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  • Red Sister

  • Book of the Ancestor, Book 1
  • By: Mark Lawrence
  • Narrated by: Helen Duff
  • Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (889 ratings)

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Red Sister cover art

Red Sister

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Helen Duff
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Publisher's Summary

It's not until you're broken that you find your sharpest edge.

A brilliant new series from the best-selling author of Prince of Thorns.

'I was born for killing - the gods made me to ruin.'

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices' skills to deadly effect: it takes 10 years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don't truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder - guilty of worse.

©2017 Mark Lawrence (P)2017 HarperCollins Publisher Limited

Critic Reviews

"Dark, passionate, tense, with a female hero anyone could relate to - I was utterly fascinated! This is no pretty, flowery tale, but one of vastly different people struggling to survive when a hostile government comes to power." ( New York Times best-selling author Tamora Pierce)
"This is a book very distinct from everything that came before; what it has in common though is a narrative that pulls no punches, and characters that are beautifully, brokenly, repellently, cleverly human." ( Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviews)
"I had never thought it was possible to find a greater character than the Emperor Jorg Ancrath. I had never even slightly considered that there might be a fantasy world out there toppling that of Τhe Final Empire, and most definitely, I had never thought that I could love a book more than The Night Angel. But here we are." ( BookNest)
"Any other author is going to have to smack the ball way, way out of the park to top this read." ( Parmenion Books)

What listeners say about Red Sister

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant... Again

There is always that one kid that stands out in your memory, through out your education, who had an amazing talent for something. A talent well beyond you know what others will strain their whole life to achieve and barely make the edges of.

Mark Lawrence has an amazing talent for word smithing, able to weave you into a story, the meat of it is palatable between the teeth of your imagination, the juice, staining your minds eye and all from the first paragraph.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Red sister on a red path

I was totally drawn into this story from the first words of the narration .
Helen s performance was magic. The story hints of the potential scope that could unfold and I can’t wait to see where it go’s. Apocalyptically martial arts intensity, spiritual , Religious and political , all threads drawing the listener into an icy world .
Pure dark , mystical and bloody masterpiece.









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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Captivating main character

I really enjoyed the main character and her development throughout the story. The weaving in of past and present throughout was cleverly done. The narrator was brilliant and faultless in her portrayal of the different characters and her use of different accents. I found I did have to speed up the narration otherwise it was as a bit slow.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Justified 4 stars

The reason I didn't give 5 stars was the graphic description of a donkey being beaten to death.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, difficult to binge.

I enjoyed the book, and the narrator. however I did find my mind wandering away quite frequently. I'm not sure if it's the narrator's almost soothing voice or that the narration between action happening vs what was the protagonist was thinking wasn't any different.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Really dull

Was not engaged by story, setting or characters Constantly found myself having to rewind to follow the story as it was far to easy to become distracted by anything going on in the real world

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another brilliant story from Mark Lawrence!

Red Sister is a fantastic book with excellent characters and the world in which they live is fascinating. It's a fast paced book with action, gore, betrayal and just plain awesomeness!
Nona is a badass, she rocks just like I hoped she would. I love her bravery and most of all her loyalty. So great for the protagonist in a gritty harsh world to value loyalty so highly.
5/5 stars. Download it, buy it however you can, you won't regret it if you love fantasy and awesome stories in general.
Helen Duff was a great narrator too.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Modern excellence and a new genre standard

I've listened to 70 books in the fantasy genre, read as many again, and this author and series in particular is a new favorite. This is also my first review.

Mark Lawrence builds a dark and despairing world that is immersive and believable. Subtle dialogue and character experience gradually build the lore and history, rather than an encyclopedic wash of information that other "epic" authors may be prone to. It's very well done.

Character interactions are genuine and humble. There's no feeling of contrivance or forced action to move the narrative along. Main characters are vulnerable, flawed, and honest. In conflict scenes, there's a real sense of danger as protagonists don't just power through and win the day.

Writing style is efficient, maintaining a light descriptive feel that allows the world and people to emerge organically. It's just not as heavy or dense as similarly popular trilogies. There's some very appealing, and often humorous use of original metaphor and turn of phrase; "I'll smack your heads together so hard you'll swap brains."

It's most easily compared to Joe Abercrombie's work, who in my opinion sits right at the top of the fantasy game. This book isn't quite as overtly sadistic. The humour here arrives through subtle jibes and allusions rather than painful irony and masochism. Violence and brutality is there, but it's used sparingly. This is a refreshing take on the dark fantasy genre, still managing to present a cold, despairing and failing world, thinly veiled, and leaving much of what may be going on in this awful place up to the reader's imagination. I suspect the later books in the series will pull off the gloves, so to speak, as the main character evolves, and I look forward to this.

Narration is simply exceptional, the peformance very nearly matching the quality of the utterly peerless Steven Pacey. Helen Duff matches the tone of the narrative with calm and even delivery. It's a wonderful pairing. Characters are distinguished through masterful use of accent and cadence, not silly or caricatured voices. The overall performance is consistent and polished. I wish more audio books had this standard.

A superb and original contribution to modern "dark" fantasy.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome Listen

Loved it from start to finish. Heroic fantasy at it's best. If you like David Gemmel, Robin Hobb etc you'll love this.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic story & excellent narration

With this story Mark Lawrence, had me just as enthralled as when Jorg Ancrath first carved a vivid red path through my imagination. The excellent narration made this a perfect listener experience.

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