Edit: Back in early 2019, when I received this book, I commented that it might just be the best fantasy-read of the year. I was, unfortunately, proven wrong. This isn't to say the book was poorly written or that it lacked world-building, my biggest issue with the book as I read it was that there was simply too-much world-building without anything actually ever happening.
We are introduced to a plethora of characters and worlds and continents but none of it seems to matter as in the grand scheme of things, everyone and everything seems to be running on the spot. I suppose the best way to express the opening chapters of this book is to say that there's a lot of activity but very little progress/achievement. Many of the characters seem to be the embodiment of medieval tropes with the only difference being the female-characters have taken over the more traditional and patriarchal roles bestowed upon male-characters. But again, they are let down in my opinion by the sheer drudgery of the plot.
I've been reading long enough to know that there are novels which pick-up in pace at a much later stage. I've read my share of books that began with a crawl but soon hit a stride that'd best Usain Bolt in a sprint. The Priory of the Orange Tree seems to be one such book, however, the only issue I have is that even the crawling first-act doesn't really offer me anything that'd make me want to persevere. So, in this instance, I believe it's more a case of me not being right for this book rather than the other way round. The cover-art is definitely one of the best I've ever seen, but as of right now, the cover is the only reason why I've retained this book in my library-shelves. And who knows, perhaps one day in the future I might finish reading it. And I'll re-edit this section again.
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Reviewed in India on 6 March 2019
We are introduced to a plethora of characters and worlds and continents but none of it seems to matter as in the grand scheme of things, everyone and everything seems to be running on the spot. I suppose the best way to express the opening chapters of this book is to say that there's a lot of activity but very little progress/achievement. Many of the characters seem to be the embodiment of medieval tropes with the only difference being the female-characters have taken over the more traditional and patriarchal roles bestowed upon male-characters. But again, they are let down in my opinion by the sheer drudgery of the plot.
I've been reading long enough to know that there are novels which pick-up in pace at a much later stage. I've read my share of books that began with a crawl but soon hit a stride that'd best Usain Bolt in a sprint. The Priory of the Orange Tree seems to be one such book, however, the only issue I have is that even the crawling first-act doesn't really offer me anything that'd make me want to persevere. So, in this instance, I believe it's more a case of me not being right for this book rather than the other way round. The cover-art is definitely one of the best I've ever seen, but as of right now, the cover is the only reason why I've retained this book in my library-shelves. And who knows, perhaps one day in the future I might finish reading it. And I'll re-edit this section again.
Verified Purchase
The only thing I enjoyed, was the cover.
By TheDeadPoet on 6 March 2019
Edit: Back in early 2019, when I received this book, I commented that it might just be the best fantasy-read of the year. I was, unfortunately, proven wrong. This isn't to say the book was poorly written or that it lacked world-building, my biggest issue with the book as I read it was that there was simply too-much world-building without anything actually ever happening.By TheDeadPoet on 6 March 2019
We are introduced to a plethora of characters and worlds and continents but none of it seems to matter as in the grand scheme of things, everyone and everything seems to be running on the spot. I suppose the best way to express the opening chapters of this book is to say that there's a lot of activity but very little progress/achievement. Many of the characters seem to be the embodiment of medieval tropes with the only difference being the female-characters have taken over the more traditional and patriarchal roles bestowed upon male-characters. But again, they are let down in my opinion by the sheer drudgery of the plot.
I've been reading long enough to know that there are novels which pick-up in pace at a much later stage. I've read my share of books that began with a crawl but soon hit a stride that'd best Usain Bolt in a sprint. The Priory of the Orange Tree seems to be one such book, however, the only issue I have is that even the crawling first-act doesn't really offer me anything that'd make me want to persevere. So, in this instance, I believe it's more a case of me not being right for this book rather than the other way round. The cover-art is definitely one of the best I've ever seen, but as of right now, the cover is the only reason why I've retained this book in my library-shelves. And who knows, perhaps one day in the future I might finish reading it. And I'll re-edit this section again.
Images in this review
Reviewed in India on 16 March 2019
I am absolutely happy that I read this book – it was a thrilling ride and I for one, loved every bit of it. I read The Priory of the Orange Tree along with my bestie @per_fictionist .
The world created by Shannon in this high-fantasy novel is as vast and powerful as that of any other ones every created. The author has painted a world with her own magical pen, and rendered the reader speechless. In this divided world, there are various people – those of the West hate all wyrms, not distinguishing the good ones from the bad ones, while the people in the East, worship them. it is from these two opposing sides that we see the protagonists – Tane is from the East, an aspiring dragon-rider, and Ead Duryan is from the West, tasked with protecting the Inysh Queen, Sabran, who is the last in her line. What makes the world so rich is the effort the author has put in, and given such depth – there are so many myths and legends among these people, that it is as if you as the reader are living it, and learning about their rules and customs.
