Priory of the Orange Tree

Fantasy

Print length: 848 pagesBloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020

Description

In a world divided by rival beliefs about dragons, the ancient Nameless One threatens to rise again. In the West, Queen Sabran’s unstable rule depends on producing an heir while assassins close in. Her lady-in-waiting, Ead Duryan, secretly serves a mage society and uses forbidden magic to keep the queen alive. Across the sea, Tané has trained since childhood to become an Eastern dragonrider, only to jeopardize her future by concealing a Western trespasser. Exiled alchemist Niclays Roos, meanwhile, pursues the secret of immortality. As East and West refuse cooperation, these separate ambitions become entangled with a danger neither side can defeat alone. The epic fantasy joins court intrigue, romance, religious division, and competing histories on a continental scale.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Descriptive · Direct

Pace

Variable

Tone

Atmospheric · Earnest · Romantic · Tense

Structure

Braided

Focus

Character · Plot · World

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 4 / 5
Background knowledge: 3 / 5

Themes

IdentityKnowledge and truthLovePowerReligion and faithSurvival

About Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon is a British author of queer dystopian and fantasy fiction, known for building large fictional worlds around contested systems of power and belief. Her debut, The Bone Season, opened a projected seven-book series in which clairvoyance is criminalized and a young dreamwalker becomes entangled with both an authoritarian state and an otherworldly ruling order. The later Mime Order extends that conflict through criminal networks, political corruption, and revolutionary struggle. Shannon works on a broader, more mythic scale in The Roots of Chaos, a universe that grew beyond its originally planned single novel. Priory of the Orange Tree reimagines the legend of Saint George and the Dragon through rival cultures, religious traditions, forbidden magic, and dynastic pressure, while Day of Fallen Night expands the same world across several regions and viewpoints. Across these projects, Shannon combines atmospheric, descriptive world-building with plot-driven narratives, using speculative institutions to examine political legitimacy, inherited duty, suppressed abilities, and resistance.

Series

The Roots of Chaos · Book 1

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Language: English
ISBN: 9781635570304

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