arcturus_b's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Violence
weareinheritors's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Incest, and Body horror
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Violence, and Misogyny
internationalreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I’m frustrated because I liked a lot about this book - the world building! The queer love story! The way all the seemingly separate storylines came together! - but the way the author treated religion and politics was a huge miss for me. There is no way We could have had a much more interesting read on those two fronts.
Spoiler
anyone who was raised to believe certain thousands-years-old truths, let alone a queen and nobles whose entire existence is based on those truths, would believe that their religion is all a lie immediately. Similarly, all of the political leaders coming together incredibly easily to fight the Nameless One at the end, after thousands of years of political estrangement??
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
booksjessreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Genuinely don't even know where to start for a review of this book. Just. Wow.
This is my first high fantasy book and I loved every single page. Despite being initially intimidated by its size, I absolutely sailed through it because I was addicted. Every single page had me hooked. I have not felt the thrill of reading a fantastic book for a long time and it made me feel like a giddy child wanting to find out what happened all the time.
The writing is phenomenal. It has such detailed, yet comprehensive world-building and it doesn't feel forced, or like the author is info-dumping. Furthermore, the world that Shannon has crafted is just wonderful. There is so much lore in this world and it has been so intricately thought out. It felt so immersive and learning about the world was not tedious and only served as interesting to me as the reader.
The characters are so well thought-out and completely human, believable and three dimensional. There is great character growth and I think my favourite thing about this, was that despite being told from 4 different points of view, each character felt relevant and I liked them all. I hate it in books where you have multiple POV's and one or two feel irrelevant or they are just unbearable narrators. This never happened and the story was enriched from every perspective.
A sapphic and feminist work of art that has dragons in, I mean, what more could you want?
This is my first high fantasy book and I loved every single page. Despite being initially intimidated by its size, I absolutely sailed through it because I was addicted. Every single page had me hooked. I have not felt the thrill of reading a fantastic book for a long time and it made me feel like a giddy child wanting to find out what happened all the time.
The writing is phenomenal. It has such detailed, yet comprehensive world-building and it doesn't feel forced, or like the author is info-dumping. Furthermore, the world that Shannon has crafted is just wonderful. There is so much lore in this world and it has been so intricately thought out. It felt so immersive and learning about the world was not tedious and only served as interesting to me as the reader.
The characters are so well thought-out and completely human, believable and three dimensional. There is great character growth and I think my favourite thing about this, was that despite being told from 4 different points of view, each character felt relevant and I liked them all. I hate it in books where you have multiple POV's and one or two feel irrelevant or they are just unbearable narrators. This never happened and the story was enriched from every perspective.
A sapphic and feminist work of art that has dragons in, I mean, what more could you want?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Miscarriage, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
heatherinthenether's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
It was a slow start to the story - I found it tough to keep track of who was who or how they related to one another, and the fantasy names were clumsy to read. Using words like "carcanet" instead of necklace with no context to hint at the meaning, or insisting on "eight and twenty" instead of twenty eight feel really pretentious. The book does include a glossay in the back, but I don't want to work that hard to read a fantasy novel.
Around pg. 130, the story finally started to draw me in and flow more easily. I still had a hard time staying with it, and the action is interspersed with really long moments where not much happens. The characters are likable enough to care about them, but things just move really slowly through the first half of the book. I'm an avid reader and a writer by trade, and there were several complex words I had to look up (why make a book readable when instead you can use obscure synonyms?) So if you're into reading a book with a dictionary, this might be your thing. The casually revealed incest-adjacent relationship is as unexpected as it is unsavory and, it would seem, wholly unnecessary. It doesn't impact the story in any way, and comes at a time when you're supposed to be starting to understand a previously difficult character. It's very weird.
The namesake Priory, arguably one of the better parts of the book, plays a shockingly minor role int he whole story.
I really wanted to love this book as so many other people seemed to, and there are many things I did enjoy, but it just felt like work to get through it. I did think the characters were well written and complex, and that the dragon mythology was interesting. I liked the way the secrets of the Priory were revealed. Overall, it just wasn't for me, and now I have to decide if I'm willing to take on the even-longer sequel.
