The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
This was my most anticipated book of 2019 and oh boy it didn't let me down! It took me 12 days to read (which im really proud of considering it was 804 pages) i was a bit nervous going into this one as its been hyped so much so i had high expectations but luckily it really lived up to the hype.So the book is basically about 2 divided sides, East and West:
The West storyline focuses on Queen Sabran who must produce a female heir to become queen and keep 'the nameless one' in exile. The nameless one is decribed as a beastly creature that almost took over the world one thousand years prior to our current storyline but was exiled. Queen Sabran is guided along her way by Ead Duryan who is sent by the priory in the south to look after and protect the queen. She uses her magic and skills to keep Queen Sabran safe from the constant threat of assassination.
In the East we follow the story of Tane who has been nurtured and trained since birth to be a dragon rider but one night she is forced to make an impossible choice when she finds a man washed up on the shore the night before her ceremony to become a dragon rider when she is meant to be in seclusion. She cannot decide whether to turn the man into the authorities whilst simultaneously outing
herself for breaking seclusion and jeopardising her chances of becoming a dragon rider. Tane at the beginning goes through trials to be selected as a dragon rider which makes for really good reading.
The characters from East & West must come together to face the threat of the nameless one together, if they do not civilisation will be under his rule.
Things i liked:
This was a stand.alone.adult.fantasy :O need i say more?
I love dragons in fantasy books, there isnt enough dragons in my opinion. What i loved about this book is that dragons where explored in a new way, there was the element of water dragons as well as the standard fire dragons which was really interesting to read about. I havent read a good dragon book since Game of Thrones.
I flew through this and i was so committed to the characters and each of their story arcs. Its not often that you feel a connection to every single character and you root for them so deeply. Each character is in a completely different situation that is so interesting to follow, they are so flawed and real and i really appreciated how relevant each characters storyline was to the overall story. My favourite character i think was Ead, she was a really well thought out character.
I adored the LGBT elements as we had 2 main characters in same sex relationships. One of the romances was very slow burn and actually surprised me when it happened as it is super abrupt and there wasnt very many hints before then that they even liked each other, i think this could have been done a lot better.
The world building was so well done, its very intricate and detailed and you get a good sense of the differences and the politics on both sides of the Queendom. The book is so interesting and engaging and each chapter is so relevant, i expected for 800+ pages that some of it would be a bit filler but nope! every single thing is relevant to the overall story. I can honestly say that at no point was i bored.
This book has made me want to read everything that Samantha Shannon has wrote and is yet to write! I would put this on a par with Sanderson.
Things i didn't like:
i really disliked Niclays as a character, he pissed me off to no end. At one point he maims a dragon and i wanted him dead for it. I did understand how he was relevant to the story and just how important his input was but i still hated him
The ending was very very rushed, i felt that the pacing was well done throughout until the end. The last 50 pages or so were so sudden and quick. I liked the ending itself but it was abrupt as hell.
The East and the South felt very undeveloped, there wasnt too much of their history, culture or politics. I thought the West was done fantastically well, it felt so well written and researched.
Overall i gave this 5 stars, amazing book.
