The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Did you finish? What did you think?

Spoilers are ok in this thread, but be sure to uncheck your update feed. I may go ahead and mark my spoilers since we aren't dividing up the book.

I just finished Chapter 11. The part with the priest, Markus, and the mule. (view spoiler)[ Wow that was hard to get through - I guess it's a tribute to the writing that it just hurt to read! Poor old Four-Foot. And poor Markus. (hide spoiler)]

Yeah. That was quite the scene. The high priest is an ass.

I finished it just now - loved it. I need to get to bed but two thoughts - so the focuses to me sound like maybe some kind of giant lenses meant to direct light/heat? And the shiphearts/ark - they propelled ships to get to this planet so I was kind of thinking nuclear reactors but ... since they have the magic properties too I'm probably not even close.

Anyway - I thought the battles were fantastic, I loved the hints of future events, and ...I guess that is all I can think of for now.

Oh! I did miss the Liar's Key humor. I did love how very snarky Jalan was.

Hi guys! Just finished the audio book. Question: do I remember correctly that the corridor is only 50 miles wide and stretches around the planet??? That seems awfully tiny.

I think it might be a bit wider in some places? But yeah pretty tiny!

Yeah, the shiphearts are most likely the reactors from the space ships. I'm not sure how that enhances magical ability. Maybe magical ability is connected to radiation.

I really liked the idea of the ice corridor being carved out by the light reflecting off the moon. And that leading to end of the book, where they talk about the Ark possibly being able to control the moon. Maybe the moon is actually an old space station. That could be very cool in the rest of the series.

I'm also interested to see what happens to progress the story to prologue scene. I felt Clera was a shady character fairly early in the novel (points for me on that one).

Oh I hadn't thought about the moon being a space station, but that could be! I know they talked about a decaying orbit and the moon falling, which could point to a space station.

I agree about the prologue scene. I thought that series of three scenes was so interesting. They were short, misleading, and epic.

I assume the focus moon had worked for most of the planet before, but now it's only working for a 50 mile corridor around the equator. Its orbit must have degraded severely and it must be just about ready to slam into the planet. The heroes better do something soon!

I listened to the book on audio, so I can't easily go back and find the old section. But wasn't there a mention that most of the lights in the sky were red stars? Wikipedia says that red dwarf stars cannot usually be seen by the naked eye. I must be remembering alternative facts, haha.

I think that's true John. I like the underlying science.

This was a great book. For my baby-time reading of late, this was powering through for me :D

At first the book felt like Mark Lawrence Young Adult (still great) but there was plenty of blood and violence.

The elements of a past dead advanced civilization woven into new a magical society reminded me a lot of Broken Empire. I can see how the Arks/ship hearts/core whatever could be doing some quantum physicsy-thingie like you had in Broken Empire.

I still think I preferred Broken Empire plot wise, Liar's Key writing style wise, but this is Mark Lawrence for the masses. Too many people were missing out on his works because of the unlikeability of Jorge in Broken Empire, and probably didn't feel comfortable reading Liar's key since it while it could be read stand-alone, you'd be missing a lot if you hadn't first read Broken Empire. I think Mark found a great balance in Red Sister.

I am curious where book II will jump off - after the 3 interludes we were shown deceptively different views of (much like the deceptively different stories Nona told others of her past), or where it continue where it left off and fill in the plot between the end of book 2 and leading up to the battle with Clera (never trusted her too!).

I thought the last battle with the knights and Raynold Tacsis was awesome - especially Nona going off on the knights. The battle with Tacsis battle was a little of a letdown, ending too quickly and easily, but Nona was spent and you had to let the other characters help out in some way!

Can't wait for the next book!

I like what you said about the three different trilogies! Liar's Key was definitely more approachable than Broken Empire, and I liked it a ton more because of the main character - just loved him - but I'm glad I read both - I think it made especially book three a lot more meaningful.

This felt a little YA to me at first too - I guess that is natural given the age of the main character.

One of the things I liked about that last battle was how Nona had been trying all that time to keep her berzerker, etc. abilities secret, but when she let them out, her friends were right there for her...sniff...

Possibly my favorite part was the three interludes. I kept going back and reading them - what? no! Very sneaky, and deceptive, plus there were just plain cool.

I'm curious where the next part will start too. A whole year....

Suzanne wrote: One of the things I liked about that last battle was how Nona had been trying all that time to keep her berzerker, etc. abilities secret, but when she let them out, her friends were right there for her...sniff..."

