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moidevaux's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
terra10's review against another edition
5.0
I can think of nothing else but this!!! I want to reread the whole thing again!
literatureghoul's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
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? Yes
5.0
jnbailey's review against another edition
5.0
Shannon does it again. Had me sobbing and in awe of how well each character was written into this breath taking story. I definitely stand by reading priory first and then ADOFN as it opens you up to so much goodness and lore!
lochnessmaddy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? No
5.0
cor's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
lesbians & dragons. need i say more?
debchan's review against another edition
4.75
yeah it was near perfect
what wasn't perfect one may ask? just 2 things:
1) i don't think the payoff was worth it for me. 800+ pages and then we get to the final action and though it made obvious sense that the events in priory have to occur, it just fell flat.
2) i enjoyed every page, every word, every scene of this book and that was exactly how i felt with priory as well. it's just that as soon as i finished both books, i could barely remember what i had just read. sure, i remember some incredible scenes here and there and the characters stuck with me, but i'm sitting here with the sense of like did i really just read 800 pages when surely this could've been a 600 page book?
everything else though? *chef's kiss*
i love this world so much. samantha shannon does such a good job of really giving you a sense of the politics, the religion, the culture of each country. i was so glad to be back here since i read priory so long ago. her prose is absolutely gorgeous.
what i hate to love about her is that she took characters i couldn't STAND (i hated them fr) and by the end of the book, tell me why i couldn't hate them any more. now that's character development. i thought her underdevelopment of the male characters in priory was an issue, and here i was ready to have the same problem but boy did she make me change my mind.
i love that the proglogue begins with each mother's origin story for their daughter.
dumai: omg she's just like tane who was my favorite character in priory. actually almost everyone from the easy became a firm favorite. she's always known what she wants - to follow in the footsteps of her mother and take on a role on the mountain (see which i'm already forgetting what the purpose of that is). but then her past comes callings and she must go down from the mountain (yes a green bone saga reference) among her people. and there she finds connivers and sneaks and a bunch of politics and her gods. what i liked about dumai is that she was so done with all the infighting she was like hello we have a real problem here?? like yes i'm so glad she takes action and she knew her duty and didn't try to shirk it.
glorian: one of the characters shannon was able to do a 180 for me. bc at first i felt bad yeah no one should be forced to marry someone they don't want to and have an heir. but at the same time, it's like well you kinda have to bc do you really want the nameless one to rain death and destruction on everyone? but the way she accepted her role and responsibility was so upsetting. and the conviction she held to stand firm against the wyrms and force herself to her duty (a child) was so impressive i loved her. and her thought that the original guy (saint or deceiver) never had to go through the incredible pains of birth was so real (fuck that guy, i'm with the priory). so yeah she had so much resilience she's MY queen.
tunuva: she's of the priory and is torn between being a kind understanding human and a hard and unflinching devotee. she was just too damn nice i was getting annoyed. this is the PRIORY it has to be kept secret and now it's all going to the dogs bc you have a kind heart and won't do the awful necessary things. but she wouldn't be herself if she wasn't kind at heart and yknow what it did save the priory in the end and everything ended up ok. (at least for now, fast forward 500 years to ead).
wulf: when i tell you this man was pissing me off just as much as stupid niclays roos was! i was like damn, shannon you really know how to write the worst men ever. even if wulf wasn't presented in the light roos was. but perhaps i was too harsh on him. i did not care for his struggles, his family, the north, his own origin story... and i kept not caring until after he approached glorian with the proposal and went back home after it was done. way to be an ally. i was glad for glorian she had him as a friend. and it wasn't until after he went to the priory and came back that i began to like him and i think that was the point. we see a huge shift in his character, he's matured now that he's seen the truth of virtudom (even if i love the name/idea it's still built on lies). so yeah wulf was fine in the end (although i can't get over the name).
esbar: idk maybe if everyone listened to her things wouldn't have deteriorated so quickly and badly. never was i more happy in this entire book than when she was yelling at siyu. bc she had a point; she always made her point and she was so valid for that. their entire lives (and the world) depended on certain things and esbar's sole responsibility was to keep the priory a secret and safe (yeah gandalf about the ring). so if it were me, i would've listened to her orders.
