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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 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. Read more
Part of series : The Roots of Chaos
Listening Length : 25 hours and 52 minutes
Author : Samantha Shannon
Narrator : Liyah Summers
Publication date : February 26, 2019
Language : English
Publisher : Audible Studios
Version : Unabridged
Program Type : Audiobook
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
Wow, this book. I was not quite sure what my thoughts would be on it before diving in, but I am so glad I finally read this huge novel! I haven’t read many 500+ page books since high school, so I was looking forward to seeing how I would do with one now. Let me tell you, this book sucked me IN! THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE is an adult high fantasy standalone novel set in the world where dragons are either reviled or worshipped—depending on which side of the world you live in. In the West, there is the Queendom of Inys, the seat of Virtuedom. Here we meet Ead, one of the two main heroines of the novel, who is a mage on a mission set down from the Prioress, the leader of the Priory (a secret group of mages who live halfway across the world). Her mission is to protect Queen Sabran, as it has been known for a thousand years that as long as a Berethnet queen sits on the throne of Inys, the Nameless One will never be able to return. Who is the Nameless One, you ask? He is the leader of the wyrms, also known as the “evil dragons”. They are what you think of when you think of dragons—fire breathers who reign destruction on their enemies. The Nameless One surfaced over 1000 years prior to the events of PRIORY, and has been entrapped in the middle of the ocean since. As far as Virtudom is concerned, all wyrms are evil spawn of the Nameless One, and must be destroyed. In the East, however, the dragons are worshipped. Here we meet Tané, the second of our main heroines. She is in training to be a dragon rider. And yes, in the East there are dragons, not wyrms. The dragons of the East are the opposites of wyrms—they get their power from water and cannot breathe fire. They are thought to be sacred gods. Thus, throughout the story, we the readers are taken on a fantastical journey that explores the vibrant worlds present in PRIORY, as well as seeing a magnificent take on the growth of characters who learn that all they have been taught to believe is a lie. I think some of my favorite parts of this novel were ones that reminded me of our society today. The characters who lived in Virtudom held deep prejudices for those who lived elsewhere. Seeing how those characters grew (or didn’t) out of those prejudices reminded me of what I wish our real world was like. Another favorite part of mine was all the amazing women! No matter which part of the world a character was in, there was at least one woman leader, whether that be militarily or in the government. It was so refreshing for it to be so ordinary to have women be the leaders. Another high point for me was how LGBT+ relationships were not thought of as abnormal! If there were any oppositions to a relationship, none of them dealt with the gender or sexual orientation of the participants. Honestly, there are many people in our society who could learn a thing or two! Overall, I rated this book 5 stars. I thought the worldbuilding and character development were amazing, and I loved the unexpected twists. I think Shannon did a great job of telling this story as a standalone. The way the book ended was enough to spark my curiosity on what happened next, while also ensuring that there was nothing missing. I highly recommend this novel!
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Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2022 by Tyler
Format: Hardcover
Characters: 3.5/5 Plot: 4/5 World-building: 5:5 Overall: 4/5 I have been a fan of Samantha Shannon’s work since I discovered The Bone Season a few years back. When I found out she was going to delve into high fantasy, I knew this was definitely going right into the TBR because I love her world building, plot, and characters from TBS. The sheer size of The Priory of the Orange Tree is enough for casual readers to take pause on reading it and I’m not going to lie, I was intimidated as well. Now that I’ve finally taken the leap into Priory, I am happy to report that she has done it again. First off, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Just wow. The maps show a well thought out and beautifully detailed world. A lengthy glossary and descriptions of characters in the back are a great help when getting into the story with so much history referenced throughout the book. I love a well thought out and detailed fantasy world with clearly defined rules, political systems, religions, and cultures. Her descriptions are so well done and each Kingdom, queendom, empire, and territory are very distinct. Even the geographical details are incredibly detailed and needed when the story crisscrosses entire continents. The plot is mostly well done. There are two clearly defined regions in this world, the East with its love and respect of water dragons and the West with is absolute hate and fear of all dragons regardless of their affinity to water or fire. The love or hate of dragons sets up entire religions, cultures, and political organization throughout both regions. Shannon does a great job weaving the threads of the story closer and closer together until the final act. I will say, however, some of the smaller plot resolutions or reveals I felt were a bit too easy after quite a bit of build. Shannon could have easily split this book into two and saved my wrists from the workout of keeping this behemoth open. The characters, I felt, were the weakest link. It took me a good chunk of the book to really start to care about the characters, especially the main four storytellers. Of the four major storytellers, Tané and Loth were my favorite. Their characters just resonated with me and their character arcs were incredibly satisfying. Tané rising from nothing to have all the adventures she had throughout the book made her parts easily my favorite. Loth