Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Priory of the Orange Tree

This book was soooo beautiful. Every part of it was stunningly crafted - the world, the characters, the story, the prose. It is very long but every word feels both necessary and worth reading. It never felt slow or dragging, despite the length and amount of pages it takes to set the stage. The details of the world are unveiled at just the right pace to not feel overwhelmed, but to always have a clear sense of what is happening and what the world looks like.

The only minor issue I had was that the deaths along the way felt kind of… pointless. It was like an editor said “something needs to die” and Shannon just went “fine this guy has no purpose, I’ll abruptly kill him off here.” Similarly all the major fights/battles were somewhat abrupt - over before I could get really excited about them. For such a high stakes war it felt like there was very little sacrifice and not quite enough struggle in the final battle to pull out victory. Buuut that’s honestly a minor quibble because the book is really about how they GOT to the final battle, and that was indeed very intricate and difficult.

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charlee92's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

whew. I did it. I'm not a stranger to long books but this one is not very digestible. I understand a lot of world building needs to be done, but with 4 different plots happening alongside each other having this being broken into 2 books would have been better.

So much time was wasted on the building and fluff parts that it felt almost all of the big parts were to short, too quick. the climax just immediately tanks, if it even really builds all the way to the climax.

I saw another reviewer say inelegant and I feel that is perfect to describe this.

the dragons were cool, I like the characters. it just felt like a slog because of the length vs plot struggle. I thought about giving it a 3 but then I was like I am not sure I would really recommend this.

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literatureandlattes2022's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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theirgracegrace's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

The size may look daunting at first, but the depth and wealth of this book is beyond that of many series, much less individual books. Priory is an epic fantasy that stretches across a world divided by their love or and hatred for dragons. In the West, a handmaiden to a queen protects her from a plot while nursing hidden secrets of her own, and a young man is sent on a dangerous mission to an enemy land. In the East, a young woman trains to be the next dragon rider of her people and an old alchemist in exile seeks eternal life in a foreign land. The story travels the length and breadth of the world, culminating in an epic battle to determine the fate of the world. My only gripe with this amazing book was that certain plotlines were solved a bit too quickly and handily in order to get to those end chapters, and everyone seems to be able to speak each other's language with very little explanation. Absolutely cinematic-quality descriptions, heart-wrenching moments, surprise reversals and twists of fate make this a book for every fantasy lover out there.

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theemeraldflame's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

Did not live up to expectations. Not a bad story by any stretch, but I didn’t find it an enjoyable one either. From a longtime lover of epic fantasy, this one was… fine. A decent mix of Arthurian legend and Eastern Asian myth, but fairly predictable all the way through.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense 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

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caitonline's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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? No

4.5

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fizzymilk22's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Book is so good it got me back into reading books again immediately despite being a super dense 800 page long fantasy novel. I love how it takes a seemingly generic fantasy setup and uses it to examine human flaws and societal issues in such an interesting and natural way OH GOD it's so amazing. This has to be one of the best casts of characters I've ever seen in this kind of story, they're all so individually compelling but they compliment each other when together as well. Please read this I'm begging you

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