Priory of the Orange Tree

848 pages

English language

Published Nov. 10, 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

ISBN:
978-1-63557-030-4
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4 stars (57 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.

7 editions

Many nice ideas

3 stars

Many interesting ideas and some strong leading female characters, but the plot felt contrived at times or needlessly confusing, with inconsistencies (like distance and travel time), and some parts of the worldbuilding felt too simplistic -- also I wasn't too impressed with the quests for magic objects. Edit : also worth mentionning is that in the 800 pages, there really isn't much happening at the Priory of the title.

A great book and (hopefully) more to come

5 stars

This is the first book from Samantha Shannon I have read, and I have really liked it. The overall story is very good, the characters are very interesting and the worldbuilding has many layers (as it should).

I like how each chapter starts by having a geographical distinction, which helps situate the different characters in the map. It also cements the differences between each region and the lore.

Another important topic of the book is the rupture with other fantasy novels in the importance of the women in the plot (which is good) and the prominence of queer characters in it (which is also good).

I am looking forward to more works from the same author and I imagine that I will be reading them as soon as I know that they are released.

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

4 stars

Full disclaimer: I started reading The Priory of the Orange Tree without knowing what it was about, so I didn't have high expectations for the sapphic love story, since I didn't know there was one.

On the contrary, I enjoyed a fantasy novel with a love story, which at the same time didn't make it the be all end all of the novel, but instead based decisions on somewhat realistic political needs. I'm probably either a cynic or just sated on all the love is all you need type of stories.

I didn't fully get the magic system, and I would appreciate if the sequel delved into that a bit more. I'll probably also look at the prequel for more world buildung on that front.

Although high fantasy isn't really among my favourite genres anymore, I really enjoyed the global viewpoint and all the different cultures in Shannon's novel. I …

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

5 stars

There's nothing to be said about this that others haven't said better, but I want to add by 2 cents anyway.

Yes, this book is fantastic and absolutely worth the hype. While it is basically a world building textbook, I think the characters and their dynamic relationships take the cake as the best part of the story. I loved how all of the characters were well fleshed out and felt extremely real and complex. For just about all of them, there was at least one point during the book where you wanted to shake them by the shoulders and ask them what the hell they are thinking, and one point where you want to hold them and reassure them.

I thought there was great representation for the most part here, but I was a bit bummed to see that the only gay male characters in the book were either dead …

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

3 stars

I FINISHED. Wow. That was challenging. Haha. I’m rounding down to 3 stars from what is probably 3.5 because the ending is odd. I’m not sure this should have been a standalone. There’s too much story and the ending happens FAST. It’s also very much a plot book. I’m not sure how much any of the characters change. They go through a lot, and there are some adjusting of basic beliefs, but I’m not sure there’s really much a shift. The mythology here is really fun though. And I LOVE that it’s all women pushing the narrative forward, and who played very large parts in the establishing mythologies. In the end, though, that’s all the book really cares about: plot and mythology. It goes a little farther than that, but not enough for me. I’ll probably recommend it at some point but there’s a lot of books I’d recommend before …

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

5 stars

It felt like it started slow, in part from switching from four character perspectives. Three of those are key, two are important, and one feels most like the main character.

I enjoyed the mix of dragons and duality at play in the story, and characters forced to consider their view of the world. Pacing is a little weird a times.

But I liked it and I recommend it.

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 …

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 …

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.

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Subjects

  • Fiction, fantasy, epic

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