5 Books Like The Priory of the Orange Tree to Read Next
Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Treeis a rare beast: a doorstopper standalone with warring dragon mythologies, queer romance, and a cast of women shouldering the fate of the world. Part of its magic is the breadth — it weaves together queens and priestesses and dragonriders across a whole world without losing the human stakes. If you miss that scope and those fierce, capable heroines, here are five epic and feminist fantasies to lose yourself in next, ranging from sprawling series to standalones you can finish in a long weekend.
1. The Fifth Season — N. K. Jemisin
A planet wracked by apocalyptic upheavals and the persecuted women who can command the earth itself. Jemisin’s structure is dazzling and her anger is righteous — the most acclaimed epic fantasy of the last decade, and a worthy next mountain to climb. It opens a trilogy, so there is plenty of world to live in once it hooks you.
2. A Memory Called Empire — Arkady Martine
An ambassador navigating the seductive, deadly heart of an empire that wants to swallow her culture whole. Gorgeous political intrigue and a slow-building romance — ideal if the courtly maneuvering of Priory was your favorite thread.
3. The Jasmine Throne — Tasha Suri
An exiled princess and a rebel maidservant ignite a revolution against a cruel empire in this lush, Indian-inspired epic. The sapphic slow-burn and toppling-the-patriarchy stakes echo Priory beautifully, and Suri’s prose is every bit as lush and immersive. It kicks off a trilogy, so the payoff keeps building well past the last page.
4. She Who Became the Sun — Shelley Parker-Chan
A peasant girl seizes her dead brother’s fate and claws toward an empire’s throne in a reimagined fourteenth-century China. Ambition, war, and a fierce interrogation of gender and destiny — epic in every sense, with a morally complicated heroine who is as ruthless as she is sympathetic. Ideal if you wanted Priory with an even sharper edge.
5. Circe — Madeline Miller
For a quieter but no less powerful pivot: a banished goddess discovers her own strength across centuries of myth. The feminist heart and luminous prose make it a perfect palate cleanser between giant epics.
Find your next epic
Big fantasy is one of our most-loved sections, and the good ones move fast — come browse in person or shop online, and trade finished tomes back for credit toward the next. Want a hand deciding? Our AI Matchmaker can point the way. New to the genre? Start with fantasy books for beginners, or, since one of these picks is a myth retelling, see books like Circe.