In "Red Sister: Book of the Ancestor - Book One" by Mark Lawrence, protagonist Nona Grey, unlike most children taken by the "Child Seller," is given away for free by her mother.
The Child Seller traverses the empire looking to purchase children exhibiting traits from the old bloodlines, indicating the possibility of special talents. He keeps them in a wooden cage on wheels pulled by a donkey. Life in the cage is actually a step up in life for Nona. She receives food on a daily basis and makes a friend with one of the other children in the cage. After the 10th purchase, the Child Seller journeys to the capital, and the children are sold to various buyers. Eventually, Nona Grey winds up at the Convent of Sweet Mercy where the apprentice sisters are trained in fighting and assassination arts.
The world-building in this book is excellent. The story takes place on a slowly freezing planet circling a dying sun. Hundreds of years ago the inhabitants possessed the technology to send up a satellite (or a moon) to reflect back the sun's rays at night to warm the planet. Unfortunately, the habitable zone has shrunk to only a 100-mile wide band around the equator.
I appreciated the wide assortment of strong female characters. Nona Grey and her fellow female apprentices are trained by the tough adult sisters at the convent. The head sister, Abbess Glass, is extremely powerful, not so much in her physical prowess but in her ability to set events in motion to influence politics, playing the long game. Some of the antagonists are also powerful women. Not all the characters are female, but in contrast to many fantasy novels, the majority of the characters are strong women.
I liked the unpredictability of the story arc and of the characters. Typical fantasy narratives usually have set up the protagonists and antagonists at the beginning of the narrative. For example, you know Hermione and Ron will stick to Harry Potter, just as surely as you know Draco won't become Harry's trusted best friend. However in this narrative, you don't know who will betray Nona and who will join her. I found it difficult to predict where the storyline was headed.
The one area I had difficulty with was distinguishing between the different adult sisters, as the same person is referred to by various names and titles. For example Sister Apple is also known as Mistress Shade as well as The Poisoner. A number of the sisters had names with similar functions - Sister Pan, Sister Kettle.
I highly recommend "Red Sister" as well as the other two titles in the Book of the Ancestor trilogy - "Grey Sister," "Holy Sister."
Qhyrrae Michaelieu is the adult services manager at the Missouri River Regional Library.