Among the Burning Flowers

"Broken are the roots of chaos."

In this novella (which, let's be honest, is about the size of a regular novel from anyone else), we're two years prior to the events of Priory of the Orange Tree, and focused almost squarely on Marosa, queen of Yscalin. Carscaro is a city built on fire, with lava flowing in canals and Mount Fruma behind them. Inside this mountain is where Fýredel has been sleeping for 500 years. Unfortunately, this is the year when Fýredel stirs, putting all of Carscaro in danger. Later in the book, we also follow Aubrecht, the high prince of Mentedon and betrothed to Marosa, as he struggles to discover the fate of his fiancee in the wake of Fýredel's awakening. Finally, rounding out the cast of POVs, we have Melaugo, a culler of sleepers (beasts turned into half wyrms and then put to sleep), who, together with her lover, have to find their way out of a nation under siege.

The author bills this as a companion book to Priory of the Orange Tree, and I agree with that. While this can be read on its own, I think if you want any sort of closure or continuance on events, you need to read Priory of the Orange Tree to get it. But I do think this highlights the fact that not only can the author write giant 1000+ page epics, she can also write shorter bites of her world's larger history for fans too.

I loved Marosa's viewpoint best of the ones presented here. She carries herself well in the face of everything crumbling around her, and the ending (such as it is, presented here) had me feeling all sorts of things for her. If you've already read Priory of the Orange Tree you already have an idea of what's to come here, but it still manages to catch me by surprise. Aubrecht's viewpoint, too, really hit me in the feels, as he struggles to figure out what to do personally and publicly after Fýredel awakens. The third viewpoint, Melaugo, was interesting, but felt a bit removed from the other two. The author uses her as a window into how events impact the common folk of Yscalin, but it never actually intersects at all with either Marosa or Aubrecht at this point so it just felt a little tacked on.

There is a romance here, because it is Samantha Shannon, but the romance is already established before the book starts, so there's no development or anything beyond some ex- drama that needs resolving.

I did absolutely enjoy this book though, and look forward to more "short" stories in this Roots of Chaos series she's squeezing in amongst her main books.