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fatherprozac's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? It's complicated
4.5
I really enjoyed this book's female characters and the lack of homophobia, racism in relation to skin color, and blatant misogyny (other than that toward Sabran) in the world. It feels very socially modern and so it managed to capture me in a way that many other fantasy books haven't. Overall, a great story. I do wish that Tane's part of the story had been bigger, I found myself frustrated at the clear focus on the West's side of the narrative. I also wish we had seen more of Nayimathun--even the book itself points out how often she and Tane are separated. I also despised the long chapters surrounding Niclays as I personally found him extremely unlikeable--which may have been the point, but they were a chore nonetheless. Finally, the climax of actually fighting the Nameless One was a bit disappointing for me, pretty anticlimactic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Alcohol
rensreading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
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? It's complicated
5.0
i have no idea where to start!! my brain feels like its scattered all over but one thing i can say with full certainty is that: this is one of the best high fantasy stories out there, hands down.
the plot? exquisite! the characters? phenomenal! the progression of relationships? flawless! all the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat!
i think my favorite character would have to be tané. we didn’t get as much of her story as we did the others, true. but she spoke to my soul. a hidden past, seemingly abandoned by her birth parents and taken in by the temple (i’m like 80% sure it was a temple anyway) to learn and train to one day become a rider, having a dragon choose her and call her kin, claiming she has the heart of a dragon all while battling an insurmountable amount of guilt for lives she’s put in danger due to her own ambition. ughhhh i just loved her. i can’t explain it right. just know she’s marvelous and i wish only happy things for her from here on out.
i also love that all the queerness was so casual. the only issue anybody had with queer couples were due to blood heirs and classism. that’s it. so refreshing for two people of the same gender to be together and no one has an issue with it for the mere sake of it. especially in fantasy! you would assume since its all made-up, homophobia wouldn’t be a thing many fantasy stories subscribe to but you would be wrong. i also love that ace and aro also had rep in this. lost of people call this a sapphic fantasy, but that feels like a discredit to all the other queer identities represented in this book.
this is a tome, plain and simple. don’t let its size intimidate you though! once the story has you, its not gonna let go until you’ve read all 800+ pages it has for you. you’ll love it. but if you have trouble reading longer books, divide the book up by parts! it helped me immensely!
and when people say the story really starts to pick up at page 250, they truly were not lying.
5 stars (:
[edited 6/29]
the plot? exquisite! the characters? phenomenal! the progression of relationships? flawless! all the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat!
i think my favorite character would have to be tané. we didn’t get as much of her story as we did the others, true. but she spoke to my soul. a hidden past, seemingly abandoned by her birth parents and taken in by the temple (i’m like 80% sure it was a temple anyway) to learn and train to one day become a rider, having a dragon choose her and call her kin, claiming she has the heart of a dragon all while battling an insurmountable amount of guilt for lives she’s put in danger due to her own ambition. ughhhh i just loved her. i can’t explain it right. just know she’s marvelous and i wish only happy things for her from here on out.
i also love that all the queerness was so casual. the only issue anybody had with queer couples were due to blood heirs and classism. that’s it. so refreshing for two people of the same gender to be together and no one has an issue with it for the mere sake of it. especially in fantasy! you would assume since its all made-up, homophobia wouldn’t be a thing many fantasy stories subscribe to but you would be wrong. i also love that ace and aro also had rep in this. lost of people call this a sapphic fantasy, but that feels like a discredit to all the other queer identities represented in this book.
this is a tome, plain and simple. don’t let its size intimidate you though! once the story has you, its not gonna let go until you’ve read all 800+ pages it has for you. you’ll love it. but if you have trouble reading longer books, divide the book up by parts! it helped me immensely!
and when people say the story really starts to pick up at page 250, they truly were not lying.
