The Priory of the Orange Tree

Sehr politische Fantasy. Kitschfreie Drachen.

Wir befinden uns in einer Welt, in der sich der Osten und der Westen in einer Art Kaltem Krieg befinden. Im Westen regiert eine Linie von Erbköniginnen, die sich auf die Abstammung von einem religiösen, ritterlichen König berufen, das Land Ynis. Es heißt, solange diese Frauen regieren, wird der Namenlose, repräsentiert von bösen Drachen, nicht zurückkehren. Im Osten hingegen sind Drachen Götter. Unsere wichtigsten Protagonistinnen sind Ead, eine Hofdame, die in geheimem Auftrag als eine Art Bodyguard für Königin Sabran von Ynis agiert, und Tané, eine junge Waise, die sich im Osten um eine Position als Drachenreiterin bewirbt. Dann geschehen Ereignisse, die daraufhin deuten, dass eine Zusammenarbeit von Ost und West unvermeidlich ist... Ich brauchte dringend eine Abwechslung von schwerer Kost und wollte ja eigentlich sowieso wieder mehr Fantasy lesen. Ich mag High Fantasy und Samantha Shannon schreibt moderne High Fantasy, also habe ich mich für dieses Buch entschieden. Eine ganze Zeit lang war ich besorgt, dass die Story darauf hinauflaufen würde, welche Religion die richtige ist, was ich für problematisch gehalten hätte. Tatsächlich wird der Glaube einiger Figuren sozusagen geradegerückt, doch die übergeordnete Botschaft dieser Geschichte ist Toleranz, was sich auch in der starken Repräsentation von queeren Figuren und People of Colour zeigt. Daher konnte ich mich mit der Darstellung des ohnehin wirklich interessanten Religionskonflikts anfreunden. Aufgrund der gefühlt inflationären Thematisierung von Drachen vor allem in YA-Fantasy ging ich mit einer gewissen Skepsis an das Buch heran, auch hier kann ich jedoch Entwarnung geben: Die Darstellung der Drachen und ihrer Beziehung zu Menschen ist weitestgehend kitschfrei. Die Geschichte ist eine sehr politische, unterfüttert von reichem World-Building. Es braucht eine gewisse Zeit, bis man die vielfältigen Charaktere zuordnen kann, zumal man im  Hörbuch ja nicht eben mal zurückblättern kann. Die zentrale Lovestory habe ich überhaupt nicht gefühlt, sie erschien mir persönlich überflüssig, störte mich jedoch auch nicht. Was mir sehr gut gefallen hat, war, dass es auch Charaktere gibt, die sich bis zuletzt nicht in Gut- oder Böse-Kategorien einordnen lassen. Die finale Auseinandersetzung ist nicht ganz unvorhersehbar, doch insgesamt hat mich dieses Buch gut unterhalten und mich in eine spannende Welt entführt. Die Sprecherin Liyah Summers gibt ihren Charakteren je nach Herkunft unterschiedliche Akzente, Ead beispielsweise spricht mit karibischem Zungenschlag, die Bewohner von Ynis eher in einem britischen, die des Ostens eher in einem amerikanischen Akzent. Das erleichtert durchaus die Charakterisierung und funktioniert gut.

Es ist alles und nichts passiert

Ich hab eine Weile gebraucht um erst einmal in das Buch hineinzufinden. Eine gaaaaanze Weile. Ich wette, die Dicke würde um die Hälfte sinken, wenn nicht dauernd alle Charakere mit ihrem Titel genannt werden müssen. Nichtsdestotrotz gab es viele Stellen in welchen meine Augen quasi an die Seiten klebten und ich meinen Blick zwingen musste, nicht weiter nach unten zu skippen, um auch ja den ganzen Werdegang mitzubekommen. Die Verschiedenheit der Hauptcharaktere war erfrischen und eine gute Wahl. Es gab einige WTF Momente, auch Momente in denen ich das Buch schließen und kurz erst einmal durchatmen musste, ehe ich weitermache. Am Ende hat mir jedoch etwas gefehlt. Für mich was es nicht zufriedenstellen, da bin ich ganz ehrlich. Es gab den großen Showdown… und das war irgendwie. Aber Allem im allem ein gutes Buch. :)

