Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #1) in Beyond Reality

May 16, 2018 jess rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-reads

I was disappointed by this. Having read Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy, I had somewhat high expectations.

The first 60% was not great. I was constantly confused by the 4 tribes and Sisters’ names. The only good parts were the various fight scenes, which were too few.

May read Grey Sister but haven’t fully committed.

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Feb 14, 2017 Kdawg91 rated it it was amazing

Sometimes you crack a book, and next thing you know...you're done. Then in the back of your head, you realize you have in your crooked little hands, the beginning of something great.

Mark Lawrence's new tale is a friggin master class in Fantasy, beautifully written, amazing characters and a world that breathes. Page after page, a ripping story that you can't get enough of and you get mad when it ends.

Thanks to netgalley for the ARC, and yes, I will buy it..its that good

I am a fan of the man, I wo ...more

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Mar 04, 2018 Matt rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

It had the tone of well written fan fiction. Aside from the pervasive violence, it’s a pretty typical young adult novel. Imagine X-23 goes to Hogwarts, except Hogwarts is run by amoral nuns, and is on a failed colony world somewhere in outer space heated only by a giant space mirror, that passes over a civilization that is nonetheless vaguely medieval, and filled with all the grim and grittiness of a 1990's comic book. It’s that silly and awesome all at the same time, but ultimately the sillines It had the tone of well written fan fiction. Aside from the pervasive violence, it’s a pretty typical young adult novel. Imagine X-23 goes to Hogwarts, except Hogwarts is run by amoral nuns, and is on a failed colony world somewhere in outer space heated only by a giant space mirror, that passes over a civilization that is nonetheless vaguely medieval, and filled with all the grim and grittiness of a 1990's comic book. It’s that silly and awesome all at the same time, but ultimately the silliness wins out over the awesome.

Three stars simply for panache and writing quality, although to be honest it's more 2 1/2 stars that a solid three. The problem here is that it is that reading the book is much like the experience of opening a bag of potato chips, and when you eat the first chip you think to yourself – “Meh. I don’t even really like potato chips, and these are too greasy and salty for me.” Only, because the bag of chips stays open, every time you pass it you find yourself grabbing a handful, and before you know it you are scooping up crumbs out of the bottom of the bag and thinking to yourself, “Why in the world did I eat the whole bag? I never really enjoyed the chips, and now I feel vaguely sick and bloated.” I read through the pages of this book easily enough and was at times even entertained, but part of me regrets that I bothered.

The problem boils down to that ultimately the book is as shallow as a puddle and utterly bereft of any ambition but to sell books. Now, I don’t mind that the author wants to sell, books and I admit this is likely to be a very winning formula for doing so, but I still want there to be something that seems a bit more than fluff. I would have never finished the Harry Potter series if it just stayed the boyish, childish wish fulfillment of the first three books. But, the author had something to say about good, evil, life, relationships, and so forth. ‘Red Sister’ on the other hand dispenses with all of that in favor of writerly constructs and a recognition that what a modern audience really wants is more visceral violence and a little bit of lesbian fan service, but not so much lesbian fan service that anyone might think he’s making an overt statement of any sort about sexuality. Just enough to think sexy preteen girls are sexual, and no more.

In my review of the Hobbit I noted that Bilbo as a hero is meant as criticism for the idea that what makes someone a hero is their capacity to commit violence and force people to conform to their will. I said that the Hobbit was a children’s book that made our adult fantasies seem childish. Well this is a book ostensibly for adults that is made to seem childish because there is nothing to it except violence and protagonists with the capacity to commit violence. You have 300 or so pages of exposition, dialogue as exposition, students bringing up other students to speed as exposition, class room lectures giving exposition, and endless permutations of the author disguising his exposition through various means, but ultimately to no end because none of the exposition actually sets up anything in the plot. It’s an onion with infinite layers to peel back, as each new twist reveals yet more things that require more exposition. Nothing is ever restricted by this exposition or made solid and familiar by it. And you have 100 pages of violence in graphic detail that is itself restrained not at all, because everyone always levels up to whatever and wherever the plot takes them. Ultimately, there is very little story anywhere in this book.

Yes, I can appreciate what the author is doing with flash-forwards, flash-backs, narratives within the narrative, and unreliable narrators but all of that seems to serve only writerly technique rather than deepening the story. There is no real twists here, and nothing is ever in any real doubt. It’s all so obviously wish fulfillment, tickling the lizard brain, with an empowered protagonist that can just kick the butt whomever she decides needs a good kicking and all she really needs to do that is hulk like tap into her unlimited rage and blood thirst. No discipline is required, and indeed ultimately – as a perhaps minor spoiler – discipline only suppresses her super-power. The protagonist is full on actualized and reified ego. Enjoy the trip, I suppose, but ultimately my intellect kept calling out through the adrenaline haze, things like “Exactly what is this supposed to mean?” and “Do we really believe that the ends strictly justify the means?” and, “And is this really a realistic and thoughtful look at what a sociopath as protagonist would be like?” If we are going to have a character that fears that they are a monster, can we at least honestly wrestle with that problem?

All that world building and I can’t tell what people are fighting for. We are given the most trivial and one dimensional of villains to vicariously and literally eviscerate. You can’t really root against the protagonists when the villains are chewing puppies and raping babies, but quite often in the story I had the same sorts of feelings that I developed playing “Assassin’s Creed II”. I started to wonder whether I really sympathized with a character that so casually murdered nameless faceless mooks, simply because they were rude or in the way. Ultimately, I don’t think I have nearly as much bloodlust as the protagonist, and don’t in fact find myself identifying with her at all. ...more

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