A Day of Fallen Night
By Samantha Shannon
Blurb
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Intricate and epic, A Day of Fallen Night sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.
Our Review
"A Princess for the West. One lost for the East. In the South, a third girl was born between the other two,
This girl was not destined to wear a crown. Her birth did not stitch the wounds in a Queendom, or gift her with any right to a throne. This birth took place deep in the Lasian Basin, out of sight of the eyes of the world - because this girl, like her birthplace was secret."
A Day of Fallen Night can be read as a stand alone book or as part of the 'roots of chaos' series. It is a very long read but absolutely worth it.
A Day of Fallen Night is written in split narrative form and is one of those rare books where all of the characters are fascinating. I anticipated the next installment of each person equally. I loved the whole thing.
The main element I felt this book brings to the genre is central female protagonists who take charge of the situations they find themselves in. This is an element not often encountered in the fantasy genre. It was a refreshing change, as was the representation of a variety of relationships.
Admiredly there is a lot to take in with this book, because the world bulding is so complex. We get a full political system, history and religious aspects of the world, in addition to knowledge on the lives of the central characters. This knowledge made the book a slow read for me initially but it certainly grew on me later on.
Things are changing. The world is heating up. The gods are waking and winged creatures are taking to the sky.
"Then came a terrible sound, the like of which she had never heard, and hoped never to hear again. Not the crack of the eruption, or the sinister rumble that had been the herald.
This sound was the grating of earth on earth, the ring of metal, the roar of a fire as it swallowed a house - a bellow of consuming rage that echoed across Mentenndon. As Tunuva Melim watched, five dark shapes emerged from the mountain and disappeared into the night.
Five dark shapes with ten dark wings, flocked by dark moths that all screamed the same scream, old as the world."
I hadn't read The Priory of the Orange Tree but I will be reading it now and any others in this series.
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 15 Times.
I hope you enjoyed this book review, please consider sharing it with others.
Get In Touch
Please feel free to leave a comment to this book review below. Or even leave your own review if you like.
If you run a blog and/or have posted a review to this book, a Q & A or general author interview online you can always add a trackback to it here and following moderation we'll add a link to it below.