The Priory of the Orange Tree

4.25/5 stars

My new biggest reading flex is that I read this in one day (in 8 hours, 24 minutes, and 47 seconds to be exact, spread across 11 hours of on-and-off reading). I'm gonna brag about this accomplishment forever. I hope it is written in my obituary one day.

But court politics and dragons are a weakness of mine and this was so, so good.

I will say the only reason I got this book was because the cover looked cool and book has high quality paper. The story itself disappointed me though. If you're a feminist or LBGT then you might appreciate this book more than I did. It was a decent story with some parts that were really really good but it's not enough action. There's a lot of drama and politics but i want fighting and blood. I thought it was cool reading about Tané being trained to be a dragon rider but that only consisted of a couple chapters. The author could have dived into that but she half assed it. I do appreciate her writing about mythological creatures that I've never heard of before though.

Lowering my rating from a four star to a three star because where the book excels, it doesn't make up for the confusing pacing, for how points of conflict are brought up only to be quickly resolved, and the frankly confusing romance between Ead and Sabran that felt like it came from out of nowhere. For seven years Ead didn't give a shit about Sabran, and then just...started liking her? Okay, whatever. I liked the world-building, even though Seiki and some of the Eastern and Southern countries were just vague Orientalist fantasies, while Inys felt like the only nation to be fully fleshed out. A good book in the first half, dragged down by the weight of its own plot lines and mistakes by the middle, only to have what felt a bit like a rushed ending (weird, for a book this size to have one.)

“My heart knows your song, as yours knows mine. And I will always come back to you.”

rating- 3/5

SO. I FINALLY finished reading this. Took me almost a month (yes) and since i can't read more than a book at a time, it put me into a maaajor slump. But well, it is what it is. You'd think that after spending THAT long reading it, it would atleast be a 4 star read, but here we are.
To say that I'm disappointed is an understatement.

WRITING
First off, the world building is commendable. The author definitely put in a lot of work into research and character building. However, it somehow didn't work for me.
I knew going into a standalone fantasy; there were going to be lots of names, characters and places, but didn't anticipate the slow pace. I think that was definitely the book's setback. While a lot seemed to be happening event-wise, the writing was slow and prolonged. In contrast, the ending the book leads up to, is rushed and very averagely done.
The writing during the battle scenes was also not the best and I had trouble picturing it, due to lack of significant details (and abundance of insignificant ones- for example, i don't want to know how the sides of the ship look like, but would very much like to know how exactly they're positioned relative to the other ships, since characters seem to be swimming from one ship to another? and there's also a huge draconic beast in the water??)
I also had a really hard time trying to figure out the religion of the six virtues in Inys. Dukes? Duchesses? Knights?? of different virtues?? and places??
For like the first 200 something pages I was constantly referring to the characters and glossary section in the back (i was reading the ebook, which made it so much harder) trying to remember who Duchess of Justice was, and who in the world was Duke of Edinburg.
Honestly, still don't think I've figured it out.
Don't get me wrong, i love well thought out complex worlds but somehow i was lukewarm about this one.

CHARACTERS
The Priory of the Orange tree is definitely more character-driven, which is usually not the case in the fantasy genre.
In this case, character-driven =
-the plot is practically non existent/not done well
-the characters pretty much CARRY the book. so if you don't like them, then it is very likely that you WILL hate the book.

Lucky for the author, I did like the characters. (well, most of them). The Characters and their relationships are extremely well done.
◆ Ead's pov is refreshing. Her character, backstory and personality makes for a good protagonist. I loved reading her chapters and the way the book starts with her pov as an outsider in the castle really sets up the story.
◆ In contrast, i did not like Tane's character in the beginning but warmed up to her eventually.
◆ I had mixed feelings about Loth's character, there was a little inconsistent characterisation but it was minor and didn't divert from the plot.
◆ Niclays Roos, was a brilliantly done character. His flaws were laid out for everyone to see. He's selfish and grief stricken and thinks only and only for himself. His decisons were so terrible that I absolutely despised him and his pov from the get-go, and i think that makes his character well written.

