Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon

Bookshop.org | TG Jones | Waterstones

Blurb

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 . . .

Review

I had this book preordered for ages as I absolutely love The Roots of Chaos series. When the book arrived I was very shocked how short the book was. After reading the two bricks A Day of Fallen Night and The Priory of the Orange Tree I was a little disappointed at how short Among the Burning Flowers is. 

Among the Burning Flowers tells the story of the fall of Yscalin and how the once faithful kingdom came under draconic rule. The story is told from multiple points of view and I thought those voices were very well chosen. Melaugo is an outlaw and dragon hunter and a character who reappears in Priory of the Orange Tree. Sadly Melaugo’s point of view was dropped around half way through the book, which I really missed. 

The bulk of the book is told from the point of view of Marosa who is the Donmata of Yscalin. Due to the bulk of the story being told from Marisa’s point of view her character had a lot more depth and back story that I really enjoyed. I also really enjoyed seeing just how much pressure she was under and just how difficult her life becomes. She is constantly on a knife edge. 

I found it a shame that we didn’t get more from Melaugo but I thought it was clever that we got two points of view who were worlds apart. Marosa is royalty and lives a privileged life, Melaugo’s life is far from privileged and heavily influenced by the decisions made by royalty and the land’s rulers. 

This book immediately hooked me in and I loved the descriptions of Marisa’s home, the idea of a land of flowers with a river of a lava through was fantastic. This book is beautifully written and my only complaint is that it was too short! I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons. 

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About the author

Samantha Shannon is the New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Bone Season series. From 2010 to 2013 she studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Her fourth novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019), was her first outside of the series. It has sold over a million copies in English alone, and was a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards 2020. Its standalone prequel, A Day of Fallen Night (2023), won the gold medal in the Fantasy category at the Ippy Awards 2024. 

Samantha’s work has been translated into twenty-seven languages. Her most recent book is The Dark Mirror (2025), the fifth instalment in the Bone Season series.

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