Die Welt, die die Autorin hier erschaffen hat, ist wirklich großartig! Es gibt viele verschiedene Charaktere und vier POVs aus der die Story erzählt wird. Dadurch wird es zum einen am Anfang schwierig den Überblick zu behalten und die Verbindungen aller zu verstehen. Zum anderen wird die Story auch groß aufgezogen und alles fügt sich irgendwann zusammen. Mir hat die Geschichte wirklich sehr viel Spaß gemacht und ich wollte gar nicht, dass es endet. Ead und Tané waren tolle starke Frauen, die sich mega weiterentwickelt haben. Tané ist eine Drachenreiterin und wir begleiten sie auf ihrem Weg in der Ausbildung. Ead ist undercover am Hof der Königin Sabran, um diese zu schützen. Dabei ist sie auch eine Magierin, die eigentlich aus der Priory des Orangenbaums stammt. Auch die männlichen Charaktere haben einiges zu bieten: Loth und Roos. Wobei ich Roos die meiste Zeit einfach doof fand anders als Loth👀 Für mehr als 3,5 Punkte haben mir hier definitiv die Drachen mit mehr Anteil an der Geschichte gefehlt - hier hätte ich mir einfach mehr gewünscht. Außerdem kam der Feind, der große Wyrm, erst 50 Seiten vor Schluss zum Zug, 20-30 Seiten Kampf und das wars. Mir war das etwas zu flach und zu schnell abgehakt… dafür wurde dann halt doch 750 Seiten genau darauf vorbereitet👀

Great writing, great characters, great story. I cried

Dragons, magic and immense world building - what else do you need??

I loved loved this!! The characters were so full and all had their little icks, but I loved them all the story needed a little time at the beginning (but every good epic fantasy book needs a little time), but then everything came on and on with no time to breath. the world building really popped off, because everyone and everything was connected. evertime there's a tale, you need to remember for later - and turn to the whole plot. Samantha's writing is perfect as well, even though as someone, whos English is not the first language it was a little bit confusing, but I figured it through context. thank you for this amazing book!! excited to read the prequel.

Beautiful.

I think that's the only word I can use to describe this book. There's no other word that can. The writing, the plot, the characters, the romance. I've never read anything like it and I don't think I ever will. Truthfully, I put this book off for a whole year because - well, I don't really know, but for anyone who might be doing the same, read it now. After a few pages you're hooked, it's crazy. Shannon has portrayed the characters and their thoughts and inner turmoil in such a way that you don't question any of it because you understand. I understood why they acted 'selfishly', and at no point did I say 'I would have chosen differently' or 'That course of action didn't make sense'. (semi-spoiler:) My favourite part of the story has to be when the characters are faced with challenges that shake the foundations of what they thought was the truth. Loth questioning his faith, Eadaz questioning the Prioress, Sabran questioning the very foundation of her queendom, Tané questioning her worthiness (and also Niclays questioning his will to live, but I didn't much care for him and I think that's what Shannon intended). This book has become my new favourite. Will be reading more by Shannon in the near future 🫶🏻

I listened to 80% of the audiobook until I couldn’t do it anymore. If I would’ve read it I probably would’ve stopped earlier. I tried getting into the story, but it was way too slow and unnecessarily long for me.

This book is absolutely amazing! I was always a fan of dragon stories - Eragon and How to Train Your Dragon are among my favorites. To me there was always this slight disappointment that there didn't exist more stories like those. Finally, all my wishes have come true in this book. Priory contains everything I want from fantasy: dragons, strong women, political intrigues, secrets, legends and an old enemy who will end the world if he is not stopped in time. I really appreciated the diverse relationships as well, the strong friendships (even between men and women), the same-sex relationships, secret affairs and the slow burn romance! The world the book is set in is divided in two: one half, the West, sees all dragons as evil and wants them dead. The other side, the East, worships their dragons (although they also see the fire-breathing dragons as their enemies). While the narrators are, at the beginning, evenly distributed between those two sides, the balance did feel a little off. Maybe that was just because I always wanted to read more of Tané. I just I loved her storyline so, so much. However, it wasn't too annoying - there were so many thing happening with the other narrators that I was never disinterested. Anyway, that is the only thing that wasn't absolutely perfect for me. In the end, I enjoyed the whole read so much that I didn't want it to end. The length of the book made me appreciate every single moment, right until the end.

This book makes the reader work. The worldbuilding is immense and needs a lot of focus, and the characters are not easily accessible. However, the word 'epic' is adequate for this story, and even though it took me more than one third of the book to get hooked, I finally got into it and enjoyed it a lot.

I put this book off for so long because of its thickness (= intimidating asf) and decided to pick it up on a whim and read it. Now… Even though it is more than satisfying to see the cracks decorating the spine, I have to say it wasn’t worth it for me. The story is not necessarily bad but being thrown into a universe without getting some type of world building beforehand is really confusing, paired with constantly changing POVs of the four protagonists didn’t really help…(Maybe I should have read A Day of Fallen Night first? Idk…) The writing is really good and beautiful, no question, but I was expecting something with more excitement and action, which it’s not… Therefore I found the story to be rather flat and it gave me more of a cosy(?) feeling overall. I’m glad I listened to the book rather than read it or I’m pretty sure it would have been a DNF very early on.

Spannend und episch

Ein tolles Buch, mit interessanten, vielseitigen Charakteren, epischer Geschichte und einem interessanten Magiesystem. Hat mir viel Freude bereitet!

the book of all time

Liebevolles, ausführliches World Building. Und sicher das richtige für jene, die diese Arbeit zu schätzen wissen. Für mich hat es sich beim Lesen aber mehr wie das Lesen eines Geschichtsbuches für die Schule angefühlt.

