Published in February 2019, The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon took the literary world by storm and even a year later, it is still widely talked about on social media. Despite the novel being Shannon’s first dive into high-fantasy literature, the British author already had a promising reputation of her own in the field of sci-fi, as you may recognise her for being the mind behind The Bone Season saga, which started back in 2013 and will see the publication of its fourth book, The Mask Falling, in 2021.
What Shannon herself describes as a “feminist retelling of the legend of George and the Dragon,” entered the market as reinvigorated take on the most mainstream interpretations of the high fantasy genre. Being tired of the princess always being the passive agent of medieval legends, Shannon decided to take matters into her own hands and create a delightfully refreshing—and quite sensible—alternative route to follow. As Shannon poses herself: Why is it that high fantasy novels tend to be set within a medieval background where women always get the short end of the stick?
Surprisingly enough, high fantasy universes—which are meant to give the author the absolute freedom to construct a completely made-up societal system—are prone to illustrate the same mistakes committed by our medieval forerunners, relegating most female characters to a mere accessory for men to use and abuse. With The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon challenges this trend and creates, in the most natural manner, a society led by pure, untainted equality. In her world, no one is belittled or raised differently for their identity, no matter their gender, race or sexuality. And this is very much appreciated. Who would have thought it would be that simple, right?
Men and women share positions of power and opportunities to become someone on their own. In the universe of the priory, there are kings and queens who rule alike, there are male and female patron saints —or patron knights—, there are men and women who train to be dragon riders, there are male and female servants; and each and every one of them are treated with the utmost respect and it surprises —or aggravates— no one. Moreover, this aspect is not limited to gender, but also extended to race and sexuality. In the field of love, the only barrier between lovers is —sadly enough— their socio-economic status, while in terms of territorial differences, the only element that set them all apart are their beliefs: for the West fears dragons, and the East idolises them.
The Priory of the Orange Tree offers a beautifully seamless mixture of real-life traditions too. Combining the dragon mythology of both Western and Eastern cultures, Shannon develops a breathtaking universe where a brand-new form of lore arises, based on opposing species of dragons and a dual system of magic. Drawing from Western tradition, fire-breathing dragons, led by The Nameless One, are a menace to humankind. On the other hand, following Eastern folklore, water dragons are benevolent deities who live in peace and cooperate to maintain harmony.
Another diversion from the mainstream traits of the genre is that the novel is not as action-packed as you might expect —especially when dragons are involved. Despite the narration leading to the inescapable battle between good and evil, said event is just a device for characters to learn, grow, and fight their own demons. Making use of a narration that relies on four different focalizing characters—Ead, Tané, Loth, and Niclays—, the reader gets to understand how their upbringing and respective set of beliefs have shaped them individually, as each of them belongs to one of the four regions in which the world of The Priory is divided. Overall, hand in hand with its outstanding world-building, Shannon’s rich, flawed, ever-growing set of characters, along with their personal development and interpersonal relationships are the driving force of the novel and its strongest asset.
Additionally, the fight against time and the rising of the Nameless One serves as a way to explore the lusciousness of the world Samantha Shannon creates and the influence tradition and religions have on society. Most of the characters experience a growth through which they begin to question everything they had once stood for, learning to form their own opinions and judgements for themselves. At the same time, Shannon also offers a warning about taking tradition to heart, which can be very dangerous and divisive. Along with folklore and beliefs, politics take the spotlight in The Priory of the Orange Tree. As a sum of all these major themes, the core moral of the story shines through: to create a better world, the first step that needs to be taken is to set differences aside and work together as one.
Despite the plot not being key for the development of the narration, by no means is The Priory of the Orange Tree boring or dull at any point. If you had already come across the novel before reading this review, you will know that it is a pretty thick novel. It is very possible that we have all felt pretty intimidated by the length of this book before picking it up. More than eight hundred pages are quite the feat if you are not used to such lengthy novels, but don’t be discouraged, because it is more than worth your time. Notwithstanding, its length is both a blessing and a curse. At times, the novel becomes—paradoxically—too long from the outside and too short from the inside, as the world is so thoroughly developed that the book feels a bit too crowded for the enormous diversity of characters, history, tales, and political intricacies. Can this be considered a real hindrance for the novel? It depends on the reader’s perspective, so we will let you decide.
In conclusion, The Priory of the Orange Tree is well-deserving of the major acceptance and praise it has received since it was published last year. Even if a standalone, one can only hope for Samantha Shannon to write a sequel, so that readers can learn more about the fantastic dragon-ridden world of The Priory of the Orange Tree and its characters. As a final piece of advice, don’t be discouraged about joining the party a bit late, there is still a lot of mysteries to unravel about the fantastic world Samantha Shannon has gifted us with. Shannon makes sure to leave small hints about the discoveries that have not yet been made on her Twitter account, so make sure to follow her!
The Priory of the Orange Tree is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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 all her life to be a dragonrider, 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.
