Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree (Roots of Chaos #1)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Genre: Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: February 2019
Format: Paperback
Length: 848 pages

Read if you like: deeply intricate worlds, sapphic fiction, powerful women, dragons, magical artefacts and weapons, feminist fantasy

Rating: 

Samantha Shannon became one of my favourite authors through The Bone Season series, so it may seem odd that I’m only getting to The Roots of Chaos series now. I’ll be honest, I waited as long as I did because this series is truly intimidating in both size and scope. The books are thicker than old school encyclopedias, and I knew that the world was purportedly quite dense, so I just kept putting it off, never feeling like it was the right time. Now that I’ve finally read it though, I truly wish I’d picked it up sooner.

I was completely floored by how incredible this book was. The complexity of the universe, the intricacies of the relationship dynamics, the scope of magic and world-building, it was all on a level that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen executed so flawlessly. Depsite the fact that it took me nearly three weeks to read front to back, I was completely enraptured every step of the way, a feat I do not experience often in a book of this size. 

It shouldn’t be a surprise at this point that a Shannon book skyrocketed to the top of my all-time favourites list. She’s such an incredibe, immensely talented writer and a prolific fantasy talent. I can’t wait to read more books in this universe. 

The Book Synopsis: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 

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 to be a dragonrider since she was a child, 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.

The Review

Wow. Just wow. In like 10 different ways. 

This is easily my favourite epic fantasy I’ve read to date. Shannon is a true master of the genre, and the strength and caliber of her talent are really on show in Priory. 

First of all, let’s address the universe, because again, wow. It’s so vast and complex and intricate that it’s a little mind-blowing, but what’s even more so is how unbelievably understandable it is from the very beginning. There’s always something a little daunting about diving into an entirely new epic fantasy realm, but Shannon’s writing is so strong that this one starts to make sense from the very first page. There are familiar aspects, but so much of it also feels unique, and I loved that she didn’t curb any of the details; she really dove as deep as she felt like diving, and somehow, even in how long and detailed it was, it still felt clear and concise. 

I loved the plot and how the East and West plodded along distinctly before weaving together into a wonderfully balanced narrative. The rotating perspectives were so valuable to understanding both the make-up of the world and the values each culture held, and the magic fit in so perfectly that it felt extremely organic to the surroundings. I also loved the way that much of the heavy detail really falls to the front half of the book, where the pacing is a bit slower (appropriately so), and then Shannon well and truly jams an outrageous amount of action and intensity into the whole second half, and particularly in the last quarter. I felt like by the end, the momentum was barreling towards the final conflict, and I loved being along for the ride. 

I want to specifically call out how much I LOVED how gloriously feminist this was, and how Shannon chose to approach women and diversity in this novel. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciated that it was baked in from the first page, and it was done so in such a way that it was completely and totally normalized. Much of the literature I’ve read approaches women or lgbtq+ characters in settings such as this as facing heavy discrimination, which has so many parallels to both the past and present that it’s always appropriate, but it was an empowering approach to choose to make it completely and utterly standard. Shannon’s exceptional ability to weave an endlessly compelling narrative that was built on these characters made the delivery even more powerful as well. 

Speaking of characters, the cast in this book is phenomenal. Engaging, witty, multidimensional, occasionally terrible, and often heroic, I fell in love with each of them. I could write an entire review on each and every character, so instead I’ll just say that even months later, as I write this review in retrospect, I couldn’t choose a favourite. I still think about each of them and hope we get to see more of all of them in the future.

This book was epic in so many ways, and the world was so incredibly detailed that I can completely understand how Shannon has so much room for subsequent stories. This was a billion stars for me, five doesn’t feel like enough, and it definitely goes down as one of my favourites of all time.