being thrown into enemy territory from the get-go was a rollercoaster of emotions. Ead, I felt, would have had a bigger impression on me if I understood more of her background earlier on. Her role throughout the story though, is just awesome. She is a badass and I’m living for her. Nyclass Roos took a while to like as well, being the cranky old man that he is. But his story is heartbreaking and I enjoyed his character in the end. So many of the minor characters I just loved and made the story feel fully fleshed out. I wish they had been given more time to shine. The villains left much to be desired. I didn’t feel the impending doom as much as I would have hoped. So much of the devastation that all the characters reference happened hundreds of years prior and devastation happening throughout the story felt episodic. As villains entered the story, I don’t know, I just wasn’t wowed with so much build up. I will say though, the final act is an epic battle that would look fantastic on the big screen. Or small screen, depending on the production company. Overall, a solid stand alone that I hope will have a sequel or prequel in the future, but after at least 1-2 more Bone Season books are released.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2019 by Stephen
Format: Hardcover
“That is the problem with stories, child. The truth in them cannot be weighed.” As a stand-alone, epic fantasy novel this is fairly unique amongst book markets at the moment. Moreover, it follows three female protagonists with interesting and complex narratives that are woven together with intriguing world building and, of course, dragons. The primary narrative thread follows Sabran Berethnet, a queen of a matriarchal nation who needs to marry and have a child, because the continuation of her bloodline that keeps a monstrous dragon trapped beneath the earth. A secondary thread follows her maid, Ead Duryran, a spy with strange powers who was sent to ensure Sabran’s safety in an unstable time. And finally, Tané, who, on the other side of the world, has just completed her training and initiation into a corps of dragon riders. 🐉The narrative itself is not revolutionary, clearly the large dragon and his horde comes back and can only be killed with the Macguffin at a certain time and place. Additionally, I have to say I didn’t enjoy the main romantic plot line. It felt somewhat forced, and the two characters progressed too quickly from not knowing each other to being intimate. In fact, I found the secondary reminiscent romance, of Niclays Roos and his long dead lover was far more interesting, and actually impacted the storyline and the motivations of his character. However, the romantic plot line is very minor in the grand scheme of things and doesn’t really ruin the enjoyment of this book. The real strength of this novel is the world-building. The way the world is created, the mythos, the creatures and the cultural differences between places actually make an impact on the narrative. There is no world-building for world-buildings sake. The first aspect of this world building that I love is the dragons. As a fantasy enthusiast I have seen a lot of dragons, and this novel had all of them. There are two broad types: the mainly western idea of a dragon which is scaly, monstrous, dangerous and can’t be reasoned with, and the more eastern idea which is wise, powerful, helpful on occasion and mysterious. Of course there are dragons that fit between these, Smaug being an obvious choice, but even he falls more under the western than eastern idea. In The Priory of the Orange Tree one of the main narrative themes is cultural difference/similarity; the idea that we all have similar ideas and mythos and emotions, but are separated by invisible lines of culture and geography. Shannon then weaves this idea explicitly into the dragons, distinctly separating west and east with the types of dragons that they encounter in the wild. The east worship their dragons because they are wise, they help them and they can ride them and they provide magic and security. Those in the west despise dragons because the ‘wyverns’ that they come across are destructive and deadly. The west hates the east for being ‘dragon-lovers’, not knowing that the dragons there are distinctly different beings. There is a deep cultural divide over this misunderstanding. It is a nice touch. Not only does it make sense narratively, but it means the dragons can be made more interesting and textured. Too often there is only one type or even just one dragon, and you don’t get the sense that they are a real aspect of the world. There are no dragons for dragons sake in this book and if you love the big fire breathing ones or the wise, parental ones there are dragons for you in this book. The next aspect I love is the magic system. Now, I could talk about soft and hard magic systems until the cows come home, but all I shall say is that hard magic systems have clearly defined rules, limits and consequences to the practice of magic (see The Magicians, Fullmetal Alchemist and The Name of the Wind), soft magic systems are a bit more lose weave and much more mysterious, you are never really sure what someone is capable of (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones). Shannon utilises a soft magic system really well. While there are no hard and fast rules to the magic she introduces into the plot and it is never explained what the real capabilities of the magic is, you are still aware of the consequences of its use, as she establishes that those who practice must replenish it by eating from a specific orange tree. Shannon uses the traits of a soft magic system really well, creating intrigue and a fascination/wonder over its use. The characters, and therefore you, discover more and more about this magic system as the narrative moves forward in a fairly organic manner. Through this process we discover that this magic system follows Shannon’s thematic system of the duality in the world, as there are two types of dragons and two connected founding myths, there are two types of magic. It makes the world feel very… concise and thematically coherant. This brings me to the aspect of this novel that excited me the most; the