Samantha ShannonFantasy · Fiction·b. 1991
A Day of Fallen Night
Synopsis
Five hundred years before Sabran the Ninth takes the Inysh throne, the Dreadmount erupts and unleashes a new age of terror: wyrms escape into the world, and the belief that the Berethnet line alone holds back the dark is thrown into doubt.
Tunuva Melim has spent fifty years as a sister of the Priory of the Orange Tree, training to kill wyrms in case the Nameless One ever wakes. Glorian, heir to Inys, dreads the marriage and the crown that are closing in on her just as an attack on her family forces her into a war she isn't ready for.
And in the East, Dumai discovers she is the secret daughter of an emperor and is drawn into a plan to put her on a throne she never expected to inherit, one that means climbing a mountain to wake gods long asleep.
A prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, following three women across different kingdoms as an old threat resurfaces and the foundations of their world start to crack.
How it reads
Prose complexity 7/10
Content warnings (2)
ViolenceDeath Of A Parent
- <div>Genre: High fantasy 🐉🗡️</div><div>Tropes: multiple POVs; Adventurer; Clergy; Deity; Knight; Royalty; F/F, F/M, and M/M relationships; Bi/Pan representation; Asexual representation </div><div>🌶️: 🌶️ (poetic, limited details)</div><div>Medium: audiobook 🎧, Narrators: Ellie Kendrick, Samantha Shannon, Saara El-Arifi, Hanako Footman, Sheila Atim, Thoren Ferguson </div><div>CW: violence; fighting; death; plague</div><div>Minor themes of child loss; adoption; pregnancy & delivery details</div><div>Review: </div><div>Dove right back into the Roots of Chaos so I still had Priory fresh on my mind. I liked that we had multiple narrators for the multiple POVs this time, definitely helps further distinguish between characters. But goooolllyyyyy - this was a BEEFY audio. It was lovely to learn more about the ancestors of our Book 1 Heroines and I’m a sucker for lore, but it was difficult to keep track of all the moving parts - I had to start keeping actual notes so I wasn’t replaying chapters a dozen times. Certain scenes were artfully done, while others drolled on. Some characters were fully fleshed out, others flat and nearly identical to their descendants from book 1. This one feels a bit more unbalanced compared to Priory. On the whole though, another nice adventure into a fantasy world, with some kinks to work out. Interested to see how the writing style will be in the shorter prequel coming out this year. </div>
- Genre: High fantasy 🐉🗡️ | Tropes: multiple POVs; Adventurer; Clergy; Deity; Knight; Royalty; F/F, F/M, and M/M relationships; Bi/Pan representation; Asexual representation | 🌶️: 🌶️ (poetic, limited details) | Medium: audiobook 🎧, Narrators: Ellie Kendrick, Samantha Shannon, Saara El-Arifi, Hanako Footman, Sheila Atim, Thoren Ferguson | CW: violence; fighting; death; plague | Minor themes of child loss; adoption; pregnancy & delivery details | Review: | Dove right back into the Roots of Chaos so I still had Priory fresh on my mind. I liked that we had multiple narrators for the multiple POVs this time, definitely helps further distinguish between characters. But goooolllyyyyy - this was a BEEFY audio. It was lovely to learn more about the ancestors of our Book 1 Heroines and I’m a sucker for lore, but it was difficult to keep track of all the moving parts - I had to start keeping actual notes so I wasn’t replaying chapters a dozen times. Certain scenes were artfully done, while others drolled on. Some characters were fully fleshed out, others flat and nearly identical to their descendants from book 1. This one feels a bit more unbalanced compared to Priory. On the whole though, another nice adventure into a fantasy world, with some kinks to work out. Interested to see how the writing style will be in the shorter prequel coming out this year.


















