I was very surprised by how much I liked this novella, because I had a challenging time and didn’t understand it. This is a layered tale of a royal consort (named In-Yo) exiled from the imperial court. The story is being told by an old, former servant, named Rabbit, to a wandering cleric, named Chih, when they stumble upon an abandoned residence where In-Yo had lived. The prose is beautiful and vivid, full of description and fantasy, but it is also a bit oblique and difficult to follow. Rabbit’s vignettes don’t always fill in the details that we need (leaving out specifics that the characters, but not the readers, would already know). It’s also confusing how some common terms (such as “Rabbit,” “Almost Brilliant”, “Singing Hills”, or “Thriving Fortune”) are used as names, making the text challenging to parse (especially on audio). The story is also full of intrigue, and events are described by Rabbit to Chih in a way that seems plain on the surface, but full of double-meaning. She even asks Chih repeatedly if they understand what her story means — and like the reader, Chih sometimes doesn’t. Subtly and slowly, a plot is revealed of how In-Yo used various individuals in her sphere to secretly usurp the throne. We learn early on that she eventually becomes the titular empress, and the novella recounts indirectly how that unfolds.

Even though I got through this story once, it was without really understanding specifically what happened and only latching on to smatterings of comprehension. In fact, I admittedly missed some huge things, including the ending. Undaunted (since it was such a short novella — only 2 hours on audio), I listened to it again, and that made things so much clearer. Now that I was able to follow a lot more of the story, its plot, meaning and narrative were much more enjoyable. I found myself really engaging with the characters and the story’s many layers of innuendo and hints. After the second read, my appreciation kept increasing the more I thought about the story and discussed it with others. I would urge anyone who has difficulty with it the first time to give it a second chance.

A particularly wonderful detail is how each chapter of the story starts with a description of an item that the empress In-Yo once owned. Each artifact paints a lovely picture and creates a kind of museum exhibition in the reader’s mind. That object is what prompts Rabbit’s next story, so the reader is given a cue to watch for it when it shows up — and to pay extra attention to its implications in the narrative. As the various chapters progress, more and more of the bigger picture comes into focus, full of surprising events. I don’t want to demystify Vo’s careful writing, so I won’t “spoil the punchline” any further. However, I do want to add one more compliment to Vo for her world-building (the quality that I most look forward to in a fantasy story) even though it’s very minimal in this novella. She drops passing references to wizards who can manipulate the weather, seers, court astrologers and fortune-tellers, and ghosts that appear in secret places. She describes an imperial court full of scheming, hierarchy, ritual, ceremony, tradition, along with an inter-nation conflict, all mostly off-camera. With only light detail, she creates a fascinating world out of clues and hints for the reader to discover. I’m glad I gave this story a double-chance, and since Vo has written a series of novellas as part of this cycle, I look forward to exploring her world beyond In-Yo’s own story.

4 stars

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