I had been hanging back on this one. I very much enjoyed reading Lawrence's first trilogy, The Broken Empire, but was disappointed by the second, The Red Queen's War, mainly because the hero was such a thoroughly tiresome fellow, but also because it lacked the depths and subtleties that had made such a pleasure of Jorg's saga. Perhaps, I thought, Lawrence is a one-hit wonder.

Happily, with Red Sister, he recovers his footing. The book is set in a school, but it is more Stalky and Co than Hogwarts (I was unable to get through the second book of the Harry Potter series). Although the characters are children, they are able to hold the attention of the adult reader much as the boys do in Lord of the Flies.

I read this pretty much at a stretch and didn't touch my guitar for a full twelve hours. So it must have been pretty engaging.