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A review by kaequinn
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? N/A
4.75
TLDR: Its Game of Thrones without the misogyny or inability to finish a plot thread.
First off, this story is nearly 1100 pages. It will be a rough start. I have yet to read a high fantasy that isn't a lot of "wait, who are you talking about?" "Where is this again?" "Why are you telling me about a siege on a city that happened 500 years ago?"
That said, Shannon gets through a good chunk of the world building within the first 200 pages or so and her ability to weave dynamic prose make it a lot less painful than most. She also made the wise choice of following a few core characters rather than bloating the book out with a lot of different perspectives (I believe there are four in all?) It helps minimize the amount of information you actually need to <i>retain</i> when slogging through the world-building.
The story itself is intricate and well thought out. There were very few "it was fixed because of reasons" and no solution is ever a clean from point A to B. There are always hiccups and complications along the way which made the story have a much more vibrant and realistic tone (after all, when have you ever solved a complicated life problem with a simple, one step solution that took 20 minutes?)
And herein lies where the fifth star was lost. The story is so large, and so complex, its resolution felt a bit abrupt. Not the climax itself. That was well done and dynamically written and made me stay up far too late to finish. But the "falling action" as it were didn't seem like it was enough to really give closure to the characters I'd spent over a thousand pages getting to know. Now, you may be thinking, this story was nearly 1100 pages, do you really think it needed another fifty? No, but there were entire paragraphs within that first two hundred pages that could have easily been removed and none would have been the wiser. I can guarantee that the majority of readers would not be able to call back to them, even on their second read through. This would have made the first section of the book a little cleaner, as well as given an additional 10-15 pages that could have been tack onto the end to give the resolution a little more breathing room. In its current state, it is very much, rising action, climax, then your asked if you're going to stay the night because they <i>kinda have to get up early the next morning and its, like fine, but, you know, they're just not used to sleeping in the same bed as another person</i>.
First off, this story is nearly 1100 pages. It will be a rough start. I have yet to read a high fantasy that isn't a lot of "wait, who are you talking about?" "Where is this again?" "Why are you telling me about a siege on a city that happened 500 years ago?"
That said, Shannon gets through a good chunk of the world building within the first 200 pages or so and her ability to weave dynamic prose make it a lot less painful than most. She also made the wise choice of following a few core characters rather than bloating the book out with a lot of different perspectives (I believe there are four in all?) It helps minimize the amount of information you actually need to <i>retain</i> when slogging through the world-building.
The story itself is intricate and well thought out. There were very few "it was fixed because of reasons" and no solution is ever a clean from point A to B. There are always hiccups and complications along the way which made the story have a much more vibrant and realistic tone (after all, when have you ever solved a complicated life problem with a simple, one step solution that took 20 minutes?)
And herein lies where the fifth star was lost. The story is so large, and so complex, its resolution felt a bit abrupt. Not the climax itself. That was well done and dynamically written and made me stay up far too late to finish. But the "falling action" as it were didn't seem like it was enough to really give closure to the characters I'd spent over a thousand pages getting to know. Now, you may be thinking, this story was nearly 1100 pages, do you really think it needed another fifty? No, but there were entire paragraphs within that first two hundred pages that could have easily been removed and none would have been the wiser. I can guarantee that the majority of readers would not be able to call back to them, even on their second read through. This would have made the first section of the book a little cleaner, as well as given an additional 10-15 pages that could have been tack onto the end to give the resolution a little more breathing room. In its current state, it is very much, rising action, climax, then your asked if you're going to stay the night because they <i>kinda have to get up early the next morning and its, like fine, but, you know, they're just not used to sleeping in the same bed as another person</i>.