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A review by baldwinme40
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
5.0
I almost gave up on my favorite genre. High fantasy started to all run together after a while and nothing felt original or relevant to today. BUT this book is what I needed. Ya got dragons! Nice ones AND evil ones. We got pirates! A fantasy world with diverse cultures! And more than just Britain-in-a-hat and Arabia-in-a-hat. Like, 6 different cultures. And protagonists are not from the European-inspired ones. A rich history that isn't what we thought at first! Leading ladies who are tough but also seem like real people. The lesbian romance I didn't dare to hope for. What does a world without overt sexism or homophobia look like? You still have to worry about differences in social standing & keeping the royal line going, it turns out. It's easy to do a simple "girl can fight too, sexism bad" in fantasy, but this was more complex.
Fantasy tropes such as lost sword, powerful jewels, witch in the woods, ancient prophecy, immortal enemy, etc are all there, but used or subverted in a way that feels authentic and original. The high-fantasy fancy language was a little rough to start with, but once I got into it I liked it. The glossary in the back helps. And the words were used correctly as far as I know, and the effect was that I felt immersed in the world. It takes itself seriously and I can appreciate that. And yes, there are 800 pages but somehow they are all used wisely. No rambling about scenery that doesn't help with worldbuilding, no pointless internal monologues, no extremely detailed fight scenes to show off how you read one (1) history book. Everything is important. The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat. I could have read another 800 pages of this and been happy.
Fantasy tropes such as lost sword, powerful jewels, witch in the woods, ancient prophecy, immortal enemy, etc are all there, but used or subverted in a way that feels authentic and original. The high-fantasy fancy language was a little rough to start with, but once I got into it I liked it. The glossary in the back helps. And the words were used correctly as far as I know, and the effect was that I felt immersed in the world. It takes itself seriously and I can appreciate that. And yes, there are 800 pages but somehow they are all used wisely. No rambling about scenery that doesn't help with worldbuilding, no pointless internal monologues, no extremely detailed fight scenes to show off how you read one (1) history book. Everything is important. The suspense kept me on the edge of my seat. I could have read another 800 pages of this and been happy.