Great book, but could’ve been so much better.

Read this book over a month ago and the more I think about it the more questions and criticisms I have. It was a good read, but left so much in the air. Some positives included the good worldbuilding and development of most of the characters. Tané, Ead and Loth were excellent protagonists. The book was so well paced in the first half, with good parallels between Tané’s trials and Sabran. I loved Kalyba and the Donmata Marosa as supporting characters. Shout out to the relationship between Sabran and Ead, it was so well thought out and didn’t fall into many of the overused tropes of same-sex relationships. Also, dragons. Rather ironically, I felt that the flow of the story suffered from the same in-world issues as the book itself. It is far too centred on Inys and Mentendon - other than a minor struggle arc of a few characters, the plot doesn’t lend itself to delve further into the Ersyr, Lasia, the Empire of the Twelve Lakes or even Yscalin despite how much of the book is set there. Hroth is mentioned 3-4 times. It is cold. Tané’s POV set in Seiiki and Loth’s time in Carscaro are arguably some of the most interesting and fascinating parts of the book and I wish the author had managed to capture that magic in the latter half of the book. The lack of redemption arc made Niclays a weak character, made it so I wanted to skip all his chapters. I’m truly befuddled as to why he got focused on so much when there were far more interesting characters like Truyde and Triam. It felt like he was there as a POV for the plot, (especially during the Golden Empress arc) and had no real loyalties to anyone except himself. He gets no stars from me. Overall I did really enjoy reading Priory of the Orange Tree. I focus more on the criticisms because I wanted better for this book and this story. The pacing in the last third especially was WAY off and led to somewhat of a disappointing, anticlimactic end. Really wish the author could have done this story more justice and written it as a trilogy instead.

I am at a loss of words I think. This book owns my heart from now on.

Okay DAMN. Going into this book I didn't really know anything about it, except that it has dragons in some capacity and is absolutely massive. I've had this on my shelf for about a year because I was kinda scared of the commitment. So if you're also scared of the commitment, let me tell you, it's worth it. It took me about 100 pages to not be confused anymore and get the names straight. By page 250 I felt like the exposition was over and the plot had been set up. And from there on I was INVESTED. Pros: - The characters and their arcs really had enough room to develop - The story felt well-rounded - The world building was soo detailed - It felt long yes, but for the most part not unnecessarily so Cons: - Some parts could have been left out, especially the Tolkien-esque stories in the story and some repetitions - There are never enough dragons In summary: Be brave and you will be rewarded with 800 pages of amazing fantasy.

phewww that took long The story was so well thought out i literally forgot i was reading and not watching smth I got attached to the characters over time. The 4 POV thing was really good, i was scared it would confuse me, i didnt luckily nilcays roos they can never make me hate you </3

I actually, sincerely hope that this isn’t too mean. I’m just saying my opinion, so don’t come for me. I apologize for any mistakes with grammar and spelling as well at punctuation.English is not my first language. And I cannot let go of using commas. It is in my nature, and my mother tongue. ————————— ⚠️This review may contain spoilers.⚠️ ————————— First off, if you’re reading this book for the dragons, then DON’T. —— This book was not purely a waste of time, emphasis on not purely, because it partially was and is. The first 450 or 500 pages of this brick of a book could’ve easily been shortened to 200 and made this less boring. Basically everything that happened felt fabricatedly elongated to me and reminded me of watered down juice to make more juice. Works, but does not always make the juice better. While I can think of books that could have benefited from this, this one wasn’t one of them. This is watered down orange juice. (pun intended) It was hard at first, to actually remember the names of the main characters when constantly switching around the entirety of the world like going from Bogota to Jakarta (two cities that are almost antipodal to each other). Even at page 150 I had hardly grasped the protagonist names, let alone those of the side character, because I had at that point barely had time to adjust to any of them. It almost had me glad of certain deaths, because “Who the hell even was that?” and “ls this name supposed to be ringing any bells?” were so reoccurring that I was beginning to loose faith in myself, who usually has no problems remembering names. And don’t get me started on the unlikability of some of the protagonists at the beginning. Tané? Selfish. Niclays? Selfish. Sabran? Selfish. The only person I liked to read about, whose name even felt somewhat of a fresh breath of air (dare I exaggerate) was Ead(az). Why even have so many protagonists? One of the first things we learned in German class in middle school was to not have too many main characters because it’s hard to keep track of them all and give them all a personality and development. This is exactly what’s going on here: Protagonists lacking a personality and development. Apart from that, I felt like so many (side-)characters, whose name I had finally learned, were just discarded. Why did I learn Turosa’s name? And the names of even half the ladies of the privy chamber. God, let me stay strong. In German I’d say, and did say, “Ich mache drei Kreuze, wenn ich dieses Buch durchgelesen habe.” I was ready to DNF this book and put it on my shelf of shame, and then finally, at around page 450, something somewhat interesting happened. And I must be honest, it got better from there. At least for some time. Then, it went downwards again. Making Kalyba be everyone and everything felt almost lazy to me. Kinda like when I don’t know the answer to an exam question and then write the first best thing I can think of to at least not have it be unanswered. It’s giving “I wanna get it over with and be done with writing this.” And don’t even get me started on the lack of purpose of the last 10 to 15 pages. The end would (in my opinion) have fit better after defeating the Nameless one. Then a nice clean cut and done. boom. Anyway, to summarize my review: The book had potential, a great thought behind it, but it was somewhat butchered. It felt too long, like it was drawn out but to make it longer, not better. And then rushed at the end to not make it any longer. The entire fight seemed like the author didn’t want to take the time to go more in depth and the Jump from the nameless one falling to back on land seemed to be days apart and like a time skip in a fanfic when the author didn’t feel like writing a canon scene and just skipping it. Overall, the plot turns that seemed too convenient most of the time, caused a lack of tension in this book. When normally, I don’t want to put a book down because it is so captivating, I could barely pick this one up. It felt like I wasn’t making progress in getting through the book and the plot didn’t progress either, at least for the first 500 pages. I really don’t enjoy giving a book less than 3 stars. I know that authors spend a long time writing and editing and rewriting their books, and that it’s a Labour of love for them. And no one has to read a book they don’t like, but I think with a book of this size, 800 pages, you should know what you’re getting yourself into. 1/5 stars.