siyu: like wulf, she was a character i couldn't stand. she filled me with a rage i never knew was possible. how could she be so naive? how could she let a stranger in? how could she be so unreasonable? how could she keep making the same mistake over and over again? because she was a child who wanted more in life. because she never knew any better. because while i don't understand her, i can trace the path of her journey and at the end, say that she's now a woman who's looked at her mistakes and resolutely is deciding to do better. her ending set up priory sooo nicely; it's just that when i look back at her past action i get upset. but whatever, shannon somehow made me love her which i never thought possible: a real miracle worker.
nikeya: i knew it. the instant her slimy little self appeared on the mountain, the moment she met dumai for real on ground, i was like do i sense something between them?? also, i was just waiting for the betrayal moment over and over again. i thought she really would stab dumai in the back and have it be a lasting tragedy. but nikeya always said she was a woman who decided her own actions, not her father. so it was nice to see her wrench away from that and become someone she really wanted to be.
i also like the side characters:
kunifa, most loyal guy ever we all need him in our lives just bc he was so calm and steady
julain/adela/helisent: glorian's ladies. like malini from The Jasmine Throne, i love when a queen/empress has a group of women to take advice from, to lean on, and to help her sneak around if need be.
imsurin: siyu's father and leader of the men of the priory. which is always a fav that the priory call them the "men and the children" or like "hey only the men are allowed in the kitchens duh that's their place." but we don't want more assholes in fiction, we want gentle/kind men who can mend their own clothes and take care of the children.
i enjoyed the relationships too. tunuva/esbar were something i didn't know i needed. we don't often get older couples, especially older lesbians, in fiction. that their relationship, no matter the strain, still kept strong was wonderful.
dumai/nikeya you will always be famous.they deserved to be queen and consort but life comes fast and rip dumai. i know nikeya will do a fantastic job though
so again, it was by definition a good book. i was so transfixed i kept turning pages. sure, i was a bit disappointed at the end and even as i'm writing this, i'm forgetting what this book is about, but i know that while i was reading it i loved it. i'm not sure i could recommend this with the knowledge that 800 pages may not be worth it for some people, but if you could love priory's length, then you would definitely love this prequel too. and i love spending time in this world idk maybe some short stories, samantha shannon? pls and thank you. this was truly a heroic epic.
what wasn't perfect one may ask? just 2 things:
1) i don't think the payoff was worth it for me. 800+ pages and then we get to the final action and though it made obvious sense that the events in priory have to occur, it just fell flat.
2) i enjoyed every page, every word, every scene of this book and that was exactly how i felt with priory as well. it's just that as soon as i finished both books, i could barely remember what i had just read. sure, i remember some incredible scenes here and there and the characters stuck with me, but i'm sitting here with the sense of like did i really just read 800 pages when surely this could've been a 600 page book?
everything else though? *chef's kiss*
i love this world so much. samantha shannon does such a good job of really giving you a sense of the politics, the religion, the culture of each country. i was so glad to be back here since i read priory so long ago. her prose is absolutely gorgeous.
what i hate to love about her is that she took characters i couldn't STAND (i hated them fr) and by the end of the book, tell me why i couldn't hate them any more. now that's character development. i thought her underdevelopment of the male characters in priory was an issue, and here i was ready to have the same problem but boy did she make me change my mind.
i love that the proglogue begins with each mother's origin story for their daughter.
dumai: omg she's just like tane who was my favorite character in priory. actually almost everyone from the easy became a firm favorite. she's always known what she wants - to follow in the footsteps of her mother and take on a role on the mountain (see which i'm already forgetting what the purpose of that is). but then her past comes callings and she must go down from the mountain (yes a green bone saga reference) among her people. and there she finds connivers and sneaks and a bunch of politics and her gods. what i liked about dumai is that she was so done with all the infighting she was like hello we have a real problem here?? like yes i'm so glad she takes action and she knew her duty and didn't try to shirk it.
