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dragondenari 's review for:
The Priory of the Orange Tree
by Samantha Shannon
2.5 stars
I was hesitant about reading this book, mostly because of all the hype. Hyped books have a tendency to disappoint me lately. But what ultimately made me decide to pick it up was the fact that the world seemed to have dragon centered lore - and I mean, it did, sort of. I kind of expected the dragons to have a greater role in the story, but there was very few dragons. Which is disappointing since I did pick this up for the dragons. ANYWAY.
Now, there’s no secret that this book is huge. Others reviewers have commented on how it might be too big, and I agree with that. The only reason I managed to finish this beast is because I was hardcore procastinating writing an assignment, so yeah. It was kind of a slog to get through. The prose was kind of odd in places - maybe the passive voice was used too much? I felt very detached from everything that happened as a reader, and I didn't really feel any investment before I was 500 pages in.
I also found the characters really flat - it took me way too long to care about their struggles, and even then I was just mildly interested in knowing how it would all go down. I’m one of those people that can ignore a bad story if I love the characters, or if I’m invested in them. This was not the case here. The story was honestly boring at times, and a pretty standard high fantasy story. I didn’t find it original, and at times it was almost boring. I’ve read A LOT of fantasy over the years, so that might have made these things more glaring to me.
The worldbuilding was good - I really liked the magic system, and the religions (especially Virtudom) were interesting. My favorite parts were the ones with Ead, and her romance was really adorable. I'm kind of annoyed that most of the story took place in the most boring country - I would've preferred if there had been more focus on the country that literally worships dragons as gods. But that might just be a personal preference.
The hope for more dragons and lore was what kept me reading in the end, and I wasn’t too impressed with the climax. Still, pretty decent read if mediocre.
I was hesitant about reading this book, mostly because of all the hype. Hyped books have a tendency to disappoint me lately. But what ultimately made me decide to pick it up was the fact that the world seemed to have dragon centered lore - and I mean, it did, sort of. I kind of expected the dragons to have a greater role in the story, but there was very few dragons. Which is disappointing since I did pick this up for the dragons. ANYWAY.
Now, there’s no secret that this book is huge. Others reviewers have commented on how it might be too big, and I agree with that. The only reason I managed to finish this beast is because I was hardcore procastinating writing an assignment, so yeah. It was kind of a slog to get through. The prose was kind of odd in places - maybe the passive voice was used too much? I felt very detached from everything that happened as a reader, and I didn't really feel any investment before I was 500 pages in.
I also found the characters really flat - it took me way too long to care about their struggles, and even then I was just mildly interested in knowing how it would all go down. I’m one of those people that can ignore a bad story if I love the characters, or if I’m invested in them. This was not the case here. The story was honestly boring at times, and a pretty standard high fantasy story. I didn’t find it original, and at times it was almost boring. I’ve read A LOT of fantasy over the years, so that might have made these things more glaring to me.
The worldbuilding was good - I really liked the magic system, and the religions (especially Virtudom) were interesting. My favorite parts were the ones with Ead, and her romance was really adorable. I'm kind of annoyed that most of the story took place in the most boring country - I would've preferred if there had been more focus on the country that literally worships dragons as gods. But that might just be a personal preference.
The hope for more dragons and lore was what kept me reading in the end, and I wasn’t too impressed with the climax. Still, pretty decent read if mediocre.