This is a long book, indeed. But it didn’t feel like it. I enjoyed the four different narrators. Liked some more, some less. It still felt like everything is important for the story. The worldbuilding was good and I liked how we jump from one part of the world to the other, but everything is connected. Oh and of course I appreciated that the leaders are mostly women and nobody questioned their competence because of their sex. A dream. If there were a second book already, I would read it right away.

Ich kann nicht glauben, dass ich endlich dieses Monster gelesen habe. Und ich kann nicht glauben, dass es vorbei ist

Gay and dragons. Badass lesbians and poc, plus fantasy, this is everything in only one book

Enjoyed the book. The characters and world building were great. Such an interesting take on dragons and fantasy worlds. The pacing was real slow in the beginning and sped up to a thousand in the last 150 pages. I didn’t enjoy that as much. The rest was great though.

What a world. - What characters. - What a book. Just over 800 pages and yet at the end I feel like it ended too quickly. Isn't it amusing to say that about such a thick book? A book that kept me enthralled for three weeks? At the beginning I actually found it difficult to settle into the new world, shortly afterwards I was thrilled and at the end I was sad to leave it again. I love dragons. So much worldbuilding, I could cry with joy - thank you for this experience! For such dedication and love. In the beginning, infinite time was taken for everything (which is great in a new world!) - things were described with infinite love and devotion and at some points I was about to groan, but then the plot moved forward. That's what I was kind of missing at the end? Let it be about the last 20% of the book? Suddenly, the narrative pace picked up so much that it sometimes felt like there was pressure to finish now. Does that leave me unsatisfied? Yes, in a way it did. The ending was good, no question about it. It made my chest tingle → but the climax with the antagonist went by too quickly for me; so did the last bit of getting there. It could have been 200 pages more for all I cared, tbh. Nevertheless, I am and was in love. With the world and its story; with all the characters. And yes, I'm already looking forward to more <3

Wirklich toller Epos! Hat mich richtig gefesselt!

Ein wahnsinnig guter Fantasy-Epos in der Liga von »Der Herr der Ringe«!

So close to giving 5 stars - but where were the dragons?! The cover promises dragons and the book doesn’t really deliver dragons. That being said, I immensely enjoyed the story. Most of the main protagonists are badass women with strong minds and still an openness to change and different thoughts (even if it takes a while to get there). It also doesn’t happen that often in fantasy that there are middle-aged protagonists. If read here and there that pacing was an issue for some; it wasn’t for me but I only got around to read a few chapters at a time so I was always looking forward to get back into the story. Having read the books in plot chronological order, it was nice referencing back to the history that I had read before, like Easter eggs. I can understand why this was first and then some mentioned historical figures got their own and fully fleshed-out story. But again, where were the dragons? (#0 has way more dragon center-stage so I like that one better!)

