Spoilery Book Reviews

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Back of the book

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

My thoughts.

I loved this book and no amount of editing can reduce the raving that is about to ensue. You have been warned.

I liked that it was a one-off fantasy book, which I feel are quite rare, instead it is an 800 page monster, split into six parts. I put off reading this book for a long time but DON'T BE LIKE ME because this story was fantastic. Despite the length of the story I never felt any parts were unnecessary fillers (*cough* not looking at you SJM), that each chapter added to the story and kept my interest.

At first we are introduced to characters on opposite sides of the world, living in very different societies built upon opposing religions. It was a little tough to follow what was happening early on, but it captured my interest for wanting to know what was going on, and the pieces of the puzzle continued to amaze me. As the story progressed the fates of our unconnected characters became entwined, so they were connected no matter the distance between them, on which continent they resided. Weaving a story this complex, together seamlessly, is impossible to my small brain. I was continually blown away as the connections between the characters fell into place without ever feeling forced. I feel often in books there is an element of 'unreality' where you know an event has to happen for the sake of the plot but it doesn't quite fit, but you forgive the author because the rest of the novel was not as awful. This held none of those mistakes and proves that perfection can be achieved.

This story has dragons, which I feel more good fantasies should contain. Depending on what side of the Abyss you are on is whether dragons are revered as Gods, or hated as all evil. This creation of divergent religions based on one origin story blew my mind. Real religions happen that way, so to construct entirely fictitious religion using a 'real' framework added an element of authenticity. I loved the conclusion that there wasn't a right vs wrong religion or outcome, but both of them existed to be true simultaneously.

One of the most amazing factors of this story, which I had no idea about going into it, which makes the surprise even better, is that the main love story IS LESBIAN. This shocked and delighted me in the best way. And continued to shock and delight me when they endured, and even ended on a hopeful note. That in itself was beautiful. I was less surprised about Niclays Roos, whatever a gay character, but the central love plot being lesbian was incredibly beautiful. Niclays Roos had so many other interesting character traits such as being a self-serving shithole that gets himself into endless amounts of trouble while trying to make his life easy. Consequently he makes life for himself very difficult and puts himself in situations where it is even harder to do the morally correct and brave thing.

The language was purposeful to set it apart as otherworldly, a bit historical but not too foreign that it made reading uncomfortable. And there was a glossary of some more uncommon terms used for those times in the back which was super nice. As was the list of whose who which I didn't read until after the book. Since I read so quickly I didn't lost track of whose who but for a more casual reader it may take some time to fall back into the plot. This book made me fall deeper in love with fantasy.

After all that raving, a slight blip was the ending. It went exactly as expected. Of course I wanted it to go well and it wouldn't have a cliffhanger because there are no sequels, but there were also no surprises or character deaths which is something I'm used to.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic fantasy tale with dragons, magic and monarchies. A sprinkling of romance, moral values challenged and religion questioned. I simply cannot fault this book, writing, storytelling and plot were all crafted so well it's hard to believe it wasn't just a recount of real events with how vivid and particular each detail was. I officially declare fantasy as my favourite genre, and hope to whatever higher powers may be, that more books this fantastic are out there, ready for me to read.

TL:DR

Dragons, magic, opposing religions and a singular enemy to unite them all. Lesbian romance sprinkled in the middle and a handful of characters whose fates are all connected. Couldn't ask for a better fantasy.