The Singing Hills Cycle
by Nghi Vo
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted November 24, 2020
Edits and Addenda on December 8, 2020, November 10, 2022, September 28, 2023, & May 14, 2024
1. The Empress of Salt and Fortune
2. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
3. Into the Riverlands
4. Mammoths at the Gates
5. The Brides of High Hill
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Another excellent addition to the tor.com novella program. The Singing Hills Cycle of stories is set in a land reminiscent of Imperial China, but with several alterations and fantasy elements. Nghi Vo was born in Illinois, and currently resides somewhere "on the banks of Lake Michigan," but I don't know her ethnic heritage. I can't say if this uses historical events or characters, or if they are solely the invention of the author. If the former, I'm not sure of the era or dynasty, but the titular empress, In-yo, could be from a northern land similar to Mongolia. She was married to the emperor in a strategic diplomatic maneuver, but once she had born an heir he was taken from her and she was exiled to Thriving Fortune on the banks of Lake Scarlet. She lived there for about six years before returning to the capital. Her story is told in the reminiscences of a loyal servant, a woman who says her family name is Sun, but she prefers to be known only as Rabbit. The northern people used trained mammoths, to ride and use as pack animals, and also in battle. A phrase was used that I thought could have been an alternate title, since it is similar to the second story's title: "When the mammoth had trampled the lion."
The collective name for the series refers to the Singing Hills Abbey, the clerics of which are tasked with compiling histories of all important events and personages. The empress has recently died, and Cleric Chih being nearest to Lake Scarlet at the time, they travel there along with their hoopoe, Almost Brilliant. A hoopoe is a medium size bird with a large, feathered crest. Almost Brilliant is also referred to as a "neixin," which in Chinese pinyin means heart, or innermost being. Almost Brilliant can speak, and not just mimicking speech like a parrot, they are highly intelligent and have an eidetic memory, aiding Cleric Chih in chronicling the possessions of Empress In-Yo which had been left at Thriving Fortune. At first Chih thinks that Rabbit is there to loot the dwelling, only to learn she had served the empress for many years, both during and after her exile. As they take an inventory of the empress's personal possessions, Rabbit tells a story about each.
A slow, methodical, lyrical tale, about loyalty, found family, and perseverance, but also an indictment of the monarchy and outdated customs. Some of the events revealed are far from idyllic. In-yo resented her banishment, and her separation from her child. Her attendants were rotated from the capital from time to time, although Rabbit became a permanent fixture. More than just a servant, Rabbit was also a close confidant, and sometimes lover. This is not just a story of female companionship and solidarity, since Rabbit also had a relationship with Sukai, a fortune teller In-yo employed for advice. He is only one of the seers she used, and not just to cast her fortune. They also acted as couriers, passing coded messages to In-yo's allies in the north. Now it is fifty years after those fateful events, and a new empress will be sitting in the Dragon Court. Rabbit is convinced she will succeed, since after all, "Angry mothers raise daughters fierce enough to fight wolves."
The Empress of Salt and Fortune won a Hugo for Best Novella, and the Crawford Award as Best First Fantasy from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. It was also a finalist for Ignyte and Locus awards..
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Posted December 8, 2020
There are several tigers in this story, three that attack Cleric Chih and the mammoth drover escorting them to the mountain pass, and another of legend. Chih and Su-Yi make it to the barn of a way station, the mammoth Pulik threatening enough to keep the tigers at bay for a while. The tigers are the sisters Sinh Loan, Sinh Cam, and Sinh Hoa. Loan is the eldest, who also exhibits the ability of shape-shifting into human form. That reminds Chih of the story of Ho Thi Thao, a tiger who took a human woman to be her bride. Sinh Loan makes it clear that they will likely eat the humans, but will allow them to bargain for their safety if Chih tells the story properly. During a cold, dark night around a roaring fire, Chih tells the story the way they learned it, but Sinh Loan continually interrupts to say that Chih is wrong about some events.
