from the end of Grey Sister, which doesn't do much more than introduce a few more characters and some of the Missing's technology, and one "now" a year or two (?) later with the war that was building with the other tribes in the Corridor in full swing. There's a bit of gap between the two timelines and important events from it are referred to but apart from the Bound novella (worth reading as it expands on Nona's and Ara's relationship which is significant in Holy Sister), remains untold. The war is mostly a backdrop to the ongoing to the feud with Sherzal and her allies, but it does all dovetail together nicely...My only gripe is that during the battle towards the end, Nona's flaw blades suddenly become massively overpowered, it doesn't matter much, but it made me go "hmmm". There are also a few loose ends (Joeli's fate ...) but nothing major.Also Taproot!?! A story there maybe?! ;-)