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.

This was great! I liked the framing: Chih telling the story and the tigers correcting Chih and telling their own version of what happened. It ended a bit abruptly for me though.

Another great entry into the series. Chih and Almost Brilliant were fun to follow as always - and they do more in this one and have more of a role in the plot. And I loved the side characters Wei Jintai, Mac Sang, and the older couple Lao Bingyo and Khan. I loved the discussions about why we tell stories and which stories are worth telling. Will definitely pick up the others in this series!

We get to see the Singing Hills Abbey in this one. Not a lot happens, and there’s no story within the framing device in this one. It’s a quieter story dealing with coming home and grief and friendship. We get more backstory on our cleric Chih, and more about the birds. It wasn’t my favorite in the series, but it’s still great - the whole series is such a pleasure to read.

This was good, but doesn’t reach the highs of previous entries into the series. This one also has a different vibe from the others - it’s a sort of retelling of Bluebeard. There's some fun narrative things here, but I honestly would rather go back to Chih collecting stories rather than being part of the story.

I still like this series a lot, but this one wasn't my favorite. It's cool how each book is different from the ones before it, but it also means that some of the things that really worked for me in previous books aren't in this one. Still, the writing was great and the story about famine was impactful.

Another great entry into the series. This was the earliest one chronologically, and I enjoyed seeing Chih as a novice still figuring things out. They're still a little naive, and don't quite have that relationship with Almost Brilliant yet. and of course the story about the refugees and the tensions there is relevant to today.