discourse on mythos, storytelling and the importance on the way a story is told. Essentially, the main plot points and aspects of world building centers around a founding myth of Sabran’s nation. They believe a hero killed the dragon with a sword and married the princess. The south believe that the ‘princess’ killed the dragon and never married the ‘hero’ and he went away in shame. This discord creates a rift between the two places and creates a lot of the tension in the world. This founding myth also creates the identity of the two places. Those who believe the woman is the hero focus on her magic and skill. Those who believe in the male hero have founded their system of state on his bloodline, and their religion on his code of ethics. The founding myth is relevant to not just the world building but also the plot. As the discrepancies in this myth are slowly uncovered and revealed it gives them the tools to defeat the ‘big evil’. It is important to know and understand fully. Where many fantasy books allow the myths to take up a lot of the story for no narrative gain, Shannon manages to weave it into the plot seamlessly, and make it integral to the novel as a whole. Basically, I liked this book! I think it is a really nice riff on some typical fantasy tropes while using some others to their full extent and really enjoying them. There were some iffy bits in the sub plots and some characterisation but overall it really impressed me and is thoroughly enjoyable even to those for whom fantasy isn’t a key genre.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2026 by Luke A Trevelyan
Format: Kindle
I absolutely loved The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. At the very beginning, there was quite a bit of information to absorb, and I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to stick with it for the long run. I’m so glad I did. This is story-first fantasy, beautifully written, with characters who belong so completely to the story and the world Shannon created. The different cultures and worlds within the larger world are incredible. Author didn’t shy from exploring religion, hypocrisy, tradition, and what it takes to finally question beliefs people have accepted as truth for generations. There is also something about reading an epic fantasy written by a woman that hits differently for me. The women in this story have depth, power, vulnerability, ambition, desire, and complicated relationships with the worlds that shaped them. None of it feels added simply to make a point. It belongs to the story. By the end, I was completely invested in this world and these characters. I went from wondering whether I would make it through, to being genuinely sorry the book ended. An incredible book. Five very easy stars.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2026 by Amazon Customer
Format: Kindle
Priory of the Orange Tree is truly an epic tale, and is as feminist as promised but not always in the right way. The first half of the book is miserably slow reading. Most of the shifting character narratives happen too fast to get a good idea of the characters early on, and the sheer number of core characters may be daunting for the average reader. The plot points at the beginning are drawn out and boring, mostly padded with world building and setup for the middle of the book. It's unfortunate because this makes the fantastic latter half of story difficult to reach for all but the most determined readers. I feel that this story would've made a better series. There would've been more time to get to like Tane and learn about her trials, more time to know Sabran and how she felt about her role as queen (rather than just being told), and better pacing to the romance. The characters are suitably flawed and unique from each other, although most of them are only truly developed in the last 15% of the book. A few of the core characters were insufferable until the last few chapters, which made it hard to connect with or care about them. However, rest assured that pretty much any reader will find at least one core character to root for. A glaring problem with the characters though is the consistent underdevelopment of male characters. I'm all for feminist lit focusing on strong women and different nuanced portrayals of them, but that shouldn't come at the expense of male characters' development. With the exception of Roos, every single male character was flat, boring, and useless. Not a good look for "feminist literature." The world was cool. Some of the mechanics of magic and dragons were interesting and unique. I liked some of the twists on traditional and mythical tales, but I found some of the world building overly simplistic at times (really, the map is separated by north, south, east, and west). The religious aspect was handled tastefully in my opinion. Basically this book is worthy of a read for anyone who likes fantasy with strong female protagonists. It is a slog at the beginning, but if you can make it through, it does redeem itself by the end.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2020 by Kiko
Format: Kindle
The Priory has been on my TBR list for years now. As someone who fell into a reading slump for several years and recently (2020) got out of it, I had a lot of catching up to do, and frankly, the size of this behemoth novel was uninspiring as I worked my way back into regular reading. Two years later, after my bookish side was finally back in full force, a book box I subscribe to announced special editions of the Priory and it's standalone prequel, and I knew the time had come. If you want to read a review outlining the story and the characters, there are plenty of those other than this one. The Priory is fantasy unlike any I've ever read before, and I say that in the best way possible. I can honestly say that I had almost zero spoilers before reading, except I knew there would be a sapphic romance involved. Since that was quite literally all that I knew (minus knowing there would be dragons, due to the cover - which is honestly what appealed to me to begin with), I went in completely blind and with moderate expectations. It blew all of them out of the water. I devoured this book; it was physically hard to