User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I feel like a thread of my heart had snagged in
The Priory of The Orange Tree and is still trying to tug me back in. I barely felt time passing, and when I finished reading, I had the strange experience of looking up from the pages, feeling dreamy and obscure and so keenly aware of the world around me, almost to an abject degree. The same experience of waking up just as the last vestiges of some delightful nocturnal adventure are disappearing. This, I've come to realize, is the hallmark of a great book.
Without surrendering any spoilers, the story goes like this:
After a millennium of peace, rumors of the Nameless One’s return—gliding vulture-like in the skies above—had finally descended and sunk in their claws for good.
Legend goes that Galian Berethnet, wielding the mythical sword Ascalon, succeeded in drawing borders around the Nameless One’s power and consigning him to the Abyss, but whatever he did is melting away and the fire-breathing dragon will surge back with a vengeance, doling death in his wake. In this world, there are three empires at the brink of war—with one another, and within themselves.
In the countries of the West, House Berethnet are lost in the details of their own legend, rolling words like boulders about their queen,
Sabran the Ninth, being the sacred source of the monster’s bindings. Here, dragons had only to be mentioned and hatred sang bright in the people, like a defensive reaction to their name. Sabran is their last hope, but it’s difficult to see where that hope could possibly bear fruit when the lies about her ancestry are wearing thin, unveiling the truth beneath: that the legend of Galian Berethnet is merely a phantasm—a scrap of useless myth dancing on a string.
In the South, a secret order of female mages called the Priory venerates the Mother. Pledged to this society is
Ead Duryan who is sent undercover as a lady-in-waiting in Sabran’s court to protect the queen’s life, in case she is revealed to be the key to thwarting the monster after all. But when the breadth of the Priory’s instruction expands, the line of Ead’s responsibility is trying to draw her back, and the current of her growing, unsuitable affection is pulling her towards Sabran.
In the East, where the more benevolent water-dragons are revered as gods, young
Tané, a dragon-rider in training, dithers between pitiless ambition and necessary caution when she happens upon a Western seafarer on the borders, and in the end, unable to measure the perils one way and the other, it’s her nature that wins out: Tané decides not to report him to the authorities and risk being suspected of carrying the plague, and in doing so, unknowingly sets into motion a plot of abysmal proportions.
Although the knowing of the Nameless One’s return and how to defeat him is a blurry, shadowed thing, the three empires feel the horror of it like the weight of an uninvited body. Like trains on a single-track rushing inexorably toward each other,
Tané, Ead and
Sabran are hurled along their respective storylines until they inevitably crash in a tangle of strife and fatality.
Overwhelmed by a sense of their own destinies, their differences become lightweight. This is a danger, a disaster, a calamity—and they alone can stop it.
“In darkness, we are naked. Our truest selves. Night is when fear comes to us at its fullest, when we have no way to fight it,” Ead continued. “It will do everything it can to seep inside you. Sometimes it may succeed—but never think that you are the night.”
As you've probably already garnered from the above summary, the scope of
The Priory of The Orange Tree is majestic, brimming with detail and ideas and teeming with characters, languages, and perspectives. Though this is a single novel, it feels rather like several books meticulously stitched together. In lesser hands, it would be a bewildering welter. Fortunately for us, Shannon possesses the inerrant skills to make it all come together so splendidly.
And therein lies the book's greatest triumph for me: that despite so many moving parts, what beams through is the author’s concern with language, the supple twisting of the narrative spine, the minute turnings of characters and their choices, the web of moving relationships and how all those ripples affect players continents away. Shannon gathers myriad old tales and turns them into something all kinds of vibrant and new. She makes sure the readers are always thinking about and learning about the various nations, cultures, and histories that make up this vast, sweeping world. And she does so in writing so suffused with love and enthusiasm for storytelling, with sentences coiling around like the serpentine tail of a dragon itself, enshrouding the reader in a conspiracy which had begun a millennium before and ends exactly where it must.
Shannon also employs multiple narrative voices in
The Priory of the Orange Tree. The cast is sprawling, but the novel is deft at braiding their lives together, which is an incredible feat as the characters are separated by continents and disparate systems of beliefs. It would be a mistake to believe that dragons are this book's beating heart. Their formidable shadows never once overwhelm the vividly drawn and gloriously complicated characters. Rather, the bulk of the book is about the characters as they grow, learn, and face the insidious and inexorable threat of the Nameless One.
I am in love with every single woman in this book, where they are queens, warriors, scientists, and pirates—strong and powerful and brilliant and
hungry. And I want to talk about each of them:
Queen Sabran the Ninth carries herself like a woman used to having her words listened to and acted upon instantly. She built around herself a camouflage, and learned how to hold a world of incertitude within her without a single crack in her exterior calm. And that was only half the price. Sabran's duty was whittled down to begetting heirs, and though her exhaustion and looming mortality were wearing her down, and her humanity slowly chipped away with rumors of divinity, she refused to exist like a bird bred inside a gilded cage. Sabran's character is so heartbreakingly flesh and blood, human in all the ways she was flawed. As she learns more about the world beyond her queendom, narrative grows threaded with a series of uncomfortable truths and brutal observations. The stories Sabran had been taught are at so many removes they bear only the most tangential relation to the truth, and it’s not until she accepts it that a crack opens in the wall of ice in her mind. Sabran wants to save her people, but to do, she must smooth feathers ruffled by the winds of change, and try to lead them out of fear of the South and East.