THINGS I LIKED
Despite the few things I've mentioned above, there's a lot to like in The Priory of the Orange tree:
-I loved the consistent theme of duality: the east and west; wyrms and dragons; siden and sterren; water and fire. It stands out to the reader and is conventional yet refreshing.
-The characters in a female-female relationship. Absolutely love them.
-Dragons
-Diversity and the rep.
-The gender equality (women also in positions of power)

It's worth noting that it took me SUPER long to read this book and I was mostly relieved to be done. The pacing was a major issue for me and I debated giving it two stars. However, when I did start listing the things I liked, I realised there's plenty for the average fantasy-reader: Dragons, queer relationships, talking birds, mythical creatures, (did i mention dragons?).
You should definitely pick this up if you've been meaning to read a standalone epic fantasy, it's easy to follow and doesn't have very complex writing.

Wow! Great book!

I really enjoyed this book. The world building is excellent and I thoroughly loved how we learned about it from different angles, people, and cultures to slowly paint a cohesive picture.
The characters feel alive and while I can only claim to like very few of them, I was intrigued by all of them.
The book changes points of view regularly and spans across continents. I was continuously invested in every strand of the story and eager to watch it weave together.
A thoroughly enjoyable read. Also, I liked the dragons :)

This is a huge single-volume fantasy epic. It has a lot going for it, there are assassins, pirates, two kinds of dragons, conflicting religions, and sapphic romance (if you like that sorta thing – meh). But it's mostly about three main characters plus one not-as-interesting one. The most interesting characters are the women, Ead (a mage from the South on a secret mission in the North), and Tané, a young woman destined to be a dragonrider from the East. There's also a Queen without an heir, a witch, and a sisterhood of the title. There's a lot going on. There's an historic timeline in the back, lists of characters, and a glossary of terms.

I struggled a bit with this one. I thought there was too much description that was not essential to the story. And I put the book down multiple times, detouring with other reading. But then, around page 290, things started to get more interesting, and the middle of the book had a LOT more going on and I got much more invested in the story.

There's some cool surprises in store and an epic denouement. Overall, I thought it was fun but I wouldn't rave about it.

In general, I finished it, so it means that I've enjoyed it on some level. The story is interesting, but that's where interesting stops and cliche starts. Characters are so predictable and naive sometimes that it hurts how stupid it is. Naive, that's a single word that can describe this book, because character relations are naive, the story is naive, there are quite a bit of events happening in the book that would never happen in the real world or if this was a serious write-up. A few characters, such as the spymaster, Trynde, and her boyfriend, are in focus in the first half of the book, but they either die or are pushed from the scene later in the book, so it makes me ask: why? Why even introducing those characters, if they don't have any meaningful purpose?

In the end, this might be an okay book for YA, but if you are looking for some serious story, don't bother, and look somewhere else.

Folks, I finally did it. It was my plan to read this book in the first half of ‘21. When I had set myself that guideline I more so had like January 15th in mind, but June is still the first half, so BOOM. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite covers, I had to have it immediately when I saw it. I wish I had read it immediately too!

What really could I say about this book that hasn't been said before? Regardless, I'll try in my own words I suppose... to me, this book is the most successful in its attempts to feel like medieval chivalric knights and court. It does start slow, and for the most part, it is entirely a slow burn anyway, but each section builds up and there is action or raised stakes to feel the pressure. This novel is also super successful in its attempt (and to me success) in being a full fledged standalone epic tale. Yes, from start to finish there are some things that you'd call unnecessary to the overall story, but this one tome is the characters' entire lives. And boy did I love these characters entirely. They are so fleshed out and each decision they made made sense even if it made me angry. Ead being both a lady of court and a secret badass assassin is a combination that worked really well for me, she ended up being my favorite. Sabran has probably the most traumatic life of a book character I've seen, and she still ends up staying strong. I actually wish we saw more book time of her being badass. And Loth is a great example of a virtuous man, perhaps the best in Virtudom, but at the same time, he's not so trapped in faith that he can't actually exhibit those virtues in the face of change. 

