The Priory of the Orange Tree
The multi-million-copy bestselling fantasy series
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4.2 • 82 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
'Epic' Guardian
'Majestic' Daily Mail
'The new Game of Thrones' Stylist
An enthralling, epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons - and the women who must lead the fight to save it.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shannon (The Bone Season) satisfyingly fills this massive standalone epic fantasy with court intrigue, travel through dangerous lands, fantastical religions, blood, love, and rhetoric. Ead, undercover as a lady-in-waiting in a court analogous to that of Elizabethan England, must protect the queen from lurking assassins; the queen, Sabran IX, theoretically belongs to a magical bloodline whose existence binds the huge and abominable dragon, the Nameless One, at the bottom of the ocean. Half a world away, young Tan , the rider and companion of a more benevolent sort of dragon, breaks her country's strict ban on allowing seafarers through its borders. This sets in motion a chain of events that reveals that Sabran's ancestry may not be the true source of the Nameless One's bindings, and that tests all three women profoundly in their attempts to keep humankind safe from the beast. Unfortunately, so much time and effort are expended on setting up the world and the principal conflicts that the denouement gets rather short shrift. The difference in tempo is very noticeable and hampers (although it does not destroy) the emotional effectiveness of an otherwise well-planned and well-executed ending. Nonetheless, this is a very capable epic fantasy.
Customer Reviews
Tired
3.5/5
I don’t know how to feel about this book to be honest. I’ll admit I enjoyed it but it was definitely hard to swallow. Not just because it was a HUGE book but because of the way it was written.
I love history. I’m an avid fantasy fan and I’m well versed in myth, legends and fairytales. Despite that, this book was so challenging to get into to.
What I loved:
This book is a world. A magical, intricate, beautiful world. The author has histories ready, deep courts and powerful characters. I loved the alternating religions, the relationships and how she weaved it all together.
She was super creative with how she linked everything and I especially enjoyed Sabran and Eads story.
What I disliked:
I was confused… a lot. Where is that place again? Who is this person? How does this relate to anything? Even after reading it all, she would name a place or person and I’d have to rattle my brain to figure out what was happening. This book requires focus. A LOT of focus and as such took me a while to read.
Whilst I did enjoy the story, I can only bring myself to give it 3.5 stars. Mainly because it was information overload and a challenge to read. Realistically this should have been a series or a Duology. That way we could slowly learn the characters and country without overloading the reader.
It’s good. But it’s a commitment.
And I still don’t know if I’ll read the sequel.