We don’t get Sabran’s POV in this book and so her mind remains half in shadow until the right confidante appears—
Ead Duryan. Sabran and Ead were each other’s person, each other’s place. Their moments together put so much heart in me. But Ead and Sabran are two separate planets, each with its own gravitational pull and orbit, and the weight of their duties piled like mountains atop their shoulders. Shannon’s insistence on their agency never quells, but I love how she also doesn’t disallow them the ineffable and aching experience of love and affection.
“You remember the first day we walked together. You told me about the lovejay, and how it always knows its partner’s song, even if they have been long apart,” Ead whispered to her. “My heart knows your song, as yours knows mine. And I will always come back to you.”
“I will hold you to that, Eadaz uq-Nāra.”
Next,
Tané! Tané’s childish dreams dwindled to one: being a dragon rider. She fed that ambition with any scrap she could lay her hands on, and when there was nothing to feed it, she nourished it with some stubborn faith of her own making. I really liked Tané’s character and I hoarded her interactions with the great Nayimathun like a touch-starved dragon. In many ways, Tané is as aloof and competent as Sabran, just as tough-minded and solitary in her habits, and in many ways, just as fragile too. Tané is often tormented with a keen sense of inadequacy and failure which grows keener when one irreversible mistake suddenly creates for her an expendable past, disposable as a plastic cup—and it’s the hideous despair of having finally found the place that fits, the place where you belong, before being yanked back into loneliness.
Tané's character development is as masterful and as deeply affecting as Ead's and Sabran's. But Shannon’s depth of character doesn’t end with Ead, Sabran and Tané. One other major viewpoint explored in this book is that of
Niclays Roos, an alchemist who persuaded a young—and naïve—Queen Sabran of his ability to brew an elixir of immortality for her, and whose failure in doing so earns him a long exile to the Island of Orisima where Niclays has only to glance over his shoulder for all the years to drop away and for him to see it behind him again, a picture that will never desert him: of the man he loved and lost, and the people he let down since it’s been one long slide into the bottom of a wine bottle.
Niclays, strangely, is the character that I connected to the most. Maybe because every fault of his is laid bare—every flaw, every weakness, every selfishness, the multitudes of shames he carried. He’s a self-confessed coward, too wane-hearted to show true courage, and everything he did, he did it selfishly, in bitter heart. But grief does a lot of strange things, and while I wouldn’t consider Niclays a very good person, neither can I bring myself to believe that he is an irredeemably bad one either. Pity and sorrow for him welled up through me, hot enough to burn away both blame and resentment. While reading, I often wondered if it were his own wiles that had planted this seed of madness inside him, or if he were too soaked in solitude and grief to be his old self, yet all the same, I felt something deep between my lungs crack clean in two reading his chapters. His character development is a heart-breaker (I could barely glimpse the pages through my tears), yet it’s one of the things I relished most about this book.
Lord “Loth” Arteloth, Sabran’s closest friend, is also a very intriguing character. He is a man who is nobly built, notably arraigned, and nobly positioned, cloaked in diplomacy and compromise, and born with his heart on the outside of his body. Yet, it isn't until he is backed up to the world’s edge that he starts pushing his mind past its limits of understanding to encompass worlds beyond his own, and realizing that he had long been locked out of them by his own innocence and naivety. This made his arc such a rewarding experience.
“Would the world be any better if we were all the same?”
In many senses, all the characters undergo this same aspect of masterly written character development: their lives were studded with facts they’ve known beyond the shadow of the doubt, yet never with any proof to back them up. It was just the way things were. And it takes them being faced with calamity to stop seeing the world through such a narrowed lens and learn to come together on the other side of their differences. It isn’t lost on me that this, in many ways, borrows deeply into our everyday truths. Nor is it, I suspect, lost on Shannon either, who pours so much tenderness, care and attention into her story and characters.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough! It's quite a chunky read, but believe me, despite its length, you will be sad to walk away from it.
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Rating: really liked it
Okay, so. I finished this behemoth.
Was it good? .... I don't know. I enjoyed it for the most part. Certain aspects of this book absolutely SOARED. But overall it is
waaaaaaaay too long, and the plot is a bit of a mess. The word that comes to mind is inelegant. Given how
much space Shannon has to set the stage for an intricate plot, I was left pretty disappointed on that front.
What this book does well: the love story. Despite the fact that this book has four perspectives, Ead's story is clearly the tentpole for the whole book. And Ead has an INCREDIBLE queer love story! There is such a dearth of f/f love stories in fantasy, particularly f/f love stories that don't fetishize lesbian relationships. We get a beautifully told romance between two complicated, well-developed ladies. I
loved it.
But alas, the plot. The plot isn't
bad per say, but it's also nothing to get excited about. The down beats, which are certainly essential to a story, were a bit
too slow. And in a book that's over 800 pages, that can make reading a slog at times.