more of a 3,5 tbh So. it’s done. ITS FINALLY DONE!!!! this book both put me in a reading slump and pulled me back out of it again. To be quite honest it bored me a lot of the time, especially the first half of the book but the second half and all the plots coming together kind of made up for it. Did it have to be this long? maybe not. honestly would have preferred it otherwise but here we are. at one point i was honestly just bound to reading it solely by my spite… Some of the histories and riddles and intricacies are still confusing to me and i don’t really care for understanding and knowing everything but sometimes it frustrated me a little and felt a little useless. I am also extremely confused about what Tanés ending meant to convey, i probably missed some important information that would make me understand or maybe I’m just tired but for now i don’t know what to make of it. Also did not rly care that much for the main plot of killing the nameless one… i should have probably cared but i kinda didn’t. yikes. there were just so many side plots and little humps that made me groan and sigh. ANYWAY. now to what i liked. I haven’t read a book with this many povs that switch that often in so long i truly can’t remember but it payed off in the end, i loved seeing it all wrapped up and connected. My favorite part were definitely the relationships and characterizations, they were done extremely well and made it immediately apparent who’s pov it was which is a really hard thing to accomplish. My favorites are probably Ead (same as everyone else lol) and Tané (i was listening to the last great american dynasty for most of her chapters and oh god how it makes sense for her….). I have to confess i’m kind of a sucker for the whole history repeats itself through the descendants of it, that was done rly well and I’ve read some people didn’t think it was done realistically but i liked it. Maybe an important side note…i mainly started this book bc i was told there would be a wlw couple. now someone tell me why it took over 400 pages for us to get there? talk about slowburn..AND THEN TO TAKE THEM AWAY SO QUICK FOR EVEN MORE PAGES…i’m a bit bitter abt it but they mean the world to me and they kept me reading for most of the book. As always, I have many many thoughts and can’t hope to put them all down but this will do for now… IM A WINNER I FINISHED ITTTTTT

Great Fantasy book

It took me like 200 pages to really get into the story but then it was impossible to put away. The characters had great depth and development throughout the story and the world building was so detailed and well thought out. Not to mention the casual queerness throughout the story with a multitude of different love stories that all had their own kind of heartbreaking tragedy.

4.5, really enjoyed this one!! Was a bit lengthy at some points but never really unfitting. Very cool characters, a lot of diversity and action!

Gutes Fantasy Buch

Das Worldbuilding ist brilliant. Die Hauptfiguren (Ead und Tané), wenn man sie mal kennen gelernt hat, sind sympathisch und man fiebert mit ihnen mit. Dennoch braucht es seine Zeit bis man sich in der Welt zurecht findet. So um die 100 Seiten. Es gibt einen Hauptbösewicht "The Nameless One", der die große Bedrohung dieser Welt ist. Er ist quasi immer präsent, in den Köpfen der Bevölkerung, wie ein Voldemort oder ein Sauron. Der Weg zu dem Ende ist sehr gut, er zeigt viele Facetten aus allen Teilen der Welt. Dennoch ist gerade das Finale meiner Meinung nach zu kurz. Nochmal 100 Seiten mehr hätten dem Finale nicht geschadet. Trotzdem hat mir diese Welt und Geschichte sehr gefallen. Besonders auch das die Geschichte in sich abgeschlossen ist. Das Buch hat kleine Schwächen weswegen 4 von 5 Sternen

Okay so. It took more than a year to finish this book. It's MASSIVE. The first 200 pages, roughly, are mainly worldbuilding. It's fantasy, so I expected as much. Sadly, I was just really lost sometimes, which made it harder to continue and forced me to have major breaks in between. Nonetheless, the last 150 pages were epic, and I loved all the representations in this book. A queer, feminist book that I can recommend if one is better equipped with a map and more patience.

Langsamer Start, spannendes Ende

Ich habe das Buch blind gekauft - bevor ich von dem Hype darum herum wusste und ich bereue nichts. Es war mein erstes High Fantasy Buch nach Jahren und ich hätte keinen besseren Einstieg wählen können. Am Anfang des Buchs gibt es viel Worldbuilding, aber bei einem High Fantasy Roman, in dem Welt ganz anders funktioniert als unsere, ist das wohl auch zu erwarten. Ich gebe zu, die erste Hälfte des Buchs war etwas ermüdend, manchmal anstrengend (was evtl aber auch am Englisch gelegen hat) aber es hat sich gelohnt. Sobald man einmal wirklich klar hat, wer wer ist, worauf die Welt aufbaut und wie sie funktioniert, dient sie als eine der besten Kulissen für eine Geschichte, die ich seit langem gesehen habe. Dann geht die Story erst richtig los. Und holy moly - das letzte Drittel des Buchs packt einen und lässt nicht mehr los. Ich freue mich darauf, zum zweiten Teil zu greifen (der besser sein soll als der erste). Jetzt, wo ich die Welt schon kenne, kann es nur gut werden :)

