Started: 08/04/19
Finished: 28/04/19
Spoilers: No.
I imagine this book is what would happen if Nevernight and The Lies of Locke Lamora had a baby. Or perhaps Nona is what would happen if Mia and Locke themselves had a baby (now there’s a ship I didn’t realise I wanted - alas Locke is terrible with women and Mia would eat him alive)
But despite similarities, I didn’t like Red Sister all that much. I checked out of this story long ago and the only reason I didn’t DNF it was cause I was listening to the audiobook, so I thought, fuck it, I’ll keep listening and maybe I’ll enjoy it at some point.
Everyone’s been raving mad about this series so it had to be good, right? . . . right?
Characters
I think this is just a thing I have with Mark Lawrence books where I struggle to like any of his characters. I can’t name a single character that I actually cared about and felt invested in.
For one thing, I feel like there were too many. There were names flying all over the shop and few had any significance. For another thing, none of them stood out. They all felt like the same character and if it wasn’t for the narrator giving each one a different accent, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell any of them apart. I just didn’t click with any of them.
But let’s talk about Nona. I admit that a lot of my confusion is due to the fact that I lost interest and zoned out a lot of the time - not bothering to take the story back and re-listen - so I’ll try not to be too critical.
But the thing with Nona’s hands.
Wft’s going on there? Has she got Wolverine-style claws? Why? How? Can anyone actually see them or are they invisible? Was this explained and I somehow missed it, or are we supposed to just accept that Nona has these weird-arse claws in her knuckles?
Plot
The beginning of Red Sister is decidedly Locke Lamora- esque. With the latter being one of my favourite books of all time, the similarity was strikingly obvious to me.
So here’s the scene, picture this: a wayward child taken in by a scruffy bad guy that in reality isn’t really much of a bad guy, this character being the Child-Taker in one, and the Thief-Maker in the other. Said child is a handful, commits a crime and is accused of murder, and is then sold on to a teacher who can handle them, Abbess Glass (if we’re cutting out middle-man Partnis Reeve), or alternatively Father Chains in Locke Lamora. This teacher, as well as having an object for a name, belongs to a secret order disguised as a holy institute, assassins in one book, thieves in the other. This teacher figure then proceeds to teach and train the wayward child their ways and said child goes onto to be - more or less- the best of their kind.
The difference is, however, that Locke grows up, the training of his youth seen only sparingly through flashbacks that also build his character. Whereas Nona’s story is stagnant, fixed within the convent while she spends the whole book training. Little development occurs and I spent most of the book wishing something would happen.
Look, it’s not that I don’t like school setting tropes - they’re not my favourite, but I don’t dislike them - I just feel that in order for a book featuring this trope there needs more to the plotline than just the school. If the whole thing is set at the school and shows nothing but the MC ‘training’, I guarantee you I will be bored AF.
I had a similar gripe during my review for The Poppy War. I need more than just endless training sequences. The story needs to be more than just the school. The thing is, there are a plethora of books exactly the same as this out there, and this book brought nothing new to the table. There was little originality here as far as I could see.
Again, maybe it’s just me and my zoning out, but was there actually any plot line here? What was the goal? So this nun assassin school exists: why? It’s not good enough for me that it just exists. Why does it exist? What are these girls being trained for? I honestly couldn’t tell you. If it was mentioned and I missed it, then clearly it wasn’t mentioned in a way that made the information important.
And what’s the drive? Where is the over-arching goal - something to work towards?
Was it seriously just that stuff right at the end with the moon? Cause that doesn’t explain why the nunnery exists.
This book left me with way too many questions and I literally don’t care enough to try and find answers for them.
Setting
Honestly? Really?
I found the setting incredibly tedious. Know why? Because for the largest part of this book, most of it is set in the convent. I was very interested in the world outside; the idea of the coming ice age and the narrow corridor of land that hadn’t frozen yet, but this side of the world is barely explored, unfortunately.
I wonder sometimes whether Lawrence sets his books within the same world. In the various series of his that I’ve read, I always have this feeling that they aren’t set in a secondary fantasy world but in fact some kind of post-apocalyptic future of our own world. There are the odd subtle references to things relating to our own world. Whether this is intentional or not, I’m not sure, but when reading Lawrence’s books, I get the feeling it’s more sci-fi than fantasy.
But, again, it’s only speculation as nothing is actually explained. All questions, no answers.
Writing Style
Tb-perfectly-h, I’m a little tired of Mark Lawrence’s writing. I haven’t read all his books, but something I’ve noticed from the ones I have read is his utter senseless need to include graphic animal abuse. Yes, I know he includes it because it’s more upsetting and shocking than people being abused. Yes, I know he’s going for the shock value, but I don’t find it shocking, I find it incredibly distasteful. I’m not saying no book should ever include an animal death, it’s merely the extent in which he describes it. He goes into such detail for such a prolonged period that one might believe he actually enjoys this shit. Shock me with something creative and genuinely shocking, not something brutal and over-played. For whose benefit are you writing these scenes?
Other than that, his writing is generally very good and I enjoy his descriptions. He has a creative eye for creating images
Final Impression
I’ve tried various Mark Lawrence books now, and though I liked the Broken Empire books, I don’t like any of his characters. This is a problem for. I’m very much a character-driven reader. If I can’t invest in the characters then I have little chance of investing in the story.
I tried and failed, so I think that’s it for me and Mark Lawrence.
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