Thank you, thank you so much to the publisher for sending me a copy of one of my most anticipated reads of 2023.
ADOFN was one of the best book I've read this year. Or ever. Samantha Shannon outdid herself.
The story is told by multiple POVs, spanning generations, religions, traditions and places. Tunuva, a fifty years old sister of the Priory, with a new generation of sisters who fight to believe in their purpose against the wyrms, since it's been a while since their appearances. In the North, Sabran is the proud queen of her queendom and she has married King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Now their daughter Glorian follows her footsteps. In the East Dumai has always lived in a Seikenese mountain temple, the dragons are sleeping for centuries, but a visitor from her mother's past uphend her future. Wulf, on the other side, is a young soldier, whose past is ready to change everything. When a disastrous eruption from Dreadmouth brings ruins and devastation, these women will have to face the world and be prepared to do anything.

With masterful storytelling, deep and complex characterization and a intricate plot spanning seas, times and spaces, the story is long and wonderful and even though the book is huge it never bores or lags, never. It's fascinating, deep, full of twists and interesting characters and it was such a pleasure following them in their physical and physicological growth, through losses and discoveries, adventures and secrets, sacrifices and gains.
The story is raw, complex, brilliant and her creativity and characterization are truly magnificent. It's a queer book, wonderfully and brilliantly queer. I fell in love with Glorian, Dumai, Wulf and Tunuva, following the main characters' journeys and growth. It's a story that touches important themes like family, loyalty, motherhood (lost, found, forced) growing up, the pressure to live to someone's expectations, the courage of being oneself. It's about love and war, dragons and gods, magic and destiny, fights and adventures. The scope is huge, magnificent and every single character is skillfully written in their complexity. I can't wait to hug my copy.

It's not often that I enjoy "supplementary" book content. Prequels, spin-offs, novellas, etc. usually don't interest me, but I of course had to throw caution to the wind when I heard about A Day of Fallen Night. I so rarely have "auto-read" authors, but Samantha Shannon is one of them, and I adored Priory so it seemed an easy chance to take.
A Day of Fallen Night is STUNNING. The prose is sublime, beautiful in its tone and cadence. I'm not one to annotate while I read, but the heaps and heaps of quotable lines and breathtaking descriptions basically forced my hand. It's poetry in the form of a novel.
The plot itself was also great. I was nervous to see it come together, after all we do know how the story ends, but it really worked. A bit slower, purposeful pacing, but I didn't mind that.
Also the cover is just gorgeous. I need a physical copy for my shelf!

TW: violence, war, forced pregnancy, traumatic childbirth, child marriage, reproductive coercion, religious manipulation/bigotry, grief, climate change, pandemic, postnatal depression, animal violence/death, mind control, vomiting, child loss, parental death, and massacre

You know that Circe quote that goes on about "when another soul dips nears yours..." yadda yadda.. "such a constellation was he to me?" That was me with A Day of Fallen Night. I've always believed that The Priory of the Orange Tree was the dragon high fantasy that would forever hold a special place in my heart, but now Day has given it a run for its money to the point where I'm torn on which of these stories means more to me. Both are phenomenal masterpieces of emotional turmoil, but Day brings stronger politics, a wider cast, and even more sapphic love—UGH, WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?!

This review is going to be shorter than most of my other ones. February is still six months away, and I don't want to go anywhere near giving too much away. A few significant differences between Day and its predecessor is that Day has more POVs than Priory. There's still four main POVs within Day, but there's also a few singular perspectives that join the story for a very short amount of time. A few of those scenes are actually some of my top chapters. Moreover, there's three main women perspectives and then a fourth perspective that hasn't really been mentioned in the synopsis, so I'm not going to give any details to that character. If you remember any of the history from Priory, then you'll somewhat know a bit about one character—Glorian III. She's the daughter of Sabran VI and Bardholt I of Hróth. She's heir to the Queendom of Inys and Hróth, and Day starts when she is merely fifteen years old. Then we have Tunuva Melim; she's the tomb keeper for the Priory and guardian to the remains of Cleolind Onjenyu. Through, Tunuva we gain an insight into the Priory like never before, which I loved about her chapters. Finally, Dumai of Ipyeda is a godsinger at the High Temple of Kwiriki in Seiiki. She has lived atop a mountain all of her life, but things quickly change the night two strangers appear at their Temple's doorstep. All of these women—and the ones not POVs—will leave their mark on you. Samantha has written the deepest fantasy about women that I have ever read. Part of this is because she follows such variety of ages and experiences of women in different positions across the globe. I'm excited to do my reread of Priory because I've forgotten how detailed and raw Samantha writes when it comes to women, specifically motherhood, and subsequently grief. You'll cry and scream, smile and laugh, shut the book and throw it across the room (couldn't do that with my phone lol) because it is just THAT GOOD.

