The Priory of the Orange Tree

Folks, I finally did it. It was my plan to read this book in the first half of ‘21. When I had set myself that guideline I more so had like January 15th in mind, but June is still the first half, so BOOM. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite covers, I had to have it immediately when I saw it. I wish I had read it immediately too!

What really could I say about this book that hasn't been said before? Regardless, I'll try in my own words I suppose... to me, this book is the most successful in its attempts to feel like medieval chivalric knights and court. It does start slow, and for the most part, it is entirely a slow burn anyway, but each section builds up and there is action or raised stakes to feel the pressure. This novel is also super successful in its attempt (and to me success) in being a full fledged standalone epic tale. Yes, from start to finish there are some things that you'd call unnecessary to the overall story, but this one tome is the characters' entire lives. And boy did I love these characters entirely. They are so fleshed out and each decision they made made sense even if it made me angry. Ead being both a lady of court and a secret badass assassin is a combination that worked really well for me, she ended up being my favorite. Sabran has probably the most traumatic life of a book character I've seen, and she still ends up staying strong. I actually wish we saw more book time of her being badass. And Loth is a great example of a virtuous man, perhaps the best in Virtudom, but at the same time, he's not so trapped in faith that he can't actually exhibit those virtues in the face of change. 

Another thing I really think hit as a huge success for me was the different continents and cultures and races shown here. Although a complete fantasy world, having things from the real world mirror onto theirs was a great way to lock in how absorbing the world is. Although there is hate and ethnocentric feelings towards each other, they all have to put those feelings aside to save the world together. Division isn't an option. 

To avoid spoilers I will just say that the ending did feel a little “Harry Potter,” aka a tad rushed. Especially when dealing with something of such a size and scale as this book. In HP we come to accept the endings because there was always more, this one however did leave me feeling just a little slighted, although it was good! I guess with such a slow burn, we could never really receive as long of an ending as the build up... 

And here is a quote I really liked and read several times before moving on, “Gone are the days of heroes...From North to South and West to East, your world will burn.” To me this felt Tolkien-esque in the sense that the scale was grand. I enjoyed it a lot. 

If you're afraid to jump into this book because of the size, I say just so it. You don't have to read it fast. Give it a shot.

An epic fantasy novel with dragons and lgbt characters. On paper this is brilliance and I really, really want to love it. But it's too messy an affair.

What I like:
+ lgbt characters
+ (sea) dragons
+ intriguing magic system

What I don't like:
- very clumsy writing
- 3 of 4 character POVs are unnecessary (or not developed enough to be delightful)
- when a hero is saved by luck (random distraction appearing out of nowhere) and not because they are doing heroic things at a crucial moment...
- when villains are suddenly struck by an unnatural need to spill their guts about evil plans (instead of focusing on that world domination plan they've been brewing for a thousand years ??? literally a thousand years)
- too many twists and turns to be coherent

I absolutely adore Ead. She's a very intriguing character with a very interesting mission. I'd like to think a book based solely on her story, only her POV, would've been more coherent. I wish to dig much deeper into the psyche of these characters, Ead especially. I wish to flesh out their victories and tragedies and really explore how it develops them.

Alas, we get 800 pages of something that mostly feels like a YA book. Don't get me wrong, that's not a bad thing. It's just not what I expected from this book. The Priory Of The Orange Tree has so much potential to be brilliant, and that's why it saddens me to only give it 3 stars.

I had been putting this book off for a while because of just how long it was. It's an intimidating size! But I figured with this weird world we're in now and having so much time on my hands, there would be no better time.

I'm glad I did! This was a really good book! The writing style was immersive and it really painted clear pictures of scenes, people, places, and action. I thought it was reading a little flowery in the beginning, but actually it seemed to work really well and was well thought out. The characters were also mostly well fleshed out, and I liked the moral dilemmas that cropped up occasionally about religion and duty.