5 stars (:
[edited 6/29]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, and Pregnancy
Minor: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
concerning the incest: a character raises a child as her own then ends up falling in love with the child once they are grown. they are, fortunately, not blood related.angstifies's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
if i could give it more than 5 stars i absolutely would, this is easily one of the best books i’ve ever read.
this book was amazing from page one to the very last one, it can seem intimidating because of the number of pages but it’s really not. the pacing is great, the world, religions, dragons and magic in here are all very intriguing and unique, and all the stories in the 4 POVs are soo good, i was never even slightly bored.
i really didn’t expect to love all these characters as much as i did but wow. every one of them was so well crafted, even the side characters always felt real and distinct and i absolutely adored that. my favorite has to be Niclays, i always like a good morally flawed character and his arc was fantastic.
this book was amazing from page one to the very last one, it can seem intimidating because of the number of pages but it’s really not. the pacing is great, the world, religions, dragons and magic in here are all very intriguing and unique, and all the stories in the 4 POVs are soo good, i was never even slightly bored.
i really didn’t expect to love all these characters as much as i did but wow. every one of them was so well crafted, even the side characters always felt real and distinct and i absolutely adored that. my favorite has to be Niclays, i always like a good morally flawed character and his arc was fantastic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Body horror, Infertility, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, and Alcohol
ate_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book was incredible! After buying it with hardly any exposition, I adored it. Not only is the cover beautiful but the writing too and I highly recommend to anyone who loves pirates, dragons, queendoms, adventures and more!
Although I placed this book as medium paced, the length of this book can be a little off putting and the density/complexity of the story can sometimes slow reading and understanding. Despite this though, the story is a fantastical adventure of many different characters who all link together in one plot line, although there seems to a very limited link at the beginning.
Additionally this book is slightly LGBTQIA*+ which is lovely! The representation is well written although it is a slow burn, and it is not the main focal point of the story, so I wouldn’t go into the story just for that.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and, although it was a long text, I found it enjoyable throughout and didn’t want to stop reading.
Although I placed this book as medium paced, the length of this book can be a little off putting and the density/complexity of the story can sometimes slow reading and understanding. Despite this though, the story is a fantastical adventure of many different characters who all link together in one plot line, although there seems to a very limited link at the beginning.
Additionally this book is slightly LGBTQIA*+ which is lovely! The representation is well written although it is a slow burn, and it is not the main focal point of the story, so I wouldn’t go into the story just for that.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and, although it was a long text, I found it enjoyable throughout and didn’t want to stop reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail
nila's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
4.0
Really loved the style of Shannon's writing. This was a great stand-alone fantasy (I really hope there's no sequel). I LOVED the different character arcs and the richness of the world-building. However, I do wish there was a better balance between the build-up and the actual reveals of key moments in the story. I felt there was soooo much build-up, but when it came to the actual reveals themselves, it was over in a few pages (for example Tané's final battle to become a rider)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Classism
lucithefer's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Outing, and Alcohol
leona's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I let this book sit for a bit before I wrote a full review, because I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it or what I wanted to write. Now, I'm still not sure what I want to write and I barely even remember how I feel about this book, not to mention I've forgotten like half of the plot and characters, and maybe that already sums up the majority of my feeling towards this book. Prepare for a big long rant.
Firstly, the characters. For the first half of the book, the only character I vaguely cared about was Niclays, the alchemist, because he had some interesting backstory and potential villain arc. He also had a few witty one-liners and was a pretty funny character at the start. My main problem was that we were introduced to like 100 characters in the first 100 pages. The beginning was so incredibly slow and boring, despite having a good opening couple of chapters, because every page damn it I was introduced to another 5 characters, with long, uninteresting and complicated names that I couldn't even remember. Now half of these characters are important for the later story, and half of them never show up again. This slows start made some of the plot reveals later completely uninteresting and almost irrelevant, for example, Igrain Crest being named as the traitor or whatever it was, because I didn't even remember who this Crest lady was and had no feelings towards her at all. Some of the characters became more interesting towards the end, I liked Ead and Tame, was meh towards Loth and still enjoyed Niclays arc. My god the scene where he finds out that Truyde is also dead is pretty heartbreaking. But I still didn't really feel that connected to any of the characters. For the majority of the first half to 2/3 of the book I found myself thinking, why do I care? I don't care whether they defeat the Nameless One, and I don't care if these characters die. Speaking of the Nameless One, this is another reason I found myself not caring. Our central villain to the plot barely makes an appearance until the tiny battle at the end and it has no motivations for being evil. It just is. No satisfying moral greyness, it's just evil because it is, but we don't really see it being that evil, no. The evil people are mostly the humans in the book doing things for the name of their religion or occasionally a 'wyrm' that comes in the nick of time to cause some chaos.
