#singing hills cycle

[megafaunatic]

wild pig yi • into the riverlands

#singing hills cycle #into the riverlands #lao bingyi #nghi vo #nudity ig #my art

[ofliterarynature]

JANUARY 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok DNF (reread) bookclub*]

Mammoths at the Gates • An Impossible Imposter • Greywaren • The Hexologists • Mister Impossible • Reclaiming Two Spirits • (Check, Please: #Hockey)* • Thornhedge • Call Down the Hawk • All the Hidden Paths • All the Beauty in the World • (The Raven King) • (A Strange and Stubborn Endurance) • (Blue Lily, Lily Blue) • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie • The Missing Page • Bird By Bird • Lucky Red • Portrait of a Thief

I suppose I may as well start with the giant pile of Maggie Stiefvater and get that out of the way, lol. According to Goodreads, this was at least my 3rd time through the entire Raven Cycle. Despite that, I had only the vaguest idea of what happened in the last two books, and now having reread them (again), yeah, that tracks! I can hang with book 3 but I have no idea what was really going on in The Raven King, and as a series finale I didn't love it. It felt a lot like the dreamer plotlines drowned out the original Glendower and ley line story that we started with. But, Maggie being Maggie, I love the way she writes so much that I at least still enjoyed the reading experience. And it made an incredibly clear lead-in to the Dreamer Trilogy (which I had not read), it made total sense, I was hopeful! Again, Maggie being Maggie, I had a good time reading them, I liked learning more about the Lynch brothers, I'm always down for some art forgery, but I just didn't really like it and (while I'm glad for Maggie that she was able to write it) I could have lived without it. It completely did not have the vibe or charm of TRC and, criminally, did not include the Gangsey. How!!!!

The Missing Page - liked it! It felt a lot more solid as a mystery than the first book, which I greatly appreciated, though the villagers in the first book were maybe a bit more fun. I'm not feeling particularly inspired to go look up more Cat Sebastian after this, but if she writes another one of these I'd read it.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - I've had this one on my mystery tbr for a while, and for some reason I'd thought it was set in a much earlier time period than the 1950's? lol. Our protagonist is the youngest of 3 sisters growing up in genteel poverty with an absent father, and she has the run of the village, the house, and an incredibly well stocked chemistry lab left by an ancestor. She is both incredibly clever and terribly naive, and absolutely terrifying because of it. Flavia is fascinating as a detective, because she's not written as the protagonist of a middle grade mystery novel - she's a child. This was an interesting read, but I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for in a mystery novel and I don't think I'll continue the series.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - reread this in advance of the sequel - it was a bit easier to see some flaws this time around, but had a good time! This *was* my first time listening to it on audio though, and I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It had a different person reading for each of the main characters and their voices just didn't pair well for me - not to mention one of them also read Lev AC Rosen's Lavender House and boy does he do some distinctive character voices.

All the Hidden Paths - didn't go quite so well. I think primarily my mental space was not pairing well with the tensions of reading this for the first time, I do think on a reread I might like it better. Somehow the spy/saboteur was my favorite character? He was soo bad at his job, I found it very funny. But overall, I think it was just a little too close to a rehash of the plot from the first book, leaving me to think Meadows might not be the best at writing mysteries. Luckily it does at least score high on my romance scale.

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me - first nonfic of the year! I've been eagerly anticipating my library getting an audio copy ever since I first heard about this last year, it sounded cool, I'm fascinated by art museums and behind-the-scenes! Unfortunately I was not into it, and almost 2 months on I can't remember enough to even try to tell you why. It did pair interestingly with another recent read, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, but I'm still learning how far into memoir territory I can go. Someone stop me from trying the other Met nonfic book I found recently lol.

Thornhedge - wonderful! No notes! I love fairy tales and this was a delight to read.