Puh, war das ne schwere Geburt. Ich habe dieses Buch gelesen nachdem ich die erste Hälfte auf Deutsch gelesen hatte, es furchtbar fand und herausfinden wollte ob das an der Übersetzung liegt. Ich kann jetzt feststellend sagen: Ja, es lag an der Übersetzung. Ein paar Beispiele, die in der Deutschen Version zur Verwirrung beigetragen haben, weil ich so viele lustige Notizen habe, die sonst verloren wären: Der Unterschied zwischen "ladies of the bedchamber" und "ladies of the privy chamber" ist sehr wichtig. Ead steigt von einem ins andere auf und das verändert ihren Status am Hof. Im Deutschen sind beides "Kammerfrauen". "Dawn cracked like a herons egg over Seiiki." = "Der Morgen schimmerte fahl wie das Ei eines Fischreihers über Seiiki." Nein, der Morgen BRACH über Seiiki wie ein Ei, wie schimmert ein Ei denn fahl? "Tané washed her hands in it and placed a drop on her lips." = "Tané wusch sich die Hände und spritzte sich einen Tropfen auf die Lippen." Wie soll sie sich denn einen Tropfen auf die Lippen spritzen? Wenn sie sich Wasser ins Gesicht spritzt, landet das im ganzen Gesicht und nicht nur auf den Lippen. "Saint, he prayed, let me not piss myself at the end." Erklärung: er sieht gerade Soldaten auf sich zukommen, die ihn wahrscheinlich abholen um ihn zu hängen. Er ist außerdem ein verbitterter Alkoholiker. Was denkt er im Deutschen? "Heiliger, betete er, lass nicht zu, dass ich mich am Ende selbst beschmutze." ??? "Neben ihnen stand eine Flasche Wein aus der großen Küche, zusammen mit einem Teller mit Gewürzen, Käse und frischem Brot." Ein Teller mit losen Gewürzen? Und wie heißt es im Original? "A dish of spiced cheese and fresh bread." SPICED!! Der Cheese ist spiced, wie wird denn aus spiced Cheese Gewürze UND Käse?? "Her skin had dried, leaving her cooler and clear-headed" = "Ihre Haut war noch trocken, ihr war nicht mehr so heiß, und sie hatte einen klaren Kopf." Warum noch trocken? Woher kommt das noch? Sie hat geschlafen und ist währenddessen getrocknet, woher kommt das noch?? Ihr ist nicht mehr heiß und sie hat einen klaren Kopf WEIL ihre Haut getrocknet ist, woher kommt denn das noch??? "They were shielded from the brunt of the heat and their collarbones were jeweled with sweat." = "Sie waren vor der schlimmsten Hitze geschützt, aber in den Mulden über ihren Schlüsselbeinen sammelte sich bereits der Schweiß." JEWELED with sweat. Mit Schweißtropfen benetzt, schweißgebadet, was auch immer. Wie tief müssten deren Schlüsselbeine sein, damit sich darin der Schweiß SAMMELT? Virginals = Virginal Virginals = Harpsicord Virginals = Cembalo Virginals = Tastencembalo Ja mei, such dir halt eins raus und benutz das. "Spiced blackberry pie with a fluted crust." = "Gewürzte Brombeer-Kuchen mit kannelierter Kruste." Fluted heißt gerillt oder geriffelt. Kanneliert ist ein Begriff aus der Architektur und bezeichnet die Furchen in einer Säule. Sowas kann sich doch niemand mehr ausdenken. So, jetzt zu der eigentlichen Geschichte. Es gibt immer noch ein paar Logiklücken oder kleine Momente die mich gestört haben, aber die konnte ich ohne die komische Sprache und das ständige doppelt lesen von Sätzen viel besser akzeptieren und ignorieren. Ich würde das Buch auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen an Leute, die große epische Geschichten mit High Stakes, vielen Charakteren und einer gut durchdachten Welt mit viel politischer Intrige mögen. Die Themen, die ich in meiner Rezi zur Deutschen Übersetzung positiv hervorgehoben habe, gelten weiterhin. Das Worldbuilding ist großartig, die Charaktere haben Tiefe (besonders mein Boy Niclays, der verbitterte alte schwule Alchemist) und es werden tiefgründige Themen wie theologische Differenzen und weibliche Selbstbestimmung aufgegriffen, die wichtige Teile der Geschichte sind ohne mit dem erhobenen Zeigefinger zu wackeln. Aber, bitte, wenn dann auf Englisch. (Und noch ein Tipp an alle Hörbuch-Hörer, die Version gesprochen von Liyah Summers würde ich nicht empfehlen. Die Akzente reichen von Yorshire English über Südamerikanisch bis zu Jamaikanisch ohne wirkliche Übereinstimmung und sie kann ihr Stimme leider nicht sehr gut verstellen. Der abgebrühte, kompetente Freibeuter Captain Harlow klingt wie Patrick aus Spongebob)

ENDLICH hab ich dieses Buch geschafft. Durchaus ein Epos, der wirklich viel zu erzählen weiß und dies auch gut macht. Wie es aber nun mal bei einem Epos manchmal so ist, ist das Große Ganze oft wichtiger, als die einzelnen Charaktere an sich und das hat mich persönlich zu sehr auf Distanz gehalten. Ein Kritikpunkt ist, dass Kämpfe ein wenig zu verwirrend geschrieben sind, weil unbedingt eine bestimmte Art von schöner Umschreibung beibehalten werden will. Momente, die klar beschrieben werden sollten, werden durch Symbolik und Metaphorik in eine Richtung gedrängt, der man nur schwer folgen kann. Aber Kämpfe sind auch einfach schwer. Rest war wie gesagt echt gut, hat mich nur nich gecatched. Wer Bock auf einen Fantasy Epos mit geilen Drachen und Legenden hat, wird hier auf jeden Fall belohnt.