Now that brings me on to character deaths... Now, I feel quite mixed on this front. Some of them were good, and some of them were not. Most were used for shock value, and again, most of them I didn't really care about because I had no strong connections to any of the characters in the story, let alone the dead side characters. I found Kit's death, Truyde's, Sulyard's and Sabran's prince fella (sorry can't remember his name) to be relatively sad and I think the characters reactions to their friends death's were relatively realistic (but their could have been more grieving with some characters). Death's like Susa's (Tame's friend) however, were so egh. I don't care that you have told me she was your childhood friend. I've only seen you interact with her twice when you unloaded a criminal on her to preserve your own future. I don't care about Turosa your childhood bully, all he did was give you a few mean comments and he was never mentioned again. And there were no deaths in the main cast particularly either. And some parts were so messy.
Eg: When I thought Nayimathun had died (cause she was bleeding and just fell in the ocean after saying her last words or whatever) and just springs out magically alive to save Tame's arse again. Okay fine, the water saved you and now you're alive again. Great.
Or Margaret's fella, did he die? I don't think he did because it said he would live with a scar, but then Loth bursts in and says 'He's gone' or something and I'm like who? I think he meant the Nameless One but I was just confused.
And then that ending. WHAT THE HELL. Is Tame dead or not? Why has she woken up with a bloody great gash in her side? With absolutely no explanation at all! This is meant to be a stand-alone! What? I was pissed off.
Action: there was some, most of it came when the 'wyrms' decided to show up out of nowhere because the author felt like she needed to make the plot more interesting. However, the pirates that I didn't care about at the start at all actually became quite interesting and the plot line with Tame at the end was pretty cool. I also enjoyed the final battle although I think it was too short (it was only like 20 pages after about 700 pages of build-up. Generally, I don't feel like this was a very action-heavy story.
Now I must talk about something else, the quote on the back claiming this is a 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. Now I can see some similarities between this story and the Lord of the Rings including the ancient evil that hasn't really got any motivations for being evil, the magical items that will save the world, and the large cast of characters but really, it's nothing like it at all. I hate these kind of quotes on books. And just because it has a cast of characters including some strong women and a queendom, it doesn't make it necessarily feminist. Sure there were a few good quotes and one-liners but mostly this was about a woman running a queendom still in the wake of a patriarchy. The ideas of religion and how religious views can conflict with others I thought were pretty interesting. I just felt there needed to be more, more 'feminist' stuff, more character development.
Overall, I was going to rate this book 3.5 stars, but I decided to lower it to a 2, which on goodreads equates to: 'it was ok'. And it was. It was just ok. And considering this long rant review I really just couldn't justify giving it 3.5.
Firstly, the characters. For the first half of the book, the only character I vaguely cared about was Niclays, the alchemist, because he had some interesting backstory and potential villain arc. He also had a few witty one-liners and was a pretty funny character at the start. My main problem was that we were introduced to like 100 characters in the first 100 pages. The beginning was so incredibly slow and boring, despite having a good opening couple of chapters, because every page damn it I was introduced to another 5 characters, with long, uninteresting and complicated names that I couldn't even remember. Now half of these characters are important for the later story, and half of them never show up again. This slows start made some of the plot reveals later completely uninteresting and almost irrelevant,
Now that brings me on to character deaths... Now, I feel quite mixed on this front. Some of them were good, and some of them were not. Most were used for shock value, and again, most of them I didn't really care about because I had no strong connections to any of the characters in the story,
Eg: When I thought Nayimathun had died (cause she was bleeding and just fell in the ocean after saying her last words or whatever) and just springs out magically alive to save Tame's arse again. Okay fine, the water saved you and now you're alive again. Great.
