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haahmed 's review for:
The Priory of the Orange Tree
by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
My first high/epic fantasy read in a long time. Really enjoyed this book overall, but it did have some flaws. Contrary to popular opinion, I didn’t think it was too long, slow to start, or complicated. Honestly, the length and complexity of characters/details felt really typical of this genre of fantasy so it didn’t bother me at all—I actually enjoyed that (except the endless physical descriptions of random one line characters lol). Having read a lot of books with alternating perspectives, I didn’t find that hard to follow either. I do regret reading this online out of convenience (not my first choice) because I feel these books work best when you can easily flip back and forth to the maps and glossary, which is much more difficult in a digital format.
Pros-enjoyed the vivid writing, the world building, the diverse characters and cultures, the political intrigue and religious aspects, the twists and turns, etc. It was really interesting how all these characters were forced to challenge their preconceived notions about so many things as the plot unfolded.
Cons-number one problem was pacing. I don’t mind a long book, but it needs to be paced well. The first half of the book, you spend so much time on the West that the East feels like an afterthought, which is really unfortunate considering how vital Tané was to the plot. Her story was underwhelming compared to the others as a result. There’s also a lot more magic/action in the last third or so than the rest and it ended up feeling somewhat unbalanced. The climaxespecially felt incredibly rushed for such a big buildup. And it was too easy considering the stakes—not that I was rooting for characters to die or anything, but an event of that magnitude should have had real consequences. Why did all the actual deaths occur so early in the book and then every single person and even dragon made it through the big final battle completely unscathed? . Lastly, although I enjoyed the writing, sometimes it was too flowery or vague at really key moments, especially in the action scenes. The style worked much better for the non-action parts. A lot of info was also relayed through dialogue—got a bit too “tell, rather than show” at times. Or things would be mentioned that really didn’t need to be (you can just say that a character explained to someone else what happened to them over the last few days, instead of saying the character explained this, this, this, and that event!) I didn’t mind but the amount of times that happened felt silly and could have definitely been edited out.
Anyways, I sound negative but I did really enjoy the book. I just had a bit of a break between reading most of the book and the climax, where these flaws were most apparent to me, so they’re more fresh in mind.
Pros-enjoyed the vivid writing, the world building, the diverse characters and cultures, the political intrigue and religious aspects, the twists and turns, etc. It was really interesting how all these characters were forced to challenge their preconceived notions about so many things as the plot unfolded.
Cons-number one problem was pacing. I don’t mind a long book, but it needs to be paced well. The first half of the book, you spend so much time on the West that the East feels like an afterthought, which is really unfortunate considering how vital Tané was to the plot. Her story was underwhelming compared to the others as a result. There’s also a lot more magic/action in the last third or so than the rest and it ended up feeling somewhat unbalanced. The climax
Anyways, I sound negative but I did really enjoy the book. I just had a bit of a break between reading most of the book and the climax, where these flaws were most apparent to me, so they’re more fresh in mind.