The biggest disappointment, for me, was that almost every climatic moment--almost every big twist, every big emotional scene--was sloppy. I think this book falls for the idea that a completely suprising plot twist is the same as a good one. That's a common misconception. A good plot twist is one that doesn't feel contrived, and still either surprises or delights the reader--to a degree. I would prefer a well set-up plot twist that I guessed earlier in the book than one that feels contrived.
The twists in this felt contrived. The amount of explaining that happened post-twist is, to me, indicative of a lack of coherent set-up. The timelines for the emotional climaxes didn't make sense. And what left me feeling the most frustrated was that so many of these things were
very easily fixable.
One example, at a sentence level, that stuck out to me and seemed representative of all of my issues with the plot (edited slightly to remove spoilers):
One character is looking down at their lover, who has a wound on their face that has been stitched up. Another character enters, hugs character one, and then says "It's over. He's dead."
Now, this is
not in reference to the character lying prone, wounded in the face. It's about
another character. Why would you use a pronoun here? It's very easy to just use a name. The pronoun, given the context of the scene, invites confusion. There is an INCREDIBLY easy fix for this!!!!
I also have some... thoughts... about the gender politics of this world. On the one hand it's incredibly refreshing to see women just casually treated as capable and strong and competent. Love that! Love that it's just there and doesn't need to be commented on!! A rarity in high fantasy books. On the other hand, that also just... didn't make sense to me?
Hear me out. One of the kingdoms in this book was founded by a dude who takes credit for something that a woman did, sanctifies HIMSELF, creates a religion around HIMSELF that is highly structured and more than a bit repressive. It's also worth noting that the language used in this religion is verrryyyyy reminiscent of the chivalric tradition. Basically, the set up for this society reeks of a misogynistic patriarchy. But that's not what we get! Instead, it's a matriarchy with lots of badass ladies. There's
some discussion of how the queens are often reduced to their wombs, a teeeeensie bit about how women often act at the gatekeepers and enforcers of patriarchal structures. But there's not much. The logic of the world, in this specific instance, just didn't make sense to me. I think Shannon was trying to push back against the notion that you HAVE to depict the oppression of women in high fantasy, which I think is a very admirable goal. But the world doesn't work. The set up would make sense if Shannon wanted to subvert some of the tropes that are unfortunately all too common in high fantasy, but she doesn't do that. The history of this particular society feels incongruous with its contemporary culture, and we aren't given any additional context to bridge that gap.
I still largely had fun while reading this. The magic was interesting, if the language was weird (star rot?? That's really what you're going to call a magical substance????). The love story kept me reading, but ultimately this left me feeling conflicted. I'm settling on three stars (though I debated giving it two), because I did mostly have fun. But the issues this book had were pretty glaring, and I think it's worth noting just how long it took me to finish this book...
Rating: really liked it
As a huge Tolkien fan, and one who considers his writing to be the very best fantasy has to offer, I don’t often compare other books to his works (at least not in a positive way.) Simply because there is very rarely a good comparison to be made. Every great work of fantasy has felt somewhat shallow in contrast to the deep pool of imagination he conjured with his words. Nothing cuts it. Nothing competes.
However, with this I do venture to make a comparison. I do venture to concur with the blurb Laura Eve has provided this book with; this is a “feminist successor to
The Lord of the Rings” because it is a story told with grace and infused with rich history and lore in its gloriously huge scope: it is magnificent in every regard. It’s all about the girl power here! I recommend this to readers who enjoy female driven fantasy that is also carefully paced like the works of Robin Hobb, Tad Williams and Chris Wooding.
So, what makes this book so excellent and what makes it stand out against a plethora of other fine fantasy novels on the market today? For me, and I do not doubt for many other readers too, this ticks every box. Not only do we have real characters, and by real I mean characters so well-written that they actually begin to leap out of the page as they battle their internal conflicts and self-doubt, but we also have a world with a huge past. And the characters are driven by it as they try to live up to the example their ancestors set. They are trying to be better people, more worthy people. I loved this constant drive, it made the world feel old and like we have only glimpsed but a fraction of its vast timeline that has spanned ages. There so much more here, so much room for more stories. And if I go away from a book this large wanting more, then that’s a very good sign indeed.
The plot rests on the threat of The Nameless One returning. It’s a giant dragon that threatens to destroy the world and all in it if the eastern and western kingdoms cannot put aside their differences and unite in order to destroy the monumental threat. Much of the novel is dedicated to the unification of the two factions, and several characters have many different ideas about how exactly this should be done ranging from assassination to simple negotiation. It’s a colourful story of witchcraft and romance, of dragons and political intrigue, of treachery and love and one that continued to surprise me until the very end.
It’s also worth briefly mentioning here that I did not like the author’s series
The Bone Season. It was too young adult for my taste, but I clearly loved this. So, I really do urge other readers to try this regardless of what you thought about Samantha Shannon’s other work. This is completely different, and I don’t hesitate to say that this will be one of the biggest fantasy releases this year. Don’t miss it, it’s incredible.
