Red Sister is a beautifully written fantasy novel that switches flawlessly between intimate characterisation, lyrical prose, and gripping action, all set in a deeply fascinating world. And by fascinating I mean: the moon is a parabolic mirror that heats a liveable strip of land at night, keeping the encroaching masses of ice at bay. Yess. And no, it's not scifi, it's deeply fantasy. I loved everything about this book, including the main cast, the supporting characters, the plot, the unpredictable turns, … wow!

I liked Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. Grey Sister was an appropriate second volume – It was a good-ish second part to Red Sister, but I felt it lacked a sense of cohesiveness. For a long time it just moved from one action after the other, switching to a bit heavy-handed character development from time to time. The protagonist is also too successful with most things she does, and then there's some torture/pain/loss thrown in for balance. Language felt a bit inconsistent, too: mostly very good standard storytelling (think Sanderson), then suddenly flowery.