The Priory of the Orange Tree

By: Samantha Shannon

Narrated by: Liyah Summers

Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins

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

Slowed down the narration...

Usually I speed up narration, but for some reason (narrators cadence) or just the writing; made me slow it down so I could enjoy it?

Wonder through world as a disembodied ghost

There is a plot, their are characters but I feel bored and a bit lost. There seem to never be any actions. The ladys might make up the queen and their is a description of the dress and jewelry but not of the effect. The character are "angry" or "pleased" but not described acting or of their expression. There is little trying to build picture of the religions of the world but yet their riffs are described as political problems.

The narrator did a good job keeping the voices clear for who was speaking.and injection some personality in the story.

I think this book could be rewritten to be interesting. Twenty something chapters in I am done.

Amazing narrator!

The narrator is the best part of this experience. The story is enjoyable but the voiced characters are the best.

Good but not great

The story is creative and fresh but a lot of it was predictable. It also took me over half the book to get invested in it. The performance was 80% excellent and 20% strange choices for voices.

Close to terrible.

Poorly plotted pedestrian prose. Too many characters which are poorly differentiated both in the story and by the Narrator. Too many mispronounced words.

The Book I Never Knew I Needed

A wonderful book - rich, diverse characters, an often thrilling and always interesting story and dragons! Please tell me there is a sequel and an HBO adaptation already in the works!

One of the best novels I’ve had the pleasure to experience.

This book will not disappoint. I honestly cannot think of anything I disliked. Everything, and I mean everything, is woven together so perfectly. Samantha Shannon’s writing is so beautiful and filled with rich detail and emotion. It was refreshing to listen to a story in a world where homophobia doesn’t exist. Yes there are class restrictions, but as a gay man, I just thought that was beautiful and rare. Liyah Summers performance was impeccable. She brought vitality to every character. I will never forgot this book. It has quickly, and deservedly, become my favorite novel and I will definitely be revisiting. Thank you, Samantha Shannon.

mythical story with lots of twists and turns

this is a good book. there were parts that drug a little however there was lots of action throughout.

Absolutely perfect

No exaggerating this is the greatest fantasy novel I have ever read. I can't begin to say enough nice things about this book you owe it to yourself to read it.

Better than thrones

This books was one for the ages. The world she created was so beautifully written and well crafted, the characters were authentic and real and they were flawed. They embrace their flaws and made them their armor. She did something a little bit different with the dragons in this book pulled on old dragon legends from around the world. Her attention to detail is something that you would expect and someone who is been riding for 30+ years. All I know is I must have every other book she has ever written