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Rating: really liked it
Oh, this brilliant fantasy! Set in an intricate quasi-Early Modern world where Eastern and Western cultures exist in an uneasy truce, PRIORY follows a large cast of characters in many nations as they prepare for the return of the Nameless One, the great evil dragon who was banished a thousand years ago, and who is now poised to make his big comeback and burn the mortal world to ashes. There are two basic types of dragons: the fire-breathing wyrms of the West (Bad dragon! Bad dragon!), who are considered evil demonic creatures only fit to be killed by chivalrous knights, and the noble water-and-sky-dwelling dragons of the East, who are revered as living gods. As you can guess, the Eastern lands and Western lands have a bit of a cultural disconnect over how they view their draconian neighbors. Centuries ago, the Eastern dragons fought with their dragon rider allies against the Nameless One, but that fact is lost on the Westerners, who consider all dragons to be evil. Now that the Nameless One is rising again, the world’s only hope may be if East and West can somehow work together, which seems unlikely.
The story is a tapestry of viewpoints, all of them lovely, but the main protagonists are two young women. In the West is Ead, a mage warrior from the Priory of the Orange Tree, a secret order charged with battling wyrms and protecting humankind in the name of the Mother, their founder who once battled the Nameless One. Ead is dispatched to guard Queen Sabran of Virtuedom, descendant of the Mother, who may be the key to stopping the Nameless One’s rise. Only one problem: Magic is not allowed in Virtuedom, so Ead must disguise herself as a handmaiden while ninja-ing around the palace and slaying assassins like a badass. Okay, maybe two problems: Hypothetically speaking, what would happen if Ead started to develop feelings for the queen she was protecting? That might complicate things just a bit . . . Meanwhile in the East, Tané has been training all her life to become a dragon rider, but when she finally gets her chance, everything seems to go wrong. She must overcome tragedy and disgrace if she is to save her own reputation, her dragon’s life, and the fate of her entire world, but no pressure. The scope of the book is similar to A Game of Thrones. The book is long, but never felt slow. If anything, the fast and furious pace made me want to take my time, because I sensed right away that I would be sad when I had to leave this world behind. What I really appreciated was the feminist worldview in which female knights and rulers were no more remarkable than dragons or mages. Gender equality was simply taken for granted. I learned a lot from that, and it challenged preconceptions I hadn’t been aware I had. Very much a stand-alone novel, Priory is an enthralling and complete read, but I still find myself hoping Ms. Shannon will revisit this world in future books. Highly recommended.
Rating: really liked it
UPDATE: $1.99 Kindle US 12/31/20*******
LOOK OMG
I love this book so damn much!! I have this special edition, the kindle and the Audio! I loved so much about this book, the world, the people, the dragons! Ead is one of my favorite characters! I’m looking forward to savoring the Reread on Audio!!
I’m going to add a few excerpts and that’s me done!!
An enormous head towered over the fence of Orisima. It belonged to a creature born of jewel and sea.
Cloud steamed from its scales-scales of moonstone, so bright they seemed to glow from within. A crust of gemlike droplets glistened on each one. Each eye was a burning star, and each horn was quicksilver, agleam under the pallid moon. The creature flowed with the grace of a ribbon past the bridge and took to the skies, light and quiet as a paper kite.
A dragon. Even as it rose over Cape Hisan, others were ascending from the water, leaving a chill mist in their wake. Niclays presses a hand to the drumbeat in his chest.
"Now, what," he murmured, "are they doing here?"
Her bare feet lit upon the marble. As the cutthroat stepped into the Great Bedchamber, dagger aloft, she covered his mouth and drove her blade between his ribs.
The cutthroat bucked. Ead held fast, careful not to let a drop of blood spill on to her.
*****
The dragon rose with the rest of her kin over the rooftops of the city. Water made flesh. As a mist of divine rain streamed from their scales, soaking the humans below, a Seiikinese male reared up, gathered his breathe, and expelled it in a mighty gust of wind.
Every bell in the temple rang out in answer.
*****
As Fyredel unleashed his fire, so Ead broke the chains on her long-dormant power. Flame collided with ancient stone.
Happy Reading!
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
MY BLOG
AMAZON REVIEW
Rating: really liked it
Hiiiii, Goodreads.
This is my new book. I'm thrilled to finally be able to tell you more about it.
The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic fantasy set in a world that is both like and unlike ours. I've been working on this book since 2015, and I've fallen in love with this setting and these characters. I can't wait for you to meet Ead, Tané, Sabran and the others – I hope you'll enjoy reading their story as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
I'm just popping in to let you know that there is a glossary and a character list at the back of the book. And yes, that is the correct page count. This book
will hurt you if it falls on you. Be warned.
Love,
Samantha
PS: The beautiful cover was designed by David Mann and illustrated by Ivan Belikov.
PPS: There won't be maps in the proofs, but they're being drawn up by the wonderful Emily Faccini for the finished editions.
PPPS: A prequel to
The Priory of the Orange Tree is coming on 24 January 2023.
Rating: really liked it
Epic battle between good and evil for the control of the world!Overall I really enjoyed this new fantasy book.
The world was complex and interesting but since it's a standalone and that you're following 4 main POV it got quite overwhelming at times. Lots of names, places, histories to follow but it gets better. The magic system was great, the plot was intriguing and so were most of the characters. Also, dragons, pirates and magic. Need I say more?!
I would love to read more adventures in this world!
The other things that bothered me were fairly minor but I'm curious to see if anyone else felt the same.
