Q&A: Samantha Shannon, Author of ‘Among the Burning Flowers’

We chat with author Samantha Shannon about Among the Burning Flowers, which leads readers through the gripping and tragic events that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.

Hi, Samantha! Welcome back! We spoke earlier this year for the release of The Dark Mirror. How has your 2025 been?

It’s been great so far. It was lovely to finally publish The Dark Mirror, as many Bone Season readers have been waiting for that book since 2021, and the response has been incredible. This is my first time publishing two books in a year, and I’m currently midway into my second big tour, so it has been quite a lot to manage on top of my deadlines – I usually release one book every two years – but  I like to keep busy, and I’m having a wonderful time.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I don’t recall a specific moment where the love of stories clicked into place – it feels like it’s always been there, at the core of me. My mum used to read to me when I was little, so that may have been where it all began. I was a voracious reader as a child and all the way through my teens, and when I realised you could write books for a living, that was all I wanted to do.  

Among the Burning Flowers is a new standalone prequel in The Roots of Chaos Cycle and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Heartbreaking, intense, sapphic, romantic and sinister. This is definitely one of my darker books. 

For those who haven’t picked up The Roots of Chaos Cycle yet, what can they expect?

It’s an epic fantasy set in a world where there are two kinds of magic – the earthly magic of fire (siden) and the celestial magic of starlight (sterren). There’s a delicate balance between the two, and any threat to this balance results in widespread destruction. Each book has a cast of main characters – the storytellers – who must navigate various challenges in their own lives while trying to survive the chaos of a magical imbalance. You can theoretically pick the books up in any order. 

And for those who have, what’s to come in Among the Burning Flowers?

Among the Burning Flowers is a shorter instalment of the Roots of Chaos cycle that focuses on a specific event mentioned in Priory, the Fall of Yscalin. At the beginning of Priory, we see that the Kingdom of Yscalin – formerly loyal to the Saint – has inexplicably turned to worshipping his ancient enemy, the Nameless One. It’s assumed that the Yscals did this as a means of surviving an occupation by a cunning and vengeful wyrm named Fýredel, but there was always more to the conversion, which I really wanted to shed light on. The protagonist is Marosa Vetalda, the heir to Yscalin, but you’ll also hear from two other characters who provide different perspectives on the incident. I consider it a tragedy. 

Did you always plan to write a prequel?

No, actually – The Priory of the Orange Tree was originally meant to be a standalone, but the more of the world I built, the more I realised it had more stories to tell. I consider Among the Burning Flowers more of a ‘prelude’ than a prequel; it’s a lead-in to Priory that gives some more context and nuance to an incident we only see from the outside in that book. I did end up writing a longer prequel to Priory, which is called A Day of Fallen Night and tackles a different period, the Grief of Ages.

What’s next for you?

My deadline for the sixth Bone Season book is in November. After that, I’ll be starting work on my standalone book about the Ancient Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.

Lastly, how’s your reading gone this year? You said you were looking forward to a number of books!

So far, I’ve read nineteen books, four of which I mentioned in our last interview: The Maiden and Her Monster, Fable for the End of the World, The Isle in the Silver Sea and Katabasis. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them and had the privilege of picking Rebecca Kuang’s brains about Katabasis during her London tour stop. The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri is the one I read most recently. It’s a sapphic romance about nation building and the power of stories, following a knight named Vina and a witch named Simran, who are doomed to a cycle of death and reincarnation and must keep acting out specific roles in order to keep their island alive. Can they break the cycle and survive to forge their own tale? You’ll have to read it and find out . . .

Will you be picking up Among the Burning Flowers? Tell us in the comments below!