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Book of the Ancestor trilogy by Mark Lawrence {spoiler thread}


AncalagonTheBlack

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3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

He has an urban fantasy trilogy coming out too, I think at least 2 books are due THIS YEAR and all three are written. Man is a machine!

Yeah, all have D&D names.  Power Word Kill.  Limited Wish. etc

I have not had the desire to read those, but I’ve loved everything I’ve read by him... so I should probably give it a look. :dunno: 

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I’ll be honest I think Lawrence’s first trilogy was terrible. Jorge seemed like the character a 14 year old edge lord would write in his dark fanfic. Ah he thinks religion and civililary is a scam lol so deep! Oh and he’s a Mary Sue. 

Loved the second trilogy. Jal and Snorri were two genuinely interesting characters, and Jal’s growth throughout the trilogy, felt organic, the humor was stellar.

I loved the Red Sister. 

I find the gray Sister to be the worst book I’ve read from him so far. It’s jusy so boring. Like with the first trilogy at the very least I could have fun mocking the “deep” commentary, and Jorge’s absurd ability to triumph everything by sheer force of will. The grey sister just seems boring. 

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41 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

:rolleyes:

peddle your late night drunk idiocy somewhere else 

Genuis! Another great response man! You’re so clever. Rather than explain what you found wrong with me thinking the grey sister is boring, or the BE terrible you call me a drunk and demand I go somewhere else. I won’t lie if you had any authority on the site I might be compelled to stop posting. But given you like me are simply another member of the site, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing and post whatever comes to mind(as long it respects the rules of site of course). 

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14 hours ago, Rhom said:

Short story "Bound" that's set between Grey and Holy Sister was released on Kindle last month.  I finally broke down and read it on my son's iPad yesterday.  It was a good read.  Makes me anticipate Holy Sister even more.

Thanks for mentioning this. Just bought and read it. I enjoyed. Did you notice:

The scene where Nona grabs the Sis lineage book off the shelf she thinks how surprised she is that she’s grown so much so quickly? Foreshadowing that she has Gerant blood and all four traits . . .

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3 minutes ago, unJon said:

Thanks for mentioning this. Just bought and read it. I enjoyed. Did you notice:

 

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The scene where Nona grabs the Sis lineage book off the shelf she thinks how surprised she is that she’s grown so much so quickly? Foreshadowing that she has Gerant blood and all four traits . . .

 

Ooooooh... good catch.  I didn’t make the connection.

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16 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

He has an urban fantasy trilogy coming out too, I think at least 2 books are due THIS YEAR and all three are written. Man is a machine!

They’re shorter novellas, although still impressive.  They sound pretty cool too, like a British stranger things with more D&D geekery.

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  • 2 months later...

Was caught in my reread of Abercrombie and then Tiamats Wrath.  Thought I had preordered Holy Sister, but apparently did not. So Amazon Prime will have it for me tomorrow.

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On 1/25/2019 at 3:52 PM, john said:

They’re shorter novellas, although still impressive.  They sound pretty cool too, like a British stranger things with more D&D geekery.

The first one is very good. Half way through and enjoying it a lot. Has a bit more pace to it reminding me of the Jorg books in that respect but otherwise it feels like a really good script for a dark kids shows on bbc

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26 minutes ago, red snow said:

The first one is very good. Half way through and enjoying it a lot. Has a bit more pace to it reminding me of the Jorg books in that respect but otherwise it feels like a really good script for a dark kids shows on bbc

Yeah, I read it.  Also thought it was very good.  Really enjoyed the time travel dynamics, it reminded me of Blink, the Doctor Who episode, except that here the threat is just that events might not work out the way you were hoping, which is a very teenage thing to worry about.  In fact it was so good that I read Holy Sister straight after, which was also pretty good.  Impressive from Lawrence.

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On 1/25/2019 at 7:13 AM, Varysblackfyre321 said:

The grey sister just seems boring. 

I am not as down on it as you, but it did seem repetitive after the first volume, hitting pretty much all the same beats as it's predecessor spoiler:

Spoiler

Nona again manifesting new super-powers/super-endurance in the nick of time to save the day, only now with Zole's help, except that it all blew up in the Abbess's face despite her technical win. Or did it?