The negatives keeping me from giving this a full 5 stars are probably mostly personal hangups. I didn't really like the character of Niclays Roos, who didn't really have a clear picture in the story except as a plot vehicle in my opinion. I also thought the beginning was a little slow and confusing, with the author throwing people, places, and concepts at you so quickly. Finally, I felt like the pacing of the ending was a little off, especially compared with how methodical the buildup had been up to that point. Suddenly we're rushing through action and plot threads like mad, and I wished we had spent a little more time at least at resolving them. Perhaps the book would have benefited from being split into two smaller books, which would have given the author more time to devote to a better paced ending.

Still, this made my favorites shelf for 2020, and that says something. Highly recommend.

I liked the characters but the ending felt a little rushed and anti-climactic. There were also times when I was a little confused because there was a lot going on in this book. The construction of the religions was really well done. The East and South had different belief systems centred on the same deities (this was reminiscent of the Abrahamic religions). I really enjoyed this book, I just wish it ended better.

I am insipidly in love with this book which has every beautiful, magical piece of epic fantasy that I fell in love with as a kid, rendered beautifully, and conspicuously avoiding all of fantasy's historic pitfalls. I may have a new all time favorite book. It has been a long time since I made it through an 800-page behemoth, but I didn't want it to end. I want to curl up and live in this book. I want to buy my own copy so I can kiss it goodnight every evening.

This book showed so much promise but seemed to constantly drop the ball. Tension would be built effectively but all the payoffs were terrible. The writing of battles and fights was almost incomprehensible, so you had no clue who was where or doing what, and then suddenly things would be over. We seemed also to miss out on critical information eg. why did Roos suddenly turn from potential assassin out on the seas, to giving them the knife and information on how to kill the Nameless One? In one paragraph he was seeting at Ead, eager to kill her, and then... he was on her side? It didn't make sense. So much promise and an incredibly built world, fantastic characters, but it consistently fluffed its lines.

Wat een baksteen van een boek! Er gebeurde ontzettend veel in dit boek. De 4 verschillende POV's zijn fijn, maar minder fijn als je ze niet allemaal leuk vind... Ead vond ik de leukste. Sabran en Ead waren geweldig!
De laatste 200 blz waren ontzettend gaaf en mooi dat allen bij elkaar kwam.
Maar moest het 800 blz zijn? Geen idee. Ik vond het erg kang voor een boek en heb er ook ruim 1,5 maand over gedaan om dit te lezen...

4.75 ⭐️

I loved this book it was beautifully written and I loved watching the stories of all 4 characters. The characters all developed in versions ways throughout the book and I was happy to see how it turned out.

There were definitely points where even though I was so happy with the book it was long but that's to be expected with a standalone fantasy book.

I would absolutely recommend this a million times overs, it was a complex and simultaneously digestible fantasy that has so many beautiful components and twists and secrets.

Copy/paste from BLC: Ahhhhhh!! I finished the brick!! 5 stars from me.

Although the intimidating choker size, confusing beginning with repeated rereads (lol), endless names and information, I'm happy to say I've read it and thoroughly enjoyed it! I loved the world-building around it, dragon lovers vs slayers, the characters, and the way that it was written. I remember seeing a comment from others, and I would agree–the descriptions are not crazy, disruptive, and give enough to consume and visualize. I'm happy there wasn't terrible heartbreaks at the end, I'm not sure what I would do with myself if there were lol, though, the moments of Truyde still lingers with me. At a young age, her aggressive and head-on spirit to ally with the opposing side would end up being true. I'm sure Jannart would have been proud to have a granddaughter so willing to learn. I might have constant dreams of what it would have been like with Niclays, Jannart, and Truyde. TT__TT I did think Niclays was going to be a cool uncle at the beginning, but boy was I wrong lol I wished the book was also a little longer to finally see Meg and Lintley's marriage, and Loth and Donmata's relationship.

