In 2019, Samantha Shannon more than blew readers away with The Priory of The Orange Tree, a fantasy novel that she described as a “feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon”. Set 500 years prior to this bestseller and written to be the first book of the Roots of Chaos series, A Day of Fallen Night sweeps readers back into the universe of the Priory and into the lives of three women whose interconnected but disparate journeys set the course of events that the universe follows for the next several generations.
In the South, Tunuva is a sister of the Priory. Although she has been trained to slay wyrms, none have ever appeared since the defeat of the Nameless One and others in the Priory are slowly doubting their purpose.
In the North, the Queendom of Inys was founded on the false belief that their first King slayed the Nameless and that it is the blood of his descendants that keeps the Nameless One locked away. Queen Sabran’s daughter, Glorian, remains in her mother’s shadow with the heavy burden of producing an heir resting on her shoulders.
In the East, the dragons have slept for centuries waiting for the right moment to return. Dumai, the illegitimate daughter of the Seiikinese King, has spent her life in a mountain temple, trying to wake the dragons from their long slumber. When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing forth terrible beasts, these women are inexplicably drawn into a quest to save humankind from a devastating threat.
A Day of Fallen Night is a fantasy told from four viewpoints across four parts of the world that are different in cultures and beliefs in every way possible. The intricate history and complex politics are brought out clearly through the main characters’ focused narratives, thus saving the book from being a complex jumble of timelines.
Although each chapter is narrated from literally a different cardinal direction, the story flows seamlessly across the different viewpoints. Amidst the twisting politics at court that’s made even messier by lost heirs and secrets from the past, Shannon deftly weaves an intricate tale of ambition, duty, and sacrifice through compelling characters you cannot help but root for. Through the deceit, the romance, the betrayals, and the revelations I found myself constantly trying to guess how the individual threads of the story made one whole. At over 800 pages, the book is epic in scope. Yet, as is the case with a well-written fantasy, the number of pages adds to the richness of the storytelling.
Landscape of devastation
Like Shannon’s prior works, A Day of Fallen Night has strong female characters who portray strength in a variety of ways — diplomacy, skill on the battlefield, and political wisdom.
The theme of motherhood is central to all the main characters. Dumai’s mother uproots her entire life and her life’s mission, to save her daughter from a dangerous life at court. Tunuva is a mother who lost her child to a mysterious attack decades ago but is now the mother to a child that she treats as her own. The pain of her loss reverberates throughout out her storyline and governs everything she does and sets out to do. Glorian is coerced into motherhood by the beliefs of her people and so bears a child out of duty to her realm.
Shannon beautifully brings out the complexities of Glorian’s relationship with her own mother where she longs for loving attention but is often met with cold calculation.
Samantha depicts these delicate connections and earnest moments against a blazing landscape of devastation and warfare. Unlike its sequel, this book delivers a character-driven, emotionally complex adventure that sets the perfect stage for the next book.
Tunuva, Glorian, and Dumai are the heart and soul of the book. Each of them has a captivating story and a different driving force behind their personality. They all play a unique role in the interconnected fabric of Shannon’s complex universe.
The way in which their stories converge (although the characters never meet) was the best part of the book for me. Shannon has managed to write three independent stories that still make sense as one epic novel.
The ways in which each character arch intersects and references the other were absolutely thrilling.
A Day of Fallen Night is spectacular in a way that is fierce yet intimate, ruthless yet tender. Samantha Shannon has truly outdone herself with this prequel in the Roots of Chaos series. The power she has bestowed upon her female protagonists is invigorating.
They are mothers, daughters, sisters, rulers, warriors, and leaders. Each of them certainly has their own struggles, but that only serves to make the fantasy seem even more real. All I can say is that the book is a sweeping magnum opus that will not disappoint.