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elissabrady's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Alcoholism and Sexism
Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Grief
Minor: Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Torture, and War
t1namh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Infertility
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Incest and Sexual assault
m4rtt4's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.0
If you like detailed fantasy worlds with diverse cultures and an extremely slowly burning plot (with even smaller and slower sprinkles of queer relationships), this might be just the right book for you. If you like anything concise, consider skipping.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and War
Moderate: Infertility, Sexual content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Miscarriage
guessgreenleaf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, and Grief
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Suicide, Mental illness, Death of parent, Blood, and Alcoholism
rachelditty's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
I wish the final battle had dragged on for a while longer--it seemed way too short in my opinion. I also really wish Sabran had gotten to deliver the final blow with Ascalon. Don't get me wrong, Tane and Ead tag-teaming the Nameless One was cool, but I wanted Sabran to get her own sort of liberation from this beast that had been haunting her childhood and her childbed since she could remember. I wish it had been Tane and Ead with the stones and Sabran with Ascalon.
I also want to know SO MUCH MORE about Cleolind and Galian--I know the next book is about the Grief of Ages, but I hope the third installment is just about Cleolind and Galian and Kalyba. I want to know so much more about them. I couldn't help but feel bad for Galian when we got to know more about his history, how the woman who raised him had tricked him in such an awful way. I also felt bad for Kalyba when she was killed, because she did treat Sabran with this strange, saccrine kindness, and did seem almost remorseful about what she was doing. I want more of these three. And about the three trees!!
I'll be honest, I wasn't as hooked on Sabran and Ead's relationship as I wanted to be. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I know my friend REALLY loves them; I don't know why they didn't get me the same way.
The endings for all the characters felt very fitting. I'm glad Tane and Niamythun are still riding, and that she's getting to hunt down the Golden Empress. I thought Niclays was going to die at the end of the book, but I'm really glad I was wrong. Loth being implied to be in cahoots with the now-queen Marosa was unexpected, but I liked it. And Ead getting to be Prioress? Yes.
Overall a very enticing read that was just fast enough to keep me interested but still detailed enough that I was able to put pieces together alongside the characters. Really cool. Excited to read the sequel!
Some quotes I liked:
"'All stories grow from a seed of truth,' Tryude said. 'They are knowledge after figuration,'" (p. 21).
"Her heart was a trapped butterfly. The water in you is cold, her teacher had once told her. When you hold a weapon, you become a faceless ghost. You give nothing away," (p. 121).
"'You have not seen death, my lord. You have only seen the mask we put on it," (p. 127).
"'You wear so much armor by daylight that, by night, you can carry it no longer. By night, you are only flesh. And even the flesh of a queen is prone to fear,'" (p. 203).
"'Can we not both agree that no more of her friends should be cut from her side?'" (p. 205).
"'Damn you to the womb of fire.'
Sigoso smiled. 'I am there,' he said, 'and it is paradise,'" (p. 218).
"The roar of the crowd grew so loud, so fast, that it seemed to Ead to transcend sound and attain a physicality," (p. 293).
"'The threat comes from beneath, not from afar,'" (p. 309).
"'You have let me unburden myself, even though my fears are selfish. The Damsel has granted me the child I begged of her, and all I can do is... quake,'" (p. 330).
"'...the love of your life was an abject coward even as a boy. I fear death too much to seek it.'
'Well, I can only be grateful for the softness of your spine. I confess to fearing your death, too.'
'I remind you that you are two years my senior, and that the arithmetic of death is against you.'
Jannart smiled. 'Let us not speak of death when there is still so much life to be lived,'" (p. 346).
"'If I had convinced myself I was no sinner, I would never have kissed the lips I long to kiss,'' (p. 347).
"'I don't want to carry on! Do you not understand? Does nobody in this world understand, damn you? Is no one else haunted?'" (p. 434).
"'The one who wears the chains is a thousand times greater than the one who wields them,'" (p. 451).
"'This part, small as it appeared at first, was forged in the fire of her own strength, and resisted her cage. And I understood... that this part was made of steel,'" (p. 499).
"...spilling guts like a cutpurse spilling gold. Death came for them like a desert wind," (p. 527).
"'Margaret,' he said, 'you are my child. I forgave you all your sins on the first day of your life,'" (p. 580).
"'During my... adventure, I learned what it was to be a heretic. It felt as though my very existence were under assault. If Inys can be the first to cease using the word, I think it would have done this world a very fine service,'" (p. 604).
"Each day, each step, each tick of the clock took him closer to that golden possibility. He was tired of having half a soul," (p. 653).
"In death, its branches reached for the stars, as if they might hold out silver hands and help it stand again," (p. 656).
"How to paint a portrait of Sabran, who had been in his life since he was six. Since a time when all they had worried about was how many adventures they could fit into a day," (p. 740).
"Seek not the midnight sun on earth/ but look for it within," (p. 789).
"'I will teach my heart to beat again.'
It hurt to leave him in the dark. Still, leave he did. Those bones had long since let him go," (p. 790).
"'Some truths,' he said, 'are safest buried. Some castles best kept in the sky. There's promise in tales that are yet to be spoken. In the shadow realm, known only to a few,'" (p. 804).
