Book Chat about the Priory of the Orange Tree
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Honestly was so excited that I finished this big ol' book, my review is all over the place.
Book mentioned: goodreads.com/book/show/40275288-the-priory-of-the-orange-tree
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/ snacksandstacks
#bookreview #fantasybooks - Розваги
Also random but your voice is really soothing!
Great review again and your dog is adorable! So I was one of the pre-pandemic readers I think who picked it up just before COVID hit and read this over the course of a 24 hour flight and layover situation hahaha. So a bit different from you. But I adore the book and it’s my favorite female-driven fantasy ever!!
I’d disagree slightly re: the plot versus characters point. As a character driven reader myself I found these 3 super nuanced and well developed (Tané was a quick favorite) with their arcs and actually that’s what compelled me more than the plot which I did feel got… convoluted would be doing a disservice because Shannon pulled together so many pieces masterfully. But I guess anticlimactic maybe? There were no big moments or fight scenes that made me go WOW and the one at the end with the Nameless One felt a bit underwhelming for me personally. Though based on what you said about fight scenes being short and sweet I can see why you prefer it! I love Sanderson MCU or anime style fights on the page since I like to imagine the characters in my mind so it was a bit disappointing that scenes wasn’t more vivid but I can see the choice!
I also get what you say about the romance. I am kind of trash for mxm and fxf ships so I really applaud the choice here but I feel if it was mxf I would have found it underwhelming. It was till a great choice to have but I wished for more (I almost always wish for more romance in my books, but a very specific kind of slow burn haha which is why I’m almost never satisfied)
@@theevenynaeve Hi again! So thrilled to chat with you again! Sadie says hi, too
@@SnacksandStacks no it makes sense and with you on the romance! I too would have enjoyed more. Also HI SADIE
I guess the purpose was that the author wanted to have some twists in the end and if you’re in the head of the character when they’re deciding the action that makes the twist… it’ll ruin the tension. Does that make sense? Personally I enjoyed it! I felt I knew the main characters enough by the end to understand why they did what they did (elaborated in another comment) though I can see if why you maybe wanted more elaboration there. I just sort of enjoy knowing a character enough to guess / wonder at their motivations rather than being told them.
Breaking into a second comment and sorry for another wall of text! You just happen to be reviewing books I love and want to talk about lately!
And yeah her prose is just, chefs kiss. It’s beautiful. And I totally see what you mean. One issue I had with certain books I loved (RFK specifically with Babel - also you should read that if you haven’t, another standalone though it’s not epic fantasy even though the magic system is great, and also Spin of Fate to a lesser degree) is both those authors seems to expect the reader to have a certain level of intelligence to grasp their concepts? And if you don’t, you’re kind of left to struggle? Like it reads as if it’s been written for a specifically intelligent audience and I don’t want to pretend I’m that… ugh I feel I’m being very discourteous describing this. I don’t know how to describe it, but I do wonder if the fact that they come from quite academically elite backgrounds has anything to do with it because I also had this issue with Fireborne to a lesser degree even though I respect it and the complexity of the concepts it delivered. I don’t mean any shade at all to the authors, they’re really smart, probably more so than the average person given what they’ve achieved in their lives, but I think some authors are better at making things more accessible than others (and maybe the others don’t bother?) and Samantha Shannon is one of these which is why her writing is standout for me.
I don’t know if this would have worked well for me as a duology just because I don’t see narratively any places where we could have cut the arcs short or the plot. It seemed pretty well planned for one book and I worry a duology would lead to unnecessary padding and ruin the pace. I also agree it was nice it wasn’t all neckbreakingly pageturningly fast throughout (I did take short naps during my flight haha)
Anyways I’m glad you liked this book and are enjoying more epic fantasy!! Maybe one day you will start Stormlight!! Haha
@@theevenynaeve I actually really enjoy when authors have a bit of an expectation for readers to be smart. I think a lot of times, people underestimate the average person and as a whole that can bring humanity down lol (as a person who is in marketing, I feel this a lot.) I can see a lot of people saying this is too much world-building, but I do think Samantha Shannon is such a good blend of smart and accessible! The self-satifisfation of completing this book is so wonderful! Like I DID IT!
I want the ending longer and the romance better. I’m not sure where a good cut off would be, but I think the ending could have paced out better. I see a lot of arguments that things ended in a bow too easily, like you’re saying all these foreign lands were just like okay, let’s work together! Like really? There’s a few instances where I felt characters just made decisions that didn’t make sense but moved the plot forward because, we gotta end this book dangitt lol
@@SnacksandStacks hmm I guess I understand you’re point! But coming back to the author expectation of having readers do a bit of thinking, I kind of enjoy that in a different way that I like my character work to be well enough I can understand the motivations without them being spelled out to me (I hate when authors go overboard with too much introspection, though I do enjoy good internal monologues). So for me this was a good balance as it made sense for me why characters did the things they did even if she didn’t spell it out (I didnt think she had to?)
Wondering what decisions in particular seemed contrived or plot-driven for you? I’m happy to discuss!
And yeah I get you with the satisfaction of finishing this it was great!
@@theevenynaeve there were a few places where I felt that way, but the one that stands out the most is when Niclays decided that he was going to be nice and not harm the other character. I was like wait, what? That's solved already? And many of the characters go on huge adventures and parts get skipped, that's just some of the parts I can easily remember lol