glorian: one of the characters shannon was able to do a 180 for me. bc at first i felt bad yeah no one should be forced to marry someone they don't want to and have an heir. but at the same time, it's like well you kinda have to bc do you really want the nameless one to rain death and destruction on everyone? but the way she accepted her role and responsibility was so upsetting. and the conviction she held to stand firm against the wyrms and force herself to her duty (a child) was so impressive i loved her. and her thought that the original guy (saint or deceiver) never had to go through the incredible pains of birth was so real (fuck that guy, i'm with the priory). so yeah she had so much resilience she's MY queen.
tunuva: she's of the priory and is torn between being a kind understanding human and a hard and unflinching devotee. she was just too damn nice i was getting annoyed. this is the PRIORY it has to be kept secret and now it's all going to the dogs bc you have a kind heart and won't do the awful necessary things. but she wouldn't be herself if she wasn't kind at heart and yknow what it did save the priory in the end and everything ended up ok. (at least for now, fast forward 500 years to ead).
wulf: when i tell you this man was pissing me off just as much as stupid niclays roos was! i was like damn, shannon you really know how to write the worst men ever. even if wulf wasn't presented in the light roos was. but perhaps i was too harsh on him. i did not care for his struggles, his family, the north, his own origin story... and i kept not caring until after he approached glorian with the proposal and went back home after it was done. way to be an ally. i was glad for glorian she had him as a friend. and it wasn't until after he went to the priory and came back that i began to like him and i think that was the point. we see a huge shift in his character, he's matured now that he's seen the truth of virtudom (even if i love the name/idea it's still built on lies). so yeah wulf was fine in the end (although i can't get over the name).
esbar: idk maybe if everyone listened to her things wouldn't have deteriorated so quickly and badly. never was i more happy in this entire book than when she was yelling at siyu. bc she had a point; she always made her point and she was so valid for that. their entire lives (and the world) depended on certain things and esbar's sole responsibility was to keep the priory a secret and safe (yeah gandalf about the ring). so if it were me, i would've listened to her orders.
siyu: like wulf, she was a character i couldn't stand. she filled me with a rage i never knew was possible. how could she be so naive? how could she let a stranger in? how could she be so unreasonable? how could she keep making the same mistake over and over again? because she was a child who wanted more in life. because she never knew any better. because while i don't understand her, i can trace the path of her journey and at the end, say that she's now a woman who's looked at her mistakes and resolutely is deciding to do better. her ending set up priory sooo nicely; it's just that when i look back at her past action i get upset. but whatever, shannon somehow made me love her which i never thought possible: a real miracle worker.
nikeya: i knew it. the instant her slimy little self appeared on the mountain, the moment she met dumai for real on ground, i was like do i sense something between them?? also, i was just waiting for the betrayal moment over and over again. i thought she really would stab dumai in the back and have it be a lasting tragedy. but nikeya always said she was a woman who decided her own actions, not her father. so it was nice to see her wrench away from that and become someone she really wanted to be.
i also like the side characters:
kunifa, most loyal guy ever we all need him in our lives just bc he was so calm and steady
julain/adela/helisent: glorian's ladies. like malini from The Jasmine Throne, i love when a queen/empress has a group of women to take advice from, to lean on, and to help her sneak around if need be.
imsurin: siyu's father and leader of the men of the priory. which is always a fav that the priory call them the "men and the children" or like "hey only the men are allowed in the kitchens duh that's their place." but we don't want more assholes in fiction, we want gentle/kind men who can mend their own clothes and take care of the children.
i enjoyed the relationships too. tunuva/esbar were something i didn't know i needed. we don't often get older couples, especially older lesbians, in fiction. that their relationship, no matter the strain, still kept strong was wonderful.
dumai/nikeya you will always be famous.
so again, it was by definition a good book. i was so transfixed i kept turning pages. sure, i was a bit disappointed at the end and even as i'm writing this, i'm forgetting what this book is about, but i know that while i was reading it i loved it. i'm not sure i could recommend this with the knowledge that 800 pages may not be worth it for some people, but if you could love priory's length, then you would definitely love this prequel too. and i love spending time in this world idk maybe some short stories, samantha shannon? pls and thank you. this was truly a heroic epic.
gailicho's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
lostmybeanie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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
loopyduck123's review against another edition
Started reading another book and this was a library loan