“The Empress of Salt and Fortune” is a novella that focuses on a team collecting information about the former empress who is now deceased. Through a collection of artifacts, the subtle plotting of the northern princess is revealed as to how she was able to send communications, raise an army, establish an heir and take over the kingdom. What I liked about this story was how cleverly the characters were portrayed and how subtle the evidence was of what the princess was doing. Side characters, small details, and the artifact lists are really important in this when usually you expect them to be such throwaway accents; here it is central to the plot.
Three words that describe this book: Short, clever, sneaky
You might want to pick this book up if: If you like fantasy books, you’d enjoy this plotting to take over a kingdom; if you enjoy shorter books, this doesn’t take long to read but still has many rich details and a full story inside; if you like figuring out puzzles and noticing small details and not having everything spelled out for you, you’d like this novella.
-Melissa