Yeah, that was a tear jerker! After hiding the truth about herself her whole life, she finally let it all out and as you say her friends didn't bat an eyelash. It was a very touching end to all the ultra-violence :)

I'm still not sure how I feel about those interludes. Not sure the last one doesn't give away too much but who knows. I've never been a huge fan of that type of storytelling even though that is a very popular device. To me it takes some of the mystery out of the journey. I suppose there are still a million ways this could go so it could just be me being a grumpy old man. I still enjoyed the story and I never got a YA feel from it but I'm still not sure what YA means. Seems as though everyone has their own idea and none are exactly the same :)

Guys, apparently Mark did an AMA recently (April 5th) for Red Sister.

Check it out here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

Thanks John!

I LOVED this book. It was dark at times, but not as dark as I thought it'd be given Mr. Lawrence's reputation. For me I guess I'm glad for Mark Lawrence for the masses? I personally never felt like this was YA though.

For those of you who've read his other work/series, it sounds like this series is a lot less dark? I have Prince of Thorns but I've been reluctant to listen to it because I'm not really keen on grimdark fantasy lately (the world is dark enough right now, and I got burned out on it a few years ago). And I skipped the second series for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

I've probably forgotten a bunch of stuff I meant to comment all along. I kept making time to listen longer each day.

I agree that high priest was a real asshole. I was glad to see him get some bit of justice from the Abbess.

I'm a sucker for Magic school tropes, so this worked really well for me. My initial concern about it being in a convent/focused on the religion seem to be unfounded, at least for this book.

I was confused at first when the nun from the beginning turned out to be Aura and not Nona, so I wondered if Aura had died and Nona took Aura's name (Thorn) in her place. Or if something had happened to Nona.

I hope that Aura isn't dead. I didn't like Clara much from the early going, and I wasn't too surprised when it was revealed that Clara was the one attacking Aura. I was suspicious of her the very first time she upgraded her coin, and by the time it was Gold I was just waiting to see what she agreed too. Of course the interlude in the middle basically called her out as a villain so by that point it wasn't too much of a surprise.

I'm really sad that Hally (or whatever the girl with the connection to Nona and the bad leg was called) died. I'm not sure the point of it. The Heart gave her false confidence? It seemed that Nona was able to chase her killer off at least.

I really love the magic system in this. It seems to be based on these Spaceship engines and some kind of faith/trance. But also proximity? It doesn't make a lot of sense yet, so I'm hoping we get more clarification in the later books.

I like Geoff's theory that the moon is really a space station.

My biggest questions resolve around this whole chosen one/shield business. I like the idea that Nona is really a shield, but I figured Aura would be the chosen one. This other girl? Zora or whatever her name is. I'm not a fan that idea. I'm hoping it's not true. I'd rather Nona herself be the chosen one. Or maybe none of them.

There is definitely more to the story of what the Abbess was thinking when she rescued Nona from execution. I'm hoping we get more details of that.

I'm really glad we finally got the true story of her being sold. I also like the idea/theory that Nona was really sold to protect her. Was her mother really her mother, or were her parents actually just guardians/watching her?

I'm glad the next book is out in only a few months, although I suspect it's going to be very hard to wait until next year for the final book.

I'm glad you liked it - I thought it was really good too (although The Liar's Key is probably my favorite Mark Lawrence series - maybe til I read the rest of this one.) As far as grimdark - and of course, it is all just opinion - for me, the Prince of Thorns trilogy was VERY grimdark - probably the darkest I've read. So much so, that I didn't really enjoy it. Although The Liar's Key is set in the same world, I didn't feel the whole grimdark vibe from it. However, there is some (minimal) crossover between those two trilogies, enough so that I felt like it was a bit of a payoff, and it made me kind of glad I'd read The Prince of Thorns. But...if I had to do it again, I might skip the first trilogy.

With THIS book - I agree it is NOT YA. The only YA thing about it is that the characters are young.

A lot of people hated the interludes, but I really liked them (although they made me worry about the characters).

I like the magic system too, and I expect to learn more about the world. The whole ice corridors thing was cool too.

I hadn't thought about her mother maybe being a guardian. Either way, it was nice to learn the true story.

It seems like most people liked Liar's Key better. But I'm stubborn and I won't read it until I've read Prince of Thorns. Not to mention I already own the first book.

I this the opening line of this is one of my all-time favorites behind The Gunslinger.