Book Description
Characters
The story tracks three women before and after fire dragons are released back into the world. Each woman comes from a different culture. One reigns over a queendom, another is a mage warrior trained to kill dragons, and the final one is a dragon rider (but a different type of dragon).
Setting
Shannon has created an expansive world with multiple continents and islands. The book is pretty thick, but it allows her to fully develop each location. Each setting (of three) has a climate and culture clearly separated from the others.
Plot
The Priory of the Orange Tree is an epic fantasy about how the different cultures and kingdoms/queendoms react when fire dragons escape from the bowels of the Earth. Can they come together to save their world or are they too different to work together?
See the description and other reviews on Goodreads.
An Editor’s Book Review
Character Development
The book’s slower pace allows for a lot of character development. The three women highlighted in the description are very realistic. They have flaws and desires that conflict with their ultimate goals. Each is unique and easy to remember. However, one of this book’s challenges is that there are a host of other characters. The first chapters can be difficult to read because the characters are introduced in three separate settings, which makes it hard to connect and remember them.
Pacing
The Priory of the Orange Tree demands a more patient reader. The setup takes time because it spins the plot across three continents and cultures. It comes together pretty climatically (reminiscent of a “Sanderlanche” in Brandon Sanderson’s series), but it takes time to reach that point. The first few chapters can be slow and bit confusing just due to the scale of the story.
Writing Style
Shannon’s writing style is both sparse and poetic. While she takes a long time to set up the backstory and history of each place, her sentence structure is pretty straightforward. There are few long stretches of description. However, her descriptions, though often short and sweet, are absolutely poetic. Reading this book out loud makes me appreciate the cadence of her words.
Related Recommendations
If you enjoyed The Priory of the Orange Tree, another book that has a focus on culture and strong women is A Memory Called Empire.