Around pg. 130, the story finally started to draw me in and flow more easily. I still had a hard time staying with it, and the action is interspersed with really long moments where not much happens. The characters are likable enough to care about them, but things just move really slowly through the first half of the book. I'm an avid reader and a writer by trade, and there were several complex words I had to look up (why make a book readable when instead you can use obscure synonyms?) So if you're into reading a book with a dictionary, this might be your thing. The casually revealed incest-adjacent relationship is as unexpected as it is unsavory and, it would seem, wholly unnecessary. It doesn't impact the story in any way, and comes at a time when you're supposed to be starting to understand a previously difficult character. It's very weird.
The namesake Priory, arguably one of the better parts of the book, plays a shockingly minor role int he whole story.
I really wanted to love this book as so many other people seemed to, and there are many things I did enjoy, but it just felt like work to get through it. I did think the characters were well written and complex, and that the dragon mythology was interesting. I liked the way the secrets of the Priory were revealed. Overall, it just wasn't for me, and now I have to decide if I'm willing to take on the even-longer sequel.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Incest
jodean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Murder, Grief, Deportation, Blood, Abandonment, Death, and Confinement
Moderate: War, Sexism, Medical content, Infertility, Medical trauma, Misogyny, and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Drug use
travis_zalesky's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
An engaging and artfully written fantasy novel that takes what it wants from the genre and leaves the rest behind. A diverse cast of characters are faced with an insurmountable evil which must be vanquished, but rather than a single hero who saves the day, Priory emphasizes that power of teamwork to overcome.
The characters were believable, if somewhat flat and over the top. I am willing to give Priory a pass though on character development because of the epic nature of the tale. An epic fantasy of the scale of Priory calls for over the top characters, sometimes verging on caricature. The cast is lovable and Shannon does a great job of helping the reader see both sides of a conflict, but don't go looking for massive character growth or a treatise on the human condition.
Set in a matriarchal society, and infused with modern feminist theory, I found the world of Priory to be novel, inspired, and refreshing. The narrative was believable and immersive, and only occasionally did it come off as preachy or tiresome. The magic was convincing and consistent with a plausible internal logic for slowly ramping up the power throughout the story. However, there were several plot holes,and a few noticeable contrivances which would occasionally take me out of the story. One of my biggest criticism is seemingly inconsistent travel times. While there are differing modes of transportation that could partially account for these differences, at times a character might take days or even weeks to traverse a short distance on the island on Inys, while at other times they blaze across leagues of Lysia seemingly in an instant. An appendix with a detailed timeline of events could have massively assuaged this issue but unfortunately the author only included a timeline of the historical events leading up to the start of the tale. I also found the overuse of the dramatic loss of consciousness, fade to black, trope to be distracting. On balance these flaws were minor and did not spoil my enjoyment of the book.
While a few nit-pick criticisms prevent Priory of The Orange Tree from being a 5-star read I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end, and found myself eagerly devouring the last few hundred pages. I would not hesitate to recommend it to any fans of the genre, and I would be shocked if it does not get picked up for a major movie deal soon. Priory will certainly be long regarded as a classic of modern fantasy.
The characters were believable, if somewhat flat and over the top. I am willing to give Priory a pass though on character development because of the epic nature of the tale. An epic fantasy of the scale of Priory calls for over the top characters, sometimes verging on caricature. The cast is lovable and Shannon does a great job of helping the reader see both sides of a conflict, but don't go looking for massive character growth or a treatise on the human condition.
Set in a matriarchal society, and infused with modern feminist theory, I found the world of Priory to be novel, inspired, and refreshing. The narrative was believable and immersive, and only occasionally did it come off as preachy or tiresome. The magic was convincing and consistent with a plausible internal logic for slowly ramping up the power throughout the story. However, there were several plot holes,and a few noticeable contrivances which would occasionally take me out of the story. One of my biggest criticism is seemingly inconsistent travel times. While there are differing modes of transportation that could partially account for these differences, at times a character might take days or even weeks to traverse a short distance on the island on Inys, while at other times they blaze across leagues of Lysia seemingly in an instant
Spoiler
all before a mortally wounded character can bleed outWhile a few nit-pick criticisms prevent Priory of The Orange Tree from being a 5-star read I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end, and found myself eagerly devouring the last few hundred pages. I would not hesitate to recommend it to any fans of the genre, and I would be shocked if it does not get picked up for a major movie deal soon. Priory will certainly be long regarded as a classic of modern fantasy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Suicide
hannahpings's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
i grappled with the rating on this one a little bit, because in terms of likability and recommendation, this book is a solid four to five stars: i loved it! i was engaged the whole time! i dragged my feet finishing it because i was sad it's over! i still am!
