a day of fallen night by samantha shannon

At the beginning of my career, between around 20, there was a fixation on this phrase that I found discomforting. To me, the term ‘strong female character’ is a loaded and interesting one. The characters Dumai, Glorian and Tunuva, are they critiquing the 'strong woman' stereotype so often seen in fantasy movies and literature? Talk a little about creating these characters and the various challenges you placed before them? I think catastrophe brings out both the best and the worst in us, and I played on both sides in A Day of Fallen Night, with some characters taking advantage of the chaos for personal gain, while others extend compassion and mercy. But there were opportunities to show that humankind can pull together in times of crisis, even across fault lines of religion and opposing beliefs. This means some regions of the world know almost nothing concrete about each other at this point in history. Shipbuilding is less advanced during this century of the Roots of Chaos timeline, with the deep Abyss being virtually uncrossable, so the characters are often divided by great distances, with travel and communication posing more significant challenges than they did in The Priory of the Orange Tree. Is it fair to say that in this world, apocalypse (or the prospect of it) ends up bridging certain gaps in knowledge and empathy? Through the course of the novel we see characters overcoming differences like these.

In the world of A Day of Fallen Night, dragons are revered by certain kingdoms and feared by others.

She spoke about the making of the novel in an email interview. A Day of Fallen Night is marked by Shannon’s signature depth of characterisation, deft symbolism and expansive universe-building. And at the heart of the story lie ‘wyrms’, fire-breathing dragons that are worshipped by some cultures and feared/reviled by others. Glorian, the heir to the throne of Inys Dumai the ‘godsinger’ Tunuva a warrior of ‘the Priory’. The narrative follows women on opposite ends of the world, each struggling to find and fulfil their purpose in life. And now she’s back with a prequel to that book, A Day of Fallen Night (Bloomsbury India, Rs 899), an 800-page whopper that expands the universe of The Priory of the Orange Tree (this series will now be called Roots of Chaos, Shannon has announced).

In 2019, Shannon released The Priory of the Orange Tree, a standalone feminist retelling of the fable of Saint George and the Dragon. Her debut novel, The Bone Season (2013), began the eponymous seven-novel series, of which the fourth and latest book, The Mask Falling, was released in 2021. The 32-year-old British novelist Samantha Shannon is one of the world’s bestselling fantasy writers.

A day of fallen night by samantha shannon