Check, Please! #Hockey - loved getting to revisit this for book club! I've been meaning to for a few years, because y'all. I've read so much fanfic, and I have no idea what is in the comic, what Ngozi posted as extras, and what is fanon. The comic had less than I was expecting! Still fun, my fellow book-clubber liked it, but my real love was the tweets! I'll definitely try to read Vol 2 this year so I can then browse the larger collection of them compiled in the Chirpbook.

Reclaiming Two Spirits: I saw this one on tumblr and fortunately was able to get access to the audiobook! It's a topic I was very interested in learning more about, and I did! But - this is a research project, more than anything, it could be very repetitive (which, fair. colonizers suck), and it felt distanced from its subject. I feel it's a book that definitely has its place, but it's not objectively a 'good read,' and I'd rather have had something from someone who is indigenous and two-spirit themselves.

The Hexologists - it has its quirks, but this was unapologetically a delight to read and I had a fun time! I'm a sucker for a world with a magic vs industrial revolution, not to mention a married pair of established investigators, and I always appreciate an author who's willing to get a bit silly. If there's ever more books I'd love to read them!

An Impossible Imposter - she is what she is, I had a good time! This one felt like it might have taken some inspo from The Moonstone 👀

Mammoths at the Gate - had a good time with this, as I always do with the Singing Hills books. Stories about stories are like catnip, I should reread them all sometime!

Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott (DNF) - I have only the vaguest memories of reading parts of this for a creative writing class in college, and now that I'm getting more into nonfiction thought why not? Unfortunately the audiobook version I got was read by the author, who absolutely does not have an audiobook voice/cadence. I considered trying again with the version read by someone else, but decided I wasn't actually interested enough to continue.

Lucky Red By Claudia Cravens (DNF) - the host of one of the podcasts I listen to was gushing about this one and I was like, sapphic western? Sign me up! I read about 25% of it, and it all seemed fine, it just wasn't feeling particularly interesting to me. Absolutely give it a shot if you'd like!

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D Li (DNF) - I knew going in this had been getting mixed reviews. I really like the idea of it - I enjoy a heist, am always interested in fine arts/art history drama, and vigilante art repatriation hell yeah! But this felt very much like it was trying to emulate a heist *movie*, and it just wasn’t working for me as a book. If this ever gets adapted I’d love to see it.

#bec posts #book log #wrap up 2024 #books #booklr #book reviews #the raven cycle #dreamer trilogy #maggie stiefvater #hither page #the sweetness at the bottom of the pie #a strange and stubborn endurance #all the beauty in the world #thornhedge #check please #reclaiming two spirits #the hexologists #singing hills cycle #veronica speedwell

[krakenarius]

🐯 Headcannon Ho Thi Thao inspired drawing from Nghi Vo's novella When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Im honestly obssesed with the singing hills cycle at this point.

Oh also I drew this on a doodle date(youtube channel) community canvas stream, I cleaned it up to share but like basically everyone shares a big canvas and draws together its really fun.

#drawing #artwork #digital art #art #digital illustration #tiger #the singing hills cycle #whenthetigercamedownthemountain #ho thi thao #fanart #singing hills cycle

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 41 - Into The Riverlands by Nghi Vo

This is the third novella I’ve read because it got a Hugo nomination, and the first that I’d probably have eventually gotten around to reading anyway. I’m generally a fan of Vo’s work, and the first two volumes of the Singing Hill Cycle have been great bite-sized comfort reads. This one basically continues that tradition; I’m frankly not super sure it deserves a nomination to the most prestigious award in the genre? But it was a really fun read to spread out over a couple days, and it’s hardly the worst offender in that regard anyway.

The book’s the third in the series, but they’re episodic enough that you could probably read them in any order with no real loss. The story follows Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant, their talking bird with an eidetic memory, as the pair journeys across the Riverlands. Which are basically wuxia-land, a region of steep hills and river values full of monsters, bandit clans, and marital sects whose practitioners have superhuman powers. Chih, a cleric of the Singing Hills monastery, has a holy duty to collect the stories and histories of wherever they travel, and the novella follows them travelling alongside some of those marital practitioners and listening to (and living through) their stories.