put down when I had to stop reading for whatever reason. Shannon's pacing and prose are something I've rarely encountered, and I can't get enough of the story or the characters. I honestly wish the book was twice it's size so I could read more about this world and these characters. I also *felt* so much in this novel. I felt the anguish, the joy, the uncertainty, the victory, the defeat, the duplicity, like it was happening to me, and it's not even written in the first person. I have a love/hate relationship with multiple POV books, and this one is done exquisitely well. There wasn't a single character that I inwardly groaned at when I got to their next chapter; I was always excited to read what was next, even for the character who becomes (sort of) an antagonist. This is the first book I've read with multiple POVs that hasn't been like that (yes, I'm looking at you, ASOIAF). The female characters were diverse not only in their origins/appearance, but also in how they can be a strong female character without having to be a sword-wielding, curse-breaking, "the one who was promised" type role. There is female strength shown in a myriad of ways, and I appreciated that as a female reader who generally (especially in fantasy) has to constantly read about how this poor, malnourished girl learns how to fight and becomes hot and strong in like, a month, and cool, now she's a strong female character. I also appreciated how the few romances included stemmed naturally, and not from forced circumstances (another pet peeve with romantic fantasy novels). As my second favorite reading genre is history, I also loved the clear research into actual history reflected in the book. While it's a made-up fantasy realm, many elements of the story and the societies stem from the real world, which helped cement the believability of the story in my brain. I especially loved the East/West dynamics and how the two eventually collide. If I had to nitpick, the part the book that disappointed me was the final conflict. Compared to the rest of the novel, it felt rushed and glossed over, like she wasn't sure exactly how to write it so she just kinda skipped over it. 800+ pages of buildup, and then it just...is over. I am glad that we still got to see each character after the final conflict and that each arc felt (mostly) completed, but that would be my only issue if I had to pick one. ((SPOILER)) Side note: this is fully just my opinion, but I do find it ironic that the Priory is presented as good for worshipping the Mother, and the people of Virtudom are presented as brainwashed sheeple, when both "religions" worship a mere human. The Priory has magic and the truth, and yes the story of the Saint is a lie, but at the end of the day both Cleolind and Galian were humans. The members of the Priory worship a human just as the people in Virtudom do. So, the Priory is kind of also a cult, just one based on a true story and not a lie. It's hard to discern what (if any) "afterlife" in the world of the Priory actually exists, but both religions exalt a figure who was just a human and likely has no bearing on any sort of afterlife or answering prayers. All in all, 5/5, and I highly recommend getting the Kindle version like I did because this beast of a book is a lot to hold onto. Also, I've attached a photo to show the beautiful edges of my special editions :)
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Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023 by Ashley Broderick
Format: Kindle
There are already a lot of great reviews out here about this book. I’ll just say that while I don’t think it is as perfect as some, it is certainly much better than the haters make it out to be. It’s a very solid, good read. The world is interesting, with enough connections to places in our world that we can relate to it easily, while still reveling in the wonderful differences created with magic and fantastical creatures. I loved that it covered such different parts of this world, and fully realized their differences in most cases. The plot was very engaging. The pace is a bit slower in the first third of the book, and some of the action takes place off-stage, but I didn’t find that to be off-putting. There was enough meat as you begin to understand the complexities of this world and the motivations and desires of the people who inhabit it. I do think that the pacing was off, as some others have said, in the last third of the book, where a lot of major events and confrontations take place very quickly and are over almost before you have felt any tension from the situations. It felt like Ms. Shannon may have been rushing to finish to keep this Novel to a manageable length. But it’s impossible to complain about the scope and scale of the action. I also wish that there were fewer moments of “deus ex machina”, where near certain doom is avoided only by the sudden random appearance of a dragon, or an ichneumon, or a witch. These were the couple of things that kept this from being a 5 star book in my opinion. I was honestly touched by the primary romantic relationship in the book. At first I didn’t completely get the attraction (at least on one side), but I did feel that it was later explained, and I could totally empathize. I didn’t care that it was non-heterosexual relationship, though I get how that would have been quite meaningful for some readers. It could have been a male-female relationship and I would have felt the same about it. The importance to me was that they were two people in difficult situations who each found love and comfort and eventual acceptance in each other. I wish Loth could have been a more fully fleshed out character rather than just a convenient POV to follow plot developments away from the other main characters. Overall, though, the characters were well developed. I cringed at some of the things that some of them did, but I was still able to empathize with them, and believe them when they repented. I liked that they didn’t do the kinds of idiotic things that make me so frustrated with most books. Bottom line, this book is definitely worth your time, and I wish there was more of it to read.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2020 by Craig L.
