Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence – Review

Published: April 3, 2018

Publisher: Ace

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book of the Ancestor #2

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

In Mystic Class Nona Grey begins to learn the secrets of the universe. But so often even the deepest truths just make our choices harder. Before she leaves the Convent of Sweet Mercy Nona must choose her path and take the red of a Martial Sister, the grey of a Sister of Discretion, the blue of a Mystic Sister or the simple black of a Bride of the Ancestor and a life of prayer and service.

All that stands between her and these choices are the pride of a thwarted assassin, the ambition of a would-be empress wielding the Inquisition like a blade, and the vengeance of the empire’s richest lord.

As the world narrows around her, and her enemies attack her through the system she has sworn to, Nona must find her own path despite the competing pull of friendship, revenge, ambition, and loyalty.

And in all this only one thing is certain.

There will be blood.

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While the opening line for Grey Sister doesn’t have quite the presence of that in Red Sister, it’s still a wonderful hook-and-set, specifically because we have context now. The returning reader knows all about the Convent of Sweet Mercy, the feud with the Tacsis family, and the identities of Sisters Thorn and Cage so the opener is pretty significant. I found Grey Sister to be on par with its predecessor, which is no insignificant thing as I was rather fond of Red Sister.

Our return to Abeth we the readers are now two years into the future and the ice continues to advance, making tensions high among the nations. Nona is two years older (obviously, because she doesn’t defy the laws of time that way) and she has something of a passenger now. His name is Keot and he’s not a very good influence. In fact, he’s what is commonly referred to as a devil – he speaks ill advice, occasionally takes control of Nona’s tongue, and is a maddening inconvenience because he must be controlled and concealed otherwise she might get burned at the stake or something equally horrible. Keot was picked up during Nona’s impassioned stabbing of Raymel Tacsis and she’s spent the last few years trying to get him under control since she wasn’t able to get rid of him. I thought this addition to the story was kind of amusing and helped to flesh out the history of Abeth somewhat.

This book comes just as Nona is advancing to Mystic class and a whole host of new issues with her fellow initiates. She promptly makes worst enemies with Joeli Namsis, a lovely girl with a mad ability to manipulate others on more than just the usual level. Her family are also allies of the Tacsis, which spells trouble for Nona. The Inquisition also shows up at the convent and they lurk in the classrooms observing things… looking for HERESY!!!! Every good religion needs a good inquisitorial segment where they torture you for not following things the way they see fit and this one is no different. Basically, they’re working for Sherzal, so Nona must leave the convent or die, the Abbess is in hot water herself and is hauled off for “questioning”, and the story makes a move from the halls of Sweet Mercy to the dank and I’m assuming rather chilly dungeons of the Noi-Guin.

The Noi-Guin are involved here so obviously there’s going to be bloodshed, but I was impressed at the battle scenes here. They were intense and now that I’m more invested in the outcome for these characters, I was frantically reading. Like, was a major character about to get killed off??? The best battle scenes were definitely those involving Kettle – she’s an absolute terror and can hold her own against the shadowed assassins like no other. This was a really great book for many reasons but the characters are just awesome. The world of Abeth was expanded upon to a fairly satisfying degree, but there are so many things I’m curious about that it would probably require a prequel series to completely sate me.

Overall, Grey Sister was a thrill of a sequel and I zipped right through it. As I said in my review of Red Sister, I think this is probably Mark Lawrence’s most approachable series and can bridge the gap between YA and adult fantasy, meaning a wider audience is likely going to be reached. It’s a great gateway book to adult fantasy – yes, you’ll read this and realize the quality is great and begin to wonder what else the wide world of adult fantasy has to offer!!!! HAHAHAHA *evil laugh*. That being said, I’d absolutely push this book on people because battle-nuns are awesome and am patiently awaiting the final book now.