Again I'm not sure if this has any basis in Chinese myths, or if it's all original from the author. Not knowing many traditional stories I can't even say if it's in that style, but it seems genuine. Trung Dieu was the last of her family to have the opportunity to stand for the imperial examinations. Several of her ancestors were eligible, but wars and other tragedies kept them from fulfilling that desire. Dieu treks for days to reach the capital city of Ahnfi, but along the way she stops to rest at a temple shrine. One must never pass a shrine without giving an offering and praying, but instead of a temple priestess, Dieu encounters Ho Thi Thao in human form. Dieu had never considered herself pretty, but it seems she was pretty enough for a tiger. Ho Thi Thao is infatuated with Dieu, following her on her journey, helping her out of trouble several times. An old saying is "history is written by the winners." In a similar vein, the person telling a story gets to shape it, and if the storyteller is human it is inevitable they will view it from a human perspective. Sinh Loan is angered whenever Ho Thi Thao is depicted in a negative way, then offers an alternate version in which the tiger is the superior being. No matter which story is most accurate, they both end with Dieu becoming the tiger's bride and returning to the mountains with her.
Something that is almost historical is a book of poems that Dieu carries, one that Ho Thi Thao also likes and memorizes. But Songs of Everlasting Sorrow by Lu Bi is not the same as the historical poem of the same name by Bai Juyi, which is sometimes known by the alternate title Song of Everlasting Regret. I've read a translation of that, but I much prefer Nghi Vo's poem. Fantasy requires as much suspension of disbelief as science fiction, but when the tale is told with such beauty and heartache it is easy to believe a human and tiger could fall in love. All it took was compassion, loyalty, and commitment. The reader should approach this with the same level of commitment, to revel in a love story for the ages.
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain did not receive any award recognition, probably because it was overshadowed by the previous title published in the same year. In my opinion it is at least the equal of Empress, and highly recommended..
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Posted November 10, 2022
The third entry in this series finds Cleric Chih and their hoopoe Almost Brilliant traveling along the Huan River. After having their head shaved by a local barber, Chih goes to a nearby tea shop. There they meet two women together that hardly look like companions. Wei Jintai is tall, beautiful, graceful, and finely dressed, while Sang is short, stout, and clothed in the cheapest hemp garments. Their introductions come after Wei Jintai displayed masterful martial artistry in defeating a rude patron twice her size, her ability eliciting excitement from Almost Brilliant: "That was Southern Monkey style!" An older couple enter the tea shop, whom Chih had seen outside the barber's tent; Lao Bingyi and her companion Mac Khanh, maybe her husband but I don't think that was ever stated. After helping cleanup the mess Wei Jintai's fight had caused, Lao Bingyi pays for the damages, and all agree to travel together overland to her home at Betony Docks. Apparently the river looped and wound around the countryside so much a trip by barge would take much longer.
During their walk many stories are told about the area, of both heroes and villains. The Hollow Hand gang had once terrorized the roads, and even though it was thought they had been roundly defeated years before, there might be another group working in a similar manner. They stop at a shelter the first night, where they find a man hanging from the rafters. They cut him down and bury him, Chih offering feeble words of comfort. They are not that type of cleric, having never performed a eulogy. Chih wishes they knew the man's story so it could be preserved in the Singing Hills archive. Instead they make note of the various stories the others tell, and Almost Brilliant chimes in with memories too. They clash with bandits later on the road, and also when they reach Betony Docks, defeating them on both occasions. Wei Jintai again shows remarkable fighting ability, as do Lao Bingyi and Khanh, surprising for their age. It is later implied they are even older than they look, and possibly the subjects of one of the stories that had been told along the way. On several occasions it was stated that in the past people lived much longer than was common at the present time. It's left vague though, it's up to the reader to decide which historical luminaries they might be.
The shortest story so far, but still rich in detail about the various levels of society, about traditions and legends, whether they are true or not. I don't think Chih worries too much about whether they are chronicling truth. The value of a tale is in how the reader or listener receives the message, how that shapes the way they incorporate the lessons into their own actions. I don't know how many more stories we will get about Chih and Almost Brilliant, but I'm confident there will always be wisdom to behold. Again, highly recommended.
Into the Riverlands won the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and was a finalist for a Hugo, Lambda, and Locus..
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Posted September 28, 2023
The fourth Singing Hills novella sees Cleric Chih returning to the abbey after several years traveling and gathering stories, most recently without the aid and companionship of their hoopoe Almost Brilliant, who had returned earlier to nurture her new offspring. Chih is still several miles away when they spot two large mammoths near the abbey gates, something completely unexpected. They had encountered mammoths before (in the second story), but that was in the northern territories, far from Singing Hills. Two other unexpected things are discovered once they manage to get around the mammoths and enter the abbey. It is almost empty, the majority of the other clerics and novices miles away aiding a village evacuation, and their mentor, the Divine Cleric Thien, had died. The Acting Divine is their close childhood friend Ru. The mammoths are there because their two riders are granddaughters of Thien, come to take his body back to their village, which Cleric Ru opposes. Chih had already met the mammoth riders and their beasts, and had an amicable conversation, but they had not told them about their reasons for being there. Later, Chih is surprised and frightened at the prospect the mammoths will be used to break down the abbey gates. Something must be done to appease them without allowing them to take Thien's body.
