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rocky41_7EDIT: Updated review 10/10/24
Last night I finished a behemoth of a high fantasy novel: Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree. Clocking in at 804 pages, I have to say the book did not feel like a slog at all. It actually flew by for the most part, and there was no part of the plot which I thought dragged, which is pretty impressive with this length. The description from Story Graph is:
Also fascinating is the mythology which underlays the world itself. The "present" state of Shannon's world is heavily influenced by quasi-mythical characters who lived and died long before our protagonists, and uncovering the truth of their lives and their deeds is a part of the current protagonists' story. It makes Shannon's world feel very rich, and it appropriately deals with the difficulty over time of separating fact and history from myth and legend.
The characters themselves were layered and nuanced, and while I don't want to give any spoilers, one character has a growth arc I particularly loved because she consciously puts effort into setting aside things she's been told her entire life when she understands they may not click with reality. All of the characters have their good and bad moments, and it makes them so real that I couldn't help but love all of them.
For a quick summary:
Recommend if you:
The only real complaint I have about the book, and it's very small, relates to my dislike for the "rando nobody character who is Very Good at their Thing turns out to be so Special because of their Famous Bloodline" trope. Fortunately it does not come up until late in the book and doesn't play a huge role, but I still liked this character's story better before she was special because of her blood (this is why I find Ciri's plotline in The Witcher criminally dull).
Okay, the other faint complaint is one that some might actually find a plus, and this is going to be a slight spoiler, but despite the extremity of the stakes, the losses were extremely low throughout the book. I can think of only one B-list character who died (others did die, but they were tertiary at best, and certainly not characters we were deeply attached to). There were some other, non-main character death related losses, but not ones that stemmed from the core conflict of the story. It makes the finale somewhat anticlimactic, but I can live with it and still enjoy the story.
Story-wise I don't think it was particularly groundbreaking in any way, it's pretty generic fantasy, but it was a lot of fun and I'm always in for fantasy where women are driving the plot and not merely aiding the men or being objects of desire.
I definitely plan to check out the prequel novel and see what Shannon does with that! But as for now--my hold on the next Poppy War book is up at the library eue
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books
Last night I finished a behemoth of a high fantasy novel: Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree. Clocking in at 804 pages, I have to say the book did not feel like a slog at all. It actually flew by for the most part, and there was no part of the plot which I thought dragged, which is pretty impressive with this length. The description from Story Graph is:
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.
I thought Shannon did a neat thing in working in the mythology of both European and Asian dragons, but having them play wildly different roles in her world accordingly. The various countries and cultures in the novel all feel "real" and the different ways in which they interact (or do not interact) with the magic in their world is interesting. 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.
Also fascinating is the mythology which underlays the world itself. The "present" state of Shannon's world is heavily influenced by quasi-mythical characters who lived and died long before our protagonists, and uncovering the truth of their lives and their deeds is a part of the current protagonists' story. It makes Shannon's world feel very rich, and it appropriately deals with the difficulty over time of separating fact and history from myth and legend.
The characters themselves were layered and nuanced, and while I don't want to give any spoilers, one character has a growth arc I particularly loved because she consciously puts effort into setting aside things she's been told her entire life when she understands they may not click with reality. All of the characters have their good and bad moments, and it makes them so real that I couldn't help but love all of them.
For a quick summary:
Recommend if you:
- Want female-focused fantasy
- Enjoy a romantic subplot but don't want it to take over the action
- Want queer characters in your fantasy
- Enjoy multi-POV stories that take time to roll out
- Like the tension of "duty vs. love"
- Want an epic dragon-on-dragon fight
- Want to have more action than build-up
- Prefer low-stakes conflict
- Want romance at the center of the story
- Do not like violence
The only real complaint I have about the book, and it's very small, relates to my dislike for the "rando nobody character who is Very Good at their Thing turns out to be so Special because of their Famous Bloodline" trope. Fortunately it does not come up until late in the book and doesn't play a huge role, but I still liked this character's story better before she was special because of her blood (this is why I find Ciri's plotline in The Witcher criminally dull).
Okay, the other faint complaint is one that some might actually find a plus, and this is going to be a slight spoiler, but despite the extremity of the stakes, the losses were extremely low throughout the book. I can think of only one B-list character who died (others did die, but they were tertiary at best, and certainly not characters we were deeply attached to). There were some other, non-main character death related losses, but not ones that stemmed from the core conflict of the story. It makes the finale somewhat anticlimactic, but I can live with it and still enjoy the story.
Story-wise I don't think it was particularly groundbreaking in any way, it's pretty generic fantasy, but it was a lot of fun and I'm always in for fantasy where women are driving the plot and not merely aiding the men or being objects of desire.
I definitely plan to check out the prequel novel and see what Shannon does with that! But as for now--my hold on the next Poppy War book is up at the library eue
Crossposted from
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