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Let me address the elephant in the room immediately: The Priory of the Orange Tree is 848 pages long, it has no sequels, and it tells a complete story. In an era of interminable series, this alone might be reason enough to pick it up.
Whether the 848 pages justify themselves is the actual question. They do.
What’s It About?
The Priory of the Orange Tree is a secondary world fantasy inspired by East Asian mythology and geography, centred on a world divided between those who worship the Nameless One — a great wyrm (read: evil dragon) — and those who follow Galian Berethnet, a figure who defeated the Nameless One a thousand years ago, binding him beneath the sea.
The story follows three main POVs:
Ead Duryan — a lady of the Priory of the Orange Tree, a secret sisterhood of mages who protect the house of Berethnet from the shadows. She is embedded as a lady-in-waiting at the court of Inys, quietly preventing assassination attempts while wondering how long the binding can hold.
Tané — a young woman from the East, training to become a dragon rider in a culture where dragons are sacred and revered, unlike in the West where they’re feared and hunted. Her chapters bring a completely different cultural perspective to the mythology.
Niclays Roos — an aging alchemist in exile, involved in a desperate search for the secret of immortality. He’s the most ambiguous of the three protagonists and, arguably, the most interesting.
What Works
The worldbuilding is the obvious answer, and it’s the right one. Shannon has clearly drawn on a wide range of real-world mythologies and cultures rather than defaulting to the pseudo-medieval European template most fantasy uses. The Eastern sections feel genuinely distinct, and the variety of approaches to dragons — divine creatures, monsters, symbols, individuals — is rich and thoughtful.
The three POV structure works well. The storylines are geographically distant for much of the novel but converge naturally, and the convergence feels earned rather than contrived.
The female characters are the heart of the book. Ead in particular is brilliant — capable, morally complex, and given a genuine internal life. The central relationship, when it develops, is earned and affecting.
At 848 pages, Priory doesn’t drag. Shannon is good at pacing and the book moves more quickly than its length suggests it should.
What Doesn’t Quite Work
The cast is large enough that some secondary characters blur together. The political intrigue at the Inysh court is occasionally dense. And the first hundred pages are the hardest — there’s a lot of world to absorb before the plot picks up momentum.
Niclays’ storyline, while compelling, takes longer than the others to connect to the main narrative. Patient readers will find it worth the wait.
Standalone or Series?
The Priory of the Orange Tree is a genuine standalone. The story is complete. Shannon has also written a prequel novella (A Day of Fallen Night) set centuries earlier, but it’s entirely separate and can be read in either order.
If you’re in the market for a vast, beautifully built fantasy world that doesn’t commit you to a ten-book series, this is among the best options available.
Rating: 4/5
Rated 4.3 Stars on Amazon. Buy The Priory of the Orange Tree here.
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Check out Sunset In the East — a mind-bending short story collection from Ben Luxon.