The previous two books were mostly built around Chih learning a specific story, with the circumstances of them learning it being more of a framing device and way to introduce some fun unreliable narration. Into the Riverlands feels like it reverses that. You see it even just looking at the titles of the series – The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain refer to the stories Chih is hearing, Into the Riverlands is what they’re doing. Not that they don’t still spend quite a lot of time listening to stories, but they’re digressions in or parts of the present narrative, not the reason for it.

Having multiple shorter stories relayed by different tellers lets the book lean much harder into having fun with unreliably narrators, even more than Tiger did (though, being entirely honest, on an aesthetic level I kind of have more fun with the different people arguing over how to tell the same story in Tiger). Different folktales which turn out to be about the same people, or the same tale with a different cast depending on whose telling, or someone with a half dozen different names and personalities depending on just how they appear. It’s a fun trick, honestly. And having fun with how reputations and legends mutate and change is just about the only sort of story about stories and the power of narrative I can easily stomach these days.

It’s never really explored or made a point of, but as a worldbuilding note I do rather love how ‘Clerics’ (vaguely Buddhist monks, aesthetically) as a class are socially agender? I saw a post a bit back describing another series’ setting as ‘playing with genders like lego blocks’ and like, yes, good. I love books with gender systems that aren’t just points on a scale between ‘ultraviolent gigapatriarchy’ and ‘suspiciously identical to consensus 2020s feminism’. Have some fun with it.

I’m not sure how much of it was the change in setting and how much of it was just that I came into this off reading some actual literature, but it does definitely feel like the setting is getting more sort of exaggerated and fantastical with each book? Salt and Fortune had magic and mammoths and ghosts, but the drama was all court intrigue and conspiracies. Tiger introduced, well, tigers, and generally monsters and heroes that operate on a superhuman scale and getting into mythic hero bloodbaths over their passions. And now Riverlands has a whole region where wandering superheroes are a load bearing part of society. Not really a complaint, but it’s an interesting change over time.

Relatedly – look, I know it is fifty percent the name ‘the riverlands’ and fifty percent the game being my first exposure to anything like the whole genre and trope-bundle, but I will admit that when the Riverlands’ whole deal became clear my first thought was 100% ‘oh, like Exalted!’.

It is kind of interesting to compare the Singing Hills stories to Vo’s other work (thinking here specifically of her 20th century urban fantasy stuff: Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen). Not even with regard to theme or subject or genre or anything – just in terms of prose. Her urban fantasy stuff’s just very fond of poetic flourishes and very imagery/metaphor-heavy narration, which I personally usually quite enjoy but have heard mixed reviews from others (and does get a bit purple even for me at points). The Singing Hills stuff by contrast is, well, certainly not minimalist or anything, but the prose is a much less striking part of the reading experience.

Probably just a matter of being epic versus urban fantasy, but the role of the supernatural elements in the two sets of stories is also kind of interesting. By which I mean – in Riverlands, there are martial adepts with superhuman abilities and talking birds because it’s the kind of setting with stuff like that, and Chih’s interactions with them are, basically, a person interacting with things that exist. In Siren and Chosen the devils and fae and sorcery are much more weighed down with symbolism and thematic meaning. They are literalized metaphors as much as anything else, and affect the world accordingly. (If that makes any sense at all.)

Anyways, it’s probably just the fact that it’s my brains central case for ‘self contained episodic stories with a single recurring protagonist’, but even more than the rest of the series I was really struck reading this how well the pacing would work as an episode of a 40-minute or so animated tv serial. (animated because being able to change styles in the story-within-a-story section and stylize depending on the narrator would be a vital part). Which is, I suppose, another way of saying that I want another 12-19 of these things.

