The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Singing Hills Cycle 1)

With the heart of an Atwood tale & the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt & Fortune is a tightly & lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, & 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 & their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone & 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 & gets more than she bargained for.

At once feminist high fantasy & an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources & 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.

Nghi Vo is the Hugo Award–winning author of the Singing Hills Cycle (The Empress of Salt & Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, & Into the Riverlands), as well as the acclaimed novels The Chosen & the Beautiful & Siren Queen.