#62-63: Nghi Vo, The Empress of Salt and Fortune & When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain

[kareila]

First two books in the Singing Hills Cycle, an interesting series set in a pseudo-Asian fantasy world. The protagonist is a meek cleric who travels far and wide to observe events and gather stories. In the first volume they meet an old woman named Rabbit, a devoted servant of the late Empress, and learn her secrets. In the second installment, they are set upon in the mountains by three tigers who can speak and take human form. Like Scheherazade, the cleric buys time by telling the story of a tiger who loved a human, only to be scolded by the tigers when the humans' version differs from the one they know. Both tales are bloody, compelling, and refreshingly feminist.