Review: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In high fantasy, sometimes the process of setting up a new world can be quite arduous; it can put me off as a reader. Thankfully that was not the case for ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’. It also did a good job of subtly setting up some aspects of the story, such as when Ead hinted that the story of the Damsel was different in the South and it is only chapters later that we get to hear that story. It makes it feel less like the book is “info-dumping” and allows us to find out some of the nuances of this world at the same time as the characters.

There can also be an issue in high fantasy of creating such a vast world and large number of characters that a reader can lose track of each individual storyline (not to call out A Song of Ice and Fire but …). This book strayed very close to that line, but it only ever did so with minor characters who served to enrich the world by making it seem more like real life, so on that point it can be forgiven.

The story itself was captivating. There was a clear purpose behind each of the characters and the motivation behind their actions led to logical outcomes for the rest of the plot. There can be a tendency to draw out storylines longer than their natural course, such as in Crescent City, but even though this is a long book (for me), I don’t think the story was stretched further than it should have been. If anything, I would have liked to see a bit more of the story from Tané’s perspective as, second to Ead, I found her segments the most enthralling.

As for the main romance in this book, I loved it. There was a slow development that made it feel very natural and it was great to read about a w/w relationship as LGBTQ+ relationships can be rare in fantasy and even when they are present, it is often m/m. Importantly, the relationships in this book didn’t detract from the main story and it wasn’t the quest of every character to find a romantic relationship, which is true to real life. Sometimes with such extended plots, though this is mainly the case for TV shows and movies, writers try to pair up every character at the conclusion and this book beautifully shows how this is unnecessary.

It is hard to find much I didn’t like about this book. As I previously mentioned, more of the story from Tané’s perspective would have been welcome, as would have more exploration into the magic systems and harnessing of the powers possessed by certain characters. But, overall, this book just makes me excited to read more of Shannon’s work though I’m sad my time in the world of ‘The Priory of the Orange Tree’ is over.

[Goodreads parallel]