Every time a character died, even when it was one that I liked, I felt quite detached from it because it was sudden and it didn't feel like it brought a lot to the story. It felt like the authors needed a few of them to perish since this book is about an epic war.
The writing during the battles also didn't really work for me but I'm having trouble pinpointing exactly why. All I know is that it was one of the weaknesses of the book. Lastly, the battle at the end that we wait for throughout the whole book was... very quick and lukewarm.
Still I recommend it!
Rating: really liked it
hit me with those 800 pages of high fantasy cause that's the only acceptable way to murder me fyi
Rating: really liked it
You know when people are rushing somewhere and your curious soul feels helplessly tugged along and then you get there and go,
oh, I think I just hit a gold mine. That’s me with this book.
“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.”
The Priory of the Orange Tree—or POT as I’ll call it from now on because I’m lazy—is what they declare the stuff of legend, a tale destined to be enshrined in song. Because this? This is “
a brilliant, daring, and devastating jewel” and a unique, rich dragon of a book—both in size
and magnificence. From “
a masterpiece of intricate world-building” to “
diverse, feminist, thought-provoking and masterfully told,” POT has been thrown many lines of acclamation and more and all are true and none are enough to paint this timeless, one of a kind yarn spun by such skilled hands. With stunningly flesh and blood queer characters with deep internal struggles, this book captures your imagination and traps you in its world.
Shannon’s astonishing achievement is her ability to breathe impossible life into new religions, histories, and conflicts and create a world so old and layered that she’s been called “the female George R.R. Martin,” even as her work lacks his noted dark ruthlessness and has me in disagreement. However, “a feminist successor to The Lord of the Rings” is an adequate praise not many can bear on their shoulders and still remain standing, unperturbed by its weight, yet The Priory of the Orange Tree might just be able to. “In darkness, we are naked. Our truest selves. Night is when fear comes to us at its fullest, when we have no way to fight it. It will do everything it can to seep inside you. Sometimes it may succeed—but never think that you are the night.”
But it’s not the detailed, immersive prose, not the wicked, genius villain or tragic fools and inspiring hearts setting on dazzling journeys of development, not the doomsday prophecy that can only be beat through the uniting of this divided land of prejudice, nor the sheer epicness of every facet of this tapestry that make it an all-time fave. For me the most fascinating element is the remarkably crafted world for which the author considerately writes, “
The fictional lands of The Priory of the Orange Tree are inspired by events and legends from various parts of the world. None is intended as a faithful representation of any one country or culture at any point in history.” You can find many of those listed in the
Inspirations & Themes section.
“Reading. A dangerous pastime.”
“You mock me.”
“By no means. There is great power in stories.”
“All stories grow from a seed of truth. They are knowledge after figuration.”
Despite the first 25% struggling to fully pull me in, despite the riddles and mysteries I was quick in figuring out, and despite not being perfect, POT is an undoubtedly worthy addition to your adult epic high fantasy shelf because it
is the genre at its finest—you simply need it in your life. I recommend enhancing your reading experience with a beautiful soundtrack ⤳ Spotify URL
✧ Storyline ✧A holy Queendom in the North, wyrm-worshipers in the West, mages in the South, and dragonriders in the East...
a cursed, divided people swallowed by chaos.The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for more than 1000 years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran IX must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction—for it is believed that
as long as a Berethnet rules in Virtudom, the monster beneath the sea will sleep. But assassins are getting closer to the queen, and Ead Duryan, the outsider lady-in-waiting at court and in truth a mage of the South, is tasked with secretly protecting Sabran with forbidden magic.
All this while across the Abyss far in the East, Tané who has trained all her life to be
a dragonrider teeters on the brink of her dreams and one choice could unravel her life, taking her to places no Easterner has set foot in centuries.
There are
fools in crowns, Dukes and Queens absorbed in their own politics, clinging to their beliefs, blind to the forces of chaos rising from their sleep. History is to repeat itself and none are ready to stand united. “
Let them come with their swords and their torches. Let them come.”
✧ Inspirations & Themes ✧ 
Shannon has driven inspiration from folklore and teachings of all over the world and woven every thread in the tapestry that is POT; here are some I’ve managed to deduce—subjects in the book are in
italic:
✦ Chinese/Japanese/Korean mythology: dragons ➾ for the Eastern dragons
✦ European mythology: dragons & wyverns ➾ for the Western wyverns and wyrms
✦ Norse mythology: Odin and Valhalla ➾ for Galian in Halgalant, the heavenly court, and the Great Table
✦ The teachings of alchemy ➾ for Clay’s storyline
✦ Beliefs of Christianity ➾ for the sign of the sword and the followers of the Saint
✦ The Bible, Revelation 20: The Thousand Years ➾ for the Abyss and keys
✦ Marion Angus’s poem: Alas! Poor Queen ➾ for Sabran’s court
✦ William Shakespeare’s Richard II: Act Two ➾ for hereditary rights coupled with political reality, or the fact that the male view of the world leaves out an entire realm of perception
✦ The Man’yoshu poem collection: Tsuki ➾ an eulogy for a dead man on the shore
✦ The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser ➾ for the story of Galian, Cleolind, and the Nameless One
What’s more, Shannon addresses many themes and topics that are the centre of social debate in the 21st century and adds her piece on the deep conflicts of humanity:
❶
Feminism: Full of precious, strong women taking the stage, ruling, glowing, and fighting the world’s expectations, POT is one of the best feminist books out there, if not the best feminist fantasy book yet.
