Truly a masterpiece of high fantasy.

I loved the way this book talked about religion and mythology and the way that different cultures respond to and interpret the same historical event.

I have rarely read medieval fantasy that was so clearly informed by the actual political and religious atmosphere of the Middle Ages. I loved how intentional the setting was. I also loved how rich and varied and complex the whole world felt. And how deeply linked all of the different religions and magic systems were! And how important dragons were to all of it!

I expected to love Ead and Tané, and I did, I wasn’t expecting Loth, but he ended up being my favorite. What a lovely man.

The dragons were of course excellent. The queer aspects were also excellent. I love this book and could talk about it for hours. I recommend it all the time at work (I work at a bookstore), and my friends are probably sick of hearing about it by now.

Is The Priory of the Orange Tree super long? Yes. It’s also a standalone (upcoming prequel notwithstanding) and written in a more accessible way than the vast majority of adult high fantasy. I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to the genre necessarily, but I also found it quite an easy and enjoyable read, so definitely don’t let the length deter you from reading it!

Be warned that there is a LOT of decapitation in this book. Maybe the author went through an Anne Boleyn phase.

I do wish there’d been a bit less Niclays and a bit more Tané because I found Niclays annoying, but otherwise I wouldn’t change much about this book.

Was the pseudo-incest situation that’s only mentioned once really necessary, though? Cause I hated that.