  "The Holy Sister" is, thankfully, sufficiently different, genuinely surprising in places and provided a satisfying ending to the trilogy, as well as made me curious about what might happen in that world afterwards. I do hope that Lawrence works on more interesting and multi-dimensional villains in the future, though. Spoiler:
 

Spoiler

 

I liked the twists well enough, but the whole attempt to be original about "the Chosen One(s)" felt unconvincing. I mean, they couldn't have possibly succeeded without their very rare and powerful heritage and Zole had already been already chosen by her people anyway. Really fortuitous how both girls just happened into Glass' reach too.

I also felt that a few things remained unclear - like, Nona just forgot to ask Joeli whether she had sabotaged Glass's medicines or worse. And, was the somewhat incongrous idyllic epilogue due to them having done some of the things that Nona had suggested about the more efficient use of the "moon"? Was the one embedded shipheart enough for her to retain her access to the command chamber?

Also, why are there so few lay people with convent/monastic education? You'd think that many nobles et al. would have jumped at the chance to turn their heirs into fighter/mages... Allowing people who passed their Blade/Shade/Mystic Tests to become normal nuns/monks and never touch those skills again seems like a massive waste, too.

Oh, and this is not a critique, but they really don't have much time left, do they? This was just a stopgap.

 

 

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On 4/18/2019 at 10:27 AM, john said:

Yeah, I read it.  Also thought it was very good.  Really enjoyed the time travel dynamics, it reminded me of Blink, the Doctor Who episode, except that here the threat is just that events might not work out the way you were hoping, which is a very teenage thing to worry about.  In fact it was so good that I read Holy Sister straight after, which was also pretty good.  Impressive from Lawrence.

The plot actually has a lot more in common with Netflix's "dark" than "stranger things" but i can see why they'd go for the more successful show to try and help sell copies.

I really hope the next book set in the "sister" world isn't a "while the first trilogy was happening" series. That really detracted from the prince of fools books.

Still digging "one word kill" and i think people may enjoy the down to earth villains there. They have simpler goals and motivations.

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14 minutes ago, redjako said:

Just got my Gray Sister copy, but realized I don't remember any of the characters names - at all, I'm getting all the plots screwed up.

By gods, will need to do a Red Sister read through first.

My copy of Grey Sister had a brief summary of book 1 at the beginning.

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On 4/20/2019 at 9:27 AM, Maia said:

I am not as down on it as you, but it did seem repetitive after the first volume, hitting pretty much all the same beats as it's predecessor spoiler:

  Reveal hidden contents

Nona again manifesting new super-powers/super-endurance in the nick of time to save the day, only now with Zole's help, except that it all blew up in the Abbess's face despite her technical win. Or did it?

  "The Holy Sister" is, thankfully, sufficiently different, genuinely surprising in places and provided a satisfying ending to the trilogy, as well as made me curious about what might happen in that world afterwards. I do hope that Lawrence works on more interesting and multi-dimensional villains in the future, though. Spoiler:
 

  Hide contents

 

I liked the twists well enough, but the whole attempt to be original about "the Chosen One(s)" felt unconvincing. I mean, they couldn't have possibly succeeded without their very rare and powerful heritage and Zole had already been already chosen by her people anyway. Really fortuitous how both girls just happened into Glass' reach too.

I also felt that a few things remained unclear - like, Nona just forgot to ask Joeli whether she had sabotaged Glass's medicines or worse. And, was the somewhat incongrous idyllic epilogue due to them having done some of the things that Nona had suggested about the more efficient use of the "moon"? Was the one embedded shipheart enough for her to retain her access to the command chamber?

Also, why are there so few lay people with convent/monastic education? You'd think that many nobles et al. would have jumped at the chance to turn their heirs into fighter/mages... Allowing people who passed their Blade/Shade/Mystic Tests to become normal nuns/monks and never touch those skills again seems like a massive waste, too.

Oh, and this is not a critique, but they really don't have much time left, do they? This was just a stopgap.

 

 

Just finished Holy Sister as well.  I agree that it was a satisfying conclusion and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Definitely got away from the training montages of the other books.

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6 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

o.O

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Anyone catch the taproot call back to the character to his other trilogies? Makes one wonder.

 

Name caught my attention too.  You bringing it up made me go direct to the source...

Now we wait...

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