This was a wonderful little tale. The scope really felt bigger than 100 pages. You have a cleric and their hoopoe listening to the story of the Empress told by the Empress's handmaiden Rabbit. But underneath there's this larger fantasy world. There's some twists and politics and rebellions and queer relationships, but all told through this viewpoint decades after it happened. And even though it's short, the book does not spell everything out for you. Something about the language was a little disjoined and tricky for me to jump into - I had to read the first page a couple of times. But once I adapted to the style it was great.

This was a wonderful little tale. The scope really felt bigger than 100 pages. You have a cleric and their hoopoe listening to the story of the Empress told by the Empress's handmaiden Rabbit. But underneath there's this larger fantasy world. There's some twists and politics and rebellions and queer relationships, but all told through this viewpoint decades after it happened. And even though it's short, the book does not spell everything out for you. Something about the language was a little disjoined and tricky for me to jump into - I had to read the first page a couple of times. But once I adapted to the style it was great.