The Empress of Salt and Fortune
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 a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.
Where The Empress of Salt and Fortune keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
What you might want to know about The Empress of Salt and Fortune
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
First in the Singing Hills Cycle. The wandering cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion arrive at a recently opened lake estate. There they meet old Rabbit, who served the late empress In-Yo, and listen to her recall the empress's life.
Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle has multiple novellas including The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Into the Riverlands, Mammoths at the Gates, and The Brides of High Hill. Each novella stands alone.
Yes. The Empress of Salt and Fortune won the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella. The Singing Hills Cycle has continued to collect nominations and awards.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune was written by Nghi Vo, published in 2020 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune is 112 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Empress of Salt and Fortune takes most readers about 2 hours to finish.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a standalone novel by Nghi Vo, not part of a series.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
