Holy Sister

By: Mark Lawrence

Narrated by: Heather O'Neill

Length: 13 hrs

Publisher's summary

The third book in the thrilling and epic Book of the Ancestor trilogy from international best-selling author Mark Lawrence.

Powerful novice Nona Grey must fight to survive in "a fantastic world in which religion and politics are dark and sharp as swords, with magic and might held in the hands of wonderful and dangerous women."

©2019 Boblinga, Ltd. (P)2019 Recorded Books

A bit disappointing.

Loved the first book, the second was good, this last one had good parts. The romance parts of it were forced and awkward. The romance foreshadowing had the soft touch of a surgeon who has held their hands in ice water for 3 hours, then put them into oven mittens. Loved the moment at the wall with Sister Pan, but then things got a bit crazy and could have used more development instead of surprise power ups. When push comes to shove the story had its strong parts, but too many uninteresting and distracting parts.

I do love the way he gives a recap at the beginning and speaks directly to the reader, it feels more respectful in some odd way.

Not worth a full credit

*May be spoilers* Ok, I’m done in. The constant jumping back and forth of this story was too much. Added to the incessant minutiae of the in-between scenes, I’m just done in. I tried speeding it up, but that didn’t work with the jumping back and forth in the timeline. I tried jumping to the last chapter, then the second to last, then the third to last, etc.; again, same old. I kept looking for a major revelation for the series arc, but no, no significant change in the world status except in the atomic threat of peace - they’re threatening the moon against the other two countries. The ice is still advancing, so the world is still where it was at the beginning of this series; except Nona is Sister Blade; Ara came back to be a Sister. We jump from fantasy to sci-fi with the shiphearts and adjusting the moon, then back to Fantasy??? Nope.
Very good narration.
Cannot recommend.

A much better ending than I had ever hoped for.

I was extremely surprised with how this ended. I actually learned something and felt that it was more mature than a lot of fantasy out there. I honestly didn't expect that based on book two. I thought it would just be all action and no meaning. I'm glad I was wrong.

I loved the first book with my whole heart. There were so many quotes that were pure gold. I was enchanted by a new world written with beauty.

Yet, something bothered me a bit. If a story has the clichéd "chosen one" theme, then I get a bit upset when the story isn't told from "the chosen one's" point of view. I spend all this time in someone's head only to have someone else steal all their thunder.

That's how I felt at the end of book 2. I had resigned myself to the idea that this series would end up just with an action fantasy thriller, where the main protagonist gets overshadowed by someone greater. Book one stole my heart. Book two still held it, but a poison sank into my beating heart and left me wondering if I might die a slow death. I had little faith that the third book would live up to the first.

At the beginning of the Holy Sister, I thought my fears were confirmed. It felt like it would be a generic story that had an all too predictable end. I had no idea how the story could possibly end with such a short book.

About halfway through, things started to change in me. I felt like I was learning. I began to see that I had only been scratching the surface of ice wall, and that there was 2 miles of ice below me.

This book isn't about a girl who is the best at everything and who does awesome stuff in awesome ways. Though Nona does do awesome things, if you desire only that, and that alone, you will be left disappointed.

This series is about growth and understanding people. It's about dealing with harsh emotions and learning how to channel them towards something besides bitter resentment and destruction. It's about being human and learning what that means.

I didn't understand that until close to the end. I wept, as I felt that I had learned something about myself while figuring this out. I came into reading this book with all the wrong expectations, and it was those expectations that tainted how I saw the story. Once I let go of them, those arbitrary expectations, I saw the heart of an amazing story that teaches you something and leaves you wondering.

Thank you Mark Lawrence for an amazing journey where my heart was touched and my mind was opened and renewed.

Well worth the wait

This was as close to the perfect ending I could have asked for, the stakes were high and the action was thrilling. The ending felt earned and not deus ex good or overly depressing. The narrator did just as well this time as the last two so no complaints there.

My only issue was with the flashbacks and pacing. I just personally didn’t enjoy the flash back sequences that much and felt like it spent a lot of time going into detail on parts that didn’t need as much attention. Other than those small issues if you enjoyed the other books this one will satisfy

Extremely disappointing end

My mouth fell open at some of the reveals near the end of the book, and not for a good reason. It's left a bad taste in my mouth for the entire series. I enjoyed the first two books much more.

"The Moon... Is...Falling...!"

Lawrence finishes off his trilogy in style! Once again the author manages to bring his narrative to a satisfying close. 4 stars for a gimmick that feels all too similar to his Liar's Key series, and some forced-feeling character behaviours near the end, as well as a bit of literary fluff. These are forgivable, however, as this author manages what SO FEW authors can... he FINISHED THE STORY!! No infinite convolutions with a rushed, awkward ending ala Wheel of Time or Ice & Fire. O'Neil is an absolute STAR in this book - her character acting is varied, interesting, believable, and professionally consistent. No jarring, unmatched inflections (okay maybe 2 in the entire book). You get so wrapped up in her emotive delivery you completely forget you're listening to a story. Truly stellar performance.

It jumped the shark

The narrator did a fabulous job, just like the previous books.

!!spoilers!!

This was a disappointing end. The story was underdeveloped and did not honor the characters. It “jumped the shark” with the sci-fi AI as a solution to the focus moon/war.

I also have no idea why the author felt it was necessary for Nona to be sexually active with a dude to contrast her feelings for Ara. It was weird and forced.

Ultimately this was a very poor ending. Save your credit and write some fan-fiction to wrap up loose ends on your own.

What happened ?

This series was amazing ! But what happened at the end ? I am 90% through and I still don’t understand what happened ... this weird time back and forth thing maybe worked it text but sucked in audio

Post Science Fiction all the way into Fantasy

I adored this series. It's one of my favorites and I have just finished my second reading. Of course I have my complaints as nothing is ever perfect, but they're small in the face of the actual story. I cried, I laughed, and in the end I'm very happy with the ending of these books.

Comments:
1: The narrator is great but she mispronounces words she got right in the previous books which was jarring.
2: I want MORE! I need to know more about the world of Abeth! Where are The Missing, where did the ancestors come from? I'd like another series something like 200 years later

pretty terrible

since prince of thorns, lawrences' books have been getting progressively worse with this one the worst of all