Book 64 - Eating Fruit Until I Get Powers, Byyyyye

Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree

Author: Samantha Shannon

Genre: fantasy

Shannon, Shannon, Shannon.

IS THERE NOTHING SHE CANNOT DO??

Okay, this book absolutely rocked my world. Just as in The Bone Season, Shannon's imagination is staggering. The world building is exquisite and the characters are complex, flawed, infuriating, and determined. Shannon brings them to life. She also does this thing with language, this turning of phrase, these connections made within simile and metaphor that leave me gasping in their brilliance.

The best parts of this book are a) the various religions, and the intersections and bastardizations of their myths, and b) the kickass female cast. This novel is reminiscent of the GoT books in how the stories and myths on which the different beliefs are based are fairly recent, and discrepancies are based more on confusion and misinterpretation of factual events than the echos and belief systems us shmucks in the real boring world, if you're religious, have to rely on. Dragons are real, sorcery is real, and the patron saints were real people with living descendants.

Now, let's talk about diversity - yes, in a fantasy book!! The main cast includes female, gay, lesbian, and non-white characters, each with their own priorities and dreams and secrets and personalities that move beyond those simple categories - but, we should still take a moment to appreciate how incredible this representation is in the fantasy genre. We also have a secret organization of female ninja-mages, an entire dark-ages sort of kingdom ruled by a line of women, and a terrifying pirate queen. Sexuality and skin colour are no big thang - it's beliefs that separate the people of the book; beliefs and geographical location.

I just...it's so wonderful to read a book that embraces diversity as an obvious fact of life, and focuses on other tension points within the universe. And, more than that, is just a damn well-written piece of writing!

Now excuse me while I bemoan the lack of magic - fire-holding, lightning-throwing, body-changing magic - in our world.

Rating: 🐉🐉🐉🐉🐉/5