Reviews tagging 'War'

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

158 reviews

irisiscreating's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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alex_wordweaver's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Omfg, this is a great prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree! It's been so long since I read that book, but this brought me right back, and I'm so glad I finally got to read it! It's been a long ride, but everything made me cry. I'm so glad to have seen the Priorty's world again.
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sephiefoxx's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“Can you imagine what that’s like – to be seen only for the life you could make, not the life you already possess?”

I did it! After over a year of this booking sitting on my TBR shelf taunting me, I read it. And…wow.

Samantha Shannon has such an amazing skill to keep me enthralled for hundreds of pages. Within the over 850 pages of this behemoth, my rapt attention did not falter once. 

This is a fantastic prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree - filled with the same level of fascinating characters, high stakes, and glorious representation as the original. The way everything comes together and influenced the events and characters of Priory was expertly done and had me squealing. 

A Day of Fallen Night is a rich high fantasy about love, personal journeys, power, magic, and most importantly, motherhood against the backdrop of a cataclysmic event. And motherhood is truly the epicentre of this tale, with almost all of POV characters’ journeys intertwined with at least one theme of pregnancy, birth, motherhood, and/or the relationships with their own mothers. And it is the diversity of these experiences and how the characters interact with these themes that mean that there is a story within that will resonate with so many readers.

Samantha Shannon is truly a marvel at high fantasy, and this series has my heart. The characters and world have their hooks in me deeply. 
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opinkb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

5.0

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hayreading's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There was so much I could appreciate on a second read. The worldbuilding is beautiful. Every character felt so real and I loved them all so much. The interwoven story between this and Priory, while both can be read without the other is amazing. So much of what I love in fantasy stems from this series.
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scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What a ride. I think I loved this book more than the first.

I loved this one so much. I always love when multiple-POV books from characters across the world eventually come together and storylines converge, and the first one had this but this felt much better written, better paced, and better plotted out.

There's a great theme of motherhood throughout the book and despite a number of queer relationships in the book, they're not the solitary point of the story. Everyone's storyline was multifaceted even with common themes such as Fighting The Wyrms. It was a wonderful time reading this even if it took me two whole months because Real Life. I would love to read smaller novellas that would stem from this world, even some written in between the time periods.
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selimhannah's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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sshaw86's review against another edition

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  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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ladyylesbian's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book was much more enjoyable to read. I love chronological order so I would have read this book first before The Priory of the Orange Tree. I think it would also help with understanding and caring about the characters in the first book more by reading in chronological order. I only cared about 3 of the POVs until about half way through the book and then I was interested in all POVs and distraught by having to constantly switch which character I was reading. Similar to the first book, I felt the ending was rushed and too easy, but it at least it made more sense to be easy than in the first book. I was confused by some
deaths that turned out to not be deaths
. I love how much love and family and support this book was filled with no matter the POV being read
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shay_talksbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Read for Close Encounters book club (Sept-24 pick)

An absolute masterpiece in fantasy - a incredible story told wonderfully (I wouldn't expect anything less from Samantha Shannon!) As always, her utterly immersive and intricate world-building pulled me right in.

We follow the threads of four seemingly unconnected stories/narrators: North (Wulf), South (Tunuva), East (Dumai) and West (Glorian) as they follow their own paths and their stories begin to interwine. Each character and region felt well 'fleshed out,' with their own religions, customs and trials to face.

This is the prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, and each book moves further backwards in time (I'm hoping we get to meet Cleolind in future books). Although each book functions as a stand-alone there are links to TPOTOT and it's been really interesting to see things that we're told about in Priory as they happen (or how they actually happened).

The only slight negative I have is that some parts in the middle of this book became a little...repetitive? But Shannon's story-telling is wonderful and it didn't bother me much.

One of the things I loved about this book is the connections and relationships she built, and the 'normalcy' of LGBTQIA+ characters and relationships throughout, which doesn't always show up in historical fantasy settings.
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