I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Roots of Chaos by Samantha Shannon Series: Roots of Chaos 0.5
Published by Bloomsbury UK on 2025 September 16
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 288
Format: E-Arc
Source: Netgalley
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With the awakening of fire-breathing dragons, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Take your first steps into the epic.
Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.
Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.
A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.
And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .
A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic circumstances that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.
Richly illustrated with magical artwork by Rovina Cai (@rovinacai).
Through the years, I’ve always been planning to pick up Samantha Shannon’s The Bone season series due to a lot of raving reviews from my fellow book bloggers. But such plan was forgotten after life got in the way and my other hobbies took over. Fortunately, in this year of 2025, fate has other plans for me, and I came across this ARC while I was browsing the Netgalley titles. It was not the author’s name that caught my attention at first but that lovely cover had me giddy and so when I checked it out, the giddiness became an excitement because the author’s name was familiar. I was like, holy shit, this is a sign from the book gods. And so, there I was immediately putting in a request for Among The Burning Flowers. It did not matter that it’s a prequel for her ongoing The Roots of Chaos series.
I’m glad that as my first Samantha Shannon series, Among The Burning Flowers did not disappoint. It’s a novella but I enjoyed it nonetheless even though the first few pages were difficult to get into. I understand that if I have just read the The Priory of the Orange Tree, I wouldn’t have encountered such difficulty. Anyway, once you get the hang of Shannon’s manner of writing and you already get the hang of the important characters, the story becomes more and more thrilling as it progresses. In Among The Burning Flowers, there were three main POVs: Marosa’s, Melaugo’s, and Aubrecht’s. All have wonderful narratives although Melaugo’s kind of weird because her POV does not add anything of value to the story’s plot. Yes, her perspective and her journey as an orphan-pickpoket-smith apprentice-culler-etc was interesting to follow, I just find it weird because her story seems out of place and anti-climatic even. I don’t know if her story would somehow be relevant to the main novel of the series but if we are talking about this novella only, I was left hanging with Melaugo’s story. Anyhow, this small issue will surely be answered once I read Book 1 of the series since I’ve read some of the reviews that in order to fully understand this book, one must read The Priory of the Orange Tree first.
Melaugo’s confusing POV aside, I really enjoyed Marosa’s and Aubrecht’s perspective. Marosa, a princess and the heir of the Yscalin Kingdom is a prisoner of her own father. Though she may appear meek and obedient, she’s actually hiding a silent cunning to free herself from her father’s cold manipulation of her life. And Aubrecht, the unfortunate heir to the Mentendon Kingdom, is Marosa’s fiancé whose only dream was to protect his loved ones and get to know Marosa well. Such interesting characters. Shannon has done well by getting away from making stereotypical bratinella princesses and arrogant princes. But the best thing about Among The Burning Flowers is its plot wherein the world is being beseeched by the Draconic Army, composed of dragons, wyverns and their monstrous underlings, to wreak havoc onto the world. What’s more bewitching is that the series’ plot centrally revolves about the battle of religions and yet, this did not feel sanctimonious and preachy. It was rather dark, bleak, and hopeless, a tone that I like in a fantasy story. I just wish that the author added more bloody scenes in the book to make it more palatable. Heh.
Summing this up, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night. I sincerely hope that I would enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this book with its interesting cast of characters, endearing dark fantasy story, and vicious dragons.