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  • The Priory of the Orange Tree

  • Written by: Samantha Shannon
  • Narrated by: Liyah Summers
  • Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (317 ratings)

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The Priory of the Orange Tree

Written by: Samantha Shannon
Narrated by: Liyah Summers
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2017 Bloomsbury (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

Featured Article: 10 Books Like The Game of Thrones

George R.R. Martin’s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire was already a big name in the fantasy world prior to its television adaptation, after which it became a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most-watched shows in history. The TV series inspired a new wave of interest and love for the original works, but with the show well and truly finished and just two titles left to release in the series, fantasy fans are asking: What’s next? Whether you’re a longtime fan of A Song of Ice and Fire or a newcomer to the fantasy genre who fell in love with its HBO adaptation, these books like Game of Thrones are sure to enthrall, thrill, and delight.

What listeners say about The Priory of the Orange Tree

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Underwhelming

This story had me so excited... a Queendom on the brink of war, dragons and mages, pirates and assassins! But I was just so bored and confused. I couldn't keep the names of characters or places straight and struggled to understand what was going on for a lot of the story.

I kept wanting to give up on it, but convinced myself it would get better. I can't say it did, unfortunately. This is now the second book by this author that I have read, and I didn't enjoy the other one either. I don't think this authors story telling is my cup of tea....

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Almost didn't buy this because of negative reviews

Ignore them. A feminist tale: complex, beautiful, well-written. About storytelling, bucking expectations. Wonderful narration.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • J
  • 2020-01-05

A slow burn for a story with this many dragons

Let’s start Positive:

Elements of the story are quite progressive for the fantasy genre. There are 4 point of view characters: 2 women and 2 men. One of the characters is a lesbian, another is a gay man. The warriors/heroes of the story are the two women. There are strong messages in the book. I’m reminded specifically of 3 quotes, one which is about the term “barren” and how it is applied to both fields and women. Another quote was “No woman should be made to fear that she was not enough.” The final quote I’m remembering was about women being more than a womb in need of seeding. These are important messages but the delivery of each one felt a little too much on the nose.

The examination of religion and the history of different religions was interesting as well.

Now the Negative:

One of the four point of view characters, the straight man, was incredibly boring. All of his chapters except a handful were very dry!

Another negative deals with the plot. The plot is very traditional and not progressive, which was surprising given the progressive elements discussed above. Essentially, there is a big bad guy, well actually a dragon, who terrorized the world 1000 years ago and he is going to come back. This big baddie is ominously referred to as The Nameless One. In order to stop him the heroes must go on heroes’ quests to collect magic stones and a magic sword. Only the male characters ever seemed to be at risk of dying, I never once thought the female characters wouldn’t make it to the end of the book. It was very obviously they would play a key role in the climax.

Some people have said the book was long enough to make a trilogy, but I cannot agree with that. The first half of the book is very slow, and even boring at times. There was nowhere to break it up. If it was a trilogy the first book would have bored nearly everyone and there would have likely been few sales of the second book.

The book does pick up at the halfway point, but it never becomes a fantastic read. Essentially, the book was good, but it is not the be all, end all that some people have been making it out to be.

Narration:

The narrator, Liyah Summers, may one day be great, but she still needs practice. She was very understandable when doing the credits at the end of the book, but when narrating she put on an accent that was difficult to follow,. For the first quarter of the book I would mishear/misunderstand at least one word in 300, it was very frustrating. I had to get a physical copy from the library to sometimes check what had been said. For example, there is a character in the book named Sabran, but Summers said her name like “Ser Bronn,” and I kept wondering what a Song of Ice and Fire character was doing in this book. Sabran is a Queen, but hearing "Sir Bronn" kept making me thing of her as a knight, not a queen.

Another example is of a line that read “The Red Damsels elected Mita Yedanya” but I kept hearing “The Red Damsels elected me to the Danya” and I had no idea what was going on. By the halfway point I had learned to understand Summers.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

A wonderfully well-woven story and excellently narrated. Liyah Summers gives each character and nation their own unique accent and voice, making them instantly recognizable.

The story has a bit of everything: court intrigue, adventure, heists while blending everything together seamlessly. It also feels modern, with a diverse cast of characters of different ethnicities and sexual orientations and strong female characters.

I cannot recommend this audiobook enough.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Hella gay, exactly what I want in a book.

This book had it all. Plot. Character. ✨ Gayness ✨. I would totally sacrifice a little plot and character in the next book for even more gayness but that's just me :)
Alphabet mafia for the win!!!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

DNF

I really wanted to like this book. But 60 some odd chapters in and I still didn’t feel an emotional connection to any of the characters. The writing is good, the author is clearly smart and their use of language is impressive but unfortunately that’s not enough to sell me on a book.

I don’t shy away from heavy world building and I love an epic fantasy but for me my heart just wasn’t in this one… I think it maybe could’ve been condensed into a shorter novel and then I could’ve forgiven the lack of emotion and character development. I don’t think the pacing did this book anh favours.

At the end of the day it just wasn’t for me.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

disappointed and a waste

i tried to like this book but cant get past how slow it is i kept falling asleep. i bought it on sale so i cant even return it for a credit

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

not worth the time investment

I found this book to be overly long, full of uninteresting politics. The dragons are mentioned more than they are part of the story. The ending happens quickly after 700 pages of build-up. skip this book

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Some Good Ideas

Really fun world-building. However, the main character is extremely flat and hyper-competent with no flaws. The other characters are likewise.

This is a clever early effort by a young writer, but severely under-cooked

Reader has four accents: Yorkshire, American, Jamaican, and African. She uses these for characters who unquestionably should not have these accents. No accents would be preferable.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Excessive

This book could have easily been cut by 1/3, by removing all unnecessary details that make the story confusing. After that, this book should have been cut into two. The author got so caught up in their world building that they don't give you a chance to connect to any one place or any one character before jumping to the next. Instead of figuring out how to interwine them better, the author just kept introducing more and more characters that no one cares about. You spend half the book confusing two characters cause their names sound too similar, and you've been introduced to so many people all at once that you can't keep a single person straight. The idea is fun. It's just poorly executed and makes for an excruciatingly long read instead of a delightfully long one.

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