Besides the story itself, a lot of people have asked me if I think you should read Day before Priory or the opposite, and I think it depends. I originally wanted to read Priory first, but when the eARC showed up in my inbox, I knew I couldn't wait a moment longer to start Day. If you want an easier jump into this world, then I'd recommend Priory. It has a smaller cast of characters and less complicated politics. But if you choose this direction, then you'll be historically spoiled for Day since it happens centuries before Priory and one of the characters is extremely well known. A reminder though— history has a tendency to alter the true facts of a historical moment. It's one of Day's many themes, and I can't wait to dive into my Priory reread and connect even more dots.

That's all I have for now because anything more feels too close to spoilers! All I can continue to say is READ. THE. ROOTS. OF. CHAOS. It won't let you down in the slightest.

Thank you NetGalley/ Bloomsbury for making my dream come true and gifting me this eARC. I'm down bad for this world and Samantha, so this made my entire month.

Starting this book, I wasn’t sure how I would feel because I loved Priory so much. In my mind, I didn’t think anything could top it. Samantha Shannon proved me wrong. This book is GORGEOUS from beginning to end. The characters are compelling, and watching their change and growth throughout the 880 pages of this novel was a delight.

One of my favorite aspects of Shannon’s writing is how diversity is never forced in this world. It simply is. It’s always amazing to read a story where diversity of race, gender, sexuality, and ability are universally accepted by everyone. Homophobia and transphobia don’t exist. One character is referred to with gender neutral pronouns and titles. Others are canonically transgender. Many are queer. This is never questioned by the characters; it is just accepted as a way of life. In that way, I wish our world could be a little like the world of the Roots of Chaos.

I actually found that I prefer this book to Priory. Readers might find that they’re very similar (chapters following different characters in separate parts of the world as their stories come together to defeat a great evil), but I thought that there was a lot more political intrigue and more dynamic and interesting character relationships. I really found myself attached to all of the characters. In multi-POV stories, I often find that there are certain characters that I’m less interested in reading about. That’s not the case here. The characters are ALL dynamic and interesting in their own ways and I devoured this book because of that.

In short, I think that if you enjoyed Priory, you will enjoy A Day of Fallen Night. If you’re like me, you might even like it more.

However you felt about The Priory of the Orange Tree probably determines how you'll feel about A Day of Fallen Night, as Samantha Shannon sticks pretty hard to the formula that she rode to BookTok fame. If the chain of Virtudom ain't broke, no need to add another link — or something like that.

The good: Shannon's knack for writing complex characters that you really, truly care about shines once again here. Her cast of characters are refreshingly diverse, in the way that humans are, but that's no surprise after Priory. All four of ADOFN's POV characters fit perfectly into her universe, and it was a thrill getting to know them. Glorian is probably my favorite character across both books. It was so good to finally have a Berethnet narrator, and damn, is her arc harrowing and satisfying.

The mixed bag: We see even more of the world in ADOFN, but it doesn't always thrill. On one hand, there's a crazy imaginative description of a Lacustrine palace built to honor the heavens (I'd love to see that on screen someday). On the other, Hroth doesn't conjure much beyond generic Viking-land and nothing consequential comes from the very intriguing idea of a republic existing in this world.

The bad: ADOFN suffers big time from prequel-itis. While you can definitely read it first, most folks are probably going to tackle it after Priory, so you already know the broad strokes of what happens here. That seriously lowers the stakes from the get-go. Even its general structure has a lot in common with the flaws of its big sister: a lot of setup for a pretty abrupt conclusion.

The bottom line: A solid 4 stars. I finished this 880-page doorstop in less than a week, so it was definitely compelling — but I can't help but feel it's a step down from the dizzying heights of Priory.

A Day of Fallen Night is, definitely, more of the same. The story of it is really brilliant, and i wished so much The Priory of Orange Tree to be a universe and not just a single book, and the complexity of the main characters and the main plot made me to read the book in just some hours, although I was expecting different things, I received more of the same and the story is so graceful that it made me even less bothered by it. Shannon really knows how to write a book and I think that while the universe might pass off that dull image it will still develop in an amazing way.

4,0 stars

First, thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read what I was sure would be my favorite book of 2023, in 2022.

Now for the book. It is utterly amazing. Even better than Priory, the characters are fantastic and have depth. The storyline helps to better Priory, while also building an incredibly detailed and in-depth world and experience of its own.

I have to say that this is my favorite book of 2022. It makes me want to read Priory all over again, just so I can see the many connections between the storylines.

In closing, I hope that the length of these books don’t scare people away from reading them. The length is really one of the many things that makes them special and the pages go by so quickly.

Read these books!

Priory of the Orange Tree is my favorite standalone fantasy novel so I went into A Day of Fallen Night with the highest of expectations and they were EXCEEDED! There were times I laughed, cried, gasped, and my jaw hit the floor at least three times. The Roots of Chaos world has the absolute finest world building of any work of fiction I’ve ever come across, it’s magnificent. The regions, religions, politics, and history are so rich and perfect these books feel like portals to another world. I can’t say enough positive things about ADOFN and I can’t wait for it to hit shelves and get to hold it and savor its presence.