Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice
#1024.21 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 6 books Status Complete 2017–2022 Reading commitment Medium Mark Lawrence Last reviewed 2026-10-09
Overview
Mark Lawrence's Book of the Ancestor trilogy -- Red Sister (2017), Grey Sister (2018), and Holy Sister (2019) -- follows Nona Grey, an orphan girl with hunska blood granting superhuman speed, from her arrival at Sweet Mercy Convent, an all-female training ground for novices with a range of magical talents, into a wider conspiracy over relics that control the fate of her planet's dying artificial moon. The trilogy is set on Abeth, a world grown cold and largely uninhabitable except for a narrow, moon-warmed "Corridor" circling the globe, forcing its remaining peoples into close, contested quarters. Nona is further marked by possession by a demon that both tempts and strengthens her, adding internal conflict to a plot built from assassination, political intrigue and convent rivalries. Reviewers noted the series' grimdark tone and moral ambiguity, and its deliberate subversion of the "Chosen One" trope in favor of a protagonist whose growing power is inseparable from the violence and compromises it costs her, distinguishing it from more traditional coming-of-age fantasy despite the convent-school setting.
Grimdark · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking
Book of the Ancestor Mark Lawrence
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Red Sister | 2017 | core | 4.16 (64,552 ratings) |
 | Grey Sister | 2018 | core | 4.35 (39,404 ratings) |
 | Holy Sister | 2019 | core | 4.30 (32,535 ratings) |
A completed trilogy set on Abeth, a different world from Lawrence's Broken Empire -- explicitly named as a separate continuity at Broken Empire's own admission, confirmed here rather than assumed. Red Sister was a 2018 David Gemmell Legend Award finalist for Best Fantasy Novel, independently corroborated via both Wikipedia and sfadb.com; no individual award record was found for Grey Sister or Holy Sister in either source.
Book of the Ice Mark Lawrence
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Girl and the Stars | 2020 | 1 | core | 3.80 (13,128 ratings) |
 | The Girl and the Mountain | 2021 | 2 | core | 4.13 (7,161 ratings) |
 | The Girl and the Moon | 2022 | 3 | core | 4.23 (5,702 ratings) |
Mark Lawrence's second trilogy on Abeth, the dying ice-world of the Book of the Ancestor: Yaz of the ice tribes, thrown into the Pit of the Missing, and her journey across the ice to the green Corridor and the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where the two trilogies' stories meet.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice? Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice's Core Canon is 6 books.
- What is the reading order for Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice? Publication order, starting with Red Sister. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice finished? Complete (2017–2022).
- How much reading does Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books · ~1,360 pages).
- How is Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice ranked? #102 in this site's official ranking, based on 162,482 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #102?
Ranked #102 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.21 across 6 core books.
- Backed by 162k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.80 to 4.35.
- Less than 0.01 behind #101, The Iron Druid Chronicles (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 6 books · Complete · 162k ratings · Ranks #102 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length grimdark fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (6 Core Canon books)
- Red Sister (2017)
- Grey Sister (2018)
- Holy Sister (2019)
- The Girl and the Stars (2020)
- The Girl and the Mountain (2021)
- The Girl and the Moon (2022)
Documented internal/story order: 3 of 6 Core Canon books
- The Girl and the Stars (2020)
- The Girl and the Mountain (2021)
- The Girl and the Moon (2022)
Internal chronology is documented for 3 of 6 Core Canon books; the remaining 3 are not yet mapped onto the same ordinal scale.
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
Related universes
- Same author The Broken Empire: Both by Mark Lawrence, set in the same broad multiverse he has described in interviews, but Book of the Ancestor takes place on Abeth, a different world from Broken Empire's post-apocalyptic Earth, with no shared characters or plot -- explicitly scoped as a separate continuity at Broken Empire's own admission.
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Suggestions computed from what Book of the Ancestor / Book of the Ice and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- First Law World Grimdark · Complete · High commitment · 4.33
- Ash and Sand Grimdark / Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
- The Nevernight Chronicle Dark fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.29
- The Covenant of Steel Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.27
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.21 across 162,482 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Run 2: 3 admissions -- The Founders Trilogy, The Empyrean, Book of the Ancestor accepted 2026-08-11
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-10-08
Rule: Core Canon = the Book of the Ancestor trilogy (Red Sister, Grey Sister, Holy Sister, 2017-2019) and the Book of the Ice trilogy (The Girl and the Stars, The Girl and the Mountain, The Girl and the Moon, 2020-2022), both set on Abeth, in their own orders. No Expanded Canon found.