Author | Samantha Shannon |
---|---|
Genre | Fantasy |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Publication date | 26 February 2019 |
Pages | 880 |
ISBN | 9781635577921 |
OCLC | 1351599196 |
The Priory of the Orange Tree is a 2019 fantasy novel by writer Samantha Shannon. [1] The novel was published on 26 February 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing. Shannon describes the novel as a "feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon."
A Day of Fallen Night, a standalone prequel, was published on 28 February 2023, also by Bloomsbury Publishing. [2]
A thousand years before the events of the novel, the evil, fire-breathing wyrm known as the Nameless One spread a draconic plague and was held at bay through daily human sacrifices. Eventually, Princess Cleolind of Lasia was chosen for sacrifice. A traveling Inysh knight named Sir Galian Berethnet intervened, in exchange for Cleolind's hand in marriage and the conversion of her people to his religion. According to some, the Nameless One was defeated by Sir Galian with the sword Ascalon, created by the Witch of Inysca. Sir Galian married Princess Cleolind. Their descendants in the House of Berethnet have ruled Inys as queens and leaders of the Virtues of Knighthood faith, while dragons and magic are condemned and feared. The Grief of Ages or Great Sorrow occurred five hundred years later, when five High Western dragons led by Fýredel created a draconic army of half-dragon monsters. They waged war on humanity for over a year until suddenly falling dormant.
The world of Priory includes the regions of the East, West, and South, each made up of at least two countries. Each region's defining culture emerges from their attitudes towards dragons and the differing stories of the Nameless One's defeat. The Eastern nation of Seiiki closed its borders due to the draconic plague or "red sickness." Due to this disconnection, the West forgot that there are significant differences between Eastern and Western dragons, namely that Easterns are benign. The nations of the East revere dragons and a select few train as dragonriders. Most nations of the West hate and fear them.
The faith of the Virtues of Knighthood is predominant in several nations of the West, collectively called Virtudom. The faith of the Mother among the Lasians believes that rather than Sir Galian, it was Princess Cleolind Onjenyu who banished the Nameless One. The people of the East revere dragons as gods.
The writing is in limited third-person perspective, alternating between four point-of-view characters: the spy Ead Duryan, courtier Arteloth Beck, dragonrider Miduchi Tané (family name first), and alchemist Niclays Roos.
Currently, Queen Sabran the Ninth's power in Inys is tenuous; she has yet to produce an heir to the throne and the Nameless One threatens to awaken again. Ead Duryan is an outsider from the South who acts as a lady-in-waiting and protector to Sabran, but is loyal to the secret mage society of the Priory, which has its own view of the history of Cleolind, the Mother, and Sir Galian, the Deceiver. Meanwhile, Lord Arteloth Beck, close friend of Sabran, is banished from Inys on a futile quest by those who seek to weaken the queen.
In the East, where water dragons are revered as living gods, Miduchi Tané has spent her life training to become a dragonrider. When Tané comes upon an outsider and trespasser from the West, she throws her future into jeopardy by hiding him with Niclays Roos, an alcoholic alchemist searching for the secret to immortality who was banished from Sabran's court years ago.
The novel received mostly positive reviews. [3] However Liz Bourke, in a generally negative review for Tor.com , while acknowledging a "really good slow-burn romance", criticised the book's length and lack of complexity. [4]
A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often a hybridization of feline, reptilian, mammalian, and avian features.
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, it was published for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, in addition to novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Children's fantasy is children's literature with fantasy elements: fantasy intended for young readers. It may also mean fantasy read by children, regardless of the intended audience.
In a legend, Saint George—a soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon at Dragon Hill, Uffington. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a human tribute once a year. This was acceptable to the villagers until a princess was chosen as the next offering. The saint thereupon rescues the princess and kills the dragon. The narrative was first set in Cappadocia in the earliest sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, but transferred to Libya in the 13th-century Golden Legend.
Eberron is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game. The game is set primarily on the continent of Khorvaire following a vast destructive war. Eberron is designed to accommodate traditional D&D elements and races within a differently toned setting; Eberron combines a fantasy tone with pulp and dark adventure elements, and some non-traditional fantasy technologies such as trains, skyships, and mechanical beings which are all powered by magic.
Abeir-Toril is the fictional planet that makes up the Forgotten RealmsDungeons & Dragons campaign setting, as well as the Al-Qadim and Maztica campaign settings, and the 1st edition version of the Oriental Adventures campaign setting.
Kenji Utsumi was a Japanese actor and voice actor from Kitakyushu, affiliated with the self-founded Ken Production.
Septimus Heap is a series of children's fantasy novels featuring a protagonist of the same name written by English author Angie Sage. In all, it features seven novels, entitled Magyk, Flyte, Physik, Queste, Syren, Darke, and Fyre. The first, Magyk, was published in 2005 and the last, Fyre, in 2013. A full colour supplement to the series, entitled The Magykal Papers, was published in June 2009, and an online novella titled The Darke Toad is also available. A sequel trilogy, The TodHunter Moon Series, set seven years after the events of Fyre, began in October 2014.
Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders, also known outside of North America as Starla & the Jewel Riders and sometimes spelled as the more traditionally Arthurian "Guinevere", is an American fantasy animated television series aimed at a pre-teen girl audience and produced by Bohbot Entertainment in association with Hong Ying Animation Company Limited. It was internationally syndicated by Bohbot on their syndicated Amazin' Adventures block, where it originally ran from 1995 to 1996, with two seasons and twenty-six episodes.
In the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game, Bahamut is a powerful draconic deity, who has the same name as Bahamut from Arabic mythology.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a 1984 fantasy novel by American writers Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, based on a series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game modules. It was the first Dragonlance novel, and first in the Chronicles trilogy, which, along with the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, are generally regarded as the core novels of the Dragonlance world. Dragons of Autumn Twilight details the meeting of the Companions and the early days of The War of the Lance. The novel corresponds with the first two Dragonlance game modules, Dragons of Despair and Dragons of Flame, but with a different ending. It introduces many of the characters that are the subject of later novels and short stories.
Yen Press is an American manga, graphic novel and light novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published Yen Plus, a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press has published original series, most notably Svetlana Chmakova's Nightschool and a manga adaptation of James Patterson's Maximum Ride.
Samantha Shannon is a British author of dystopian and fantasy fiction. Her debut novel, The Bone Season, was published in 2013 and is the first of a seven-book series.
J-Novel Club is a publishing company specializing in the translation of Japanese light novels into English. It streams light novels and manga in regular installments before publishing finalized e-books. As of August 2021, J-Novel Club has licensed over 150 light novel and manga series and have published more than 800 e-books. It has licensed titles from many Japanese publishers, including Hobby Japan, Overlap, Kodansha, Drecom, Earth Star Entertainment, Kadokawa Corporation, Micro Magazine, Shufunotomo, and Softbank Creative. It was acquired by Kadokawa Corporation on April 28, 2021.
House of the Dragon is an American fantasy drama television series created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal for HBO. A prequel to Game of Thrones (2011–2019), it is the second television series in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire franchise. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik served as the showrunners for the first season. Based on parts of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood, the series begins about 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen. Featuring an ensemble cast, the show portrays the events leading up to the decline of House Targaryen, a devastating war of succession known as the "Dance of the Dragons."