Or Margaret's fella, did he die? I don't think he did because it said he would live with a scar, but then Loth bursts in and says 'He's gone' or something and I'm like who? I think he meant the Nameless One but I was just confused.
And then that ending. WHAT THE HELL. Is Tame dead or not? Why has she woken up with a bloody great gash in her side? With absolutely no explanation at all! This is meant to be a stand-alone! What? I was pissed off.
Action: there was some, most of it came when the 'wyrms' decided to show up out of nowhere because the author felt like she needed to make the plot more interesting. However, the pirates that I didn't care about at the start at all actually became quite interesting and the plot line with Tame at the end was pretty cool. I also enjoyed the final battle although I think it was too short (it was only like 20 pages after about 700 pages of build-up. Generally, I don't feel like this was a very action-heavy story.
Now I must talk about something else, the quote on the back claiming this is a 'feminist Lord of the Rings'. Now I can see some similarities between this story and the Lord of the Rings including the ancient evil that hasn't really got any motivations for being evil, the magical items that will save the world, and the large cast of characters but really, it's nothing like it at all. I hate these kind of quotes on books. And just because it has a cast of characters including some strong women and a queendom, it doesn't make it necessarily feminist. Sure there were a few good quotes and one-liners but mostly this was about a woman running a queendom still in the wake of a patriarchy. The ideas of religion and how religious views can conflict with others I thought were pretty interesting. I just felt there needed to be more, more 'feminist' stuff, more character development.
Overall, I was going to rate this book 3.5 stars, but I decided to lower it to a 2, which on goodreads equates to: 'it was ok'. And it was. It was just ok. And considering this long rant review I really just couldn't justify giving it 3.5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
Minor: Cursing and Sexual content
liaandersson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Where to begin?..
This could quite well be the best fantasy that I have ever read. There are tons of aspects which I adored and it is easier, for both you and I, if I take it in order.
Religion: Virtudom and the South have religions stemming from the same historical people, the differences being how these people are portrayed and what their acknowledged accomplishments were. These religious differences put a strain to the fragile relationship between the South and Virtudom. I think this is a terrific analogy of how for example, the real world has countries fighting over which is the one true religion, when the truth is there is no single right one. All of them are right, if they are right for a certain individual. I hope you will understand my sentiment once you have read it, I have a hard time conveying the message through writing.
Mislabeling: There are several instances where foreigners (in relation to the ethnic group discussed) call certain groups by derogatory terms or even slurs. It is, in my opinion, a well-executed representation of modern slurs as well as the misgendering of queer people. The reoccurring scenario where one 'foreign' individual calls another by a negative slur/term, which is then corrected as if someone was misgendered.
Queer: There is plenty of LGB representation among the main cast, as well as scattered information about historical figures and secondary characters. Still, there are no canon trans characters, even though I imagine some of them to be such. Other than the L, G AND B there is not much representation to see in regards of ace/aro, polyamory, intersex, trans and so on.
History: I loved how the history of the fictional world was incorporated as storytellings between characters, and other creative solutions. It took me a hundred pages or so to connect the dots between all the historical people and their relevance, but a bit of switching from the index back to the story here and there eventually solved all of those problems. It was all very much worth it before I even got halfway through the book.
Worldbuildning: Shannon managed to incorporate western, eastern and African fantasy. I loved to see how they all interacted with each other and enhanced one another. I don't believe I can have much to say about whether it was well represented or not, but I do hope it was done as best as could be.
A fair warning that this book, at least in my opinion, is more driven by the characters than by the plot. Due to this, I have heard the common opinion that the ending of the book is quite abrupt, while I think it is quite satisfactory, from the perspective of the character's developmental arcs.
Have a fun read!
Religion: Virtudom and the South have religions stemming from the same historical people, the differences being how these people are portrayed and what their acknowledged accomplishments were. These religious differences put a strain to the fragile relationship between the South and Virtudom. I think this is a terrific analogy of how for example, the real world has countries fighting over which is the one true religion, when the truth is there is no single right one. All of them are right, if they are right for a certain individual. I hope you will understand my sentiment once you have read it, I have a hard time conveying the message through writing.
