Book Review of The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

The Empress of Salt and Fortune is the first book in the series The Singing Hills Cycle.

Honestly, I don't really know what to say about this book. It's supposed to be a feminist fantasy that apparently won a bunch of awards, but despite the audiobook being less than two-and-a-half hours, I couldn't finish it.

Though I was 45% of the way through the novella, it felt like the plot was going nowhere, and the older woman telling a young person the story of Empress In-yo seemed completely unnecessary, especially because each time she told a piece of the story, it seemed like the young person's only role was to answer whether they understood and then go to sleep for the night.

From the blurb, this book seemed like it would be an action-packed, feminist story of an oppressed Empress rising up to decimate her enemies in a fantasy world reminiscent of imperial China.

Photo by World Wildlife

That was not what I read, at least not for the first 45%. Most of the action seemed pointless, though it was likely the setup for later events. 

The real frustration for me was that the prose dragged like cold molasses despite needing to hold an entire story in a short format. I have ADHD, and my attention span is the size of a peanut. Slow-paced stories can be quite gripping, and I have read many that held me tight, mostly classic novels. To be gripping in that way, the characters must reel me in with a death grip to hold my attention. This was not the case. As I listened to this audiobook, I could barely stay awake—even with a crochet project in my hands.

As I checked this book out of my library, I was thrilled about the five-book series because feminist fantasy listed under the LGBTQ+ tag sounded amazing. I have not been this disappointed by a book in a long time.

Perhaps I read this book at a bad time. Perhaps this author is just not for me. However, it did win a lot of awards, so many people likely thought it was wonderful. To put this in better context, the last book I DNFed was Game of Thrones by J.R.R. Martin, after two attempts to read it. Couldn't get past the first hundred pages.

I never thought I would DNF (did not finish) a novella. But that's what this is. A big ol'...

DNF