#book review #into the riverlands #singing hills cycle #nghi vo #sff #hugo nom

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Mammoths At The Gates

high fantasy novella series following a cleric traveling the world and collecting stories

Chih returns home to their abbey and finds a northern clan and their mammoths at the gates, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial - Chih’s mentor who died while they were away

#Mammoths At The Gates #singing hills cycle #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #I loved this!! Loved seeing more of the magical hoopoe's culture #almost brilliant's baby......omg beloved.. #out of context quote I enjoyed: what do i need to get married for. i have two mammoths! #so true

[sassysnowperson]

oooh, I love book recs! Maybe worldbuilding, or friends to lovers? Also/alternatively a book I read this year that I loved was Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshanathan and it is very definitely a tragedy but beautifully written, and maybe my favorite thing I read this year. And I just finished The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which I think you would enjoy - very much a story about a community and the ways people rely on each other, which is a theme I think we both enjoy!

It IS a theme we both enjoy! Also, I don't know if you remember, but when we were in the bookstore and a stranger came up to me and started gushing about a book, just brimming with the need to tell people about it - that book was Heaven and Earth Grocery Store! I did read it, and enjoyed it very much. James McBride has such a rhythm, lyrical way of writing. I also read Deacon King Kong by him this year - another solid read.

For worldbuilding - I think I have to go with Nghi Vo's The Singing Hills Cycle - it's a series of novellas, they are meant to be read in any order, and I think it's true, but the first one is The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Told from the POV of a cleric moving through the world collecting histories and stories - I think Vo has a gift for unravelling the world as she goes, with a lot of loveable characters too.

Friends to lovers was trickier - didn't read too much this year, but I think I'm going to rec a different novella - The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Ann Older. This is mostly a Sherlock-inspired mystery set on Jupiter, but there's a sweet F/F romance between the Sherlock and the Watson in amongst all the mystery-solving. I remember enjoying their friendship and mutual respect as I was reading.

Oh! I've got a wildcard pick for worldbuilding - but this one is for authors that want to worldbuild. An Immense World by Ed Yong is a nonfiction trip through the beautiful and bizarre ways all the creatures of the world experience it through their different senses. I had so many writing aliens/fantastic species thoughts while listening - there's so much room to really make someone different by altering how they perceive the world.

#an Immense world #the mimicking of known successes #singing hills cycle #reading asks #sass talks books

[apoostrophe]

Really enjoyed When The Tiger Came Down The Mountain. Had to draw them !

#singing hills cycle #when the Tiger came down the mountain #digital art #digital painting #procreate #sketchbook #sketch #pheart #nghi vo

[elliepassmore]

Mammoths at the Gates review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, novellas, grief stories, character driven stories, queer characters

Empress of Salt and Fortune review

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain review

Into the Riverlands review Big thanks to Netgalley, Tordotcom, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! Another fantastic chronicle from the Singing Hills Cycle! I'm so hoping that the series expands beyond the 5 books that are currently planned because I love exploring Chih and Almost Brilliant's world! In this story, Chih returns home for the first time in several years and finds much changed. The old Divine has recently died and Chih arrives in enough time for the interment ceremony. The death of their old mentor and the new maturity in their friend Ru results in some growing pains for Chih as they come to realize that not even the Singing Hills Abbey is immutable in time. That realization and the feelings they grapple with over it are very relatable since it pertains so much to the way friendships change and grow (or even end) as people grow older and move into different phases of their lives. In a similar vein, Cleric Thien's (the previous Divine who died) neixin, Myriad Virtues, is grieving terribly as a result of her loss. While much of the story focuses on Chih and their relationships and feelings re: coming back to the abbey and seeing or not seeing old friends, a similar bulk of the story is dedicated to Myriad Virtues' grieving process. The way she grieves doesn't make sense to everyone around her, neixin and human alike, resulting in multiple discussions of how grief affects people differently and the strange things people do as they feel it. The mammoths are also a part of the grieving story as they belong to two young women who were Cleric Thien's granddaughters. In opposition of the traditional practices for clerics, they want Thien's body so the can bury them in their homeland. There's a lot of debate about this and the discussion of grief is brought in here as well. I liked getting to see the abbey and some of Chih's friends. I also liked that we get to see Almost Brilliant (she wasn't in Into the Riverlands) and that we get to meet Almost Brilliant's chick, Chiep. Chiep is definitely a personality and was quite funny, so she was an enjoyable addition to the book. This provided some nice insight into Chih's backstory and is a good addition to the series. Vo does a good job of mixing the heavy topics with lighter moments, and it's a bit more character-led than in previous books. I was quite invested in what the characters were experiencing and sped through the book.