at the same time though, for me it's cursed with having been a good book that also could have been better. overall, priory's pacing is good––it comes out swinging and still manages a good amount exposition, the action is well-timed, it's engaging every step of the way––but there are significant gaps and skips throughout, and especially so in the final third. journeys that once took immense narrative tolls and lasted close to 40 pages are reduced to quotidian, one-sentence tasks that seem to exist only because not mentioning them would render the plot unadvanceable. characters make choices that, while you can see how they might make sense given the adequate development, are complete opposites of their intentions up until that point without the text taking the time or putting in the work to achieve that development. things that are given immense weight and word counts early on are not held to the same standard later and are treated like whims, if they're acknowledged at all. (the story's climax is overly convenient too, but it was an emotionally satisfying one, even if a little more mess was to be desired.)
samantha shannon has created a worthy fantasy epic; it's a wold i don't want to leave, a necessary addition to the genre, and one both accessible (even for folks who don't like fantasy or who may be revisiting it for the first time in years) and that made me excited to have to flip to the map or appendices every few pages. all the same, it's hard not to feel that by the end of the book, shannon was ready to be done with it, and glossed over chunks of the narrative accordingly. priory is a story and scope worthy of three, 300–400-page books, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't given the adequate time to breathe and grow into itself.
ultimately though, that's not my decision, and in the end i'm still happy with what we got: something relatively well-written, intercultural and anti-hegemonic, compelling and whose characters it's impossible not to root for, and to whose world i can't wait to return.
at the same time though, for me it's cursed with having been a good book that also could have been better. overall, priory's pacing is good––it comes out swinging and still manages a good amount exposition, the action is well-timed, it's engaging every step of the way––but there are significant gaps and skips throughout, and especially so in the final third. journeys that once took immense narrative tolls and lasted close to 40 pages are reduced to quotidian, one-sentence tasks that seem to exist only because not mentioning them would render the plot unadvanceable. characters make choices that, while you can see how they might make sense given the adequate development, are complete opposites of their intentions up until that point without the text taking the time or putting in the work to achieve that development. things that are given immense weight and word counts early on are not held to the same standard later and are treated like whims, if they're acknowledged at all. (the story's climax is overly convenient too, but it was an emotionally satisfying one, even if a little more mess was to be desired.)
samantha shannon has created a worthy fantasy epic; it's a wold i don't want to leave, a necessary addition to the genre, and one both accessible (even for folks who don't like fantasy or who may be revisiting it for the first time in years) and that made me excited to have to flip to the map or appendices every few pages. all the same, it's hard not to feel that by the end of the book, shannon was ready to be done with it, and glossed over chunks of the narrative accordingly. priory is a story and scope worthy of three, 300–400-page books, and it's hard to understand why it wasn't given the adequate time to breathe and grow into itself.
ultimately though, that's not my decision, and in the end i'm still happy with what we got: something relatively well-written, intercultural and anti-hegemonic, compelling and whose characters it's impossible not to root for, and to whose world i can't wait to return.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Animal death, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Bullying, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Death, Racism, Infertility, Medical content, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Torture, Trafficking, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders
incest/rape:Spoiler
one character adopts and raises a baby boy as her own, acting as and ultimately becoming his mother. when he gets older, she decides she is interested in him both romantically and sexually, pursues him, and he rejects her advances, telling her he would never consent to either. she is a shapeshifter, and takes on the appearance of the woman in whom he is interested. under the impression that she is someone else, he begins a sexual relationship with her, they marry, and she has a child. she then reveals her true identity to him.Spoiler
kalyba and galianmeg_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was my perfect type of Fantasy. The world building was so well done and well fleshed out, the political intrigue throughout the story had me super engaged, and the action/adventure was interesting. There was also a sapphic romance that was a very slight part of the plot that made me love this even more. I don't fully have words because there is just so much to say about this book in terms of what I enjoyed. I'm not giving this a full five stars because there were large parts of the plot were I think the story lulled and I was generally less interested. For the most part, any plot with Nicklays Roos was less interesting and any portion of the story focused on Tane was less interesting as well up until the second half of the book. However, Ead as a main character was genuinely the best and I loved any second she was on the page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
_dina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Grief, Infertility, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, Violence, War, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic