The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Nghi Vo
Sneaky women FTW
This is a short novella -- took me an hour and a half to read it -- and I'm going to try to match it with a short review. In fact, I almost have to, if I'm not going to spoil it.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a framework story. It begins when cleric Chih, traveling with their eidetic talking hoopoe Almost Brilliant, comes upon the old home in exile of the empress. They enter and find there an old woman who calls herself Rabbit. They stay for a while to catalog the objects in the old place, as clerics do. As they go through the objects, Rabbit tells them stories about the objects.
This, as as the publisher's blurb tells us, is the story Rabbit tells Chih: "A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage. Alone and sometimes reviled, she has only her servants on her side. This evocative debut chronicles her rise to power through the eyes of her handmaiden," Rabbit being said handmaiden.
Despite its brevity, it is not an easy read. Indeed, the brevity is part of the problem. It took me a few chapters to understand what was going on. And you cannot afford to get lost for a few chapters. So pay attention!
I am certainly invested. I want to know what happens to the Empress, the Daughter Empress, and Chih and Rabbit. Indeed, I am worried for Chih. Ecclesiastes says that the clay pot should stay away from the iron kettle. Rabbit is unquestionably iron. What Chih is made of we have yet to learn.