Mislabeling: There are several instances where foreigners (in relation to the ethnic group discussed) call certain groups by derogatory terms or even slurs. It is, in my opinion, a well-executed representation of modern slurs as well as the misgendering of queer people. The reoccurring scenario where one 'foreign' individual calls another by a negative slur/term, which is then corrected as if someone was misgendered.
Queer: There is plenty of LGB representation among the main cast, as well as scattered information about historical figures and secondary characters. Still, there are no canon trans characters, even though I imagine some of them to be such. Other than the L, G AND B there is not much representation to see in regards of ace/aro, polyamory, intersex, trans and so on.
History: I loved how the history of the fictional world was incorporated as storytellings between characters, and other creative solutions. It took me a hundred pages or so to connect the dots between all the historical people and their relevance, but a bit of switching from the index back to the story here and there eventually solved all of those problems. It was all very much worth it before I even got halfway through the book.
Worldbuildning: Shannon managed to incorporate western, eastern and African fantasy. I loved to see how they all interacted with each other and enhanced one another. I don't believe I can have much to say about whether it was well represented or not, but I do hope it was done as best as could be.
A fair warning that this book, at least in my opinion, is more driven by the characters than by the plot. Due to this, I have heard the common opinion that the ending of the book is quite abrupt, while I think it is quite satisfactory, from the perspective of the character's developmental arcs.
Have a fun read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Religious bigotry
storykath's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
4.0
I ended up having very mixed feelings about this book, but overall I enjoyed it enough to give it a high rating.
Things I loved:
Dragons!! Good and evil dragons! Yes! Any story with dragons is going to capture my imagination, and I loved the variety of dragons and the characters' attitudes towards them, which felt real and engaging.
Multiple POVs: with this being such a long book with so many things happening, it was refreshing to cycle through multiple characters/locations/plots. This also meant that it took longer to feel like I had a good handle on all the moving parts in the novel, but it came together seamlessly enough as I went on.
Going along with that point, I found the pacing to be smooth and engaging. I've seen mixed reviews about the pacing of Priory, but it all felt natural to me. Of course the pace varied depending on what was happening, but it rarely felt out of control.
I have mixed feelings about:
The worldbuilding. Some aspects of the worldbuilding had wonderful nuance and ingenuity; I loved the concept of the dragonriders and the division of the East from the rest of the world. Other areas came across as more hastily put together. While kingdoms like Yscalin, the Erysr (really anything that wasn't Seiiki or Inys) are less relevant to the story, we only really learned surface-level details about them, and it often felt like they existed in service of the more central locations. The naming of places and characters was a mixed bag for me too - there are wonderfully unique names like Eadaz and Sabran alongside names like Margret and Arbella that jarred me with their similarity to real-world names. Additionally, the themes of politics and religion swung from 'insightful and nuanced and thought-provoking' to 'simplistic and rushed and unrealistic', although I will say that they fell into the former category more often.
On a similar worldbuilding note, the queer representation was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I was very much looking forward to reading a queer-inclusive fantasy, and we did get established M/M and F/F relationships. Minor spoilers ahead in my issues with these relationships. I was disappointed that both queer romances fell into a 'forbidden love' trope. If Shannon wants to establish that queer relationships are normalized in this universe, it would have been effective to have at least one character in a current, non-secret, same-gender relationship. I think there was one nobleman who made a passing mention to his husband, but I can hardly count that. I often found myself getting confused about whether it was the power difference between the partners that was the issue, or if it was the queerness, since the latter is a more accessible example in the real world. The relationship between Ead and Sabran was wonderful to read and very sweet, and while I know the book wasn't focused on the romance, I wish that more time could have been spent developing their relationship beyond just being romantic/sensual together. I feel like we missed out on seeing them just...being people in a relationship in the everyday sense.
