The Priory of the Orange Tree
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
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 all her life to be a dragonrider, 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.
TL;DR Review
The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic standalone fantasy novel that brings together excellent world-building, diversity, action, and beautiful storytelling. Read it.
For you if: You like excellent fantasy novels and are looking for one that brings diversity to the genre.
Full Review
“You wear so much armour by daylight that, by night, you can carry it no longer. By night, you are only flesh. And even the flesh of a queen is prone to fear.
“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.”
I had very high expectations for The Priory of the Orange Tree. A lot of people whose opinion I trust very much said that it was excellent. In a genre filled with either trilogies or sweeping multi-book sagas, the idea of a standalone was refreshing. And I’d heard that the four main characters were round, complex, and diverse.
All of this proved true. I (a person who usually sleeps from 9:30pm to 5am) stayed up until 2am to finish this — on a weeknight. And even though this book is 800 pages long, I am not ready to leave this world behind. That’s a sign of a great world, a great cast of characters, and a great story.
The Priory of the Orange Tree follows four main characters across two vast continents. Tané, who aspires to become a revered dragon rider in the East; Niclays, an alchemist from the West who was exiled to the East; Ead, serving as lady-in-waiting to the Queen (with a secret agenda) in one of the most powerful Western countries; and Loth, friend of Ead and the Queen who has been exiled to a wyrm- and plague-infested country of the South.
In the East, dragons come from water and are friendly, god-like beings. In the West, they have wyrms, which come from fire and seek to destroy. This is the primary reason why the two sides of the world don’t get along; the Westerners think those from the East are wyrm-lovers, and the Easterners hate those from the West for scorning their gods. But there’s a big ole threat called The Nameless One, whose 1,000-year entrapment is coming to a close, and who will destroy the world if it can’t work together.
This world is ridiculously well-built. There are various religions, each with different beliefs about a long and complex history. There are varying forms of magic, each with a purpose and role to play. There are two (plus) seriously badass women leading societies that do not fall prey to what we know as traditional gender roles. There is a forbidden sapphic romance. There is just so freaking much.
The first section of this book (~250 pages) is a little slow — it’s focused on world-building and plot-setting and character-creating. Then the you-know-what hits the fan, and we’re off. Around page 300 I was utterly hooked. So stick around for the beginning, because I promise it will pay off.
Some have criticized this book for having a relatively short final confrontation. Personally, I think it was well done; I don’t really enjoy battle for battle’s sake, and this book was already so long. I would gladly have read through a longer conclusion, but I didn’t feel like it was lacking.
I was excited for this to be a standalone. Now I’m sad that it is — give me more. Give me prequels to this. Give me the battles of Glorian Berethnet and Cleolind’s slay of The Nameless One and short stories about Niclays’ romance. I’d eat it all up.
Trigger Warnings
Domestic abuse
Suicidal thoughts
Pregnancy
Miscarriage
Homophobia and heterosexism
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