Orange Tree Theatre Puns

Happy Easter! I took the family for a private viewing of bodyguard for the wife’s bday. Not only was it awesome to have the whole theatre for just the 5 of us, it was my sons first time at a theatre and AMC went above and beyond to take proper covid measures. Can’t wait to go again with the family and watch mortal kombat, back to the future, and tmnt. I recommend everyone do this. This is the way!

I read "The Priory of the Orange Tree" with fairly high expectations, given the amount of praise it received in most reviews. Personally I found it... okay? Not terrible, but far from a masterpiece or even a memorable novel. I appreciate the way it plays around with classic tropes and the fact it has queer characters without it being a big deal (i.e. it's not a book about queerness, it's a classic high fantasy where queer people exist because they do), but other than that it didn't left me with much.

Now of course personal enjoyment is highly subjective, but I'd like to mention some glaring issues that I think aren't strictly a matter of taste (SPOILERS AHEAD, READ ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL).

- First of all - the book has a lot of great *ideas*, but it fails to breath much life into them.

For instance, I liked the concepts involved in the worldbuilding: cultures divided by deep religious differences, myths that are subjected to questionable interpretations, conflicts between the "good" (or not-so-bad) guys while the one true evil looms at the horizon. The execution however comes across as cold and abstract; the philosophical differences are mostly explained in a didascalic fashion (even though some character makes an effort to sound outraged), and most importantly we see very little of these great different cultures. We get to know the court and the dragonriders, but what is outside of these secluded worlds? How is life in these nations different for ordinary people? The East is an especially offending case since it ends up being a generic orientalist vagueness, but it's not like the West is much more fleshed out. The Queen's court is the one place that feels somehow real, with its cloying formalism; that part had its charm, but the world outside could as well be a map with some overly long notes sketched on.

Charactes seem to suffer from a similar problem: they are all valid *concepts*, with good relationship *maps*, but you never feel like you know them much, and the way they feel towards each other is told or implied rather than shown. The best example is the romance between Ead and the Queen: we know they've spent a lot of time together, we can guess their feelings had all the time to develop and bloom - but when you read it, it could as well be an insta-love for the way it is portrayed. They have been juxtaposed for long, and now they love each other madly.

- Seemingly major obstacles are introduced just to be quickly resolved and with little

Alright, I finished this book about two hours ago, and I was blown away. This was easily my best read of the year so far, and is instantly a favorite of mine.

[Spoiler-FREE thoughts]

This book feels like all of the best parts of an epic fantasy series, except a standalone. It’s huge, just over 800 pages, but it doesn’t feel bloated. Every scene was engaging to me, and even though it’s somewhat slowly paced, it never dragged on like many other large fantasy books do at some points (looking at you, Rhythm of War).

The characters are brilliant. Ead is a wonderful ‘main-ish’ protagonist and one of my new favorites, and the the supporting characters are all amazing in their own rights as well. The friendships are heartwarming, the romance is both compelling and adorable, and every character/relationship gets their time in the spotlight.

I’ve heard people say that this book is boring, and I can sort of see why, but I vehemently disagree. It’s definitely not action packed, but the politics, intrigue, and character moments were more than enough to drive the story for me. The action that was there was great, and there are some incredibly badass moments throughout the story.

This book doesn’t really feel like modern fantasy - it feels like a very refined take on classic fantasy that incorporates some great elements of modern fantasy. The end product is delightful, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

If you really like a great, fleshed-out villain, you’ll probably be disappointed. This book is mostly focused on the protagonists and their stories.

However, if that’s not a problem for you, I can’t recommend this book highly enough :)

is "the priory of the orange tree" worth reading. its a pretty big book and i will have to be really interested to read the whole book.

also is "her royal highness" worth it . if its not please recommend me some lesbian books with diversity.

so should i read them ???

I've been avidly following uncle Ben for about 2 months now. But I don't watch TokTik, and I'm wondering what the context of the potted clementine tree is?