The Priory of the Orange Tree

by SAMANTHA SHANNON

No cover — SAMANTHA SHANNON: The Priory of the Orange Tree (Paperback, 2019, Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd)

Paperback

Published Feb. 15, 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd.

ISBN:: 978-1-5266-1286-1

(82 reviews)

A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.

The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.

Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.

Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.

Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

8 editions

Books That Burn reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by SAMANTHA SHANNON

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

The Priory of the Orange Tree has lesbians, dragons, and magic in an epic mix which crosses nations and seas to stop an evil 1000 years in the making. The political intrigue and religious clashes drive the actions of individuals and the fate of nations.

Reading this in the spring of 2020, it requires a content warning for plague and a country-wide quarantine, but while mentions of the plague are frequent, depictions of it occur sparsely and can easily be skipped without distorting the story. Please take care of yourselves.

I love doorstoppers, especially fantasy doorstoppers with dragons, thousand-year cycles, curses, betrayal, intrigue, murder, and magic. What I didn't expect, because I haven't been taught to expect it, was queer romance and complex intimacy a fantasy novel. There's a breadth of queerness too; lost loves, forbidden loves, and as close to a canon asexual character as you can get without anachronistically using the term outright. I began the book very worried that it would become a "bury your gays" situation, but I was very glad to see that it was not.

Every narrator is unreliable, in a way, as they all are working from incomplete and contradictory information regarding some major historical events (and some personal ones). The way this is resolved was ingenious, and far more complex than one side or the other simply being incorrect about their own religious history.

The beginning felt a little slow, partly because there were so many characters and settings to establish, but once I had a sense of the main players the story flew by. The political intrigue was detailed and multi-faceted, the various sets of power dynamics were well-constructed. Even for characters I didn't know well, their actions made sense within the politics that I did know, without needing dramatic monologues explaining their motives. This allowed the few Big Damn Villain speeches to carry weight, as the impact hadn't been blunted on minor reveals of petty (and not so petty) antagonists.

Overall I liked this book a lot, and while I don't know if it's one I would re-read soon, it's definitely one I'd recommend to anyone looking for dragon-filled fantasy with excellent depictions of queerness.

altlovesbooks reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I had been putting this book off for a while because of just how long it was. It's an intimidating size! But I figured with this weird world we're in now and having so much time on my hands, there would be no better time.

I'm glad I did! This was a really good book! The writing style was immersive and it really painted clear pictures of scenes, people, places, and action. I thought it was reading a little flowery in the beginning, but actually it seemed to work really well and was well thought out. The characters were also mostly well fleshed out, and I liked the moral dilemmas that cropped up occasionally about religion and duty.

The negatives keeping me from giving this a full 5 stars are probably mostly personal hangups. I didn't really like the character of Niclays Roos, who didn't really have a clear picture in the story except as a plot vehicle in my opinion. I also thought the beginning was a little slow and confusing, with the author throwing people, places, and concepts at you so quickly. Finally, I felt like the pacing of the ending was a little off, especially compared with how methodical the buildup had been up to that point. Suddenly we're rushing through action and plot threads like mad, and I wished we had spent a little more time at least at resolving them. Perhaps the book would have benefited from being split into two smaller books, which would have given the author more time to devote to a better paced ending.

Still, this made my favorites shelf for 2020, and that says something. Highly recommend.

Smoak reviewed Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

An engaging and well-written story with rich worldbuilding and believably flawed characters. Visual descriptions were especially stunning, and I was impressed with the amount of thought given to diverse cultures, religions, and folklore. My significant complaints are that the plot was frequently too pat, with people conveniently being where they need to be or finding things/leads at precisely the right time, and the action scenes felt stilted and rushed.

neilernst reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A tale of two books. The first half is an entertaining story of palace intrigue and magic, focusing in detail on two characters. Then, as if the author realized they needed to return to a different series and needed to wrap it up, the book has a whirlwind finish with a rather rushed conclusion.

btuftin reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (The Roots of Chaos, #1)

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I really liked this book, and if you are an open minded fantasy lover, I'm sure you would too. The start of it made me a little apprehensive. It's a bit heavy on the "tell, don't show", it takes a while to get going, with dramatic opening page events sort of going on the back burner, and I just worried it might go bad at any moment. But instead I got used to the style, became interested in the main characters, and enjoyed that it is a really long single volume.

It has a nice mix of standard epic fantasy tropes well executed, good world building and unusual twists. You should give it a try!

Benjamin Asher reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was absolutely amazing. Story, characters, dragons, epic fantasy... you name it, this book has it. I could wish it had the highflown style usually associated with fantasy, but not enough to knock it a star or keep me from running out to get the other books by this author, so on balance not much of a complaint

bondolo reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Didn't capture my imagination. It seemed both too ambitious and trope filled in the first 5 hours and I lost interest.

Kyrylys reviewed The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Review of 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Hay cosas que me han gustado mucho, pero no ha terminado de convencerme. No ha hecho "click". Creo que lo que más se me ha resentido ha sido el ritmo.
Con esto no quiero decir que no me haya gustado. Simplemente que no me ha convencido.
Me da un poco de rabia porque vi ideas muy interesantes pero la ejecución mmne, y por otro lado quería recordarme un poco a Seraphina en ciertos aspectos)