Title: |
A Day of Fallen Night |
 |
Author: |
Samantha Shannon |
|
Category: |
Science Fiction / Fantasy |
|
Rating: |
||
Date Reviewed: |
December 7, 2023 |
A Day of Fallen Night tells the stories of three women living in three different parts of the world. Glorian is a teenager in the Western island nation of Inys. Glorian is a princess, the heir to the throne. She will be responsible for ruling the Queendom of Inys when her beloved parents die - but fortunately they are both hale and hearty. Inys is just one of the kingdoms that has bonded together to form the Virtudom, an alliance of kingdoms which worships the Saint. Glorian may have to marry soon to keep the alliance of Virtudom strong, but she yearns for a different destiny. Tunava is an Initiate at the secretive Priory of the Orange Tree. She is a veteran soldier, capable of great feats of war. Also, since Tunava has eaten fruit from the orange tree, she possesses siden - magic power that allows her to create fire with fingers, and makes her immune to the effects of cold. The priestesses of the Orange Tree train constantly in tactics and fighting, even though the fire-spouting wyrms have not threatened humanity in hundreds of years. The Kingdoms of Virtudom consider the priestesses heathens since they do not worship the Saint. At the Priory, the men do all the domestic chores while the women are the warriors and leaders. In the east, on the island kingdom of Seiiki, Dumai has been raised as a god-singer in a mountain sanctuary. The gods are huge dragons that sleep at the bottom of lakes. When the gods fly, they can bring rains to the farmers fields. But the gods have slumbered for years, untroubled by the affairs of mankind. Dumai does not know that she is actually the daughter of Emperor Jorodu, but of course that secret doesn't last when the mountain temple is visited by two mysterious people from the lowlands. The status quo in all of these kingdoms is disrupted by a gigantic volcanic eruption on Dreadmount - this cataclysmic event releases hundreds of fire breathing wyrms into the world. These evil creatures are bent upon destruction, soon they are burning cities and destroying crop lands. Humans struggle to battle these flying menaces. The Priory of the Orange Tree was founded precisely to keep fighters ready, but the numbers of the attacking wyrms are overwhelming. Trying to summarize the plot of this book would take many more paragraphs than I will write here. I will tell you that I did find the story to be well written, with exciting action sequences, a bit of magic, some mysteries that eventually get explained. A Day of Fallen Night is the prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, which I have not yet read, though from all of the acclaim it has received, and based upon the quality of this book, I definitely should put that book on my list. I admit to sometimes getting confused following the three independent story threads of these women. Although each chapter is titled either "West" (Glorian's story), "East" (Dumai's story) or "South" (Tunuva's story), I still got tripped up as the chapters jumped between the threads. It didn't help that the "West" thread was split between chapters of Wulf (a swordsman who was mysteriously found as an orphan child outside of a haunted woods) and Princess Glorian, so there are actually four different storylines. Nor do these threads weave together until the last quarter of the book. There are a lot of characters to remember. Don't be put off by the size of this novel, it is interesting enough that once you begin reading, you will continue reading. |
