The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This book is not for the faint of heart. Not because it’s too bloody, or graphically sexual, or historically dense. No, this baby is THICK! She could be used as a blunt weapon. It could be taken from you in an airport out of fear that you are harboring ill intent. However, if you are not intimidated by large books, or maybe you are but you like that feeling, then this book is wonderful!

I have always enjoyed a story woven between different characters views. You follow four people all in different cardinal regions of this ever expansive world. I know I’ve mentioned a few (okay, maybe a lot) times about the importance of character design and development, but Shannon creates a world that feels extremely alive and lived in. I’ve discussed with my partner and other friends the difficulty people have in trying to mimic Tolkien’s style of fantasy writing. They grab what is easily viewed and write something similar, and miss the depth of the world underneath. Samantha Shannon understands how to flesh out a world and create space in each section. It feels like if you were to ask, there would be an answer to almost any question about the land. And, it’s not a perfect place, thank the gods! It’s a living place. People have settled in the mess of war, they struggle in barren land, they fight in lush gardens, this is a place that feels as alive as Middle Earth.

Now, this does not mean that the characters were in any way left out! The appendices are about as thick as a few chapters put together, and full of names (living and dead) that show up in the story. I know that this information might scare a few people away, but you don’t have to read the appendices to understand the story, and if you forget who a character is it doesn’t turn into that much of a problem. Ask me how I know! (I was reading this book so slow that there were a few times I could not remember why so-and-so was talking to Ead but it turned out to be fine) Shannon does a great job crafting story around these names, so even if you forget (and you don’t know or want to look at the appendices) you can start piecing together that specific names pull and importance.

Okay, we’ve talked about the beautiful world, and its politically and religiously rich creation. We’ve talked about the immense number and quality of side characters. Let’s tackle the directly important four narrators of this massive story. As I mentioned, it is told from four different view points each mostly residing four different sections of the world.

Ead Duryan or Eadaz du Zala uq’Nara is from the Priory, but on a mission of protection in the Queendom of Inys. Ead is a sorceress that has been sent to protect the queen of Inys. She is powerful, loyal, devout to the Priories religion that worships the Mother, and so very observant. She is a spy sent to protect a queen that her religion considers a heretic, and she does her damndest to fulfill that job. Religion plays an important role in this story. Characters are pulled by religious tenets and beliefs that feed their distrust or hatred of people. Or in Ead’s case, the people of Inys view the Mother as the Maiden and consider her weak and helpless. Ead has to wrestle with this blasphemy as a spy that has to persuade people she has converted. The religion of Inys also is the direct reason Ead was sent there in the first place. They believe that their queen’s life and birth line are holding back a tyrannical draconic force that wishes to destroy and rule the world. Like I said this book is full to the brim of lore, history, and world. Also, Queen Sabran and Ead do become lovers and it is the sweetest most soft queer relationship for a handmaiden spy and queen.

Past the Priory grove, is the Seiiki and our second woman character Tane. She is a fierce dragon rider and worshipper. Her people, the Seiikinese, have a House of Learning that takes children and trains them to be powerful riders or devout and attentive scholars. Tane is a great fold to Ead. Where Ead is a sorceress that knows she belongs, Tane is a fighter struggling to convince herslef. Her entire life has been one of hardship and physical acclimation. She is raised in a place of strategy and worship of large majestical water dragons. Early in the book, Shannon makes the distinction between the fiery dragons that wish to wake their leader and rule the world, and the ethereal water dragons that the Seiikinese worship and partner with. Tane gives everything she has to become a rider and when the honor is stripped from her, she becomes bitter and vengeful. But, I like how Shannon doesn’t have Tane be a one sided seek revenge girly, she is bitter because of the shame she feels for having her goddess captured and that vengeance is, in her religious view, justified through the hope she could save her dragon. I loved every chapter Tane was in. She is snappy, and struggled with feelings of not belonging. Her entire childhood was proving to those who came from Houses that she belonged with them, and the shame of her loss was devastating. Tane had her own confidence, but it was something built and struggled for and I really felt a connection to that.

Niclays Roos is the oldest character we follow. He is an alchemist banished to live out the rest of his days in a small trading post at the edge of an island that hates and distrusts his people. He and Tane’s story intersects the quickest in terms of meeting characters. Niclays is a scholar, but a disgraced drunk scholar. We don’t meet him in his heyday. We encounter him after his lover has passed, and he has given up on much of his study and life. Shannon does a great job in connected all of the characters together, and giving them believable reasons on why they do or don’t get along. Queen Sabran banished Roos after he promised her a potion of eternal life and came to her court and squandered the money on wine. A brash punishment from a young queen, but it makes sense for a girl who has watched the history of women in her life die from childbirth or other means. And, it gives good justification for Roos to dislike Sabran.

Finally, Arteloth “Loth” Beck is a close friend of Queen Sabran that has been secretly sent away to alleviate worry that Loth is trying to wed the queen. Loth is a good character. By that I mean is a good person, he is naive from his experiences, or lack thereof, of the world. He tries to live his life devoutly for his Knight (that’s the religion of Inys), and is overall a good person. I think that’s probably why I found him the least interesting. That or maybe because he is the most straight coded person out of the four characters. Tane is full of bitter shame and revenge. Ead is queer sorceress. Roos is a gay alchemist. And Loth is a straight religious man. BUT! He is a good guy. When his religion is shown to be just straight up wrong, he wrestles with that internally and doesn’t make it everyone else’s problem. He forgives his friend Ead for lying (cause she’s a spy) to him, and he opens up to Tane even though she kinda very much kidnaps him and she loves dragons. Oh! The people of the Priory and Inys Hate dragons, but specifically wyrms, which are the fire breathing kind that are trying to release the draconic emperor. Loth does tend to go into scenarios with an open mind, even if he does view them from his religious beliefs. I don’t think I would say Loth is the weakest character. None of the four characters are written poorly. They all of such care crafted in their stories, therefore even though Loth is not my favorite, his chapters were still really good and he is an interesting character.

With ALL of this said, this book is great. It delivers A LOT of information, but I don’t feel like any of it is done too quickly. There just happens to be a lot of it, and it all has relative importance to characters and the story. Shannon has done a great job at crafting a, what could have felt dense, large story. There is never a moment where I felt it dragged, but there were moments it slowed. Which was good! There is so much information, and Shannon made sure you had time to digest it before layering on another scintillating piece. I was never bored, but there were plenty of moments of worry and anxiety about how a character would escape a treacherous ordeal. And, the romance that developed between Ead and Sabran was delectable. The Priory of the Orange Tree was a solid (emphasis on the word solid) read, and if you have the time, I highly recommend it!