Descripción editorial
The international bestselling author of the Broken Empire and the Red Queen’s War trilogies begins a stunning epic fantasy series about a secretive order of holy warriors...
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.
A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass’s care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies.
Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona’s secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.
Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lawrence (the Broken Empire trilogy) grips readers from the opening sentence "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size" of this successful fantasy series launch. The prologue setting up a battle between a Martial Sister and a force of 200 men ends just before the first blow is struck. The main narrative is a lengthy flashback recounting the story of Nona Grey, a young girl who was given to a childtaker; she's introduced moments from being hanged for attempting to kill a powerful noble who was hurting a friend of hers. Her life is spared through the intervention of Abbess Glass, who takes Nona to the Sweet Mercy Convent and puts her through rigorous training. The contours of the plot will feel familiar to genre fans a young orphan, possessed of special gifts, receiving lessons in a cloistered community on how to realize her potential but Lawrence makes it seem fresh through evocative prose and three-dimensional characterizations.