The writing style itself. There was some absolutely beautiful prose in this novel, and I generally quite enjoyed the descriptions of architecture, nature, sensations, etc. At other times, especially in the description of emotions or characters, the writing felt clunky and tell-y (as opposed to show-y). I was immersed in the narrative one minute, and the next I was completely removed by a sentence or description that felt glaringly juvenile or simple. In a novel as long and complex as this one, there are a lot of opportunities for inconsistencies in character behaviour and writing style to come in and cause issues, and I feel that Priory fell victim to this at times.
Deaths for the purpose of other characters' development. I can understand that character death was inevitable in this novel, given the events of the story. However, many of the deaths of supporting characters felt like they occurred purely as a device to advance the plot or provide some kind of fuel for a main character. See Arbella dying to free up a spot among the Ladies of the Bedchamber, Kit dying in a random avalanche to harden Loth up, Susa dying to weigh Tané with guilt. Before their deaths, I had interest in these characters, where they'd go, what they'd do, but their deaths felt out of place and made me feel as though those characters had little purpose in the actual narrative.
Final thoughts
This is a beast of a book (approx. 16 hours of reading for me), and while it didn't meet all of my expectations, it was an accessible fantasy with an engaging premise, diverse characters, and a dynamic plot. I couldn't always totally lose myself in the story as a result of some of its shortcomings, but it's one that I would read again in order to pick up on more details and see more clearly how the strings of the narrative pull together.
Things I loved:
Dragons!! Good and evil dragons! Yes! Any story with dragons is going to capture my imagination, and I loved the variety of dragons and the characters' attitudes towards them, which felt real and engaging.
Multiple POVs: with this being such a long book with so many things happening, it was refreshing to cycle through multiple characters/locations/plots. This also meant that it took longer to feel like I had a good handle on all the moving parts in the novel, but it came together seamlessly enough as I went on.
Going along with that point, I found the pacing to be smooth and engaging. I've seen mixed reviews about the pacing of Priory, but it all felt natural to me. Of course the pace varied depending on what was happening, but it rarely felt out of control.
I have mixed feelings about:
The worldbuilding. Some aspects of the worldbuilding had wonderful nuance and ingenuity; I loved the concept of the dragonriders and the division of the East from the rest of the world. Other areas came across as more hastily put together. While kingdoms like Yscalin, the Erysr (really anything that wasn't Seiiki or Inys) are less relevant to the story, we only really learned surface-level details about them, and it often felt like they existed in service of the more central locations. The naming of places and characters was a mixed bag for me too - there are wonderfully unique names like Eadaz and Sabran alongside names like Margret and Arbella that jarred me with their similarity to real-world names. Additionally, the themes of politics and religion swung from 'insightful and nuanced and thought-provoking' to 'simplistic and rushed and unrealistic', although I will say that they fell into the former category more often.
On a similar worldbuilding note, the queer representation was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I was very much looking forward to reading a queer-inclusive fantasy, and we did get established M/M and F/F relationships. Minor spoilers ahead in my issues with these relationships.
The writing style itself. There was some absolutely beautiful prose in this novel, and I generally quite enjoyed the descriptions of architecture, nature, sensations, etc. At other times, especially in the description of emotions or characters, the writing felt clunky and tell-y (as opposed to show-y). I was immersed in the narrative one minute, and the next I was completely removed by a sentence or description that felt glaringly juvenile or simple. In a novel as long and complex as this one, there are a lot of opportunities for inconsistencies in character behaviour and writing style to come in and cause issues, and I feel that Priory fell victim to this at times.
Deaths for the purpose of other characters' development. I can understand that character death was inevitable in this novel, given the events of the story. However, many of the deaths of supporting characters felt like they occurred purely as a device to advance the plot or provide some kind of fuel for a main character.
Final thoughts
This is a beast of a book (approx. 16 hours of reading for me), and while it didn't meet all of my expectations, it was an accessible fantasy with an engaging premise, diverse characters, and a dynamic plot. I couldn't always totally lose myself in the story as a result of some of its shortcomings, but it's one that I would read again in order to pick up on more details and see more clearly how the strings of the narrative pull together.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Classism