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Published Feb 2019
848 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
From the internationally bestselling author of The Bone Season, an enthralling epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons - and the women who must lead the fight to save it.
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 all her life to be a dragonrider, 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.
"Starred Review. Spellbinding ... This extraordinary saga includes heroism, romance, friendship, pirates, plague, diplomacy, and, of course, dragons. Highly recommended." - Booklist
"Starred Review. A celebration of fantasy that melds modern ideology with classic tropes. More of these dragons, please." - Kirkus
"Shannon satisfyingly fills this massive standalone epic fantasy with court intrigue, travel through dangerous lands, fantastical religions, blood, love, and rhetoric." - Publishers Weekly
"A timelessly relevant classic. Brilliant, diverse, feminist, subversive, thought-provoking, and masterfully told, The Priory of the Orange Tree is an absolute must-read." - Karen Marie Moning, #1 NYT bestselling author of the Highlander and Fever series
"An astonishing achievement." - Marie Brennan, award-winning author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent series
"A brilliant, daring, and devastating jewel ... An incredible world full of depth and danger, with characters I would follow to the ends of the earth. I'm in awe of [Shannon's] talent." - Victoria Aveyard, #1 NYT bestselling author of the Red Queen series
"An epic fantasy destined to be a classic." - Kami Garcia, #1 NYT bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of Unbreakable
"This magnificent epic of queens, dragonriders, and badass secret wyrm-slaying priestesses is a tour de force, and my new absolute favorite epic fantasy." - Laini Taylor, NYT bestselling author of the Strange the Dreamer and Daughter of Smoke and Bone series
"The Platonic Ideal of a fantasy novel ... This story of good and evil, struggle and triumph, love and loss and return is beautifully written: complex but clear, and utterly immersive. I loved this book." - Nicola Griffith, award-winning author of Hild
This information about The Priory of the Orange Tree was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Samantha Shannon was born in West London in 1991 and started writing in abundance when she was twelve. She studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, from 2010 to 2013, specialising in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Principles of Film Criticism. She is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Bone Season series. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. Her fourth novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree, was her first outside of The Bone Season series and was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in London.
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