Warrior sisters: Explosive violence and bonds of love!

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Holy Sister (Book of the Ancestor #3) by Mark Lawrence        
      
The Ancestor trilogy's final novel "Holy Sister" is just as intricate and pressing as its predecessors.
Lawrence's "Story So Far" chapter succinctly locates us once more in time and place for the continuing saga.
"Abeth is a planet orbiting a dying red sun. It is sheathed in ice and the vast majority of its people live in a fifty-mile-wide ice-walled corridor around the equator" which is shrinking as the ice advances.
"The empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat."
Nona Grey and her band of sister novices, Ara (Arabella), Zole, Ruli, and Jula, who started together at the Convent of Sweet Mercy are being called upon (little do they know it) to put in place Abbess Glass's long term planning. (Despite not being present she has a long reach!) At the center lies the shiphearts, the prophecy around the Ark, and the coming of a Chosen One.
Of course all long term plans rest on the situations and decisions the players will make. And those aren't necessarily what is wished for, possibly only hoped for. Combined with the over arcing mega story, are those of the individual's, such as  the virulent, hatred driven pursuit of Nona by Lano Tacsis after her vengeance upon his family.
As it unfolds, the storyline switched seamlessly between past and present, bringing us around to the final chapters.
The battle scenes against the Scithrowl hordes led by their battle-queen Adoma were brutal, reminding me a bit of those in Feist's Demon Queen.
Underlying the actions, Lawrence's viewpoints rise to the surface around evil vs good, friendship, redemption and hope.
A satisfying finish to a compelling series!

 A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley

*****

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