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Ead (POV): A mage and strong warrior, with an open heart and open mind, she smells secrets and roots them out. I can’t even begin to explain the love I feel for this inspiring young woman. Four narrators deliver this great tale covering the vast realms of Inys, Yscalin, Mentendon and Hróth. So, let’s start with Ead in the West who is an outsider at court and sent by the Priory of the Orange Tree to protect Sabran the Ninth who is the current ruler of the Queendom of Inys, the last in line of the House Berethnet. A Queen who must produce an heir to secure the dynasty, but a leader who faces an invisible enemy and the return of the nameless one who was sent to the abyss by one of Sabran’s ancestors. stars, I LOVE this book and my god what a reading experience it was. Samantha Shannon is a phenomenal epic fantasy writer. The world she builds, the sheer expanse of the story she tells, and the balance of large catastrophic world events with the smallest individual personal life experiences is incredible. If you liked Priory of the Orange Tree, I see no reason why you wouldn't like this book.
After a millennium of peace, rumors of the Nameless One’s return—gliding vulture-like in the skies above—had finally descended and sunk in their claws for good. The whole orange tree business was terribly disappointing and all I could think of when reading was gummy bears and their gummiberry juice. While the whole tale starts refreshingly (an outsider in the court), it goes awry soon enough. Ead prides herself on telling the truth and serving the truth but all she gives is flattery and her whole service feeds into a lie so while she says that all she does serves a bigger and nobles purpose, all I could see was a girl serving her own (lusty) needs. Long length seems to be becoming The Roots of Chaos' brand, which I don't necessarily dislike. There is a badge of pride and a sense of community that comes with completing such long books. But it comes down to quantity over quality. Does the story justify the length? Do the multiple POVs add or subtract? Do the character motivations make sense? Are they consistent or dynamic? Does it maintain its momentum? Is it balanced? To name other characters who dug a den in my chest: Kit the hilarious, genius, charming poet. Sabran the golden-tongued, an unforgettable queen, a self-righteous fool, and a woman I would not change for the world.Whilst I love the feminist story, not so much at the expense of weak men, because that is not the world we live in, and it makes the story too one dimensional. Had we enjoyed the company of some strong men (not love stories) then I feel this would have appealed more to a wider audience and set this up there as one of the best Fantasy stories ever written.
William Shakespeare’s Richard II: Act Two ➾ for hereditary rights coupled with political reality, or the fact that the male view of the world leaves out an entire realm of perception Priory is known as a sapphic fantasy staple, and I wholeheartedly agree with this. But A Day of Fallen Night boasts an even higher count of sapphic relationships, alongside it's other incredible representation. Out of our four main characters, two are sapphic, one is achillean, and one is aroace-spec. There are also several other queer characters as well as trans and genderqueer characters. Samantha Shannon could I possibly love you more? 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. Shannon also employs multiple narrative voices in The Priory of the Orange Tree. The cast is sprawling, but the novel is deft at braiding their lives together, which is an incredible feat as the characters are separated by continents and disparate systems of beliefs. It would be a mistake to believe that dragons are this book's beating heart. Their formidable shadows never once overwhelm the vividly drawn and gloriously complicated characters. Rather, the bulk of the book is about the characters as they grow, learn, and face the insidious and inexorable threat of the Nameless One.Yes, but with no set number of books, at present. When I wrote Priory, I originally intended it to be a one-off standalone, but the longer I sat with it, the more I came to realise that this world had a much larger story to tell. However, because each instalment seems to take me about three years to finish, I need to consider my schedule carefully before I jump into each one, especially since I have other ongoing projects. The sea is not always pure. It is not any one thing. There is darkness in it, and danger, and cruelty. It can raze great cities with its rage. Its depths are unknowable; they do not see the touch of the sun. To be a Miduchi is not to be pure, Tané. It is to be the living sea.”
In a book unable to hook the reader with a protagonist (on whatever grounds, mind you, there are also those we love to hate, ideal antagonists, right Darling?), the only solution left is to provide a compelling plot and world building. “The Priory of the Orange Tree” has none of these. My second complaint is about the LGBTQ representation. It's absolutely great that there are central queer characters here acting in the world. That said, they're the kind of queer characters that feel safe to straight people: they're monogamous, committed to one and only one person, and they don't really talk about the experience of being queer in this world to anyone except in very contained moments of coming out. I appreciate the representation but would have liked to see things go further. I've said this before, but there's a lot of room for fantasy to explore how queer identity could be different in different fantasy settings. Sexuality and gender roles were vastly different in different times and places in the history of our world, and there's a lot of room to explore that in fantasy in particular. Since there is a generally progressive throughline present in this story (like with rulers thinking about modernization and how to create alliances without relying on marriages), there seemed like there was a lot of room for a better and more nuanced identity politics. Oh well. There are fools in crowns, Dukes and Queens absorbed in their own politics, clinging to their beliefs, blind to the forces of chaos rising from their sleep. History is to repeat itself and none are ready to stand united. “ Let them come with their swords and their torches. Let them come.” The mythology and religion also reminded me quite a bit of ASOIAF. Although, this might be just me and if it's not, it's still fine, no one prohibits you from taking inspiration.These protagonists, separated by wildly different cultures and religions, find themselves intertwined in a turn of events no one could have predicted. A dragon. Even as it rose over Cape Hisan, others were ascending from the water, leaving a chill mist in their wake. Niclays presses a hand to the drumbeat in his chest. Shannon has driven inspiration from folklore and teachings of all over the world and woven every thread in the tapestry that is POT; here are some I’ve managed to deduce—subjects in the book are in italic:
As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat. 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. Religion is a major theme in The Priory of the Orange Tree. The basis of the lore in this book revolves around various religions interpreting the same events in different ways and building their dogma around that. This theme had the potential to be insightful and powerful, but it was handled so poorly. So while the story borrowed from real-life conflicts, it did not bring anything perceptive or enlightening to the subject. Wow! I have no words. I am blown away, spellbound, enraptured in this incredibly beautiful and complex world. I thoroughly enjoyed Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season series, but this was something else entirely!
Reviews
In darkness, we are naked. Our truest selves. Night is when fear comes to us at its fullest, when we have no way to fight it. It will do everything it can to seep inside you. Sometimes it may succeed—but never think that you are the night.” As I'm less active on social media than I used to be, I just thought I'd answer a few questions in advance, to give you a clearer sense of A Day of Fallen Night. Miduchi Tané, an aspiring dragonrider, makes an error of judgement that changes her future forever. Disgraced and cast out of her homeland, she discovers a hidden force within herself that could destroy the world. Tané, who uses the people around her for her own needs, is forced to overcome her pride and her overwhelming guilt. Shannon is simply a master of the genre' C. S. PACAT , New York Times-bestselling author of DARK RISE
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