This is a long book, indeed. But it didn’t feel like it. I enjoyed the four different narrators. Liked some more, some less. It still felt like everything is important for the story. The worldbuilding was good and I liked how we jump from one part of the world to the other, but everything is connected. Oh and of course I appreciated that the leaders are mostly women and nobody questioned their competence because of their sex. A dream. If there were a second book already, I would read it right away.

third read (2025): still stunning. still adore it. still outmatched by a day of fallen night fun fact: i reread this at exactly the same time of year last year, and it took me the same amount of days. wild. (28.09.-20.10.2022 17.05.-01.06.2024 20.05.-03.06.2025)

🍊🐉⚔️

I love long, epic fantasy novels and The Priory of the Orange Tree is one that’s been on my tbr for a while. While I really enjoyed parts of it, I’m left feeling a bit disappointed. The overall premise is promising and in the beginning, I really liked where the story was going. The writing is beautiful, the world-building is easy to follow and I especially loved the dragons. I was also very much intrigued by the political dynamics between the East and the West. In addition, the book features strong queer representation and many female characters in positions of power, which felt both refreshing and important. Nevertheless, this book frustrated me in two major ways. First, the pacing is terrible. There are too many time jumps and repetitive scenes. Oddly enough, scenes that would have been interesting to read (Tane’s trials) are skipped. Also, the middle part drags immensely, yet the final fight with the main villain is resolved in 9 pages??? The author spent more pages on describing night time routines than the final fight that we waited for the entirety of the book. WHY??? Secondly, the characters aren’t developed enough. Ead was the only character I truly connected with, which made it difficult to feel invested. Moreover, I really wanted to like the romance subplots, but in both couples, I found myself only liking one half of each couple. To sum it up, this books had much potential, which makes my disappointment so frustrating. The premise and the world building are strong, but I think the story really needed editing, both in terms of pacing and character development. 3.5 ⭐️

I liked the characters, the worldbuilding and the story. It is so nice to read about strong women with realistic characters.

Lang aber es ist es wert!

Das Buch ist mega, nur zum empfehlen. Tolle Geschichte mit einer neuen Welt und Charakteren. Leider aber an manchen Stellen zu langatmig & am Schluss viel zu kurz. Der „Krieg“ wird in den letzten 50 Seiten leider einfach nur noch schnell fertig geschrieben. Ebenso gab es keine unerwarteten Überraschungen / Ereignisse mehr.

Interessante Geschichte, bin gespannt wie es weiter geht, konnte mich zum Anfang aber nicht ganz einfühlen, da mir zu oft hin und her gewechselt wurde. Nach einer gewissen Zeit ging das aber.

Ein weibliches Der Herr der Ringe

Das Buch ist ideal für Fans von, aber nicht nur, weiblichen Protagonisten in verschiedenen Welten. Die verschiedenen Länder und Personen werden in den ersten 150 Seiten beleuchtet, sodass man erst später im Buch den Zusammenhang der verschiedenen Protagonisten erkennt. Man fühlt sich am Anfang des Buches mit den vielen verschiedenen Protagonisten und Namen leicht überfordert. Das Buch umfasst verschiedene Fantasy Inhalte wie Drachen, Hexen oder magische Kräfte, wirkt dabei aber trotzdem nahbar, was vor allem an den am Weltgeschehen orientierten Ländern liegt. So gibt es Parallelen zu holländischen Namen, japanischer Kultur oder arabischen Elementen. Das Buch enthält einige Stellen und Liebeszenen von zwei Frauen und stellt den Feminismus einiger Protagonisten gelungen in den Vordergrund. Leider hatte ich das Gefühl, dass in dem Buch „der Weg das Ziel ist“, und hätte mich daher auf ein aussagekräftigeres Ende gefreut. Ich würde tatsächlich empfehlen, den zweiten Band als erstes zu lesen, da es sich dabei um keine Fortsetzung handelt sondern die Vorgeschichte. (Ähnlich wie bei der Herr der Ringe und Der Hobbit)

I think it takes amazing skill to keep a story interesting and engaging for 800 entire pages! very lovely world, well-written and nuanced characters. Usually with fantasy stories, the beginning is very tedious to get through until you get fully introduced to the new world and can actually enjoy it. But not with this one! I was hooked from the very first page. I truly can't think of anything I would change about this book. It is the perfect embodiment of why I love reading. Cannot wait to read more from this world. Which is what I am going to do now: On to "A Day of Fallen Night"!

