The Empress of Salt and Fortune

by Nghi Vo

Paperback, 121 pages

English language

Published Aug. 6, 2020 by Tor.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-75030-3

(11 reviews)

With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully.

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in …

Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.

2 editions

Flauschbuch reviewed The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Intriguing, a little short

4 stars

I had been wondering about this series for a while - how is it possible to read the books in any order? I believe I understand that better now. I this one, a lot of the world is laid out sort of in the background with the help of the framing story and the story told by Rabbit. A lot is left unsaid but still adds layers to the world and the narrative. I especially liked how each chapter began with objects that were then given meaning and context. While I felt that this story was perhaps a bit too short to really get to know the characters I'm interested in reading the other books in the series.

enne📚 reviewed The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

The Empress of Salt and Fortune

4 stars

I gave this a reread before reading the other two books in this series. (In retrospect, I think these books truly are a "could read in any order" series and so this was unnecessary.) I enjoyed this a lot even on the second read. I am a sucker for anything with a frame story as well as stories about telling stories. The narration being little vignettes based on objects found around the house really worked for me.

It was fun to have reread this so close to Neon Yang's Tensorate series, and especially The Ascent to Godhood. There's a lot of parallel vibes between the two in their story framing, the rough plot arc of an overthrown ruler, but especially the way the emotional and personal is foregrounded while so much action happens off page. What I think works especially well in this book is how all of these details play into the fact Chih is an archivist and is as deeply interested in both personal stories and histories. It makes this personal focus make sense narratively and, even if as a reader I wish some of the details of the world were a bit less fuzzy, I understand what kind of tale is being told here.

moving to outside.ofa.dog reviewed The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Engaging idea that didn't quite work for me

3 stars

I love the basic premise of this book: telling a story about a tough, resourceful woman through the framing of an archivist going through objects in her house and getting context for them as flashbacks. It's beautifully written, and the Empress is a compelling character. But somehow the world didn't manage to draw me in. I'm honestly not sure if that's any fault of the book, or just that I'm a bit saturated with new fictional worlds having read a lot of fantasy this year.

Martin Kopischke reviewed The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (The Singing Hills Cycle, #1)

Slow reading with a capital “S”

3 stars

– which, in case you were unsure, is a good thing, because you can enjoy peeling away fine layer after fine layer from the story Nghi Vo so intricately wrapped for you. The experience is, there is no other word for it, exquisite.