#book #book blog #book recommendations #booknerd #book review #books #booklr #bookblr #bookish #bookaholic #book addict #books and reading #books & libraries #books and literature #netgalley #netgalley read #netgalley review #singing hills cycle #nghi vo #empress of salt and fortune #when the tiger came down the mountain #into the riverlands #mammoths at the gate #aapi representation #aapiheritagemonth #aapi month #asian authors #aapi author

[phaedraismyusername]

Do you feel like you need more sexy sapphic tiger ladies with possessive romantic tendencies in your life?

#yall #when i tell you i was not ready #if you access to the audiobook?? #that lazy smokey tiger lady voice #oof #i did not know i needed this #singing hills cycle #nghi vo #when the tiger came down the mountain #recs #i liked salt and fortune #but i loved this one #girly crush an all lol #booklr #book recs

[geekyliteracy]

Thanks to @tordotcompub for sending me an ARC of Mammoths at the Gates!!

Novella releases September 12, 2023

5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#book blog #books #fantasy novella #novella series #novella #fantasy #singing hills cycle #ARC books #advanced reader copy

[bookwyrrm]

I read 5 predicted 5-star reads. Here’s how they turned out!

#1. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

This was a good introduction to the world that these novellas are set in. The characters did not grab me as much as I would have liked - I do wonder if the choice to write this story as a novella rather than a full novel was a disservice to the ideas of political intrigue and devotion that Vo was interested in. However, I then went on to read (well, listen to) the second book in this series and LOVED it, so I’ll definitely be picking up the third one too!

#2. Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

Honestly, Portrait of a Thief was disappointing. I feel like this review by Cindy Pham sums up many of the thoughts I also had while reading in a more concise way than I could, lol.

#3. Babel by R. F. Kuang

Babel is just as good as everyone says it is. Holy shit. The first half of the book is reaaaalllly slow, but after having finished the whole thing, I do think that level of minute detail / forcing readers to live in Robin’s head for so long worked to emphasize the ending.

#4. Fangs by Sarah Andersen

Just adorable. I think more of a connected storyline would have put this book over the top for me into something that I loved rather than something that I really liked. However, this was the perfect thing to pick up after Babel because it was short and sweet.

#5. In the Vanishers’ Palace by Aliette de Bodard

This book was so fun. The world building was interesting, I loved Vu Côn‘s relationship with her kids, and the theme of nature vs. nurture throughout was one was touching + handled well, in my opinion. As a result of all these other things going on, the romantic relationship in the book does suffer a little bit, simply because there isn’t enough space to develop it very much.

Final Notes: I got the idea for this 5 books project from Chandler Ainsley on Youtube. It was a fun way to break up the huge TBR list I’ve been working off of and identify some books that I was excited about.

#'why are so many of these fantasy by asian writers?' you ask #no clue! i know that i had seen a big list of books / added a bunch of them to my tbr at some point #but also it's just what i've been vibing with lately! #i did not actually end up giving any of these books 5 stars but i think that's bc i was thinking too hard lol #random tags sorry #book reviews #books #nghi vo #grace d. li #rf kuang #sarah andersen #aliette de bodard #singing hills cycle #the empress of salt and fortune #portrait of a thief #babel kuang #babel an arcane history #fangs andersen #in the vanishers' palace #withcindy

[lilareviewsbooks]

A Low-Commitment Fantasy Read - Into The Riverlands - 5/5

5/5 stars

100 pages

Contains: a non-binary cleric; a talking bird; an old woman who bosses everyone around

I finally got to read Into The Riverlands! I've literally been clawing after this book for the longest time – and the journey involved my hold being ready for me at the library when I was fully in another country for the week. Last weekend, though, I finally got my hands on an electronic copy and the wonderful audiobook – which is just 2 hours long! Like watching a movie! And I had an amazing time!