DNF @ 250 pages/ 30%


Reading Notes

p.250/30% mini review:

1. Where. Are. The. Dragons.
Seriously, where??? How am I 200+ pages in and dragons have been barely present? Also, dragon names: Fýredel? Cool, epic-sounding. The Nameless One... what? Really? The most evil and murderous dragon is called the Nameless One??? I'm seeing a trend... (He Who Must Not Be Named, the Evil One, etc.) How original.

2. Sabran is so damn annoying. She is actually the worse person in the book. How can someone so vain, selfish, and stupid ever be the queen of a country and figurehead of a major religion is beyond me. Why is most of the focus on this character? Her kingdom is easily the most boring one out of all of them.

3. There's been a minor character death so far that was so underwhelming, I had to read the passage twice just to make sure he was actually dead and not just chilling. I liked this character, but I didn't get to see him enough to develop strong emotions upon his dying (very anticlimactically, btw). He died too soon in the story to have any emotional effect whatsoever, which seems rather pointless.

4. The fact that most of the time we're stuck in the West with Sabran is really disheartening. The East is by far more interesting, but we barely spend any time there. Tané and Niclays have potential as characters, but no, I'm forced to read about snooty Sabran 90% of the time.

5. Am I really going to read 800+ pages of this...? I'm questioning my sanity.

[Edit: No, no I won't. I dropped this book so fast after p. 250. I refuse to keep reading even though, according to some, “it gets better after 50%!!” No, don't care.]

6. If anyone dares compare this to The Lord of the Rings, please give them a stern talking to. LOTR is a masterpiece in every shape and form, and it is definitely unfair to attempt to compare anything else to it, but the fact that Priory of the Orange Tree has been called the “feminist LOTR” is such an insult to the latter. Just.... just don't go there if you don't want your book to be pulled apart and destroyed because of this poor comparison. There is nothing in Priory that remotely resembles LOTR.

Solid 4.5 dragons, political intrigue, magic, and queer romance!!

The first 200 pages were relatively slow, naturally because of world-building. As a character-driven reader, this was hard to get into but the more I immersed myself in the world-building the more I enjoyed the characterization. Some of the four main characters could have easily been side characters. I appreciate that this book is a standalone but it could have easily been a series and please tell me I'm not the only one that wants a book just from Tane's point of view??

The final battle felt a bit anti-climactic. All that building up for a few pages of not very convincing battle. Kind of spoiled the book for me.
Yes, it's epic and captivating, but doesn't hold up when I think about the characters. Didn't see much change in them. Didn't understand why Roos out of the blue went from hating Sabran and going to kill Ead to helping the and giving a crucial piece of information.

Lowering my rating from a four star to a three star because where the book excels, it doesn't make up for the confusing pacing, for how points of conflict are brought up only to be quickly resolved, and the frankly confusing romance between Ead and Sabran that felt like it came from out of nowhere. For seven years Ead didn't give a shit about Sabran, and then just...started liking her? Okay, whatever. I liked the world-building, even though Seiki and some of the Eastern and Southern countries were just vague Orientalist fantasies, while Inys felt like the only nation to be fully fleshed out. A good book in the first half, dragged down by the weight of its own plot lines and mistakes by the middle, only to have what felt a bit like a rushed ending (weird, for a book this size to have one.)

Rating: 4.25 leaves out of 5Characters: 4/5 Cover: 4/5Story: 4/5Writing: 5/5Genre: Fantasy(High)/LGBT/RomanceType: EbookWorth?: Yes!Hated Disliked Liked Loved FavoritedI think this was my first high fantasy novel. It was pretty intense and I took so many notes on everything. Lol. Samantha played a lot with emotions, for me at least. She made amazing characters and showed their growth pretty well. The dragons were gorgeous though the big bad one could have been written better. The big fight scene was short and I think that is a bit disappointing since it was this huge build up. It was still good, but could have been better.There were also some things that just didn't make sense or it was just so... out of place. Either way I loved it. It was a nice little journey for me.