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  • The Priory of the Orange Tree

  • By: Samantha Shannon
  • Narrated by: Liyah Summers
  • Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6,023 ratings)

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The Priory of the Orange Tree

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: Books Like Game of Thrones—Best Epic Fantasy Books & Series


It's time to branch out and find some new material to fill that dragon-shaped hole in your listening life. If you liked Game of Thrones, these epic fantasy books are your next best listen. Some are standalone novels, some are the start of a new series, and others are the first in a completed series. Oh, and they're all excellent. And as Tyrion Lannister said, "... a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge."

Editor's Pick

The balance of familiar and novel is the mark of a new favorite
"There is a wave of excitement around this book. Written by the author of The Bone Season trilogy, it’s a new and fully fleshed out fantasy world filled to the brim with dragons and complex characters. Shannon has outdone herself, and listeners will be pulled through the story inexorably as they fall deeper into lives of the three main characters. Personally, I’m here for this because it strikes that middle ground between familiar and new that, as a longtime fantasy listener, I’m always searching for. It’s both a classic epic fantasy and a breakout from the genre with its deep inclusion of diverse characters and an abundance of female perspectives. Plus a fresh new narrator in Liyah Summers! Let’s do this."
Melissa B., Audible Editor

What listeners say about The Priory of the Orange Tree

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

Unfortunate Narration Choice

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. The story itself is entertaining, though it definitely has it's flaws.

But my main critique is that the narrator is just terrible. I like to sit and follow along in my kindle and I was kind of appalled at how many regular words she mispronounced in just the first several chapters alone. A few words she even changed completely and I was surprised the editor/producer didn't catch those.

The accents given to the characters ranged from Jamaican type island accents to deep Southern drawls. I'm from the South, I hear drawls all the time and it's weird to hear it in a fantasy book from a world that has zero world building elements in common with this part of the world. This is fantasy, I don't want to picture these characters from the Caribbean or Kentucky. Unfortunately it really hampered me losing myself in the story.

From what I can tell this is the narrators first audiobook. For a thick, fantasy story, I would have gone with someone who had much more experience. This was too much book for Ms. Summers to handle right out the gate.

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5 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

great 1 volume story

I say great 1 volume story as very much of a complement. it's very hard to properly develop enough backstory and world building for a world encompassing story to take place, but this author manages to do it very impressively, with only APPROPRIATE lack of detail for certain characters that are involved but on a superficial level. I feel like this world could be returned to, but the book is an amazing standalone read/adventure. it has a connection with its main characters that feels like old fantasy, but also a proportional amount of world spanning awareness.

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1 person 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

Feels

Hey! Want an epic novel with a complex set of characters? With a vast new world with new religious beliefs? Do you like dragons? Do you like “the six of crows”? Well then listen to this book. It is fantastic! The characters are amazing and the story is fantastical! Yes the narrator has a hard time making every character sound different, but honestly she does a darn great job! Plus it’s 24 hours of a book that makes you feel everything the characters do with an amazing rich plot.

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

Excellent stand alone novel

The Priory of the Orange Tree was an excellent book. The last few books I have read felt a bit tedious and a chore to get into but this book kept me interested from start to finish. I really enjoyed the world that Samantha Shannon created with different cultures and regions. There are a lot of comments saying stuff like “what a feminist celebration this book is”, which is great, and no judgement either way, but I know comments like this turn some people off as they think the book could be about pushing some sort of politics and not about the story. Personally, all I care about is a good story and to these people I’d say give this book a chance, this is how an author does it right. This is a great story that happens to have a lot of strong female characters.

There are four main point of view characters, Ead, Tane, Loth and Dr. Niclays. For quite a bit of the book these characters are all in separate regions of the world with most of them not even knowing each other I enjoyed all of them but Ead is really the focus of the book which is great and maybe why she turned out to be my favorite character. What Shannon did excellent job of though was interlace the other characters point of views into the story at perfect times so you never reached a point where Ead’s part got stale. I really liked the range of characters as well and I particularly think the addition of the older Dr. Niclays gave the story something it wouldn’t have had with just an all younger cast.

To me the story seemed more political than adventure and almost Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) like. There were quests and adventures thrown in as well but the main plot seemed to involve a lot of courtly scenarios. I did really like the buildup to the end sequence and that there were both good and bad dragons and to me this seemed almost to harken back to some of the scenarios involving dragons from classic Dragonlance.

Overall this was a fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to end. I know this is a stand-alone but I feel like there could be a lot more stories to tell in this world and if there is a sequel it’ll be on my read as soon as it comes out list.

It seems like a lot of listeners had problems with Liyah Summers narration and I’m not sure why. I thought she did an excellent job and made each character really stand out.

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

Absolutely wonderful!

I had absolutely no trouble finishing this story quickly. The characters are individuals that invite you to become a part of their story. I hope that there are more stories to come!

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

Great adventure!

Although this is a long fantasy tale filled with interesting, complex characters and beasts, I was always kept interested. The story switches between four separate parts of the world which at times was confusing. By the end of the tale, each part is woven together in a satisfying conclusion which left me wanting more. A great read!

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

Good but slow

I like long epic fantasy novels, like Dune and GOT. This one was very slow in the beginning. I stuck with it because of all the positive reviews and I am glad I did; the second half was great.

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

Exceptional

Like AGOT but with better dragons!! I have almost 700 books and I would put this in top 10 all-time favs! Can't wait to read this again!

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

Truly enjoyable

Somewhere between Game of Thrones and The Princess Bride? Action and adventure, but written and told with love.

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

Great story!

Overall, it was a wonderful story, and I had a great time reading it. My only issue was it felt hard to follow at certain points, and it took the first 10 chapters before it started picking up.

However, once I hit chapter 10, I couldn’t stop listening!

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