The Priory of the Orange Tree (The Roots of Chaos, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Apr 06, 2019 Bradley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2019-shelf

Unfortunately, I'm not really falling for the hype on this one.

I'm giving it 3.5 stars.

I appreciate the strong female characters here and love that there is -- eventually -- dragons, but much of the characterizations did not really grab me all that much.

As a consequence, the light and circuitous intrigue, assassination attempts, and double-lives tended to just feel slightly... usual. Usual for High Fantasy. And make no mistake, this is very much High Fantasy. A large cast of characters, big foc ...more

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Mar 13, 2019 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, re-read, epic-fantasy, dragons

I got bored with epic fantasy a while ago but, let me tell you, this has invigorated and inspired a new interest. I loved it! It was everything I need in an epic story: originality, excitement, complexity, dragons. Really strong female main characters, a fascinating and well developed world and some interesting baddies! Recommended.

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Apr 10, 2019 Trish rated it really liked it · review of another edition

People are divided about this book. Some people call it slow or even boring, others say that at least it needed some time to get going. I, personally, disagree.
Yes, there is almost no action in the beginning (except for "someone" preventing a few assassins from killing a queen) but the reader is instead immersed in a rich world where there are four major places the story takes us to. And those four places are filled with dragons (imagine the ones from Chinese legend), wyrms/wyverns (imagine the ...more

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Apr 21, 2019 Aqsa added it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

RTC (My BR: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...)

Buddy Reading with awesome Azia. Loved every moment!

My Thoughts as I Read:
Part 1
Chapter 1:
(view spoiler)

Chapter 2:
(view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 08, 2019 Lata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-f-h, auth-f, x2019-read, bipoc-actor, dragons

5 stars: The cover. It's beautiful, and is what prompted me to read this.
5 stars: The variety of women in this story, who inhabit roles traditionally devoted to men in epic fantasies, is wonderful. And each of the women is different, so no one woman has to be all things. Or perfect.
4 stars: The first half of the book, while pretty slow to get through, was interesting as it described some of the political situation of the land, and gave us a sense of each of the main characters, of which Ead was ...more

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Sep 26, 2024 Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-read-actual, audible-tbr, 2023-hauled-books-tbr

[2.5/5 stars] I can't help but feel like I just wasted three weeks of my reading life. Full RTC ...more

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Apr 10, 2019 Lindsay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Another book to place on the evidence pile for why Goodreads needs half stars. A firm 3.5 from me. I'll talk about why below.

But first, a quick summary: the setting is a single large continent surrounded by sea with some large islands and is split into various countries loosely defined by cardinal directions. The action in the West follows the Queendom of Inys and its capital Ascalon where its young Queen Sabran has a secret bodyguard from the South, the warrior-mage Ead Duryan. There's a myth t Another book to place on the evidence pile for why Goodreads needs half stars. A firm 3.5 from me. I'll talk about why below.

But first, a quick summary: the setting is a single large continent surrounded by sea with some large islands and is split into various countries loosely defined by cardinal directions. The action in the West follows the Queendom of Inys and its capital Ascalon where its young Queen Sabran has a secret bodyguard from the South, the warrior-mage Ead Duryan. There's a myth that while the royal family of Inys's line continues, the Nameless One cannot return, and Ead's organsization, the Priory of the Orange Tree, gives enough credence to the myth to think that Sabran is worth protecting. The Nameless One is the leader of the Draconic army and has been asleep for a thousand years, but there are signs all over the world that the Draconic army is stirring. Meanwhile, the action in the East follows Tané, a young woman who has been training to become a dragon rider of the Eastern dragons. The Eastern dragons are of a different lineage and who are also enemies of the Draconic Army. Also in the East is Niclays Roos, an alchemist exiled from Ascalon by Sabran and now living at the edges of the Eastern countries.

There's much more of course. At over 260,000 words, "more" is the defining aspect of this book.

So let's talk positives. Firstly, and significantly, this ticks most of the boxes for "high" fantasy: kings and queens, fate of the world, magic and dragons and enough pages for print copies to be implicated in deforestation. This particular sub-genre of fantasy is what many people think of as fantasy (ie., Tolkien-like) and the field tends to be dominated by male authors, often with male characters in traditional gender roles, and often overwhelmingly white (or assumed white).

Sadly, it's still rare enough for a female author to write traditionally-published high fantasy that it still needs to be called out as a positive.

There are four four view-point characters, Ead Duryan (actually Eadaz du Zāla uq-Nāra), Tané, Niclays Roos and Arteloth Beck (who goes by Loth). Ead and Tané are women and in heroic roles more traditionally given to male characters in a high fantasy, and both Ead and Niclays are gay and unremarkably so, with Ead's relationship being a backbone of the book in many ways. Fiction written in the last decade is much better at diverse characters, and this is one of the better ones at it.

And finally, it's also refreshing to read one of these doorstop epic fantasies that isn't a trilogy or a series. This is nicely self-contained, although there's scope for either a prequel or a sequel should the author continue to explore this world.

So, onto the negatives, and the reasons why this only gets 3.5 stars. Pacing issues abound here, with a leisurely start that cycles through each of the point-of-view characters a couple of times before anything much significant to the plot happens. When the plot gets going, it does move along at a reasonable pace, but with digressions that feel self-indulgent. For instance, probably the only reason for Loth to even be a point-of-view character is to allow a largely pointless tour of Yscalin under Draconic rule. Finally, the ending and the conflict with the Nameless One feels ultimately perfunctory, with the main characters having successfully assembled their various MacGuffins and using them to win basically by the numbers. Not much of a payoff for all that endless setup.

Also, there are elements that are at times repetitive (notably an issue with leadership succession that is almost exactly the same with the Queendom of Inys and the Priory of the Orange Tree) and others where the story lingers for no apparent reason (early chapters in Inys with Ead and Sabran as Ead becomes a favored companion felt interminable).

It all tallies with many points in both good and bad columns (I did mention that the overriding theme of the book is "more"), and ultimately I did enjoy the book, so I think the positives end up winning out, but this is a very flawed book IMO. ...more

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Apr 27, 2021 Susy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-ibooks

4.5 stars
Loved the world building (didn't experience the start as being too slow), loved the characters, loved the magical elements and loved the plot. Shannon really drew me into her story, it was as if I was there with everyone (and the dragons). ...more

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May 05, 2019 Alexis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Probably closer to 4.5/5, although it was edging towards full marks until about the last 15 percent of the book. I didn't think the ending was as strong as the rest of the novel, for reasons I'll get to in a minute. That said, this was still a truly enjoyable high fantasy story. I highly recommend it.

I do suggest that you get the print edition or ebook.

People who tried the audiobook say they've struggled with it, and I can see why. This is a long book, and it needed very page (honestly? It pro ...more

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Dec 29, 2019 Christina Pilkington rated it really liked it · review of another edition

*4.5 stars

I was very impressed with Shannon's worldbuilding in this epic, standalone fantasy. Within the space of one book, she described so many different parts of the world in gorgeous detail. It was by far my favorite part of the reading experience!

Her characters were also complex and well-crafted. There were quite a few main characters as you would expect from a 800 plus book, but each one felt unique.

My one criticism would be that the big battle/conclusion felt a bit too rushed. I felt a ...more

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