The Priory of the Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon
My thoughts:
I loved this book; I am currently trying the audiobook in preparation for the new book A Day of Fallen Night. Think of this book as Lord of the Rings + Game of Thrones= The Priory of the Orange Tree. The grace and style of writing like Tolkien with detail world building views as Game of Thrones. The hero, offering a female point of view, is a fun new way of thinking of middle age thinking. Honestly, I’ll let Rick Riordan take it from here, he explains it so much better than me!
“Oh, this brilliant fantasy! Set in an intricate quasi-Early Modern world where Eastern and Western cultures exist in an uneasy truce, PRIORY follows a large cast of characters in many nations as they prepare for the return of the Nameless One, the great evil dragon who was banished a thousand years ago, and who is now poised to make his big comeback and burn the mortal world to ashes. There are two basic types of dragons: the fire-breathing wyrms of the West (Bad dragon! Bad dragon!), who are considered evil demonic creatures only fit to be killed by chivalrous knights, and the noble water-and-sky-dwelling dragons of the East, who are revered as living gods. As you can guess, the Eastern lands and Western lands have a bit of a cultural disconnect over how they view their draconian neighbors. Centuries ago, the Eastern dragons fought with their dragon rider allies against the Nameless One, but that fact is lost on the Westerners, who consider all dragons to be evil. Now that the Nameless One is rising again, the world’s only hope may be if East and West can somehow work together, which seems unlikely.” – Rick Riordan *
Book Summary:
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled the 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 dragon rider 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. — Amazon **
