Among the Burning Flowers

by Samantha Shannon

🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣

5/5 ducklings

tl;dr those side characters from the main story you had questions about? Yeah, this is about them. Pirates and tyrants and wryms, oh my!

Among the Burning Flowers

First things first, Samantha Shannon is my favorite author right now. Ask literally any of my friends and they will tell you all I ever talk about is The Bone Season. I’m traveling in November and planning my flights so I can take a detour to Oxford (iykyk).

The second thing is a confession: I’ve struggled with the Roots of Chaos series. I had to try Priory of the Orange Tree twice before I made a dent in it, and even then I slogged through the last hundred pages. I haven’t read A Day of Fallen Night and I had no intention to. I didn’t want to commit to another 800 page brick.

Among the Burning Flowers upended the playing field. At a positively bite-sized 288 pages, it’s faster paced, compact story that centers on characters I wanted more of in the main story.

In Priory, Marosa is just the princes of the kingdom that betrayed its allies and thumbed its nose at god. In ATBF, she is the rebellious daughter of a mad king, balancing dissent with the safety of her people. Estina was an interesting, if incidental, pirate, here, she’s an acerbic, intractable hopeless romantic who is far more confident in her ability to live in the woods than she should be. Aubrecht is still a delightful golden retriever.

Marosa has been trapped in Cárscaro since her mother died. Her father has kept her sequestered in the obsidian castle for years, despite her betrothal to Prince Aubrecht. When her father, King Sigoso of Yscalin, renounces the Saint and pledges fealty to the Nameless One, her world shrinks further. King Sigoso is no longer himself, he’s changed, eyes gone gray, glowing like embers, remembering things he’s never seen.

Marosa, still faithful to the Saint, tries to rebel, only to learn that she will never face the consequences of her actions, but her closest friends and her people will.

Aubrecht is has only met Marosa once, after their betrothal was announced, it wasn’t enough to fall in love, but it was enough to build a strong friendship. So, when news of Ysaclin’s betrayal reaches him, he can’t bring himself to believe it. The proof is irrefutable, though Marosa’s involvement is not. Aubrecht wants to go to her himself, but his family reminds him that he will be king one day and cannot put himself at risk by running headlong into a draconic kingdom whose capital city is impenetrable. So he sends a series of mercenary teams, only one of which returns. It is then that he is forced to accept his failure and renounce his engagement.

Estina is starving to death in the woods when she is contracted to kill a sleeping wyrm in exchange for food and a sheep named Lord Gastaldo (this is literally my favorite fact in this book). Her past catches up with her, in the form of Captain Gian Harlowe, who offers her a place on his ship the Rose Eternal. She refuses and he leaves, but her past isn’t done with her, yet. Her ex-lover arrives next; Liyat has come to convince her to leave Yscalin, which Estina also refuses. Yscalin is her home. Then the dragons attack, forcing both of them to flee Ysacalin and board the Rose Eternal.

What I loved about this book is the way all of the stories wove together so organically. I’ve said before that many novels with multiple points of view can feel a little convenient, the circumstances under which the characters intersect feel contrived. But, Among the Burning Flowers just lets its characters exist and their stories intersect naturally. Estina and Marosa never meet, but their chapters reflect different experiences in the world; their stories don’t even really impact each other on a personal level, but they are both directly impacted by King Sigoso’s choice to bend the knee to the Nameless One. Even Aubrecht’s story is wildly derailed by that choice. All of them make choices that play into the main events of Priory, making them pivotal players, even from the background.

ATBF is a prequel that does what a prequel is supposed to do, it tells a self-contained story that is complete and stands on its own and still tees up the main story without really impacting what we already know. It runs right up to the start of Priory, leaving only a matter of weeks or months before the start of the main story. It gives more context and color to the events of Priory, giving them a more human toll.

It does for Priory what Rogue One did for Star Wars and what Andor did for Rogue One (I don’t care if that’s an unpopular opinion, you can take your wrong opinion and leave). It gives a groundedness and humanity to an epic story that can be difficult to get your arms around, all while spinning a Shakespearean tragedy that is human in and of itself. And if you learn nothing else about me, know that I love a tragic side character, and Marosa and Estina are exactly that.

Among the Burning Flowers made me like Priory of the Orange Tree more, it’s made me want to reread it, with a deeper understanding of the human impact of Sabran's decisions. I'm going to read A Day of Fallen Night now that I know what it's like to inhabit this world.

If the intimidating size of Priory has kept you from reading it, start here. Among the Burning Flowers is an accessible entry point into this very intricate, sprawling world, it’s short, it’s much faster paced, and it tells a compelling story on its own that only becomes more so in light of the events of the main story.

Page count: 288

Published September 16, 2025 (USA), September 11, 2025 (UK)

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