Book Review: ‘The Priory Of The Orange Tree’ by Samantha Shannon

Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: 26th February 2019
Genre/Age Group:  Fantasy, Adult, LGBT, Epic Fantasy
Format:  Hardcover (848 pages)
Source: Uncorrected Proof (Sent by publisher in exchange for an honest review)
Rating: 

(This review is spoiler free, however, may contain spoilers for previous books)

Synopsis

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

How does one write a cohesive review for potentially the best book they’ve ever read?

Answer; they don’t. Or at least they try to and it comes out in a mass of incoherent babbling. But, for the sake of this fantastic book, I’m going to try my best to get through. Because, absolutely everyone deserves to know about it. Especially those of you who love a good fantasy.

Samantha weaves a story so magnificent in both imagination and scope that it will truly leave you in awe. We learn about the land as a whole, but the main focus comes down to the Queendom of Inys. That’s right, Queendom. Samantha has completely changed the game in a genre and industry that you could argue is primarily ruled by male authors. From naming the focal empire in this novel a ‘Queendom‘ to providing us with real female characters, she shows us that no matter who we are or what lies in our shadows, we are strong and we are enough.

Priory also contains a lot of representation throughout it’s pages. Samantha ensures that within a massive group of characters, there’s a maintaining balance of sexual orientation and genders alike. Absolutely every detail is covered in this book and every character is represented in a just and fair manner.

No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.

If you’ve seen pictures of this book, or seen it in your local bookstore then you are well aware that this book is an absolute behemoth. It reaches just under 850 pages of fantastical story telling following four main perspectives; Ead (AY-ad), Loth, Tané (TA-neh) and Niclays. Ead and Loth tell their story from the West whilst Tané and Niclays tell their story from the East. I should mention that they’re written in third point perspective, which definitely works best for a story this large in scope.

The characters that Samantha created for this book are equally diverse in terms of sexuality and race, even within the smaller group of the four protagonists. The characterisation throughout the book was so complex and real (I can’t say that enough). Every character had their own strengths, their own flaws and their own demons to deal with and I cannot applaud Samantha enough for how effectively she wrote these. There were truly points in this book where I was tearing up. Not fangirl-y sobbing! Actual genuine tears were forming in my eyes when I learned of the internal conflicts and self doubts some characters faced. If you think you have felt remorse for fictional characters before, you’re about to experience it on a whole new level with Priory. There were definitely characters I felt more remorse towards than others, but by the end of this behemoth book each character had a well rounded development arc that definitely had me shedding tears at some point throughout it.

Sabran Berethnet (Ber-ETH-net) is a character that I’d personally like to mention as I really enjoyed how she was written in the story. She reigns as Queen of Inys, and she is an inspiration. Truly. You could also consider her as a fifth protagonist, however, at no point in the story do we get her perspective. The story is told from the characters around her and that’s something I really don’t think I’ve experienced before when reading a fantasy book. It’s entirely unique and I loved getting to learn more about this incredible woman through other character’s eyes.

For the majority of the story, the protagonists are following their own paths and journeys, and don’t particularly know much of each other unless they have been previously working together or acquainted. This does mean there is a lot of jumping around when it comes to the perspectives. But, looking back at the story as a whole, Samantha seamlessly leads us from chapter to chapter, from character to character, without causing the reader to feel jarred. However, a selection of chapters did end on some mighty cliffhangers, but that only made me want to read more and more.

Let’s take a moment to mention the dragons too. Because, when the Dragons can talk and have their own personalities, they are considered characters. You read that right. The dragons can talk. Some are evil and reign with fire. Some are good and rule as kind, yet fierce gods in the East. If you’re not already in awe from how cool that all sounds, let me hit you with this last fact; some of the dragons are bioluminescent! Pretty wicked, right?

You know how a knight rescued a princess from a dragon and … lived happily ever after. Everything you know is false.

When it comes to the world building in this book, I truly struggle for words. It’s absolutely no secret that Samantha spent months researching different time periods and cultures for this novel. Each domain was entirely inspired by a different culture and time period from the world that we know. For example; Yscalin, I believe, was inspired by Spain during the civil war, Inys was inspired by Elizabethan England, and Seiiki was inspired by Japanese folklore. Samantha travelled to Japan to learn more about this in the hopes that she would stay true to their lore, which is true dedication! The novel as a whole is inspired around the myth of ‘George and the Dragon‘, which Samantha delved deep into research about too, before she created her own version of it through this book.

Below you can see the maps created for Priory by the incredibly talented Emily Faccini, who (fun fact) is the sister of Cressida Cowell, creator of the ‘How to Train your Dragon‘ series. So much Dragon goodness!

‘The Priory of the Orange Tree‘ should win an award for how goddamn spectacular it is. I completely agree with Laure Eve’s quote on the front of the UK edition which reads, “Deserves to be as big as Game of Thrones.” Because, it absolutely does. With this book, Samantha Shannon has smashed her way onto the list of what could be known as the best Fantasy novels of all time. It ticks all the boxes in regards to what people may look for in an Epic Fantasy, and will definitely leave you wanting more.

Vast, vibrant and detailed world building? Check. A group of real and diverse characters that practically leap off the page? Check. Potential for more stories? Check, and a very hopeful ‘check‘ at that. Dragons? Check, check, check!

When history fails to shed light on the truth, myth creates its own.

No book has ever left me as speechless as this one has. Not even my favourite book/series which just so happens to be Samantha Shannon’s other works, ‘The Bone Season‘ series. After that, I definitely had so much to say and things to talk about. But not with Priory. I was lost for words when I finished this book and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fathom what I read. ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree‘ is a masterpiece, and I have no doubts in my mind that Samantha Shannon will be the next reigning Queen of Fantasy.

Have you read ‘Priory of the Orange Tree‘? What did you think? And, I’d love to know, if you had a Dragon, what would you call it?

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