The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, 119 pgs.
Chih is a cleric from Singing Hills, which seems to be a monastery dedicated to preserving all knowledge. When a number of sites significant to the former empress (the titular Empress of Salt and Fortune) are magically unsealed they decide to make their way to Scarlet Lake, the home where the empress lived in exile for six years before taking the throne. When she arrives she finds that a very old woman is already there, a woman named Rabbit who was the empress' most trusted servant. While Chih catalogs the contents of the house Rabbit tells them stories of the empress while they lived there. Slowly a picture begins to form of the wronged foreign wife who managed to shake the foundations of the nation.
I quite liked this book, and think that people who enjoyed A Psalm for the Wild-Built should definitely give this one a try as well. However, I will say I think that this book would benefit from slightly more pages, as some parts of the story felt more like outlines and hints than a fully satisfying story in it's own right. But, I found the characters intriguing and the story interesting enough that I finished this novella very quickly.
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