What to Read After Priory of the Orange Tree: 6 Epic Fantasy Books with Female Leads
What to read after Priory of the Orange Tree is a question worth taking seriously — Samantha Shannon wrote one of the most ambitious standalones in modern fantasy, and finding something that matches its scope is a real challenge. A world-spanning epic with multiple female leads, complex dragon lore, and geopolitical intrigue across three distinct civilisations, Priory rewards the reader who gives it time. These six books share that same ambition — female-led world-building, deep history, and enough political and mythological complexity to keep you reading long after you should have gone to sleep.
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A Memory Called Empire
by Arkady Martine
An ambassador from a small space station arrives in the capital of a vast empire carrying a dead man's memories and trying to prevent her home's annexation — Martine writes political complexity and world-building with the same ambition Shannon brings to Priory, and the intricate court culture of Teixcalaan rewards readers who loved the geopolitical texture of Inys, Seiiki, and the Nameless Ones. A Hugo Award winner with the same commitment to female-led, politically serious storytelling.
View on AmazonPolitical IntrigueWorld-BuildingFemale ProtagonistEmpire🌸 Heat: Sweet - 2
The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
A war orphan claws her way into the empire's elite military academy and discovers she can channel the power of a god — Kuang's scope and ambition match Shannon's, and the dark turn the trilogy takes mirrors Priory's willingness to follow its world into genuine horror. Kuang writes female characters who carry the weight of history with the same respect Shannon brings to Ead, Tané, and Sabran. Essential reading for anyone who wanted more moral complexity from their epic fantasy.
View on AmazonDark FantasyMagic AcademyWarFemale Protagonist🌸 Heat: Sweet - 3
Circe
by Madeline Miller
The long perspective of a goddess watching centuries pass while she builds her power slowly and alone — Miller's Circe has the same patience as Priory of the Orange Tree, the same willingness to let a story span generations and geographies without losing the thread of the individual woman at its centre. For readers who loved Ead's quiet determination and the way Shannon rendered power and vulnerability in the same character, Circe delivers those qualities in a Greek mythology setting.
View on AmazonGreek MythologyFemale ProtagonistLiterary FantasySlow Burn🔥 Heat: Warm - 4
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
Medieval Russia and the old magic of the forest — Arden writes world-building with the same depth as Shannon, rooted in specific folklore and the politics of a world where old magic is being displaced by new orthodoxy. Vasya is as fiercely independent as any of Priory's protagonists, and the Winternight trilogy's winter spirit Morozko satisfies the same desire for ancient, non-human power that Priory's dragon mythology delivers. A complete trilogy with growing scope.
View on AmazonHistorical FantasyMythologyFemale ProtagonistDragons / Spirits🌸 Heat: Sweet - 5
Daughter of the Moon Goddess
by Sue Lynn Tan
Chang'e's daughter, exiled from the moon, crosses the mortal realm to save her mother — Tan writes Chinese mythology with the same attentiveness to source material that Shannon brings to her invented world's deep history, and the epic scope of the quest across multiple kingdoms matches Priory's geographic ambition. For readers who wanted more diversity in their epic fantasy heroines and more mythology woven into the world-building at a structural level.
View on AmazonChinese FantasyEpic QuestMythologyFemale Protagonist🌸 Heat: Sweet - 6
She Who Became the Sun
by Shelley Parker-Chan
A peasant girl takes her dead brother's destiny and becomes the man who will found a dynasty — Parker-Chan writes historical China with the same density of political intrigue and moral complexity that Shannon brings to Priory's warring nations. The prose is precise, the stakes are immense, and the novel's willingness to look at gender, identity, and power through a character who chooses to be something the world says she cannot be matches Priory's feminist ambitions exactly.
View on AmazonHistorical FantasyPolitical IntrigueFemale ProtagonistIdentity🌸 Heat: Sweet