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A review by literarypenguin
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Empress of Salt and Fortune proves that even the shortest of stories can still be well written and impactful!
We follow a cleric named Chih traveling the kingdom with their Hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant recording stories about the empress. They meet an older woman named Rabbit who recounts her adventures and travels with the empress and alongside the cleric we learn about the empress, her exile, and what she did after. I love stories where we learn alongside the characters what truly happened in the story and it was very exciting to read it this way!
Rabbit was a great character and just in her words, you could tell how much she valued her friendship with the empress and how much she truly meant to her. How she would have done anything for her and the empress in her own way would have done the same for her. Despite her strong friendship, she told the truth about the empress and people got to see her as a person instead of a historical figure.
This tells the story of a rebellion but doesn't show war or big battles, instead, it shows us what happens behind the scenes and the people that make a rebellion work. It shows people coming and going throughout the war and the impact they had no matter how short their time was. It was refreshing to see that side of a battle in a book.
This was such a good novella and I highly recommend reading this and can not wait to read the other two books in the series for myself!!
We follow a cleric named Chih traveling the kingdom with their Hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant recording stories about the empress. They meet an older woman named Rabbit who recounts her adventures and travels with the empress and alongside the cleric we learn about the empress, her exile, and what she did after. I love stories where we learn alongside the characters what truly happened in the story and it was very exciting to read it this way!
Rabbit was a great character and just in her words, you could tell how much she valued her friendship with the empress and how much she truly meant to her. How she would have done anything for her and the empress in her own way would have done the same for her. Despite her strong friendship, she told the truth about the empress and people got to see her as a person instead of a historical figure.
This tells the story of a rebellion but doesn't show war or big battles, instead, it shows us what happens behind the scenes and the people that make a rebellion work. It shows people coming and going throughout the war and the impact they had no matter how short their time was. It was refreshing to see that side of a battle in a book.
This was such a good novella and I highly recommend reading this and can not wait to read the other two books in the series for myself!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: War and Violence
Minor: Infertility