The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree

By Samantha Shannon
Published: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019
Pages: 848
Genre: Fantasy
Amazon, Goodreads

I do not sleep because I am not only afraid of the monsters at my door, but also of the monsters my own mind can conjure. The ones that live within.

About the book

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.

Review

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a fast-paced, epic fantasy following the lives of three individuals: Ead, a slayer masquerading as a maiden to protect Queen Sabran of Inyas; Tane, a young woman who has been training almost her whole life to become dragon rider; and Niclays, an anatomist/alchemist who has been exiled for a secret crime.

One thousand years after being bound to the sea, an evil creature referred to as The Nameless One awakens. The stories of Ead, Tane and Niclays unfold and alliances between estranged nations must be formed if there is any chance in defeating this ancient enemy.

First impressions: I loved how 90% of the characters are strong, independent women. Ead, Sabran, Margaret, Tane - though they all have vastly different backgrounds, religious views, occupations, etc., each of them shows strength of character and morals. They never stray from who they are or what they believe in. Queendom is very much alive in the novel; even the priory is run by women.

Religion is a major storyline of the book. The four main nations, in spite of their conflicting viewpoints, must learn to set aside their quarrels and pool their resources if they want to live. Though the religious beliefs are fiction (obviously), we as humans can learn something from The Priory of the Orange Tree - accepting others for who they are and what they believe, including his or her religion. That's easier said than done (also obviously). I feel like the author is attempting to get this point across in her work and succeeds in doing so.

The writing is fantastic. The author weaves imagery that comes alive before your eyes, such as:

Ead knew the scent of a secret. She wore it like a perfume.

Snow had fallen overnight in the north, and it lay across the fields like cream smoothed with a knife.

"In the Empire of the Twelve Lakes, there lives a bird with purple feathers." The drink had stolen into his voice. "If you saw it in flight, you would think it was a jewel with wings. Many have hunted it... but seize it, and your hands will burn. Those feathers, previous as they are, are poison." His eyes closed. "Thank your knights, Lord Arteloth, that you were not born to sit a throne."

Throughout the tense, action-packed scenes, the author also sprinkles in some humor, such as this gem which made me literally LOL:

"No but he has got balls," Melaugo said.
"I've no time for this pious talk," Harlowe cut in, "but I do concur with Estina on the subject of your balls, Lord Arteloth."

As for the dislikes: I felt there were too many characters in the novel - for the record, there is a cast of characters which I did not realize existed until I got to the end of the book because I was reading the ebook. There were quite a few instances in which I kept forgetting who so and so was and/or how that individual ties into the scene.

Similarly, I felt like Tane and Niclays were the only characters to show any real development throughout the story. The others, well, fell a little flat to me.

The language turned me off at points - heretics/heresy is used far too often. There is also jargon that kept irritating me, such as cony for rabbit, baluster for banister, etc. I'm also not a huge fantasy reader so I may not be familiar to that language.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is a definite recommendation to fellow fantasy readers. Despite the issues I had with the novel, the plot and great writing drew me into the story and kept me reading late into the night.

RATING (out of five puppies)