Another thing I really think hit as a huge success for me was the different continents and cultures and races shown here. Although a complete fantasy world, having things from the real world mirror onto theirs was a great way to lock in how absorbing the world is. Although there is hate and ethnocentric feelings towards each other, they all have to put those feelings aside to save the world together. Division isn't an option. 

To avoid spoilers I will just say that the ending did feel a little “Harry Potter,” aka a tad rushed. Especially when dealing with something of such a size and scale as this book. In HP we come to accept the endings because there was always more, this one however did leave me feeling just a little slighted, although it was good! I guess with such a slow burn, we could never really receive as long of an ending as the build up... 

And here is a quote I really liked and read several times before moving on, “Gone are the days of heroes...From North to South and West to East, your world will burn.” To me this felt Tolkien-esque in the sense that the scale was grand. I enjoyed it a lot. 

If you're afraid to jump into this book because of the size, I say just so it. You don't have to read it fast. Give it a shot.

I CANT BELIEVE I FINISHED IT SO FAST LMAO
anyway......yeah this book is really good. I loved the characters and plot so much it hurts. the world-building was a little hard to understand at the beginning, but once i got that it was an amazing read.
btw i'm in love with Sabran, she carried the book

I liked the characters but the ending felt a little rushed and anti-climactic. There were also times when I was a little confused because there was a lot going on in this book. The construction of the religions was really well done. The East and South had different belief systems centred on the same deities (this was reminiscent of the Abrahamic religions). I really enjoyed this book, I just wish it ended better.

I was looking for a great standalone epic fantasy novel, and I found it! But by the end, I wished it had honestly been a series - the pacing felt very rushed in the last quarter of the book, and I wish I had gotten to see more of Tane' in general. I also didn't particularly care for Roos and found his redemption arc to feel kind of sudden? But I really loved the world, and the story, and the romance! I especially loved that Ead and Sabran didn't abandon their callings in life for each other in the end; it was bittersweet, but it felt right.

Really lush alt-universe epic fantasy.

But this needed to be two or three separate books. Several plot points felt rushed or too simple. And the pacing at the end will break your neck.

Much better than I was expecting. I was prepared to lump this under stolid fantasy, but it actually proved to be involving and surprisingly fast-paced for such a large book. The largely female-driven plot also made a welcome change. Granted there were a few more “fortunate coincidences” than I feel entirely comfortable with, but I am willing to write these off as the hand of an intentional deus ex machina. In any event, the final confrontation was genuinely blistering, which went a long way to removing any reservations. Highly recommended.

 I really dithered between 2 and 3 stars here (I like the GR guide rating, 2 means it was ok).

This is a big book full a diverse cast and massive worldbuilding, and I think it's aiming for too much in a single volume. The biggest criticism I've read is that the Epic Life Or Death Showdown (not a spoiler if you've ever read a book) is over in mere minutes, which I agree, but also I enjoyed because I find epic battle scenes tedious to read.

There are a lot of cast members, none of whom get enough screen time, and maybe I would have preferred a trilogy here (although let's be honest, I probably would only read the first one anyway). The big concepts and worldbuilding tackled in a YA breadth, not depth, style; of course this is fine, but felt hollow to me here. A deep dive into each of the cultures we met would have been awesome.

By 75% I was extremely ready for the book to be over, having read enough Fine, not Great story for 200 pages, and still having another 200 pages ahead of me. It's a perfectly ok story, and you'll likely enjoy it because you're not a book curmudgeon like me.

This was so intimidating and it took me two tries to read it but what an adventure. This epic and so well written. I highly recommend it.

4.5 stars.

Outstanding. It sticks with you. I want a sequel/series now.

I enjoyed this story. The world and mythology draws readers in. As an avid epic fantasy reader, I wanted so.much.more. This book should be at least 4 books that allow for deeper exploration of the interesting cultural and religious divides that the author has given the people. Because there is so much ground to cover, we end up slightly shorted - the author has to cut down or ignore paths and keep the characters somewhat simple.
I am hoping that she will revisit this world, perhaps in an earlier time, and draw it out more.

