Prequel to the Priory of the Orange Tree, this book sets up a lot of the world and structures that we see later on. (It’s been a few years since I read Priory, so I only recognized a few elements, but enough to keep me reading.) The main characters are Sabran and her daughter Glorian, bound to carry the legacy of their ancestor and protect their kingdom; Dumai, secret heir to magic and empire; and Tunuva, warrior sworn to a greater cause. Each of the women finds herself fighting a separate part of the battle against a world-ending threat. Although there’s a lot going on with dragons, plague, and political tensions, Shannon still finds a way to develop each woman’s story. Things I loved: Sabran and Glorian’s complicated dedication to their birthright, and Tunuva’s characterization as a capable warrior and a sexual being even as an older woman. The entire book verged on being almost too long and complicated, but then I remember Priory being the same way.
Tag: author-samantha shannon
On the Merits of Unnaturalness, by Samantha Shannon
Companion work to Shannon’s Bone Season series, and likely incomprehensible (even boring) to those who haven’t read it. This is the full version of the pamphlet published by one of the characters in the series, in defiance of the authoritarian government, classifying and defining forbidden voyant (psychic) talents. Obviously does not stand alone well but would be a good reference point for anyone wanting to return to the Bone Season series after a long break (that would be me).
The Dawn Chorus, by Samantha Shannon
A little novella that deals patiently and unsparingly with the main character’s PTSD from being held and tortured; it makes a realistic bridge between the books where she engineers her release and when she plunges into action again. Does not stand alone well, relying as it does so heavily on preceding events, but I can see why it would have been cut from the main series – it’s much more slow and contemplative than the tense pacing of the main books.
The Mask Falling, by Samantha Shannon
The embattled heroine leaves London, and with it all the cool psychic gang members with their amazingly ornate Victorian titles… but fear not, she is now in Paris where the psychic underworld figures have amazingly ornate French titles. I liked that she and the love interest are finally on equal footing instead of uncomfortably trapped within the various power imbalances that have defined their relationship in the previous books, but annoyingly, they’re still playing will-they-or-won’t-they with the trust dynamic. Some pretty interesting developments in the interdimensional vampire front as well. Shannon badly needs an editor but, four books in, the series finally seems to be moving in a coherent direction.
The Song Rising, by Samantha Shannon
This book spends a lot of time sending the main characters off on harebrained schemes without much forethought, but we do get a bit of background on how the Irish people were completely hosed during the lead-up to how the current political players gained power. A few years ago I would have called it unrealistic how the majority of the populace just turns a blind eye to the suffering of a huge minority, but… oh well. I STILL don’t really buy the overall premise of interdimensional psychic alien vampires, but obviously I’m enjoying this series enough to keep going.
The Bone Season and The Mime Order, by Samantha Shannon
I kind of feel like these would have been better books without all the invented vocabulary, but I did like the quasi-Victorian? Cockneyish? language of the street dwellers. In an alternate future dystopian London, people with extrasensory abilities (clairvoyants, or “voyants”) are hunted down by the government; because their very existence is illegal, voyants band together in street gangs and mobs to survive. Our heroine Paige has powers that put her pretty high up in her gang; however, when she is captured by the government, she finds out that captured voyants actually become enslaved in a crazy medieval prison (it’s the old Oxford campus) run by – wait for it – aliens! The aliens are using the psychic energy of the voyants to fight a war on another plane of existence entirely, with the government’s cooperation. The insanity just keeps ratcheting up. The first book has plenty of action but honestly feels mostly like setup, introducing mad amounts of vocabulary alongside crowds of characters and doing its best to convince you of the multiple layers of weird that comprise this world; the second book was a little more focused. Two books in I’m still honestly not sure I completely buy the premise, but at least Shannon’s writing is smooth and the characters are well-crafted.