No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.
A woman is more than a womb to be seeded.
❷
LGBT+: POT’s world is a rare one where sexuality is not something people fuss over, openly accepting this aspect of humanity. This leads to a bold, refreshing book brimming with queer characters and relationships, all portrayed so
tangibly.
❸
Custom & Tradition: Undeniably, these are two integral parts of human society that shape the world, and Shannon’s apt craftsmanship attentively discusses their implications, origins, and influence. Plus, there is the occasional amusing moment when characters question
our traditions, such as “
Who in the world wears white
on their wedding day?”
“Just because something has always been done does not mean that it ought to be done.”
❹
Prejudice & Clashing of Beliefs: Most importantly, though, Shannon has told a tale of both the struggles and beauties of our differences, asking, “
Would the world be any better if we were all the same?” Or are our contrasting views on life truly meant to be accepted and embraced and joined to form a picture none of us could see individually? As international relations become more a part of the day-to-day life these days, the importance of how people can come together despite years upon years of hostility and bitterness increases with an unsettling yet precious speed, and Shannon offers a path to acceptance of others’ differing identities while not losing our own.
“Piety can turn the power-hungry into monsters. They can twist any teaching to justify their actions.”
❺
Religion: But POT also tackles my favourite social conundrum, tying religious conflicts, living gods, the power of belief, the shunning of science, and the reshaping of religions. No one can deny the power faith holds on humanity and how it’s been put into conflicting uses in history, for good or bad.
“When history fails to shed light on the truth, myth creates its own.”
❻
History & Myth: One more matter I have been obsessed with since the dawn of my curiosity is the accuracy of history and fluidity of facts upon changing the narrative. And Shannon explores this theme thoroughly and without flinching. I’m inclined to give her a standing ovation.
✧ Storytelling ✧ “When the heart grows too full, it overflows. And mine, inevitably, overflows on to a page.”
The best way to describe Shannon’s glorious and detailed writing in POT is to quote herself, “
She was part poet and part fool when it came to telling stories.”
Her prose is exquisite and her storytelling technique genius; rather detailed like GRRM’s with focus on immersion in the moment rather than on plot advancement. “To ensure an heir, the Dukes Spiritual must paint a certain picture of the Inysh court and its eligible queen. They needed you gone, so they...painted you out.”
Yet it’s not only her prose that submerges the reader; her politics aka the golden point of it all, are smart, wicked, creative, and impressive in the way she has brought them to life, and her battles and action scenes are mostly
unmatched, and rarely a little lacking unfortunately. But perhaps POT is already too long and no one wants more strategy and detail...but I do? That aside, to alter Kit’s words, “
This is a fine book. I believe I would marry this book, were I a book myself.”
✧ Characters ✧✮
Ead (POV): A mage and strong warrior, with an open heart and open mind, she smells secrets and roots them out. I can’t even begin to explain the love I feel for this inspiring young woman.
“I do not fear that which I do not understand.”
✮
Tané (POV): Yes, she is single-minded with all the wrong priorities, but at 19 she’s the youngest protagonist, and she stole my heart with her ambitious and courageous dragon’s heart.
“The sea is not always pure. It is not any one thing. There is darkness in it, and danger, and cruelty. It can raze great cities with its rage. Its depths are unknowable; they do not see the touch of the sun. To be a Miduchi is not to be pure, Tané. It is to be the living sea.”
✮
Niclays (POV): An alchemist with madness in his blood, a man of shadows with a life of pure tragedy, “
too heartsore to live, too craven to die,” Clay is my #1 character in POT and my heart cracked into a thousand pieces for his pain. He was the most real and conflicted, and I was in awe of his journey and its parallels with the stages of alchemy.
With Clay, Shannon taught me that
pain does not change us—neither dies it reveal our true selves; it only inflames our worst instincts. Clay was a passionate man who was dealt a cruel hand and turned ruthless to pay life back what was its due; he did it all only to return home.
Anything to return home. That is why, from the 6 moments I had tears in my eyes during the 800+ pages of this book, 4 were for Clay.
“I don’t want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? Is no one else haunted?”
✮
Loth (POV): A religious, kind, loyal man who is trusting to a fault but a strong, brave, and determined quick learner who goes through a moving character development and shows that understanding and love can bloom in any belief or way of life.
“Art is not one great act of creation, but many small ones. When you read one of my poems, you fail to see the weeks of careful work it took me to build it—the thinking, the scratched-out words, the pages I burned in disgust. All you see, in the end, is what I want you to see. Such is politics.”
✮ To name other characters who dug a den in my chest:
Kit the hilarious, genius, charming poet.
Sabran the golden-tongued, an unforgettable queen, a self-righteous fool, and a woman I would not change for the world.
“You say you desire truth, but truth is a weave with many threads.”
Kalyba the wicked witch and my devious love.
Captain Harlowe the privateer adept at survival.
Estina the wise, clever, and badass sailor.
The Emperor, witty, charismatic, and irresistible.