The author has portrayed the female inter-relationships beautifully. It is nice to see these women, strong in their own rights, support and help each other. Everyone has a demon and everyone suffers alone, but again, each of them are string women who do not give up – they are selfless, young but idealistic. They make mistakes, but are not afraid to accept them and learn from them. Seeing as how fantasy is in such demand right now, I see this as something really powerful for the author to have done – women empowerment starts from among the women themselves.
Another amazing representation is the lesbian relationship which I perceived as the major romantic relationship among the various others. This representation is impressive – from not knowing of one’s sexual orientation to realizing it and accepting it fully despite what society thinks, to being confused to following rules set by society, the novels covers a myriad of aspects.
Speaking of characters, I have to admit that I also share Gayatri’s feelings regarding Sabran – at first I was just as different towards her, for she seemed like any other pampered royal, unknowing of the harsh reality of the world. But her character arc, as the novel goes on, is definitely very noticeable and all of this makes her human and thus, very much relatable to the reader. She suffers, both due to internal and external reasons, but it is all overshadowed by her truest desire to help her people and be a good queen to them.
Eadaz du Zala Uq Nara, or Ead Duryan as she is rather known, is a member of the Priory of the Orange Tree, assigned to protect the Berethnet queen, Sabran IX. Her relationship with the queen is dynamic and changes as the story progresses.
Tane is also another woman who grows throughout. A Seiikinese from the East, her greatest desire is to be a dragon rider. It is also through her dragon Nayimathun, that we get the closest glimpse to these magical and awe-inspiringly majestic creatures.
Apart from these three women, Margaret Beck, sister to Arteloth Beck (who is friend to both Ead and Sabran), is a wonderful woman. Always supportive of her friends, she is not afraid to go into the midst of war to do her share in helping the wounded and also, for the betterment of the future of course. The male leads are also very modern – they are spportive and can accept these bold women as their equals without being intimidated. They also made me admire them. Loth and Kit were two amazing men. I will miss what Kate and Kit might have been. The author has truly done an amazing job with the characters and made the entire read an utter delight.
The fantasy element – with the Eastern dragons, the wyrms, Fyredel and his siblings and of course The Nameless one, the story reads like magic too. The issue of immortality, the three trees, and the unsettling yet amazing family histories are all crazy and yet make up the backbone of the story. The other theme of politics is also intriguing and absolutely captures the reader’s attention.
The altering narratives were not at all abrupt – the writing is done with fluidic grace and one just glides through. However, I felt that the end was rushed through – that the denouement was reached without much struggle.
It was an amazing book. I took exactly 5 days to complete it. With its beautiful and page-turning churn of action, high fantasy, romance, and politics, I rate this book a 4.5/5 stars!
Verified Purchase
review for THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE
By Pretty Little Bibliophile on 16 March 2019
The Priory of the Orange Tree is a massive book – with more than 800 pages, at first glance it tends to intimidate the reader, but once one starts reading it, there is nothing that can hold him back from flipping the pages.By Pretty Little Bibliophile on 16 March 2019
I am absolutely happy that I read this book – it was a thrilling ride and I for one, loved every bit of it. I read The Priory of the Orange Tree along with my bestie @per_fictionist .
The world created by Shannon in this high-fantasy novel is as vast and powerful as that of any other ones every created. The author has painted a world with her own magical pen, and rendered the reader speechless. In this divided world, there are various people – those of the West hate all wyrms, not distinguishing the good ones from the bad ones, while the people in the East, worship them. it is from these two opposing sides that we see the protagonists – Tane is from the East, an aspiring dragon-rider, and Ead Duryan is from the West, tasked with protecting the Inysh Queen, Sabran, who is the last in her line. What makes the world so rich is the effort the author has put in, and given such depth – there are so many myths and legends among these people, that it is as if you as the reader are living it, and learning about their rules and customs.
The author has portrayed the female inter-relationships beautifully. It is nice to see these women, strong in their own rights, support and help each other. Everyone has a demon and everyone suffers alone, but again, each of them are string women who do not give up – they are selfless, young but idealistic. They make mistakes, but are not afraid to accept them and learn from them. Seeing as how fantasy is in such demand right now, I see this as something really powerful for the author to have done – women empowerment starts from among the women themselves.
Another amazing representation is the lesbian relationship which I perceived as the major romantic relationship among the various others. This representation is impressive – from not knowing of one’s sexual orientation to realizing it and accepting it fully despite what society thinks, to being confused to following rules set by society, the novels covers a myriad of aspects.
