The priory of the Orange Tree

by Samantha Shannon

This story is as interwoven as a wicker basket. There are so many cultures, religions, royals, and bad-ass characters that make this story feel like the epic fantasy that it is. 

There are about six sections of this tale, starting with The Stories of Old, which is all about setting up the exposition, and trust me, there’s a lot. Expositions are a readers nightmare, if you’re anything like me, you just want to already know what’s going on and to get to the ‘meat’ of the story, but you cannot enjoy the meat without understanding the table that it sets on. The exposition for The Priory of the Orange Tree is a testament to Samantha Shannon’s ability as a writer. Not only did she create all this lore from her imagination, but she also presented it in a way that is captivating and that inspires awe of these cultures. 

We are introduced to two main religions/cultures. One worships the Saint, which was founded 1,000 years before the story takes place. The Saint is known for banishing The Nameless One, who is the devil in dragon form. These believers all also take one of The Knights of Six Virtues as a sort of personal virtue. The six virtues are Fellowship, Generosity, Courage, Courtesy, Justice, and Temperance. 

The descendants of the Saint are the royals that rule in Viturdom, which consist of all the countries that worship the Saint. The royal’s family name is Berethenet, and ten queens have ruled since the marriage of the Saint and the first queen, who is called the Damsel. 

The queen during the time in which this story takes place is Sabran Berethenet. 

During the first 6^th of the story, Sabran is wed, which her queendom had long awaited. Though she was young, producing the next princess of the Saints blood was imperative to the security of the queendom’s future and the continuation of the Nameless One’s banishment in the Abyss, as all followers of the Six Virtues believed that the living bloodline of the Saint was the only thing keeping the Nameless One at bay

There are two types of dragons in this world. One is the fire-breathing wyrms of the west, who are considered evil accomplices of the Nameless One, and the water and sky-dwelling dragons of the East, who are seen as holy beings and protectors against the Nameless One.  

We follow a variety of main characters, most who are women. I liked that women were the main ones in power while they also kept a hold of being feminine as well. 

 Ead is a badass fighter, close servant to the queen, secretly has magic and uses it to protect the queen on orders of the Priory to whom she is secretly loyal too. She moved up in the classes’ despite being an outsider. 

Queen Sabran Berethenet who born of the saint and powerful women before her, her bloodline is believed to hod off the nameless one/ devil snake of evil. Refused all male suitors so far but being pushed to produce a female heir to secure the queendom.

Tane is orphan Guardian, part of the sea guard and dragon riders. Good friends with Isher, rival with Toushe. She’s worked her entire life to be a dragon rider, and dragons to her are alike to Gods. 

Loth is best friends with Sabran, perceived as a threat to suitors because of their closeness, friends of Ead, brother of Margret. He was sent away into Draconic countries to try and rescue Sabran’s father on a suicide mission. 

 My first thought after finishing this book was “what happened?”, and I mean that in a neutral way. I felt that it was almost anticlimactic in a way, with the biggest battle lasting less than a chapter, and the whole story felt more dragged out than it needed to be. 

The world building was beautiful, and I loved the culture and religions and how it was a play on Adam and Eve with the Orange trees as the apple tree with the special fruit giving women abilities and turning them into mages. I liked how females played roles that are usually male, like captains of pirates, and guardsmen.

About halfway through, however, I felt like the story has lost is steam and urgency. After the halfway point of the book, I felt like the characters were always traveling back and forth between countries for no reason.

The ending was abrupt I felt like we didn’t get to see the nations heal. I would have liked to see the world ten years later when Sabran and Ead were reunited and hear about how the religions merged.

I just felt unsatisfied with the ending. At page 600, I just wanted to be done with it. It started at a fast pace with a lot of world building that was needed but took a long time, and it kind of felt like that was all Shannon wanted The characters weren’t extremely deep in any way, and only a few faced major choices but most were just along for the ride. 

It didn't become my favorite book of all time, I doubt I’ll read it again honestly, but I liked the imagery. I feel like it would improve it to take out some fluff, make the pace faster and give it a sense of urgency. I liked the direction Shannon took this epic fantasy in, the house names reminded me of game of thrones, but I feel condensing the story would really help it. 

  

:)