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A review by welgan
Le Prieuré de l'Oranger by Samantha Shannon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 49%.
Did not finish : here is why
This book was gifted to me, and I really didn't want to read it. But other books reminded me of my love ofor reading, and thaught me I didn't mind that much reading about female narrators at a time I really didn't want to identify with female characters. So I decided to give a try !
And it really was not what I wanted to read, at all. I don't like court intrigues, I don't like plots about royal mariages and having a child, I don't like spy and secrets mission stories. Also I'm not a huge fan of dark, realistic fantasy. I saw the praises for he book comparing it to Game of Thrones, and yeah, I think it's fair : to me it feels a lot like Game of Thrones (plus a lot of characters die for shock value), but written by a woman (not in writing style, I couldn't compare because I haven't read GoT books, but in atmosphere and genre).
The mystery about the truth behind the religions kept me interested, but I just couldn't go the other half of the book. Besides the fact I don't like the genre, a lot of scene felt cliché and had me roll my eyes, I couldn't get attached to a lot of the characters, and some events happened too quickly, or during an ellipse...
More precise examples of what added up to finally make me stop reading (spoiler of course)
The death of Kitston seemed unecessary, unwarranted and wasn't even that of a shock value because I didn't had time to get attached to him and to understand how important he was to Loth.
Speaking of which, the courtisan who suddently learns to survive in the wild while infected by the plague, then is found by a magical giant weasel deux ex machina, and then crosses a mountain and a desert without any provisions was really too much for me.
The attack of the queen's cortege was stupid. They have the least prepared guards and spies in the whole history of kingdoms and queendoms.
The romance felt added on the top of everything, and generally the characters who were lovers didn't make me feel a great alchemy between them, except for Jannart and Niclays.
And stop letting important moments be told afterwards in a sentence or two ! I want to read what Loth felt when he got deliberately infected, and what it was like when Tané bonded with her dragon and learned to know her. It's so desappointing to read it like "oh by the way it happened. Anyways, here's what we're going to do now."
Dragons felt uninteresting. All knowing, very ancient, deity-like creatures often do, it's too hard to relate to them, and they can quickly sound "cliché of great old sage". Also if you didn't skip all the bonding part where we could learn about whatmakes the dragon an individual, maybe I wouldn't have the feeling the dragon character is a merely a fonction. Maybe it gets better in the second half of the book, to be fair.
There are also nice things
On a positive note, I found Niclays' character very interesting and nuanced : not likeable, but understandable and very human. The queen Sabran was rather interesting to read too.
The universe felt nice, deep and complex ; I like how specific the depicted cultures seem. It's nothing too fancy or original, but it does it job well.
And I really appreciate a world were homosexuality is just normal as heterosexuality.
Conclusion
In the end, I decided I didn't want to force myself to finish the book, so I flipped through the remaining half, found the answerrs to my questions about the mystery, and I'm glad I did because ew. I don't think I wanted to read all of that.
Well, it wasn't for me in it genre, and turns out I don't like the writing either.
Warning about the glossary
Side note : don't read anything in the glossary or character list (even if it's much needed in the begininng when you're drowned in court titles and courtisans characters), because it can spoil you, and it will. I learned stuff that was upposed to be secret and revealed much later in the book !!
This book was gifted to me, and I really didn't want to read it. But other books reminded me of my love ofor reading, and thaught me I didn't mind that much reading about female narrators at a time I really didn't want to identify with female characters. So I decided to give a try !
And it really was not what I wanted to read, at all. I don't like court intrigues, I don't like plots about royal mariages and having a child, I don't like spy and secrets mission stories. Also I'm not a huge fan of dark, realistic fantasy. I saw the praises for he book comparing it to Game of Thrones, and yeah, I think it's fair : to me it feels a lot like Game of Thrones (plus a lot of characters die for shock value), but written by a woman (not in writing style, I couldn't compare because I haven't read GoT books, but in atmosphere and genre).
The mystery about the truth behind the religions kept me interested, but I just couldn't go the other half of the book. Besides the fact I don't like the genre, a lot of scene felt cliché and had me roll my eyes, I couldn't get attached to a lot of the characters, and some events happened too quickly, or during an ellipse...
More precise examples of what added up to finally make me stop reading (spoiler of course)
Speaking of which, the courtisan who suddently learns to survive in the wild while infected by the plague, then is found by a magical giant weasel deux ex machina, and then crosses a mountain and a desert without any provisions was really too much for me.
The attack of the queen's cortege was stupid. They have the least prepared guards and spies in the whole history of kingdoms and queendoms.
The romance felt added on the top of everything, and generally the characters who were lovers didn't make me feel a great alchemy between them, except for Jannart and Niclays.
And stop letting important moments be told afterwards in a sentence or two ! I want to read what Loth felt when he got deliberately infected, and what it was like when Tané bonded with her dragon and learned to know her. It's so desappointing to read it like "oh by the way it happened. Anyways, here's what we're going to do now."
Dragons felt uninteresting. All knowing, very ancient, deity-like creatures often do, it's too hard to relate to them, and they can quickly sound "cliché of great old sage". Also if you didn't skip all the bonding part where we could learn about whatmakes the dragon an individual, maybe I wouldn't have the feeling the dragon character is a merely a fonction. Maybe it gets better in the second half of the book, to be fair.
There are also nice things
On a positive note, I found Niclays' character very interesting and nuanced : not likeable, but understandable and very human. The queen Sabran was rather interesting to read too.
The universe felt nice, deep and complex ; I like how specific the depicted cultures seem. It's nothing too fancy or original, but it does it job well.
And I really appreciate a world were homosexuality is just normal as heterosexuality.
Conclusion
In the end, I decided I didn't want to force myself to finish the book, so I flipped through the remaining half, found the answerrs to my questions about the mystery, and I'm glad I did because ew. I don't think I wanted to read all of that.
Well, it wasn't for me in it genre, and turns out I don't like the writing either.
Warning about the glossary
Side note : don't read anything in the glossary or character list (even if it's much needed in the begininng when you're drowned in court titles and courtisans characters), because it can spoil you, and it will. I learned stuff that was upposed to be secret and revealed much later in the book !!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content