Loved the first book and this chunky sequel is one of my highly anticipated releases! Samantha Shannon is an incredible writer.

Shannon’s continued causal approach to queerness is a breathe of fresh air. Representation done expertly. This allows queerness to exist without trauma, a welcomed, arguably necessary, addition to a fantasy world.

This book feels more like a masterclass on surviving tribulations over bravely battling against them, harrowingly pertinent to current times. Resilience is an incredibly important skill, one that is beautifully demonstrated throughout this book.

The pacing of this book struggles only marginally with a slow beat in the middle, otherwise breathes easily.

Similarly to The Priory of the Orange Tree, flipping over the last page left me wanting more time spent with each character.

Overall, an impeccably written and researched piece. Samantha Shannon has set new standards in fantasy.

More in depth reviews to follow on Goodreads and social medias.

Thank you immensely to NetGalley and Bloomsbury.

4.5

I recently read “A Day of Fallen Night” by Samantha Shannon. A really wonderful story with interesting characters and great world building. It took me a while to get into the story as there are 4 different story arcs and a multitude of characters. It was hard initially to keep all the characters straight. Once I got farther into the book, it was easier to keep everybody straight.
The story is really enjoyable. There are four different stories taking place and differentiated as North, South, East and West. Some characters move from one geographical area to another and become involved in multiple storylines.
This book covers a lot of characters and a wide spreading story. It does come to a conclusion, but I could see the story extending to another book.
My favorite characters were Dumai, Wilfred, Bardholt and Kanifa.
If you enjoy great fantasy, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! Happy reading!

The way this book has made me lose sleep... I have already been telling everyone to go preorder this book and will be continuing to do so until it comes out.

Samantha Shannon sets the standard on what fantasy books should be. This book was absolutely incredible and is among my top three books I've read this year. The way Shannon builds worlds and characters is incredible.

This book is chunky and long, but it is absolutely worth it. In most books that are above 600 pages, I usually find I feel that at least 100 pages are unnecessary. That is far from the case here. While A Day of Fallen Night is long, every page is worth the commitment.

This is, without a doubt, the best book I have read this year. A Day of Fallen Night is the perfect prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree. There is so much more I want to say, but believe me when I say this book is the perfect companion to Priory. While a successful standalone for any fantasy lover, if you are a fan of Priory, you will absolutely adore this book. Samantha Shannon has an incredible talent for building these worlds and characters that feel real and heart wrenching. This book has so much life, love, and pain in it. I absolutely loved it. Please read it. Also, yes, the dragons are iconic still. There is no need to worry, they're here, they're beautiful. I love them. GET EXCITED FOR FEBRUARY.

Prequel's can be a hit or a miss but Samantha Shannon has absolutely knocked it out of the park with A Day of Fallen Night. Impeccable story telling, world building and characters (as we have come to expect from Shannon). I read this in a couple of days and I'm now off to re-read Priory.

I read this in a week lmao and now I have to reread Priory. Samantha Shannon supremacy!!!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

All other epic fantasy authors should take lessons from Samantha Shannon in how to create complex characters and how to build layers of a story. While "The Priory of the Orange Tree" is still my all-time favorite fantasy, this one is a close second.

People, this book is LONG.
Worth it in my opinion. Like if you could only get one book a year, it'd be smart to get this one. You could make it last a while.
It's incredibly well written and makes me want to read Priory of the Orange Tree even more!!
Fantastical with Eastern myth/fable flavoring. Right up my alley, of course.

Samantha Shannon makes a daring attempt to expand the stunning world and riveting story she created in her book The Priory of the Orange Tree with A Day of Fallen Night, which serves as a roughly immediate prequel to the events that occur in its predecessor. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but Shannon takes a story I thought to be a complete and singular entry and spins up a truly fascinating prequel tale full of well-written characters, real stakes, and world-building intrigue that delivers and will make every reader immediately reach for a copy of Priory when they hit the last page.

I loved returning to the world of Priory, and A Day of Fallen Night is a triumphant return indeed.

