The Priory Of The Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
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.
5 Stars
Okay
This book was heavy
I’m one for reveals and twists and let me say I loved the reveals in this book
Makes me wonder how much of what I know is true because someone said okay this is how it’s going to go down.
The world-building was absolutely awesome. In the beginning and considering the pages of the book, I was quite worried that I would not be able to keep track of the characters and locations I mean at a point it was a chore having to note who is who and where but that was nicely done. Keeping track of who and who was where and where was easy and not much of a big deal. The ending and revelations made going though those thick pages more than worth the time.
Sometimes thick books intimidate me because I’m like have I got all the time
But for this book, I was actually motivated by the thickness. I was curious. What’s in all those pages and don’t let me get started on the book cover. When I got to the page with the book cover it was awesome.
More than 800 pages let me tell you this book is brick but the fact that it’s also standalone made me more curious. I was glad that I wouldn’t have to wait for the other books, and anticipate other parts it was just one book and I believe it was nicely rounded up well. Don’t be discouraged by the thickness.
The story is told from the point of view of four characters, Eadaz, Loth, Niclays and Tane, each covering a very specific part of the world and with knowledge of each history and religion so that you get an idea of what’s happening where and why. Each character has their own set of beliefs and stories that they grew up with. Which they have come to believe and is part of who they are.
The book contained religious politics as there are at least three religions and each believes that theirs is the true story and true religion. All are convinced that other religions are wrong and theirs is right even going as far as alienating themselves from regions with different beliefs. You really want to find out what’s happening and what the real events of the past years actually are.
All it took was one vital part of history for everything to change a lot has happened in 1000 years at least one religion is going to realise that they are the wrong religion. One of my favourite things about the use of religion was how it was so deeply interwoven with many of the character’s development.
There are also dragons and they talk.
The dragons (wyrms, wyverns etc) are an important part of the story even the front cover has got one.
The Characters
Ead: Ead Duryan is an outsider at court and a badass secretly keeping a watchful eye on Sabran and protecting her with forbidden magic.
Tane: Across the dark sea, all her life, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, Its time to fulfil her dreams but she is forced to make a choice that could see everything unravel.
Queen Sabran: Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
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