Format: Paperback
They described this book as a feminist fantasy that is perfect for fans of Game of Thrones andI totally agree. I just read the ASOIAF books and this one holds to that standard. It's just such a cool, interesting story that despite its' length, doesn't feel like a difficult read. It also didn't drag for me at all. I was always enrapt by something that was happening in one of the four main POVs. I love reading books where there are multiple POVs and they begin to intersect with one another in a dramatic way. Though this one was certainly frustrating in more than one part, you were almost constantly begging characters not to do something headstrong, it was also very satisfying. I was completely in agreement with the ending, it felt like a strong end to a strong book. The way that Shannon was able to weave the different points of view together so that they fed on one another was great. Just, the story in general was great. The combination of Eastern and Western politics and the way that their world views differed so significantly was fascinating. The world views of the different places were also so well developed. It served to illuminate the concept of religions being closely based on one another, but disagreeing on minute details. Then it emphasized how those details culminate into something bigger until there are wars or feuds happening over something so unlikely. The idea of religion being based on real events and how little changes in the canon can be so detrimental to historical accuracy was a nice touch. It was just such a well-developed story okay? There was always enough action, backstory, or intrigue to keep the reader interested. Seeing the different point of views of the four of the characters also allowed for the opportunity to understand their different world-views and their various cultures. They all possess these deep-seated beliefs and ideals (well, maybe not Niclays) and it was so interesting to see how they clashed and intermingled. The characters themselves were just interesting to read about. They felt not only well-rounded and interesting, but also realistic. They didn't feel stiff or abnormal, they just felt like people with their own thoughts and emotions. Not only that, but there was a very diverse cast of protagonists. Three of the four primary characters were people of color. Two of the four were queer and the society itself was essentially a post-queer, post-racial society. Really, the main biases that existed within the society were primarily based on religion. The romantic aspects of the story were very touching, though I will say that it wasn't necessarily the focus. Really only Eadaz's POV was the one with a big, active romantic influence and it isn't constant, nor is it for the entire four. What I'm saying is, the plot doesn't take a back seat for the romance. In fact, it's far more heavily influenced by the plot than the romance. So, come to the book for the queer romance, but stay for the over-arching plot. Also, let me just say that I found Niclays's backstory regarding his romance with Jannart and his desire to accomplish what Jan set out to do was heart breaking. Their whole dynamic was simultaneously so sweet and so gut-wrenching. Just, very well-written. The setting of the story was established very well. The cultures of the East and West were well-rounded and simultaneously all-encompassing. It was important that the reader understand the different cultures and the impact that it had on character behavior and potential consequences. It was developed beautifully, just like everything else. The magic system felt wonderfully original and also understandable. I saw a review where someone said that they wished it had been developed more, but I totally disagree. It felt like it was done well to me. It was all explained in such a straightforward way, that I felt like I had a great grasp of it. Shannon's writing style in general was simultaneously beautiful but understandable. Like, the story wasn't dumbed down, and once you got used to the writing style it added a layer of believability to the story. You were never taken out of the story by writing that was too modern or far too complex. It was simple enough to keep the story going (which is great because 804 pages has to be kept at a constant pace), but not so simple as to lose its' lovely nature. My only problems that I had are relatively minimal. Every book has its' issues and this one isn't exempt. First off, it felt like we didn't get nearly enough of Tané's POV. Her point of view was one that I felt like I didn't see nearly enough, especially since her's and Eadaz's are the two that I was the most interested in. You just really want the warriors' points of views when you know you're going to have a battle at some point. My other issue was that it felt like some of the problems that happened within the story were solved way too fast. Like, when they needed to solve a puzzle that somehow nobody has been able to figure out for years, they solve it on the first try. Or when they need to find something important, it's in the first place that they look. Like, just a little more struggle felt necessary. It gave the illusion that they were really non-problems. That's it though. Those are my only two qualms and given the expansiveness of the book, they're very minor. Now that I've read the book, I completely understand the hype. This is a must-read for any high fantasy lovers. It really gives you everything you could want in a fantasy book and it's done in a way that just makes you want to devour it as quickly as possible. This was definitely a top read for 2021 for me. I'm so glad I enjoyed it and that I made the decision to read it this year. By all means, if you've been considering reading this book, take this review as your sign to read it!
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Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2021 by Zoey