This sweeping, breathtaking prequel to the Priory of the Orange Tree completely blew me away.
Like Priory, ADOFN is a slow-building political novel set against the backdrop of a fantasy dragon war. Set 500 years before Priory takes place, it tells a fantastic story in its own right.
A Day of Fallen Night continues Priory’s themes of religion and the role of religion in defining history. If anything, Shannon uses this story to develop those themes even further, exploring the ways that religion influences the lives of every character in her world. Her characters all embody faith in different ways. Glorian Berethnet, the sole heir to her throne and the fifteen-year-old figurehead of her religion; Tunuva Melim, who has dedicated fifty years of her life to the Priory and to her goddess; and Dumai of Ipyeda, whose journey and relationship with the slumbering gods of the East will go on to define history.
These three women are the heart of the book. They are what made A Day of Fallen Night genuinely excellent; not one POV was less compelling. Each of them had a unique story arc that was woven together by the fabric of Shannon’s universe. I’m reluctant to say more, for fear of spoilers, but the ways that their stories intersected and referenced one another absolutely thrilled me. Even the short scenes that were from other points of view provided the story with some of its best moments.
The historian in me was absolutely thrilled by the attention to detail in this book. Five centuries is one hell of a long time, and the idea that a world can be so similar for five hundred years is in itself a stretch. Shannon acknowledges this in a great way - through tiny spelling changes, mostly of proper nouns. Changing spellings is so typical of ancient texts, and as you study the same thing over centuries it will be spelled in ten thousand different ways by anyone writing about it. In A Day of Fallen Night, the city that we know as Ascalon is referred to as Ascalun; Carscaro is Karkaro, and so on. It’s small, it’s subtle, but it’s so realistic that it made me extremely happy.
At its core, A Day of Fallen Night is a story about mothers and daughters, and that visceral, unbreakable connection. It’s a theme that resonates throughout the story’s disparate narratives, in multiple tiny ways, in storylines that will break your heart. It’s intergenerational, multiple POV, and stunning in a way that is still intimate, emotional and accessible. Samantha Shannon has truly outdone herself with her second book in the Roots of Chaos series. I can’t wait to read what is yet to come.
Sidenote: I also loved the casual queerness that exists in this world. It’s not a statement, it’s not central to the plot, but queer people exist in and remain part of the fabric of the world. Secondly: the fact that the Berethnet queens are all over six feet tall is my favourite tidbit from this book. Amazing.

I feel so fortunate that I was able to experience this story now.

This was such a beautifully woven and intricate story that I just could not put down. Shannon has written an epic fantasy masterpiece. I found myself enjoying this journey more than I enjoyed Priory. I am just so in love with A Day of Fallen Night. This is hands down the best book I have read this year. People always ask what my favorite book is and I never have an answer. I read so much it's always so hard for me to just pick one out of the hundreds of stories I have immersed myself in. Well now I can answer confidently that A Day of Fallen Night is at the top of the list.
This story with its multiple POVs along with the Priory gave me major Lord of the Rings vibes. Everyone in their own lives fighting individual battles to bring down a great evil is something I live for. I get so excited when I know these people from different walks of life and different origins eventually end up crossing paths. What made me absolutely fall head over heels for this book was the WOMEN and their resilience. I grew up reading Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and those stories did have 1 or 2 strong female characters. This book however has multiple strong and fearless women that I wish I had had with me as a little girl in my fantasy books. I was also so happy with the queer representation in this book. Since I read The Priory of the Orange Tree first I kind of knew how the magic system, dragons and wyrms worked so I felt like I could focus more on the individual characters.
I really enjoyed the setting up of the events that eventually happen in the Priory.
I almost wish I would have read this book first but that's okay I still enjoyed the journey even though I knew how it would end. I cannot wait for others to read this wonderful piece of art.

P.S.
More Wulfert Glenn please and thank you.

Thank you thank you Samantha Shannon, NetGally and Bloomsbury for giving me a chance to read A Day of Fallen Night. First off I never thought that Samantha could top Priory and BOY DID SHE! This girl is thick and a beast but so much fun to read! I absolutely love our main cast of characters and really enjoyed all of the side characters! The ending though! I love how Samantha can really twist what happens towards the end and show you something you never thought would happen! I would say this is ENTIRELY better than Priory and I absolutely adore that novel! I cannot wait for everyone else to read this beauty! Samantha you have done it again and brought us a masterpiece in the Epic Fantasy realm!

Thank you to Samantha Shannon, Bloomsbury, and NetGalley for a chance to read A Day of Fallen Night!

First I’d like to say that I haven’t read Priory of the Orange Tree yet. But when I saw this book on NetGalley and heard that it was a standalone set in the same universe I decided to give it a go!