Aubrecht the charming puppy I wanna hug.
Truyde the sharp little fox.
Sulyard the precious, passionate, open-minded idiot.
Susa the cat girl, always landing on her feet.
Onren the amazing and memorable friend.
Chassar the honourable and discreetly wicked man. And yes I shipped
Sarsun the sand eagle and
Aralaq the ichneumon.
✧ Relationships ✧ “Not all dreams should be pursued, especially not dreams conceived on the feather-bed of love.”
It’s a rare romance that you ship from their first scene without knowing anything about the characters or their orientation, and yet Shannon managed to make their chemistry so palpable and their development so gradual that she immediately established herself as a fave author and had me bursting at the seams with emotions. “All of us have shadows in us. I accept yours.” He placed a hand over her ring. “And I hope you will also accept mine.”
But all that aside, it’s friendships that are the author’s strongest point and focus of much of POT. From “
sea sisters, two pearls formed in the same oyster” to friends with the opposite beliefs, I’d say my number one relationship in POT is Ead and Loth’s bond—a platonic and moving example of how two very different souls can be tied together with such unbreakable chains.
Seek not the midnight sun on earth,
But look for it within.
And that’s it folks—a new fave treasure tome. Considering the loose ends and Shannon confirming future books in this world, I’d say farewell until the spinoff.
Rating: really liked it
‘we will shake the world for our beliefs.’ starting with me because, holy mother of dragons, I AM SHOOK.
Rating: really liked it
This, my friends is why I love fantasy
5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"I shall found a priory of a different sort, and no craven knight shall soil its garden." Wow! I have no words. I am blown away, spellbound, enraptured in this incredibly beautiful and complex world. I thoroughly enjoyed Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season series, but this was something else entirely!
I don't even know where to begin. I guess the best place would be with the characters. We follow a large set of characters in a similar way to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. These characters are separated by religion, station and geography. In this world the East and the West have no contact. There is a huge divide between the East; where they worship Dragons as gods, and the West, where they fear dragons and believe they should all be destoyed.
Sabran the ninth Berethnet: Sabran is the current monarch of Inys. A group of lands that all fall under the religion of Virtudom - that of the worship of the Saint, Galian and the damsel, Cleolind. Sabran's family line is revered for being the reason that the
nameless one, one of the most terrifying and powerful dragons; has not returned to murder everyone, after first being bound by Saint Galian. As long as she continues her family line (in history every Queen has had only 1 daughter, who has continued the line) then Inys will remain protected.
Ead Duryan: Ead is a member of The Priory of the Orange Tree, a sisterhood trained to destroy Wyrms (aka dragons) and to protect the realm from destruction. Ead has been sent by the Prioress to pose as one of Sabran's ladies, in order to be close enough to protect her from any harm. The Priory also follow the religion of Virtudom but with a twist. They believe that Cleolind (known as the Damsel to Inys) was the one who first bound the
nameless one rather than Galian. They worship Cleolind as the
mother rather than Galian as the Saint. They actually believe Galian was a bit of douche.
Tane': Tane' is like the Daenerys of this book, if you like. She doesn't have any obvious links with the other characters, and she resides in the East, where she is training to become a dragon rider. As we learn right in the very beginning, Tane' allows someone to breach the border keeping the East separate from the rest of the world. The East lets no one in, for fears of the draconic plague (a disease whose origins are unknown, but cause terrible burning for its sufferers). Her story is one of my favourites, as she serves such an important purpose as the book goes on.
"You have a ghost...do not become a ghost yourself." Niclays Roos: I also really loved Niclays' character. He is an alchemist, previously of Sabran's court before he was banished and sent to the East. He also plays a part in the beginning with the smuggling of a man over the border into the East. Niclays reminds me of Davos a little bit (sorry for the ASoIaF comparisons, I can't help it) he manages to keep surviving despite numerous obstacles and losses. He makes a lot of mistakes, and his conscience definitely isn't the clearest, but he has a good heart and I could relate to his character a great deal.
As the
nameless one is found to be returning once again to destroy the world. The East and the West must find a way to work together. The wyrm haters must learn to work with the water dragons of the East in order to battle the fire dragons and prevent a mass slaughter. With magic, myth, violence, heartbreak and war - this vast novel has something for everyone.
I'll leave my review here, as it's impossible to explain such a complex and imaginative world with powerful storylines and characters all interlocking and connecting. I will just say this - if you loved ASoIaF don't miss out on this one, it is truly incredible.
Actually just one final point I would like to reiterate. The fact that Samantha Shannon can create such believable religions for her fantasy and have characters who cling to these faiths so strongly was truly remarkable. I've read quite a few fantasy books where authors will refer to religions that exist in our world, rather than creating their own. If you are making a fantasy world, then everything in it should be fantasy, don't reference religions that would not exist in that world. Just my two cents.
"Love and fear do strange things to our souls. The dreams they bring, those dreams that leave us drenched in salt water and gasping for breath as if we might die - those, we call unquiet dreams. And only the scent of a rose can avert them." ****************************
Pre review:
1) This book is available to pick up from the library!!! OMG THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!
2) I have like 7 other library books to pick up and I'll need some serious upper body strength to carry them along with this beast.
