A Net in Time

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fantasy

The Red Sister

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I listened to The Red Sister a couple of weeks ago.  It’s the first of a three part series where we follow Nona and her  life learning with the nuns.  These aren’t your typical quiet nuns, but ones that learn to follow the path.  For some that’s a life of battle, and for others a life of meditation, and yet different for the rest.   I want to continue listening to the series, but it’s a fairly intense storyline so I’m listening to something a little less intense first.  Let me tell you about it eh?

The red sister by mark lawrence

The Basic Details for The Red Sister

Title: The Red Sister
Author: Mark Lawrence
Publisher: Ace
Pages: 480 pages
Intended Audience: adult
Genre: adult fiction, fantasy, action and adventure, epic fantasy, fantasy action and Adventure, 
Available formats: Paperback, kindle, audio, hardcover
Format Used: audio

The red sister by Mark Lawrence

About book and author

Red Sister brings us into the world of Nona.  A girl given by her parents to a child-taker.  Who, through a series events ends up with the sisters.  An eight year child accused of murder. At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers.  Children take 10 years to become a Red Sister, learning the ways of the Path, trained in the use of the blade and fist.   Here she will learn that it’s not until you are broken that you find your sharpest edge. 

Mark Lawrence was born in the USA but grew up in the United Kingdom.  He came back in to the USA to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme.  Returning to the United Kingdom he lives with his family of four children.  He never had ambitions to be an author but here he is years later with several books under his belt.  Learn more here. 

So What Did I think?

I’d not heard of Mark Lawrence before I started Red Sister.  His ice world created in this story is just wow.  Like just very interesting.  And trying to understand how the old blood works its way into the lives of the current inhabitants of this world.  Primitive hard lifestyles that you catch glimpses of never used to be this way.  But the ice changes everything and makes life harder. 

Nona’s story slowly unfolds.

I can’t say it’s an easy story to listen to.  It’s very intense and Nona is a very angry child.  So many things happen to her and so many people want to see her destroyed.  Her focus…. protect her friends!  She’ll do anything she can to help them. A fierce weapon is who she was created to be.

You’ll find unexpected help, betrayal, bad people, good people, an interesting series of teachers (some good and some well… you know), unexpected kindness, and danger.  Danger seems to seep in around the edges everywhere.  It’s like no place is actually safe.  That’s part of lure of The Red Sister, the way it draws you in and you expect to see Nona handle the danger, and to do so with ferocity. 

Definitely worth reading (or listening to).  I have to admit, I did take a break between listening to The Red Sister and starting (so yes, spoiler alert, Nona does survive for the second book) The Grey Sister.   I’ll get my review of that to you later on!  🙂 

Starship in the Stone

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Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table they become part of so much fantasy literature. Starship in the Stone is a 10 book series that takes the story of Arthur and revamps it.  There is much about the series that I liked and some things that occasionally irked me.  But since I finished the entire series there was more that I liked than not! If you like science fiction and adventure, where good guys do all they can to defeat the bad guys, this is the story for you! 

starship in the stone review cover

The Basic Details for The Starship in the Stone

Series Title: The Starship in the Stone

  1. Starship in the Stone
  2. Here Be Dragons
  3. Dread Reckoning
  4. The Wastes
  5. Dragon Rising
  6. Primal Fate
  7. Dark Wizard
  8. The Price of Honor
  9. Mad Queen
  10. Dragon King

Author: M.R. Forbes
Publisher: Independently published
Pages: averaging 350 pages
Intended Audience: high-school, young adult, adult, 
Genre: science fiction, space opera, space fleet, space marine,  
Available formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio
Read: Kindle

About the author and Series

M. R. Forbes has written a fair number of science fiction books.  He loves to read sci-fi books and has a love for the genre in every format he can find.  His goal is to entertain and surprise his audience.  You can learn more about his works at his website. 

The Starship in the Stone takes an unlikely hero, a bike messenger trying to escape a messy situation and lands him in a world unheard of.  It’s an twist on the Legend of Arthur.  You’ll find Merlin, a version of the Round Table.  Enemies that were once friends. Enemies that become friends, and heroes in unlikely spaces. In many ways it’s a coming of age tale. 

starship in the stone series

So What Did I think?

I enjoyed this series.  Normally science fiction books aren’t my thing, but the story drew me in.  An unlikely hero, a determined advisor, and an emergency situation, led to growth unimagined.   

There was a struggle with Merlin always calling Thomas “my boy”.  Like use his name!  Seriously.  His name is Thomas, call him that!  He’s a man, not a child.   And yes, Merlin is like an ancient being and in some ways I can conceive of him using the “my boy” moniker but it got a bit tiresome.  

I did like how not everything turned out perfectly.  People died, loved and cared for people. Ones that  I wanted to see make it to the end of the story.  Not all of them made it, which made the tale much more realistic and moving.

not always plausible

There were parts that seemed not quite plausible.  Would it really be possible for one starship to take on massive amounts of other starships and miraculously being able to avoid weapons fire? But that’s the nature of a story right?  Especially a story about a long-dead leader, embodied in a stone, with a high tech ship. Add to the mix an immortalized wizard transferred into technology (a computer) and you are bound to have things that seem a bit far-fetched.  All that said, I read through all the books eagerly!  🙂 

I wanted to know how Thomas was going to win the fight.  I wanted to know if Lancelot could be saved and if Morgana could be stopped.  Would Thomas and his lady friend become more than just friends? Could the round table be completed? 

Did I get the answers to all my questions?  NOPE.  But I did get many of them answered, and mostly to the good. Bad things happen, good things happen, and in the end… good prevails.   It’s just the way a good adventure story is supposed to! 

Starship in the Stone, an excellent space marine opera worth reading!