I just start to dive into fantasy and I am so glad that this started with this epic tale! What I liked especially about The Priory of the Orange Tree is the fact that Shannon manages to show characters from different perspectives, so that it's the choice of the reader wether he/she likes a person of the tale or not (e.g. with Niclays Roos -- until the end I was not sure if I'd rather pity him or if I should bear my grudge against him for his deeds). Furthermore I liked the fact that so many important characters, such as warriors, queens, and consultants, where women and on top of that, I found it especially refreshing that Shannon weaves in the fact of two men or two women marrying or being together as totally normal without shoving it into the reader's face as something extraordinary -- and that's how it should be, shouldn't it? An absolutely normal thing. I loved this story for so many more reasons, but since it's past midnight now and I'm not the most hard-working bee concerning reviews: Just grab it for yourself and enjoy 804 pages of epic fantasy!

The only criticism I have is that it took some time to get into because the world building is quite intense and you dive right into it. But after about 200 pages you get attached to each person and I found myself excited about all the chapters and not just chapters about certain characters. It wrapped up very nicely at the end and plot twists managed to surprise me throughout the whole book. Loved it, look past its length and pick it up!

War super gut, nur ab und an war es mir etwas "gefühlsarm". Also wir haben gelesen, dass etwas passiert, aber so recht, wie sich die Person dabei gefühlt hat, war unklar. Es gab häufig "Er fühlte sich blub" oder auch sehr oft "Sie fühlte, wie sich eine Kette um ihren Hals legte, ihr Magen sich zusammenzog, ihr Mund voller Brei war" Sowas halt. Das fiel mir besonders im Showdown am Ende auf. Das hat es für mich dann etwas angekratzt. Ansonsten fand ich das Buch super. Wie GoT, nur ohne den ganzen ekeligen Kram (Sexismus, Vergewaltigung, Gewalt etc) und mit vernünftig denkenden Charakteren. Viele Klischees und Tropes, die man sonst kennt, wurden hier nicht bedient, was mich sehr positiv überrascht hat. Weiterhin haben wir eine schöne Diversität an Kulturen und sexuellen Orientierungen. Der Plot war cool, viel Politik und Verschwörungen, aber sehr cool. Es wurde sich vor allem mit den verschiedenen Auslegungen von Religion auseinandergesetzt, Depressionen wurden thematisiert, Es ging um Freundschaft und Zusammenhalt. Charaktere konnten sich entwickeln, mal in die eine oder in die andere Richtung. Weltenbau war gut nachzuvollziehen. Ich kann mir sogar vorstellen, dass es noch mehr Geschichten aus diesem Universum geben kann. Empfehlung!

Okay, let’s be real — this book is huge, but it was absolutely worth it. I totally get why some people say it’s confusing at first, but I honestly didn’t find it that bad. The world is just super detailed — there’s so much going on in the beginning, so many names, directions (East, West, South), and new characters. But once you get past the first 150–200 pages, everything clicks. You start to understand the world, and from there it’s just amazing. I absolutely loved most of the characters. My favorite is definitely Ead Duryan — she’s strong, loyal, and just genuinely such a good person. And her relationship with Queen Sabran? I was obsessed from the moment I noticed the first hints. They’re honestly one of the sweetest, most natural couples I’ve read in fantasy. Every scene with them made me so soft 🥹 Tané really grew on me. At first, I didn’t care much for her, but she developed a lot as a character, and by the end I fully understood and respected her. Now, Niclays Roos... I just couldn’t with him. He had moments that showed a bit of heart — like his love for Jannart, which was clearly genuine — but overall, his character went downhill for me. His sudden change of heart near the end didn’t make much sense. It felt more like a plot move than real development. Chassar was amazing — loyal, kind, and always there for Ead. I adored his character. And I loved seeing how the South and their version of the truth about Cleolind actually represented real strength and womanhood, while the West had twisted it into that “damsel in distress” myth. That part was brilliant and powerful. The whole story about the Priory being betrayed by their own leader broke my heart — especially what happened to Ead’s mother — but it made Ead’s rise to leadership so satisfying. She truly deserved it. Also, I love how the book talks about unity despite differences — all these regions and traditions finally putting their differences aside to face one common enemy. It’s a strong message, and Shannon handled it beautifully. The pacing can be slow at first, but once you’re in, you don’t want to stop. I read the 800 pages in just seven days, which is fast for me, and that says a lot about how immersive this story is. The ending felt a little open, but I’m totally fine with that now, especially knowing that Samantha Shannon plans to write another book set after this one. It makes the ending feel intentional and hopeful. So yeah — I loved it. Epic worldbuilding, emotional depth, powerful themes, strong women, and a romance that actually feels real. It’s easily one of my favorite fantasy books ever.

Wunderbare Story mit starken Charakteren und unglaublich gutem Worldbuilding. Fans von High Fantasy kommen hier definitiv auf ihre Kosten.