The cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant travel the length and breadth of the land, gathering stories and cataloguing facts
in all manner of places for the abbey of Singing Hills. Their latest travels have taken them to the shores of Lake Scarlet and the abandoned house
of Thriving Fortune, once the home of an exiled wife of the emperor. Here, an old and still-loyal servant, Rabbit, tells Chih the story that
official histories chose not to record. It begins with a daughter of a conquered people sent to be the bride of an arrogant southern emperor, and
ends with both victory and heartbreak.
Review
I'd previously read and enjoyed another Singing Hills novella, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, without realizing it was
technically the second title, so I was eager to read (or listen to, this being another audiobook) the first installment. These are truly standalone
stories, each with a strong emotional core, in this case hatred and vengeance and loyalty and the many contradictory ways love can pull a heart.
Rabbit's servant's-eye-view of the imperial palace and the exiled empress reveals a young woman plunged into a cold and insular world among her
people's enemies, yet who manages to hold true to her self and her greater purpose. Rabbit herself has a story, inevitably entwined with the great
woman's, and choices that lead to much pain, though she has long made peace with them. As in the other novella, Chih is largely there as witness
and recorder, but has their own personality and contribution to make. Vo creates an intriguing and complex world. I'm looking forward to more of
its stories.
Wandering cleric Chih has traveled far and wide, gathering tales and histories from local sources, but this trip may be their last. While
traveling with a mammoth rider, they become trapped at a deserted outpost by three hungry tiger sisters. If the cleric and their guide can
last until dawn, help may arrive, but until then Chih must distract the trio. They tell the tigers a story of the long-ago relationship
between a mighty tigress and a young woman scholar... but the tigers, too, know the tale, and insist on correcting it.
Review
Another freebie download from Tor's ebook-of-the-month club, I didn't realize that this was technically part of a series when I started it;
it works fine as a standalone, but that would explain why I felt like there was much more to the world and characters than I was seeing here.
The novella is set in an imaginative, Asian-inspired world of shapeshifting beasts and mischievous spirits and domesticated mammoths and more
wonders and dangers. Though it's largely a story within a story, the plight of Chih and their guide (and the mammoth, who, though nonspeaking,
is a character in its own right) is more than just a frame, with rising tension as the patience of the three tigers wears thin when confronted
with human ignorance and their ever-empty stomachs. As for the tale of the tigress and the scholar, it demonstrates how stories diverge,
different people telling different versions that skew it in their own favor. Ever the cleric, Chih dutifully records the corrections supplied
by the tigers, even knowing that it may be the last thing they ever write if the tigers run out of patience before the dawn. I'll have to
track down the first story in the series, as I'm definitely interested in exploring this world further.
Singing Hills cleric Chih's travels have taken them to many lands, but few are as wild and rough as the riverlands. With their talking
hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant, they have come seeking stories and histories... and, again, find themselves caught up in a story of
their own, when they fall in with some interesting companions on a journey to Betony Docks through bandit country.
Review
Another great, fast-reading entry in the Singing Hills series, which can be read in any order but which do slowly fill out the wider
world of Chih and Almost Brilliant. As in previous installments, the cleric starts out with every intention of being a passive observer
(if not always the most virtuous of their order), gathering tales directly from the source and refraining from passing judgement. Also as
in previous installments, the stories they record have a way of pulling them in, entwined with adventures in the here-and-now. In this
case, Chih finds themselves in the company of an older riverlands couple who seem strangely familiar with the region's history and
pathways and tales, as well as two younger companions who might be destined for their own stories someday. Along the way, the cleric
gathers more stories and must consider the common conceit that tends to place extra value on beautiful maidens and ignores or vilifies
the ordinary or less attractive ones, as if physical beauty conveys inherent virtue and interest. In the riverlands in particular, it
would be wise to pay attention to the stories one hears, as they seem particularly prone to coming to life around a traveler in
unexpected ways, for all that stories have a way of obscuring and twisting whatever truths they might be based on. The
story wends a bit at the start, but soon is off and running, and the Singing Hills world continues to grow in fascinating ways, full of
interesting characters and intriguing cultures and stories and legends galore.
After three years wandering the land and collecting numerous stories (while finding themselves pulled into more than one tale along the way),
Cleric Chih finally returns to Singing Hills Abbey. They're looking forward to some rest, catching up with old friends while entering the
stories from their travels into the abbey's extensive archives, and seeing their talking hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant and her hatchling.
But what they find instead is something very, very wrong. The abbey is nearly deserted, and a contingent of soldiers stands outside the gates,
along with two royal war mammoths. Worse, Chih learns that their beloved mentor, elderly Cleric Thien, has passed away... and that, it seems,
is why the soldiers and their very irate leaders are there. Before joining the abbey, Thien was a prominent member of the powerful Coh clan of
Northern Bell Pass. Now, Thien's relatives demand the body be returned, to be buried in the family graveyard as the man and husband and father
they were before taking vows - and even though Singing Hills is supposed to be sacrosanct, the fact that they brought war mammoths means they
appear willing to use force if necessary to get what they feel they deserve.
Review
This is a welcome new entry in the interesting world of Singing Hills and the sometimes-too-eventful life of adventurous Cleric Chih. Though
it, like the other novellas, can technically stand alone, it feels more connected to the previous stories, following up on Almost Brilliant's
"maternity" leave to raise an egg and mentioning prior excursions. Also like the previous installments, there are definite themes being
explored. In this case, matter of grief, identity, and transformations are dealt with, particularly how one person invariably becomes another
and another onward throughout their lives. It also shares themes with other Singing Hills stories, particularly about stories, who owns them,
and how retellings and biases often turn tales into something quite other than the truths that inspire them. Which story is the truth of Thien:
the man who was an influential advocate and head of a prominent clan, the inspiring abbey cleric who helped raised new generations of story
collectors, or both, or neither? Now that they have passed, stories are all that are left to the world of them, and the decision of whose take
precedence could destroy everything. Cleric Chih, naturally, becomes part of the struggle that Thien's death has precipitated, balancing their
own grief and the griefs of those who knew them both before and during the elder's time at the abbey. Thien's hoopoe companion, Myriad Virtues,
is almost literally crippled by her grief, to a degree even the abbey's other hoopoes find disturbing; Vo delves a little more into the talking
birds with this storyline, the living memory keepers of the clerics and Singing Hills, who are people but also not human. In the absence of
most of the clerics (called away to another urgent project), Chih's childhood friend is temporary leader of those who remained behind... and,
like everyone else (like Chih themself), they have changed over the years, and moreso with the mantle of even temporary power. Chih's
well-intentioned efforts to defuse the growing conflict may only make things worse for everyone, and fracture relationships that have lasted
for years. The resolution is a slight stretch, though it fits the world of Singing Hills and the characters (especially if one has followed
along through the previous novellas, and understands the magical nature of the setting), involving some necessary sacrifice and loss, as well
as moments of wonder and beauty. I'm still enjoying the world and the characters, and look forward to more visits to Singing Hills Abbey and
its world.
