Reviews with content warning for Incest - The Priory of the Orange Tree

Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

123 reviews

nineinchnails's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

i will definitely be rereading this at some point! partly because there was a lot of stuff i didn't fully understand but mostly because i enjoyed it so much. i don't think i've ever read such a rich, sprawling epic fantasy contained within one novel. the characters were complex and interesting but i wish we got a little more focus on tané and loth. they both felt less fleshed out to me than ead and roos. the only other thing that kinda bugged me was how rushed the ending felt in comparison to the rest of the book. i expected the final battle to be drawn out longer than it was so it felt almost anticlimactic but it was still tied up pretty neatly. my main priorities in fantasy are character development and worldbuilding and those elements were near perfect!!

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mary_stormageddon's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

If, like me, the size of this book is the only thing keeping you from picking up this beauty, then let this be your sign to go for it anyway. I have never loved a fantasy book as much as I have loved this one!

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bucketsjen's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark inspiring slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

High fantasy. Evil dragons, good dragons, magic, nobility, alchemy, court plots, daring quests to save the world, queer romance, friendship! I saw a descriptor somewhere that said it was a "feminist retelling of St.George and the dragon", and that was pretty accurate.

It was thankfully clear of the casual misogyny, sexism, and sexual assault that tends to plague a lot of high fantasy these days (looking at you, ASOIAF/GOT).

Queer people exist and them being queer is not part of the scandal or drama. Men and women both exist as guards and combatants and it's not a big deal - you'll just be reading and there is a guard at the door and the novel uses she/her pronouns. There is a religion that is virtue/purity-focused and a clear riff off Christianity. There is not racism based on appearance (in fact, people with different skin colors are described in the country that has the aforementioned religion) - although there IS nationalism.

There is romance and some light spice in the book, but it's not the focus or the driver of events.

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kappafrog's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

What a great fantasy book! It had been a long time since I sunk my teeth into an epic fantasy book, and this was definitely worth it. I almost gave up on it early on because the formal-fantasy language was a bit irritating, and the opening chapters give you an onslaught of unfamiliar character and placenames. However, once I got into the story, it read really well.

There is a wide variety of characters here of different shades of moral greyness. At first I really didn't like Sabran, but she grew on me over time; and as the book went on, I felt more mixed about Ead. Tané grew on me some as the story went on too. All of the characters in the book, including the many queer and female characters, were complex and multi-layered. Loth, Margret and Chassar were the most consistently likable, while Roos was the hardest to like but still sympathetic at times. Even the disgusting Kalyba was not a one-dimensional villain. The Priory was not what I expected, and I loved the evocation of different landscapes and cultures with clear inspirations from our world. The book's length felt merited since there were a lot of different political, magical, and character aspects to explore. I felt like my investment in the story and its characters really paid off. Shannon is not afraid to kill her characters, so there were real stakes at every point in the book. The finale was epic and also gave us enough time to spend with each character in the aftermath of the climax.

All in all, this was a great re-introduction to epic fantasy for me. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys high fantasy.

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vsamarda's review

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3.0

The priory of the orange tree is what can only be described as a disappointment.

The plot points it offers are interesting at the start, but the more they develop the less engaging they become, until they conclude in the most boring way possible. This is true for everything in the book.
The villains insist on doing a monologue once they are exposed, telling every detail of their evil plan, even when staying quiet would be better for them in every possible way.
Fantastical beings and entities are present, and then they get very annoying motivations that only serve to bring down their mystique (see ||kalyba||).
I also don't understand the decision to make exposition work in the way it does in this book. Characters will be talking, and then someone will ask if they've ever heard the tale of x, and proceed to explain it in detail. It would be fine if this was how it was done once or twice, but most of the exposition is done in this manner.
The multiple povs are interesting, however at a certain point one specific character starts becoming the main character and it remains that way until the end of the book.
Also, even tho the book is 800+ pages long, nothing feels explored in a way that would make me care about these characters, or the religion, or anything in this world. Most characters end up getting, at most, 2 scenes together (mostly due to the pov character problem), and when something inevitably happens I just do not care.
The book is also marketed as an "exploration of religion", which is laughable, because it ends up falling into the trap of one religion being the true religion, while all others get critiqued in some way. I find it somewhat weak how the only flaw that the priory had was a bad apple situation while all other religions get broken down over and over again

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lonelylooper's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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tousledtreasure's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I hoped I could rate it higher, but even though the story gets executed so very well in the first 650 pages and aside from the amazing premise and interesting characters, the later 150 move way to fast along. The first parts get drawn out so long, that you expect the story to have a similar well build finish, but in this case there was more focus laid on the world building than the resolution.

I believed it to be way too convenient, that the Emperor of the empire of the twelve lakes just was in the mood for change to set himself above a ban for outsiders, that was executed for years to the point where those who wash ashore get executed due to their foreign origin. Or that Tané who all throughout the book was wary of change and those of the West, who despised her gods, flew to the West just like that. Some plot points would've needed more time to get resolved. I'm surprised to say it, but I wish the book was longer.

But on the positive, I really enjoyed the Authors worldbuilding and will read her other books in this series. I'm very impressed with her ability to control such a large cast and portray the characters without watering them down.
Overall this story is great but not perfect.

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