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

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

59 reviews

solarel's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

This book was creative while also being comfortable in its tropes. The characters felt like good friends, and the adventure! Wow what an epic adventure.

Some of the plot decisions felt a bit hollow, as I saw some symbolism that wasn’t meant to be there, I suppose. But I can’t fault it for not following the thread I predicted.

Lastly, for an epic fantasy like this, you would expect it to be dense and laborious to follow, but I found it very easy to digest.

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lucithefer's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

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gracewiley's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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storykath's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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? It's complicated

4.0

I ended up having very mixed feelings about this book, but overall I enjoyed it enough to give it a high rating.
Things I loved:
Dragons!! Good and evil dragons! Yes! Any story with dragons is going to capture my imagination, and I loved the variety of dragons and the characters' attitudes towards them, which felt real and engaging.
Multiple POVs: with this being such a long book with so many things happening, it was refreshing to cycle through multiple characters/locations/plots. This also meant that it took longer to feel like I had a good handle on all the moving parts in the novel, but it came together seamlessly enough as I went on.
Going along with that point, I found the pacing to be smooth and engaging. I've seen mixed reviews about the pacing of Priory, but it all felt natural to me. Of course the pace varied depending on what was happening, but it rarely felt out of control.
I have mixed feelings about:
The worldbuilding. Some aspects of the worldbuilding had wonderful nuance and ingenuity; I loved the concept of the dragonriders and the division of the East from the rest of the world. Other areas came across as more hastily put together. While kingdoms like Yscalin, the Erysr (really anything that wasn't Seiiki or Inys) are less relevant to the story, we only really learned surface-level details about them, and it often felt like they existed in service of the more central locations. The naming of places and characters was a mixed bag for me too - there are wonderfully unique names like Eadaz and Sabran alongside names like Margret and Arbella that jarred me with their similarity to real-world names. Additionally, the themes of politics and religion swung from 'insightful and nuanced and thought-provoking' to 'simplistic and rushed and unrealistic', although I will say that they fell into the former category more often.
On a similar worldbuilding note, the queer representation was a mixed bag, in my opinion. I was very much looking forward to reading a queer-inclusive fantasy, and we did get established M/M and F/F relationships. Minor spoilers ahead in my issues with these relationships.

I was disappointed that both queer romances fell into a 'forbidden love' trope. If Shannon wants to establish that queer relationships are normalized in this universe, it would have been effective to have at least one character in a current, non-secret, same-gender relationship. I think there was one nobleman who made a passing mention to his husband, but I can hardly count that. I often found myself getting confused about whether it was the power difference between the partners that was the issue, or if it was the queerness, since the latter is a more accessible example in the real world. The relationship between Ead and Sabran was wonderful to read and very sweet, and while I know the book wasn't focused on the romance, I wish that more time could have been spent developing their relationship beyond just being romantic/sensual together. I feel like we missed out on seeing them just...being people in a relationship in the everyday sense.

The writing style itself. There was some absolutely beautiful prose in this novel, and I generally quite enjoyed the descriptions of architecture, nature, sensations, etc. At other times, especially in the description of emotions or characters, the writing felt clunky and tell-y (as opposed to show-y). I was immersed in the narrative one minute, and the next I was completely removed by a sentence or description that felt glaringly juvenile or simple. In a novel as long and complex as this one, there are a lot of opportunities for inconsistencies in character behaviour and writing style to come in and cause issues, and I feel that Priory fell victim to this at times.
Deaths for the purpose of other characters' development. I can understand that character death was inevitable in this novel, given the events of the story. However, many of the deaths of supporting characters felt like they occurred purely as a device to advance the plot or provide some kind of fuel for a main character.

See Arbella dying to free up a spot among the Ladies of the Bedchamber, Kit dying in a random avalanche to harden Loth up, Susa dying to weigh Tané with guilt.

Before their deaths, I had interest in these characters, where they'd go, what they'd do, but their deaths felt out of place and made me feel as though those characters had little purpose in the actual narrative.
Final thoughts
This is a beast of a book (approx. 16 hours of reading for me), and while it didn't meet all of my expectations, it was an accessible fantasy with an engaging premise, diverse characters, and a dynamic plot. I couldn't always totally lose myself in the story as a result of some of its shortcomings, but it's one that I would read again in order to pick up on more details and see more clearly how the strings of the narrative pull together.

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josie9's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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futureofmydays's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-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

4.75

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

5.0

I finished this book weeks ago and I still don’t even know what to say because I loved it so much. <i>The Priory of the Orange Tree</i> is rich high fantasy and uses so many tropes and ideas common to the genre and yet somehow still feels totally unique. The worldbuilding is intricate, but because it is based in real European, Middle Eastern, and Asian folklore (and because the writing is amazing), it was never confusing (Frank Herbert, take notes!). The combination of sweeping worldbuilding, legends and folklore, and the slowest of slow burn romances pretty much hit all my favorite things to read about. I loved every single character (except Roos. He was annoying) and wanted the best for them (yeah, even Roos. He still sucks though).

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the general vibe of the ending):

Happy! Though I did feel that a few things were left unresolved—here’s hoping Shannon writes a sequel!

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