Recent Reads: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 
Series: The Roots of Chaos #1
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date:  February 26, 2019

 

Format: Ebook and Audible Audiobook
Source: Bought/ Own

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

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 to be a dragonrider since she was a child, 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: 

There is so much hype surrounding this book... and I bought into it but it also sounded wonderful. I feel like I heard so much about this book and how great it was but also nothing really about it... The plot for a while was a mystery to me. Priory is a fantasy about a world where dragons exist and are gods, where the various cultures are divided by religion and cuture, and there is doom on the horizon for them all. 

The book is told in by alternating between the East and the West, and then within those realms, we get two POVs from each - Tane and Roos from the East, and Ead and Arteloth in the West. I fully expected far more dragons, but they came in waves and sparingly for the most part. However, the intertwining of Eastern Chinese style dragons and the more lizard-esq fantasy dragons was really well done, and it was cool to see them all co-exist. 

Dragons aside, the overall plot was a lot to take in. I wanted either more or less and I wasn't sure which would be ideal. I wanted more descriptions to guide me and possibly less politics... it was a struggle. But what I mean to say is that this book could have either been cut down quite a bit or made into a duology pretty well and it could have been better with some cutting or some expansion. I felt like I wanted so much more from this world-build because I was so amazed by it and wanted more,  and I really enjoyed it. It was epic and fantastical and the adventures/ journeys people were sent out on were wonderful and foreboding. (all of which I loved).

I also loved the representation, there were characters of all colors, there were straight, gay, and lesbian romances. Overall, the characters were really enjoyable. I found myslef loving the sections about the East, then falling more in love with the Western side, and then back again because of the character's stories. (I wanted more of Tane and was sad that it felt like she was written less as the book progressed.) One point that I don't think is brought up a lot is that the praised Sapphic romance, while great rep., was an interesting dynamic as well. Ead is a black character and she is in a position of servant to the Queen... they fall for each other, but in this servant/served capacity it made their romance seem ungenuine in some ways. The characters bring it up briefly, i.e. 'you only act like this because you have to', but it didn't really address the issue. And maybe this is a non-issue for some, but it felt weird to me.

Overall, I felt like race and class throughout were not well developed and I think it could have helped the character development, but the plot was interesting and layered in a wonderful way. The fantasy elements were well done and I had the feels of Lord of the Rings at times, which is good. I really liked the ending, it was very togetherness themeded and it was a really fun read.