Speaking of characters, I have to admit that I also share Gayatri’s feelings regarding Sabran – at first I was just as different towards her, for she seemed like any other pampered royal, unknowing of the harsh reality of the world. But her character arc, as the novel goes on, is definitely very noticeable and all of this makes her human and thus, very much relatable to the reader. She suffers, both due to internal and external reasons, but it is all overshadowed by her truest desire to help her people and be a good queen to them.
Eadaz du Zala Uq Nara, or Ead Duryan as she is rather known, is a member of the Priory of the Orange Tree, assigned to protect the Berethnet queen, Sabran IX. Her relationship with the queen is dynamic and changes as the story progresses.
Tane is also another woman who grows throughout. A Seiikinese from the East, her greatest desire is to be a dragon rider. It is also through her dragon Nayimathun, that we get the closest glimpse to these magical and awe-inspiringly majestic creatures.
Apart from these three women, Margaret Beck, sister to Arteloth Beck (who is friend to both Ead and Sabran), is a wonderful woman. Always supportive of her friends, she is not afraid to go into the midst of war to do her share in helping the wounded and also, for the betterment of the future of course. The male leads are also very modern – they are spportive and can accept these bold women as their equals without being intimidated. They also made me admire them. Loth and Kit were two amazing men. I will miss what Kate and Kit might have been. The author has truly done an amazing job with the characters and made the entire read an utter delight.
The fantasy element – with the Eastern dragons, the wyrms, Fyredel and his siblings and of course The Nameless one, the story reads like magic too. The issue of immortality, the three trees, and the unsettling yet amazing family histories are all crazy and yet make up the backbone of the story. The other theme of politics is also intriguing and absolutely captures the reader’s attention.
The altering narratives were not at all abrupt – the writing is done with fluidic grace and one just glides through. However, I felt that the end was rushed through – that the denouement was reached without much struggle.
It was an amazing book. I took exactly 5 days to complete it. With its beautiful and page-turning churn of action, high fantasy, romance, and politics, I rate this book a 4.5/5 stars!
Images in this review
Reviewed in India on 23 March 2019
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Overhyped and underwhelming
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2019Verified Purchase
Isobel
Beautiful, Magical, worth every penny.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2019Verified Purchase
Beautiful, Magical, worth every penny.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2019
Many people describe The Priory Of The Orange Tree as a feminist book. Depending on your definitions of what feminism is that could be true or it couldn't, but to me Priory displays the truest and most desirable form of equality; a universe where neither men nor women put each other down or limit each other because of their gender. Priory has raised the standard of how women, non-straight relationships and fantasy religion should be portrayed forever. Even better, it does so without having to make a big deal out of it. If you've ever wished, just once, for a fantasy world that can be gritty, epic and hardhitting without throwing in scenes of sexual violenc as displays of power or killing off wives to give their husbands a reason to be moody, this is the book for you.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2019
The world was completely fleshed out, breath taking and unique. Instead of taking the same generic medieval tropes to make each of the kingdoms vague imitations of England and Scandinavia, it's clear that Shannon researched world history and used it as an inspiration point to spring an epic fantasy universe that felt familiar yet new, and completely authentic. Her style of writing is beautiful and descriptive and for the first time in years it made reading a book over 800 pages a joy instead of a struggle.
There is a huge epic cast of different and unique characters. At first this is intimidating, and it takes quite a while to get all the names straight in your head, but once you do it's well worth it. Priory is a book you have to dedicate yourself to; if you want an easy, light read then you shouldn't be looking towards a piece of writing as complicated as this one is. If you take the time and the attention to understand the world and everything going on in it however, it will be one of the best bookish decisions you can make.
I do have quite a few issues with Priory which do hurt my admiration of it. I really feel like this book should have been around 600 pages. For pretty much half of the book, Ead sat around playing handmaiden to Sabran. Despite the fact that I adore her character just as much as the others, we sacrificed a lot of page time to her doing nothing, while the exciting and different side storylines were given short and fleeting chapters. Either some of this waiting around should have been cut out, or the other characters should have been given some more time. The biggest example I feel makes this obvious is Tané. Her being a dragon rider is surely one of the most exciting and interesting parts of the book, yet she gets next to no page time and even less time spent actually being with with her dragon. On that note, for a story about dragons, it feels like there's barely any interaction with them for most of the book. I really wish we'd have gotten more of an understanding of their society and how Eastern dragons view Western dragons.
The entire thing however, so so magical and dear to me that I could let big things like this slide. I love Priory with all of my heart and I hope Shannon releases more books in this universe!
