Book Review: Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is the First book in The Ancestor Series.

The Cover: The version I have is mostly bluish-white representing the ice and snow. Long sword-like icicles are jutting down across the entire cover; a fanged cage ensnaring a lone female figure, who is facing away in the top right corner, sword lowered in her right hand, against the blackness beyond. The title is in a slim, red font with that stands proud against the white and the author’s name in black text at the bottom. It suits the genre and the story well. I also feel like the icicle cage has a strong association with the character, whether it was intended or not.

The Good Stuff: I have said it before and I will say it again, Mark Lawrence knows how to write a solid fantasy novel. His writing style is good, his characters are well formed, the magic system intriguing, and he provides plenty of action, blood and gore. This book is everything a good Grimdark novel should be.

The Bad Stuff: I honestly have nothing to comment on here. I read through this book at such a fast pace because I wanted to keep on reading. There was nothing that pulled me out of the story.

Overall, I loved this book, it is my type of fantasy novel and I would highly recommend it. Mark Lawrence now sits in the number 2 slot for my top authors. This one is getting a poison lacing, blade scraping 5 out of 5 golden bookmarks from me.

Book Haul for 2025

Hello Readers,

I scheduled this post to be published in January, but I just realised it didn’t publish for some reason. I have already reviewed a few of the books in this book haul and am still reading through the others. While this is later than intended, I thought I would post it anyway. so you can see what’s left on my reading list for this year and check out the previous reviews you may have missed.

Here is the originally intended post:

Ok, so here are the books I plan to read over 2025, in no particular order:

Red Sister – Mark Lawrence

Prince of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

King of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

Emperor of Thorns – Mark Lawrence

Dead Man’s Steel – Luke Scull

The God is Not Willing – Steven Erikson

I picked all these up from local secondhand bookstores. If I enjoy them, I will find a place for them on my bookshelf, among the others in my collection, and give them a new home. If not, I will send them back to one of the local secondhand stores for someone else to enjoy.

I have read Mark Lawrence before and enjoyed his work. So, I grabbed a few more of his books when I saw them. I can’t wait to get stuck into these, but I need to finish my re-read of Half a War by Joe Abercrombie first.

As always, I will post my reviews for you after I finish reading each book.

Happy Reading!