One thing that puzzles both Chih and Ru is the mammoth riders never knew their grandfather, he had left his village to become a cleric before either were born. Neither of the stories they tell at the remembrance ceremony indicate they valued him as an ancestor. Other revelations involve Chih and Ru's memories of what Thien had taught them, the how and why they became clerics, along with resentments and rivalries between the two. Chih had become a traveling chronicler of stories, while Ru remained at the abbey due to a disability, although it wasn't clear if that was the result of an accident or not, and if so if Chih had been at least partly responsible. We do learn more about the heirarchy of the hoopoe aviary, with one story told at the Divine's remembrance ceremony coming from their faithful bird, Myriad Virtues, who is in deep depression. Legends told of how hoopoe became neixin, learning human speech and being able to remember everything. One hoopoe was transformed into a neixin, another into a human cleric, that sacred bond formed and then expanded once the abbey was established. Several of the birds repeated that neixin were not beasts, since they had more in common with humans than any other animal. And if a hoopoe had become a human before, why could that not happen again? After a contentious standoff with the mammoth riders, Myriad Virtues returns with them to their northern village, to honor Thien's late wife.
Another thoughtful speculation on memory, loyalty, and tradition. Even though they at times appear to be a religious order, the clerics of Singing Hills are mainly historians. They collect stories, archive them, but sometimes also discard those they feel are not necessary to remember. Besides, one or more of the neixin will remember even if a cleric's notes are destroyed. Something decidedly not religious, some of their archives include military information, which comes in handy against large mammoths. I still don't know how many more stories we can expect about Cleric Chih, or others from Singing Hills, but I do know there will be at least one more, with The Brides of High Hill due out next May. You can be sure I will be reading it, and perhaps even re-reading the others before then. This series is highly recommended.
Mammoths at the Gates is a finalist for the 2023 Nebula and 2024 Hugo awards for Best Novella. I will update later if it wins either..
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Posted May 14, 2024
My comments on this title will be very brief. It would be too easy to spoil the action. Cleric Chih seems to be confused about what is going on right from the start, waking uneasily from a disturbing dream. They are in the back of a wagon, accompanied by a young woman, Pham Nhung, who has to remind them of when and how they met. Apparently Chih had run into her on the road, dropping all of their books, Nhung helping pick them up, then she offered to let Chih ride with her. Master and Madame Pham are taking their daughter to the Doi Cao estate, to present her to her betrothed, Lord Guo. Through most of the story Chih keeps thinking about telling Almost Brilliant one of their ideas, or wanting their hoopoe's insight into what is going on. Yet Almost Brilliant is not there, but Chih gives no indication of why, or where their hoopoe is.
Chih continues to be confused about why Nhung wants them with her all the time, and why they are attracted to her. Chih is non-binary, using they/them pronouns, and while they may not be asexual, there has never been any indication of their gender identity or sexual orientation. Why then are they attracted to Nhung? Chih has no answer for that, just one more bit of confusion. Are they under a spell, and if so, who placed the spell on them? Also, why do they continually forget that Almost Brilliant is not with them? Another person also seems to be under a spell, or a curse. The son of Lord Guo is said to be demented, dangerous to be around, and when Chih and Nhung are around him it seems he wants to tell them something, warn them, but something keeps stopping him from doing so. More than any of the other stories, this is a mystery that proves difficult to unravel.
While not being willing to give you any more details as to what is going on, I will say that in addition to it being a mystery, it is also a horror story, which is new. Suffice it to say everything becomes clear by the end, Chih is reunited with Almost Brilliant, and some semblance of order is established at Doi Cao, even if not what Chih would have preferred. We won't know until next year if this fifth story will be nominated for any awards, and several more years whether it will ever be eligible for a Best Series Hugo. The requirement for that is at least three titles, the latest published in the year of eligibility, but they have to total at least 240,000 words. By my calculation that would mean at least two or more novellas, or a novel. I have no idea what Nghi Vo has planned, but you can be sure if there are more Singing Hills stories I will read them.
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