Mammoths at the Gates

It was good to return to the Singing Hills Cycle — and to see the actual Singing Hills this time! The writing is lyrical as Nghi Vo’s has been for the other nivelkas in this series, and this time the picture they paint is about grief and change.

We meet Chih’s childhood best friend, Ru, who they have grown apart from some as their lives took different paths. We meet the memory of Cleric Thien, being laid to rest as they died recently. We meet Thien’s granddaughters, who never knew them but have come on the account of their recently deceased grandmother. And we meet Almost Brilliant’s chick.

There’s a lot of quiet tension here, between the conflict between the clerics and the granddaughters, the things you discover about someone cleaning up what they left behind, and the grief that comes with change as well as loss, but the journey makes for a story that will linger with me.

I liked this book better than its predecessor in the series, Into the Riverlands, because of its emphasis on the interactions of individuals and their memories. Riverlands was an emphasis on the local stories the cleric was collecting and less time spent on the group being travelled with.

In Mammoths I did have alot of confusion keeping track of who was talking when the word 'they' was being used. I interpreted this to be a community of individuals that refer to themselves as they/them, which means 'they' could mean the individual doing the speaking or could mean another person being spoken of, in the same sentence.

This confusion didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story or the characters.

A very enjoyable installment into this series. I continue to have fun with them.

a brilliant take on grief, mourning, change, and nostalgia, with lyrical prose and some incredible character development for chih. a great change of pace for this series — a more subdued, meditative glimpse into chih's personal life outside of their role as a scribe and cleric. an enchanting story about those whose lives revolve around the art of storytelling and story-keeping, and a sobering contemplation on the flaws of the human condition. a truly remarkable addition to the singing hills cycle.

Merged review:

a brilliant take on grief, mourning, change, and nostalgia, with lyrical prose and some incredible character development for chih. a great change of pace for this series — a more subdued, meditative glimpse into chih's personal life outside of their role as a scribe and cleric. an enchanting story about those whose lives revolve around the art of storytelling and story-keeping, and a sobering contemplation on the flaws of the human condition. a truly remarkable addition to the singing hills cycle.

Though good, this was a bit of a let down and I think I can explain why. The first three novellas hit an itch for me personally around storytelling, meaning they don't feel like books and Vo isn't an author, they're a storyteller and had me entranced with each tale. You follow Cleric Chih around the landscape as they find and collect stories from the people they meet. This one broke a bit of the magic for me though, I think that is my issue. You're at their monastery and it felt like a book with plot, etc. On the positive side, I am always a sucker for a book that covers grief really well and this one had a glint of that and I've seen some reviewers I follow say it's their favorite of the series.

This novella is the fourth in the Singing Hills Cycle, which makes this another series I'm caught up on! (yay!) (Only temporarily, though - there is a 5th book set to release next year and apparently 2-3 more planned after that??)

These stories take place in a world that feels like it could be imperial China, but with magic. We follow the cleric Chih, whose goal is to collect stories from wherever they may find them. This book is somewhat different in that we follow Chih home and get to learn about the place they come from. It is also a story about grief and loss and the ways in which we manage those feelings.

I really enjoy these books, the author does a great job of packing an impactful story into a small package. The author says you can read these books in any order, so if you see one I'd advise giving it a try.

Really interesting examination of grief and how people change over time, I also really liked the commentary on memory and identity.

Not my favorite of these, but probably my second favorite after the first one.

7.5/10

How could I stop myself from reading this lovely novella..?? I know there's still time for the release but I just needed a bit of familiarity and being back in the world of Singing Hills was a joy and I'm so glad I got the arc of this book.

Our favorite cleric Chih is back at Singing Hills too and it was so nice to finally see their home through their eyes, even though it's dampened by the grief of losing their mentor and the threat of mammoths at their gates. Almost Brilliant also finally makes an appearance, now already a mother and even more authoritative than I remember. But what this lovely novella is ultimately about grief and loss - how losing someone important maybe inevitable but how we grieve them can be different, each person's grief can manifest in myriad unexpected ways but nothing is wrong with that, and it's the bonds we have built and shared that help us through the tough times.

This is a short and maybe bittersweet but also hopeful tale about losing, grieving and moving on, finding our ways through change, and cherishing the friendships and relationships we have built over the years - all told through the form of stories. It's a perfect addition to this amazing series, carrying forward its theme of how stories keep memories alive, and paving the way for our main characters' future adventures. I can only hope that the author will let us be a part of these future journeys too.