Book 1 - Badass Nuns and Blood Magic

Title: Red Sister (First Book of the Ancestor)

Author: Mark Lawrence

Genre: Ninja-Nun Fantasy

I give this book a solid......eh.

The world building has potential but I feel like the words sometimes get in the way. When I looked at reviews online (when I really dislike a book I always hunt down internet opinions to both validate my beliefs and rage at numbskulls who think otherwise), people describe Lawrence's writing as lyrical and, while I can sort of see why, I have to say the writing mostly felt juvenile. Like there was potential there, but still a long way to go. The use of metaphor clouds meaning sometimes, which is extra distracting and frustrating in a sci-fi/fantasy book that takes place in a vaguely familiar universe - although I did love the whole Church aspect of the whole thing, with nuns being these master keepers of awesome knowledge and badassery.

Characters

The protagonist, Nona, is labelled wayyy younger than her behaviour and thought processes suggest. I mean, I don't hang out with a lot of eight year olds, and maybe Lawrence's universe breeds these hyper mature kids, but whenever her age is brought up it completely snaps me out of the story. It seems like an number completely independent from her as a character, and only meant to add "wow" to her feats/pump her up as the hero. Boooo, not impressed.

The rest of the cast is disappointing, too. They're either hard to keep straight (odd names that were way too similar + broad characterization + limited physical description) or are exaggerations of familiar tropes (pompous church figurehead! fierce serene matron! neeext).

So, Overall...

I wanted to like this book. I really did. The premise was unlike anything I have ever read before, it seems like it would be about wicked female characters kicking mad butt. Sadly, I was underwhelmed, and relieved when it was all over. The language made the telling really foggy, I often got the characters confused because of lack of details, and I was constantly re-reading sections to decode if they were flowery metaphor-izing and actual descriptions.

⛪ ⛪ /5

Wouldn’t recommend, won't read again, and probs won’t read any more of this series (unless I look back and thing, it wasn't so bad, and get sucked back in - definitely a possibility).