Book Of The Ancestor Books in Order

Book of the Ancestor takes place on Abeth, a world almost entirely covered in ice. Only a narrow green Corridor circling the planet stays habitable, kept warm by a focus moon that reflects a dying sun’s light. Kingdoms crowd into that strip of land, fighting for space as the ice walls inch closer.

Into this setting comes Nona Grey, a peasant girl sold to a slaver and nearly hanged for a crime she half understands. She is snatched from the noose by Abbess Glass and taken to the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where girls with traces of ancient bloodlines learn to be warriors, mystics and spies. Hunska speed, gerant strength, marjal and quantal magic all mix in different proportions, and Nona’s own heritage makes her far more dangerous than she looks.

Across Red Sister, Grey Sister and Holy Sister, readers follow Nona from frightened newcomer to battle hardened nun. Life inside the convent is part school story, part knife fight. Classes teach everything from poison and stealth to theology, but rivalries between novices, the ambitions of noble families and the quiet games played by the abbess and her enemies ensure there is always tension in the corridors.

Outside the walls, the Corridor is sliding toward war. The artificial moon that holds back the ice is failing, land is vanishing under the glaciers and desperate powers are hunting for shiphearts, ancient engines that can shift the balance of the climate and of politics. Nona’s friendships, her demon passenger and her evolving command of the Path pull her into that wider conflict whether she wants it or not.

The trilogy balances brutal action with close attention to the bonds between the girls of Sweet Mercy: loyalty, jealousy, first love and the hard choices that come with growing up in a place that trains you to kill. Readers who enjoy Lawrence’s focus on found family and the cost of power will find those themes sharpened here.

Around the main novels sit shorter works such as “The Devil You Know”, “Bound” and “Thaw”, collected in Tales of Abeth. They revisit Nona and her friends at key moments between and after the books, adding small but satisfying extra angles on both the characters and the strange, ice locked world they inhabit.