3) Not to mention the like 10+ library books I have at home..... (2 of which are Fire and Blood and War Storm which are also GIANT BOOKS)
Send help
**************************
How did I not notice that this was written by Samantha Shannon? Aka the author of The Bone Season series!! I need this!!!!
Rating: really liked it
“We may be small, and we may be young, but we will shake the world for our beliefs.” I'm not gonna lie, I feel fucking proud of myself for managing to make my way through this giant. I have been wanting to read this book for months and with every high rating I saw on my GR feed, it made me even more excited.
To say that I'm sad that this turned out to be a three star read for me is an understatement.
This review is going to be a short one. I'm not going to give a summary of what this book is about because I do feel that it's the sort of book you jump into.
What I liked:• the easy writing
• the relationships and friendships
• the reps and diversity
• females in power
When I finally had the time to dive in I was pleased to find the writing style to be beautiful and easy to read. The different kingdoms, religions, hard-to-pronounce names and creatures became easier to remember as I went on.
What I disliked:• almost everything else
Most of this book was slow paced. And then towards the end everything was so
rushed and thrown together.I did not connect with the characters. I just felt so detached and that put a damper on my experience.
I did appreciate the character growth of Niclays. He, Tane and Loth became dear to me and I was very invested in their story lines.
I did not like Sabran. I just found her obnoxious, arrogant and dislikeble. Now don't get me wring, sometimes those traits could make me love a character. I found it hard to sympathize with her and I honestly couldn't care less about her.
The ending was poorly executed and, for me, was a huge let down. My dissapointment was akin to the heartbreak suffered by millions of fans when season 8 of Game of Thrones ended.
I was sitting there staring at this gigantic book and my first thought was:
Really? That's it?I know my opinion is unpopular and that most readers absolutely loved this book. And that's great! I think this book would be awesome for people wanting to start reading adult epic fanatasy. It's not too complicated and it's easy to follow.
____
Buddy read this monster of a book with Helena!!! 🐉
Rating: really liked it
This, my friends, is feminist fantasy at its finest.
I still can't come to terms with the fact that it's over. After this whole journey, it seems almost impossible that a last page exists.
The Priory of the Orange Tree trapped my heart from the very first sentence, and now I'm having trouble distinguishing what's real from what jumped out of the pages.
Sabran Berethnet is Queen of Inys during a time of turmoil and unrest. She has to come to terms with a devastating loss, her own depression, and deception within her court as an ancient force threatens to reawaken. But nothing is as it seems, and history is not often truthful.
Ead Duryan, a mage of the Priory, is assigned to protect Sabran from the Nameless One, who seeks to destroy her and her house. While she longs to return to her duties to Cleolind, the founder of the Priory, she is determined to uncover the twisted secrets of the court of Inys. She has to sacrifice her destiny for the good of the world, but she never bats an eye.
Miduchi Tané, an aspiring dragonrider, makes an error of judgement that changes her future forever. Disgraced and cast out of her homeland, she discovers a hidden force within herself that could destroy the world. Tané, who uses the people around her for her own needs, is forced to overcome her pride and her overwhelming guilt.
Niclays Roos is an alchemist who was banished from Sabran's court years ago. He yearns for his home and his old love, but he knows the only way he could ever return is if he finds the secret of immortality. He dives into a web of treachery and deceit to do so, propelled by his own sorrow and lust for a longer life. Throughout the novel, he comes to terms with his selfishness and cowardice.
Arteloth (Loth) Beck is sent on a mission that will almost certainly lead to his death. Betrayed by his own court, he ventures into the unknown, unaware of the dark forces that are soon to rise. But nothing is as he expects, and his whole religion is turned upside down.
These protagonists, separated by wildly different cultures and religions, find themselves intertwined in a turn of events no one could have predicted.
The worlds of this book are vivid and real and evocative, as are the characters. Each point of view fills me with different fears and biases, and these contentions are what bring them to life. When all their beliefs were overturned, it was so easy to slip in each of their minds and gauge their reactions.
The Priory of the Orange Tree starts out slow, which I like. We’re very gradually introduced to the world--absolutely no infodumps. And by the end, I was completely immersed in the story, characters, and religions.
Speaking of religion, Samantha Shannon crafts three believable faiths, but not a single one of them is immune to the threats that rise again. It’s incredible how much I sympathized with each one; how much I wanted each to succeed. Losses were personal hits. Gains were personal victories.
Every advance in the plot is gradual, natural, and realistic--but not in a predictable way. Everything makes sense once it’s unveiled. The whole scope of things is something that takes time, but it's not out of grasp.
If I were to condense
The Priory of the Orange Tree into one sentence (impossible, but whatever) I would say something along the lines of “queer queens, dragons, and ancient magic.” It’s wondrous. It’s awe-inspiring. It’s
epic.
Rating: really liked it
Me, trying to jump on this book's bandwagon before it's way too late:
for all the hype it's receiving this book better pay my bills, cure my depression, and usher in an era of world peace.
Rating: really liked it
Hi, hello, I am Priory trash.
If you are looking for:
- fantasy
- dragons
- a cast of fascinating characters
- same-sex relationships
- wonderful friendships
- political intrigue
- rich worldbuilding
then Priory is for you. MAN I'm ready to re-read this.
