The Priory of the Orange Tree
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4.6 • 66 Ratings
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
The million-copy bestselling "rich and engaging high fantasy novel that puts women and their stories front and center . . . will pull you into its magical world from the first page." (Bustle)
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY:
AMAZON (Top 100 Editors Picks and Science Fiction and Fantasy)* CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * BOOKPAGE * AUTOSTRADDLE
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
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 all her life to be a dragonrider, 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.
Experience more of this New York Times bestselling series in the Roots of Chaos prequels, A Day of Fallen Night and Among the Burning Flowers.
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
A book I could read again
I picked up this book twice. The first time I couldn’t get into it. The second time I read a little farther, and I got hooked. The beginning is a bit slow but just keep going and you will see why there are great reviews. I became totally immersed in this world. The story telling is beautiful, thorough, and well thought through. I love reading the story through multiple characters/narratives. I love how all the characters stories tie in so well with each other in the end. I haven’t been able to pick up another fantasy novel for months because they’re all just not good enough - I just keep wanting to pick this book up again.