Graphic: Miscarriage, Gore, Pregnancy, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Grief, Infertility, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Sexual content, War, Blood, and Child death
radio_02's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
The characters were charming and memorable as small or as big their role was
It's a 4.75 just because it's not really my type of book and its really out of my comfort zone, it didn't really have the element to make it a 5⭐ book, but I woul recommend it to whoever would be willing to read it
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Suicide, and Sexual content
taryn_g's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Infertility, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Violence
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, and Medical content
Minor: Incest, Torture, and Grief
dragonaion's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have heard many say that is is an "epic fantasy" that is better if not similar to Game of Thrones or Tolkein, but I was sorely disappointed. The story was pleasant, although riddled with clichés like a magical dragon-slaying sword (even sounding like Excalibur), evil witch doing witchy things (including making the previously mentioned sword), Western winged dragons are bad, and Eastern serpant dragons are good. The tone of the book was also too formal for it to be engaging; it felt as if the "court parlance" of hiding ones emotions were how everyone talked normally, so I felt a lot of emotional and tender moments were lackluster and fell flat. With certain scenes in mind... I feel the author is straight, could not really empathize or relate to the characters, and/or was too timid to write them with more than "casual interest". I've read romance trash that had more engaging and written intimacy scenes.
Then comes the tempo of events; I've read books recently that brilliantly show how plots are suddenly revealed from loose threads, and this story felt as though a series of "random" events fell on each page one after another without laying seeds for the reader to follow and "suddenly" connect. The villain of the story was only mentioned in a story between characters halfway through the book, it appeared that she came out of nowhere to suddenly be important, so I had very little connection or empathy. It also felt that key bits of the story were done for in-the-moment drama and even if there was a plot explanation later, it seems to fall on its face. It almost reads as though the author had writer's block and suddenly found a way to loop things together once she let the story sit for a bit.
Lastly, the novel is very female-centric with a greater female cast of characters than male. While otherwise fine, they failed to make themselves special; the main characters seemed to "fall into" their roll and did not leave any lasting impressions, so it felt they were "quantity over quality" characters. Even having finished the book, I'm starting to forget some of their names.
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
Minor: Medical content, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Torture, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and War
This is a fantasy, but the premise is a war against an evil dragon and warring religions.carbinara's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Nicklays Roos u r the worst man and also my favourite.
Tane no flaws, no notes, nothing.
ead same goes for u babe never change <3 and loth now i think of it. two icons
also one thing i love love LOVE abt this book is the discussion of religion and societies relationship to it. was really fun to get the backstory of the history of the world revealed along with the plot thats happening ‘in real time.’
one thing that could be a tiny bit better was the pacing and tying up loose ends at the end. i mean its a big book but like pls tell me if
Graphic: Incest, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Infertility, Violence, and Death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual content
jayden_314's review against another edition
- 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
This book may seem rather daunting with its 800+ pages but it is worth the read. Samantha Shannon perfectly built the world and subtly introduces new details throughout. After about 100 pages, you will start understanding the world a lot more and this was the point where I really started to fall in love with The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Tané introduces us to the world of the East (that's another part of why I enjoyed the novel, the complete separation of the world and how they are almost completely different apart from their common enemy). This is where dragons come in and it is such an interesting part of the book. Even though I don't have any complaints, I have to admit that I still do not fully understand everything about the dragons. Hopefully, this aspect will be revealed in A Day of Fallen Night (which I'm set to read in June/July). Also, Tané's family history was a super cool detail that I want to know more about. I just loved Tané's story and the connection it had to dragons. It was really cool to learn about. The way that her story and the others' were intertwined just made me happy when reading because there would be one mention of a detail that someone had just discovered and I would say, "I know that, I learned that with Tané".
The other character who's perspective is set in the East is Niclays. At first, I hated reading about him because he was completely unlikeable. I could not find any justification for his actions. He was just a miserable old man who was selfish and unpleasant. His arc probably was the most satisfying, just because of his growth and change by the end. While I was starting to love him, he did have a bit of a lapse and called Sabran a c*nt (which left me so shocked I had to close the book and stare at the wall as my jaw dropped for a solid minute). But, I did love his friendship with Laya and him overcoming the all-consuming grief he was yet to work through. Kind of wish there was a bit more of his POV before the Nameless One rose and he and Laya were captured because that could have been really interesting. Also, I would have loved a deeper exploration of his relationship with Truyde although I understand how that may have been difficult and interrupted the flow of the story. But his story with the pirates made me enjoy his character a lot more because he was wallowing in self-pity a lot less during this section.
Finally, Lord Arteloth Beck. His time in Yscalin was definitely a turning point for me and my interest in the story. It was around this point that I really started getting into the story and wanting to know more. Details were being revealed and it was an introduction into a new, unexplored world as a reader. I think this also helped with Ead's story as some areas had already been explored and it helped the flow by not introducing too much new information. Loth's relationship with the Donmata was so good I wanted to see more and I wish he was in Yscalin for a little while longer, just because I wanted to explore the world more. I also just loved all the moments with Loth and Nayimathun because they were really great. I think Loth had the most exploration of the world and that is so cool. I do wish that Kit's death had been a larger plot point than it actually was (if I'm being, honest this is one of the only issues I have with the novel. Death just sort of happens but it doesn't necessarily further the plot. I feel like something more could have happened with any/all of the character deaths but I do understand how that could have impacted the story. After all, I was annoyed by Niclays constant grief and bringing up Jannart's death so that's why I don't have too much of a problem with this area of the story). It was only brought up two or three times right after it happened and right at the end in Loth's final chapter.
To summarise this LONG review, I absolutely loved this book. It will likely remain a favourite for years and I am already excited for a reread next year. If you love magic, dragons, political and religious conflict, and/or amazing sapphic stories; I definitely recommend this book. It is an incredible read if you can do it.
Graphic: Child death, Violence, War, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Infertility, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Body horror, Mental illness, Incest, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, Vomit, and Animal death
Minor: Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Self harm, and Pandemic/Epidemic