If you like epic fantasy - with dragons and magic - with castles and witches - you may like this book. It even has political intrigue and family drama. Go in being aware that it is an entire fantasy in one book. There are some romantic scenes, but they are mostly PG - nothing too graphic. Violence is also fairly PG.

A solid fantasy book. Story follows the queen and her handmaiden (secretly a trained killer) in the west where dragons are hated, and a girl aspiring to become a dragon rider in the east, where dragons are revered.

I'm a big fan of dragons but unfortunately the dragons in this book are more in the background when compared to the people (who are all well-written). It's also interesting (and nice) to see that society is fairly egalitarian, where queens are fit to rule on their own, and firstborn children are the heirs to their family regardless of gender.

3.5 / 5

WOW. I absolutely fell in love with this book. It was just what I needed at the end of the year. I really got into this because I was writing in the margins as if I was talking to the book. I was super invested. I would highly recommend this to anyone.

Amazing!

Of course, nothing is really perfect, but this is good enough. Well enough. :-D

There were a couple of people I wish hadn't died. A couple of people I wish had died. But I suppose, I can expect a sequel, which I am glad to do :-D

I was hoping Truyde had a little brother...

I am insipidly in love with this book which has every beautiful, magical piece of epic fantasy that I fell in love with as a kid, rendered beautifully, and conspicuously avoiding all of fantasy's historic pitfalls. I may have a new all time favorite book. It has been a long time since I made it through an 800-page behemoth, but I didn't want it to end. I want to curl up and live in this book. I want to buy my own copy so I can kiss it goodnight every evening.

This is a book with a lot to offer. We have four POV's from two main characters and two slightly more secondary characters. The narrative swaps between these four in a chronological fashion, as opposed to simultaneous so the book covers a good period of time and develops events and characters over this. Our two key protagonists are Ead and Tané, two women from opposite sides of the known world who each come to discover their importance to the endeavour to save the world from the returning Nameless One: a big, nasty fire-breather dragon (or wyrm as the book prefers) who will destroy humankind just as he attempted to do before, 1000 years ago.

Both face danger, tragedy and huge feats of endurance and strength to reach the end battle; Ead as a member of the eponymous Priory of the Orange Tree and Tané as an Eastern dragonrider. The East reveres dragons - these are water and air dragons, not fiery fiends - as gods and to be a dragonrider is a great honour that requires years of training to compete in a once-every-50-year selection process. These Eastern dragons are graceful and beautiful and able to live in harmony with humans; the Western dragons/wyrms are the fire-breathing kind who seek to dominate the world and they are waking up from their slumbers to heed the coming of The Nameless One.

Without going into the story much more (trying to avoid spoilers) I can only attest that it is well pace, cleverly written and highly engaging. While I found the first few chapters a bit of an ‘info-dump' and a little difficult to get used to the dialog, after this I was constantly wishing I could stay awake a little longer to squeeze one more chapter in. Shannon does a great job of dripping mystery and questions into the story; as one resolves, another question appears to keep you intrigued.

It is a long book at 804 pages of story and while there are sections/parts that this is divided into, each part could not be separated out to make this into 2 or more books. It all flows together and is well worth the commitment. Commendations to Shannon on creating such a massive tome that doesn't feel like a chore and keeps the reader interested throughout.

There are a lot of themes that are explored in the course of the story including, love, duty, justice, courage, honour, religion and the overcoming of our differences. The two key Western religions both venerate a female figurehead of one sort or another; and same-sex relationships are not frowned upon in these societies. There is a historical m/m relationship and a present-day f/f one; while both encounter resistance, this is not because the relationships are queer, as we would see it, moreover because they each involve a member of nobility or royalty who is controlled by other forces to conceal their relationship - one of the men is already married and a father, honour-bound to remain so; and one of the women is controlled by external, malicious, forces to the extent she keeps her true self thoroughly hidden.

While there are battles and tragedy, romance and intimacy, there is nothing particularly graphic or gory in this book; if that is any concern to you. What you will find are beautifully written characters and compelling story with mages, witches, queens, emperors, dragons, wyrms and many other magical beasts besides. It is a great read and this edition has magnificent cover art so that The Priory of the Orange Tree will shine on your shelves for years to come.