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4.26 AVERAGE
4.26 AVERAGE
Wow, where do I start?
Story telling excellent, despite the fact that there were 4 main story tellers, the story kept moving and didn't get confusing.
Length too long. This is at least two books in one. It didn't have to be 804 pages long.
World building lazy. Ok, a book about women doing awesome things, including a line of queens that has been unbroken for 1000 years. Why are the nobles (in that court) wearing corsets and many petticoats? Nice that women can and do occupy all sorts of roles in the story (soldiers, guards, doctors, pirate lords, etc), but why didn't the author consider what this would mean to fashion for those women? In a non-Christian world, why is queerness not fully accepted? Where are the disabled people, and the trans and gender diverse people? Nice that not everyone was white though. Weird blend of technology. 1000 years since the last cataclysm and we're now at the level of muscats, but with people preferring melee weapons. Anatomy is well understood and doctors are decently qualified, but we're not at the level of steam technology. That just doesn't make sense. Human technological development moves pretty quickly and it's generally plagues, political instability and war that keeps nations from moving forward. There is no indication that since the cataclysm that any of those have happened in a manner which would slow the technology growth.
Anyway, read for the story but make sure your brain is fully disengaged so you don't ask lots of questions.
Story telling excellent, despite the fact that there were 4 main story tellers, the story kept moving and didn't get confusing.
Length too long. This is at least two books in one. It didn't have to be 804 pages long.
World building lazy. Ok, a book about women doing awesome things, including a line of queens that has been unbroken for 1000 years. Why are the nobles (in that court) wearing corsets and many petticoats? Nice that women can and do occupy all sorts of roles in the story (soldiers, guards, doctors, pirate lords, etc), but why didn't the author consider what this would mean to fashion for those women? In a non-Christian world, why is queerness not fully accepted? Where are the disabled people, and the trans and gender diverse people? Nice that not everyone was white though. Weird blend of technology. 1000 years since the last cataclysm and we're now at the level of muscats, but with people preferring melee weapons. Anatomy is well understood and doctors are decently qualified, but we're not at the level of steam technology. That just doesn't make sense. Human technological development moves pretty quickly and it's generally plagues, political instability and war that keeps nations from moving forward. There is no indication that since the cataclysm that any of those have happened in a manner which would slow the technology growth.
Anyway, read for the story but make sure your brain is fully disengaged so you don't ask lots of questions.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It should not have taken 380 pages (out of 804) for the book to start getting interesting.
There was a lot of repetitive scenes and arguements, and personally a good 250 pages could've been deleted for it's uselessness. Made the book longer and dragged for no reason.
I wish there was more time on page with Tanè, she was important to the plot too yet with how little page time she had, it was almost like she was a filler character. Even plain jane Sabran had more pages than her. Tanè is and will forever be that badass bitch, all hail Tanè 🙇🏽♀️
Also the way the end battle with The Nameless One was given soooooo much hype and how difficult it would be, and then he just ends up being defeated in like 40 pages in the easiest way possible was dumb.
If I rate the characters without giving away anything it would be as so:
Tanè and Ead - 5*
Meg, Loth and Nicalys - 4*
Sabran - 3*
Kalyba - girlie get a life honestly - 2*
The Nameless One - overhyped and underwhelming, especially because of how easily he was defeated - 1*
Special mentions to daddy Chassar
To conclude, I will not be continuing on the series.
There was a lot of repetitive scenes and arguements, and personally a good 250 pages could've been deleted for it's uselessness. Made the book longer and dragged for no reason.
I wish there was more time on page with Tanè, she was important to the plot too yet with how little page time she had, it was almost like she was a filler character. Even plain jane Sabran had more pages than her. Tanè is and will forever be that badass bitch, all hail Tanè 🙇🏽♀️
If I rate the characters without giving away anything it would be as so:
Tanè and Ead - 5*
Meg, Loth and Nicalys - 4*
Sabran - 3*
The Nameless One - overhyped and underwhelming, especially because of how easily he was defeated - 1*
Special mentions to daddy Chassar
To conclude, I will not be continuing on the series.
adventurous
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
Dragons. Lesbians. Found family. Great plot and world building. We’ve got it all folks.
I got a WICKED sunburn reading this because I was so absorbed I lost all track of time.
(This was a reread for me because I managed to forget 99% of the book and just remembered I’d had a good time reading it. SO glad I did. I’m now ready for books 2 and 3.)
I got a WICKED sunburn reading this because I was so absorbed I lost all track of time.
(This was a reread for me because I managed to forget 99% of the book and just remembered I’d had a good time reading it. SO glad I did. I’m now ready for books 2 and 3.)
such a cutie yet detailed fantasy book with queer main characters cmon
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
I wavered a lot on what rating to give this book. On one hand, I never thought I could get through such a long book so quickly— it was impossible to put down. The world felt so rich and alive, and the characters realistic and grounded in their world. The narrative was so tightly constructed, each story beat leading perfectly to the next.
On the other hand, this is not perfect book. There were a few too many italicised, single-line, significant names/words (Cupbearer. Kalyba. Stagnant.) and after a while I got tired of the repetitive “instinct told her…” “somehow he knew…”. I’ll admit, I’m not crazy about Tané being a secret descendent of Neporo, when it meant so much to her character that she was from a peasant family (Before the reveal, I was really leaning towards the idea that one of the dragon riding teachers sewed the jewel into her side without her knowledge, and that was part of why she had been allowed into the House. I still think that could have been a really interesting thing for her to grapple with, but oh well.). Towards the end, some parts felt a little infodump-y, or rushed, like they could have done with more time to elaborate on why they were important (which is impressive in an 800-page book).
But, despite all that… I just loved it. Priory wasn’t perfect, but I would be doing a disservice to the author, to myself, and to how much I enjoyed this book to rate it any lower than 5 stars.
On the other hand, this is not perfect book. There were a few too many italicised, single-line, significant names/words (Cupbearer. Kalyba. Stagnant.) and after a while I got tired of the repetitive “instinct told her…” “somehow he knew…”. I’ll admit, I’m not crazy about Tané being a secret descendent of Neporo, when it meant so much to her character that she was from a peasant family (Before the reveal, I was really leaning towards the idea that one of the dragon riding teachers sewed the jewel into her side without her knowledge, and that was part of why she had been allowed into the House. I still think that could have been a really interesting thing for her to grapple with, but oh well.). Towards the end, some parts felt a little infodump-y, or rushed, like they could have done with more time to elaborate on why they were important (which is impressive in an 800-page book).
But, despite all that… I just loved it. Priory wasn’t perfect, but I would be doing a disservice to the author, to myself, and to how much I enjoyed this book to rate it any lower than 5 stars.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
challenging
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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:
No
adventurous
challenging
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:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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