I wrote my bachelor’s thesis about The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon in 2020, so it’s obvious that I had to read its prequel now too!

It’s been 4-5 years since I read The Priory of the Orange Tree, so I realized I didn’t remember some things about this universe now… That’s why I recommend to read The Priory of the Orange Tree at first for the first time or again before you begin your adventure with A Day of Fallen Night.

Alright, but what is it about then? It’s about queens who have to rule on their islands and give birth to next queens no matter what, it’s about the convent that has powers thanks to orange fruit and their destiny is to protect South (later also the rest of the world) from monsters and dragons that were born in the Earth’s core, and about good dragons that are water gods on East. In The Priory of the Orange Tree we also have the dragon riders.

The reason why I wrote about it my bachelor’s thesis is the fact that I love fantasy, dragons and this would is based on Middle Ages, and it happens in many books like in the Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski, for example. I found out from my promoter that it’s actually a romantic version of Middle Ages, and it’s worth a research, and that’s why my thesis turned out like that. It’s just 20 pages, but I think I may publish my thesis one day… But my master’s thesis too! And maybe few other articles too…

Oh, and also… My novel Unknown Future – Your Destiny was just made of 6 chapters, and I just started changing them in 2019. So, yeah… I started the work on my thesis just few months after that!

Now few words about A Day of Fallen Night again… I think that there were more LGBT elements than in the The Priory of the Orange Tree. It’s the prequel, so it’s all happening many years before the previous book, but it’s actually showing where some of later things come from, what’s the origin. So, it’s a very interesting book, but I also feel like the prequel is simply richer. We got all places of that world here, not just West and East. It’s based on various legends of the world. And it’s simply fascinating! It’s not too violent and stuff, and that’s why I honestly love it!

I feel like there are still some things unknown, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be a prequel’s prequel one day! It would be more about the St. George’s legendary fight with the dragon, and it would be fascinating to see it because you can find the same inspiration in my upcoming book, you know…

I think that’s all today. The next post is coming on Wednesday, and it will be about my podcast!

Love, A.A.