Into The Riverlands is the third book in the Singing Hills Cycle, Nghi Vo’s series about wandering cleric Chih, who is on a mission to record the history of their China-inspired kingdom, accompanied by their talking bird, Almost Brilliant. However, as I mentioned before when I spoke about this series on here, this cycle does not need to be read in any particular order. Any book is a good starting point. So, if you’ve never heard of this series before and Into The Riverlands sounds appealing to you, go ahead and pick it up.

This one follows Chih as they walk into a tea-house, get into some trouble, and end up meeting the perfect travel companions. As always, we are treated to traditional stories from folklore or that are otherwise known by the people Chih is traveling with, as they continue in their mission to record all of those. Because of its focus on these stories, I can’t shake the cozy feeling this series gives me – like sitting around a fire and hearing someone tell you an old tale, or hearing about your ancestors from your family. Ms. Vo’s choice of such small windows into people’s lives, people Chih crosses once and then never again, and we as the audience only get to experience for one, short book, makes this coziness even more vivid. We are simply glancing at these people, at what’s important to them, at what stories they want to pass on to Chih.

And what stunners these passing characters are! This is true for every installment of the series, but particularly in this one – Ms. Vo builds beautiful secondary characters, whose witty dialogue brings liveliness to the book, making it a memorable, if quick, read. Chih is wonderful as always, and their relationship with Almost Brilliant is also highlighted by the great use of dialogue. Listening to it is an experience I recommend – Cindy Kay’s awesome voice work really brings these characters alive!

More than anything, though, I always get a little bit emotional over this series. Preserving culture, stories in specific, is a topic dear to my heart – and if we talk about it too much, I might cry on my keyboard.  There’s something so gorgeous about the human instinct to protect those things that are dear to us from the effects of time – to keep things. To retell stories a million times just to make sure they’re kept alive in someone else when we’re gone. And although the focus of this series isn’t exactly that, and it rarely touches on this topic, choosing rather to explore the stories themselves, and what they can teach us, I can’t help thinking about all of this. And it certainly helps with my experience of the series.

#booklr #book recommendations #book recs #books #queer sff #sff books #fantasy books #sci fi books #queer reads #queer books #lgbtq books #trans books #novella #book review #nghi vo #into the riverlands #singing hills cycle

[kimabutch]

Rereading The Empress of Salt and Fortune (and then When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain) in anticipation of the next Singing Hills book coming out in two (!!!) days, and I'm reminded how genius these books are, what an amazing writer Nghi Vo is, and how I have a little crush on Chih.

#book adventures #singing hills cycle

[mmhawkes]

Starting the year with a book recommendation: Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo is a wonderful novella. Honestly, all of the Singing Hills stories so far are wonderful, but I do think this is my favourite. You can truly read them in any order — they are about Cleric Chih traveling in search of stories. And Riverlands in particular has a very interesting approach to what makes a story and how we tell it, with a wuxia bend.

#into the riverlands #singing hills cycle #nghi vo

[literary-illuminati]

three books in and I just got that Cleric Chih is literally a History Monk and there's so many dumb discworld jokes I could have been making.

#into the riverlands #Nghi Vo #singing hills cycle #tht #sff

[aroaessidhe]

2022 reads // twitter thread

Into The Riverlands

3rd in the Singing Hills Cycle

Chih & Almost Brilliant venture into the riverlands, a lawless place run with notorious martial artists

They meet a pair of young women and a mysterious older couple & stumble onto murder and an ancient feud

#Into The Riverlands #singing hills cycle #I enjoyed this it is just very short. like shorter than the others #love the characters and worldbuilding as usual but i think my thoughts on it are more....for the series in general rather than this - #specific story?