Images in this review
Amanda Almeida
Absolutamente incrível
Reviewed in Brazil on 6 April 2019Verified Purchase
Absolutamente incrível
Reviewed in Brazil on 6 April 2019
Esse livro me prendeu pela capa, me prometeu uma fantasia épica, e me deu tudo isso e ainda mais.Reviewed in Brazil on 6 April 2019
Sim, já vou começar rasgando seda e, é provável que mesmo escrevendo páginas elogiando ele, não seja suficiente.
Em meio a tantas fantasias medíocres e histórias que reciclam fórmulas de outras famosas, The Priory Of The Orange Tree era o que eu estava precisando.
Vou começar elogiando a escrita da Samantha Shannon. Como eu ainda não li nada dela? Depois desse livro eu coloquei a outra trilogia da autora na minha lista. Sei que as histórias são completamente diferentes, mas agora eu preciso conhece-la melhor e finalmente dar uma chance para Temporada de Ossos.
Ela conseguiu me prender desde a primeira página, e eu sei que se estivesse de férias, provavelmente devoraria esse livro em 3 dias, no máximo.
Eu fiquei triste cada vez que precisei parar ele, seja por causa do trabalho, ou do sono que já estava tomando conta de mim. E mesmo morrendo de cansaço eu ficava com a história na cabeça, martelando teorias e imaginando tudo o que poderia acontecer depois.
Porém, uma boa escrita não é suficiente para um livro ser bom. Existem muitos autores bons, mas com histórias que simplesmente não funcionam para mim. O que não é o caso de TPOTOT (vou ter que começar a abreviar o título haha)
O livro tem 4 protagonistas.
Ead: Uma maga do Priorado da Laranjeira que se infiltra no reino de Inys para proteger a rainha Sabran e garantir que nada atrapalhe os seus deveres como governante da Casa de Berethnet.
Tané: Uma garota de origem simples que sonha em entrar para a alta guarda do mar, mas acaba cometendo um erro que pode colocar esse sonho por água abaixo.
Niclays: Um alquimista decadente e ambicioso que foi expulso do reino de Inys pela própria rainha atual, e que busca desesperadamente o segredo da imortalidade.
Loth: Um amigo de infância de Sabran, que é mandado para longe do reino, já que alguns acreditam que os dois tem um caso amoroso, e isso pode atrapalhar os planos dela gerar uma herdeira, e em consequência disso, acordar um perigoso inimigo.
Todos tem grande peso e importância para a trama, e em vários momentos as suas histórias acabam se entrelaçando.
Apesar dos protagonistas masculinos, o livro é dominado por mulheres. Desde o começo a força e empoderamento feminino, está muito presente, e foi uma das coisas que mais me agradaram.
Muitas vezes eu caio na armadilha de livros que prometem isso, mas não cumprem, ou colocam somente o que é conveniente para o desenvolvimento da história. E isso não aconteceu aqui.
A autora nos presenteia com mulheres fortes, ambiciosas, e principalmente humanas, e isso não se resume somente as duas personagens principais. O livro apresenta muitas outras mulheres com esses mesmos aspectos, e a autora não diminui uma para enaltecer a outra.
Outro aspecto incrível de TPOTOT é a ambientação. No começo do livro a autora menciona que se inspirou em vários lugares do nosso mundo para criar o fictício, e para mim ela trabalhou muito bem esse aspecto. Eu consegui imaginar facilmente os cenários enquanto estava lendo, e inserir todos os elementos que ela descreve durante a narrativa.
Mudando um pouco para o desenvolvimento da história. O livro tem ação do começo ao fim, porém nada cansativo que faça a gente enjoar de ver ação e desejar saber um pouco mais sobre os personagens e o mundo. A Samantha soube equilibrar perfeitamente todos esses detalhes, nos dando tudo na medida certa.
Nada fica para o final, não ficamos presos em picuinhas bobas para encher a história, e muito menos descrições excessivas somente para dar volume ao livro.
Nada disso que eu disse acima parece suficiente? Apesar de ser, ainda tem mais, muito mais.
Batalhas épicas, dragões (muitos dragões) representatividade, crítica ao fanatismo religioso, e claro uma boa dose de romance.
The Priory Of The Orange Tree é a fantasia perfeita para os amantes desse gênero. Além de todos os aspectos que citei, ele é um livro único, ou seja, nada de enrolação para prender os leitores em uma série grande e cansativa.
Finalizo dizendo que por enquanto The Priory Of The Orange Tree foi a minha melhor leitura do ano, e que estou genuinamente feliz por ter tido a chance de conhecer essa história incrível.
Espero que não demorem para trazer ele para o Brasil e que outros leitores possam ter a chance de ler e sentir o mesmo que eu estou sentindo agora.
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Everything a bi girl who never found herself in SFF growing up could ever wish for
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Flawed
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