I do think there were some instances where having Priory first would have been helpful, but that was only really in the very beginning of the book when there were a lot of kingdoms and places being named that I didn’t have any knowledge of.

The story itself was fantastic, there were parts that seemed interconnected that I thought would converge later in the story and didn’t, only for other parts that I wasn’t expecting to be related becoming “how did I not see this coming!” parts later on.

The story telling itself was wonderful. The language was so descriptive and really helped make you feel like you were immersed in some of these places and made it so easy to imagine what things looked like or even smelled like. There were a few parts that I thought were overly flowery and made things more confusing then they needed to be, but overall I thought those were minimal enough that they didn’t take away from the rest of the story.

I think if you read Priory and liked it to DEFINITELY read this book and if you didn’t read Priory but are a fan of fantasy this is still something I would definitely recommend!

When Priory came out, I was sure that Samantha Shannon couldn't top its sheer excellence. I was equal parts hopeful and nervous coming into A Day of Fallen Night, especially considering it's a prequel that contains a completely new cast of characters. I don't know why I doubted Shannon, though, because somehow, Fallen Night is not just as good as Priory, it's better. The characters are a work of art, each of them thoroughly fleshed-out and given adequate time to develop over the course of the story. I knew that Samantha Shannon could write, but Fallen Night is something really special. Wulf, Glorian, Tuva, and Dumai have literally become some of my favorite book characters ever (WULF AND GLORIAN IN PARTICULAR!). Not to mention, the side characters and their relationships with the main cast are spectacularly done. The romance is just *chef's kiss* and the reveals towards the end (iykyk) had me SHOOK. While its predecessor admittedly took me some time, I devoured this book in half the time. The buildup to the firework of an ending truly delivered and I wasn't bored by a single POV. Even in the beginning stages of the story it was clear that Fallen Night was and is a special book. I can't recommend this enough to first time readers and returning Priory fans – I've fallen in love with this new cast and I know everyone will, too. Dare I say it, this book is leagues better than Priory to me even though Priory is literally amazing??? Samantha Shannon is too powerful fr

In A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon absolutely delivers for Priory of the Orange Tree fans. This follow up prequel gives incredible depth to a world already well fleshed out in the first book, and adds history and color to her lore. My favorite thing about Priory was that it was a standalone novel: it contained everything I needed to enjoy the story in one chunky tomb. I loved it, and was excited to hear that there would be further material published in this world, but had trepidations about Fallen Night. This novel blew me away. It absolutely sucked me in all over again, with a new cast of characters and new world changing conflict. I will 100% be recommending this title to any fantasy fans, readers who enjoy intergenerational sagas, or fans of diverse world building.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for allowing me to read this ARC for an honest review!

A Day of Fallen Night was probably one of my top 5 reads of 2022. I was not a huge fan of Priory of the Orange Tree but this prequel may have changed that opinion.

Samantha Shannon has done an amazing job at continuing a story meant to be a stand alone novel and turned it into a masterpiece series. ADOFN uses the same format as in Priory and brings new and continuing story lines to enhance the overall plot.

Shannon has gone above and beyond to include diverse story telling and characters that I believe will be talked about for centuries to come.

ADOFN takes place 5 centuries before Priory but seamless intertwines the stories. This prequel is more emotional and action packed than it’s original story. I wish I could go into more detail of the book, but I’m not one to give out spoilers!

Everyone needs to read this!

The world building in this book is phenomenal! The writing is so lyrical and beautiful. Such an amazing prequel! As someone who is newer to high fantasy this book was an amazing jumping off point! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of The Priory Of The Orange Tree and any other high fantasy with political intrigue!

This is a breathtaking prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree. It feels more epic and there are even more main characters (including more queer characters). I loved each of the storytellers and really appreciated the slow burn way they all intertwined. While this definitely can stand alone, I think reading it after Priory was a special experience because it gives background for the world and explains how certain things came to be. I also loved meeting the ancestors of the characters.
The story in the book is intense, heartbreaking, and at times really scary. There are major themes of identity, grief, and family. I felt really emotional reading this book and grew to love the characters.
Highly HIGHLY recommend. This exceeded my expectations!
CW: childbirth, pregnancy, forced pregnancy, grief, plague

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

You will feel all the emotions! Through the highs and lows I couldn't put it down. The world is just as rich and intoxicating as Priory, if not more. I don't want to give anything away, so I have to keep this short and sweet, but you've gotta read it!