The Singing Hills Cycle Reading Order

Winner of the 2020 Crawford Award! Winner of the 2021 Hugo Award! A Hugo Award-Winning Series! A 2021 Locus Award Finali… Winner of the 2020 Crawford Award! Winner of the 2021 Hugo Award! A Hugo Award-Winning Series! A 2021 Locus Award Finalist A 2021 Ignyte Award Finalist A Goodreads Choice Award Finalist A Book Riot Best Debut Fantasy of All Time "Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful... The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen A Book Riot Must Read Book of 2023 | A 2020 ALA Booklist Top Ten SF/F Debut | A Book Riot Must-Read Fantasy of 2020 | A Paste Most Anticipated Novel of 2020 | A Library Journal Debut of the Month | A Buzzfeed Must-Read Fantasy Novel of Spring 2020 | A Washington Post Best SFF of the Year So Far Pick Named Book Riot's Best Book Cover of 2020 Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Library Journal | NYPL | Chicago Public Library | The Austen Chronicle | Autostraddle With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women. A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece. The Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and For read more

From Locus and Ignyte finalist, Crawford Award winner, and bestselling author Nghi Vo comes the second installment in a… From Locus and Ignyte finalist, Crawford Award winner, and bestselling author Nghi Vo comes the second installment in a Hugo Award-winning series "A stunning gem of a novella that explores the complexity and layers of storytelling and celebrates the wonder of queer love. I could read about Chih recording tales forever."—Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history. Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands Mammoths at the Gates The Brides of High Hill The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entry point. read more

Nghi Vo's Hugo and Crawford Award-winning series, The Singing Hills Cycle, continues... Lambda Award Finalist Ignyte Awa… Nghi Vo's Hugo and Crawford Award-winning series, The Singing Hills Cycle, continues... Lambda Award Finalist Ignyte Award Finalist Hugo Award Finalist for Best Novella Locus Award Finalist for Best Novella A Best Of Pick for USA Today | Buzzfeed | Ms Magazine | Arlington Magazine | Transfer Orbit | LitHub "A delicious bonbon of a novella about stories and their unreliable narrators, who wink at their listeners (or readers), fully expecting us to catch on."―The Wall Street Journal "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."―Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themself far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be. Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face. The Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands Mammoths at the Gates The Brides of High Hill The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entry point. read more

The Crawford and Hugo Award-Winning Series Finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novella; shortlisted for the Lambda Li… The Crawford and Hugo Award-Winning Series Finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novella; shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, the Ignyte Award, the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction; One of Book Riot's Best Fantasy Debuts of All Time; A Milwaukee Journal Best of 2023 Pick; A Recommended Reading List Pick for Locus; A Powell's Best of 2023 Pick "Both tear-jerking and gut-punching. . . . Entirely accessible on its own, it is an excellent place to start if you haven’t read any of Vo’s novellas yet."—The Washington Post The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest. Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass--and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honoring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve. But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . . "A remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR on The Empress of Salt and Fortune "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen The Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands Mammoths at the Gates The Brides of High Hill The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story read more

High on a mist-shrouded hill, an ancient, solemn tradition unfolds as young women are chosen to become "brides" to a mys… High on a mist-shrouded hill, an ancient, solemn tradition unfolds as young women are chosen to become "brides" to a mysterious, unseen power. When her own name is called, one spirited young woman begins to question the hushed legends and unsettling disappearances that surround this sacred ritual. She uncovers a hidden history of pacts and sacrifices, realizing the true nature of High Hill's hunger and the chilling destiny awaiting its brides. As she grapples with her fated future and a burgeoning romance, she must brave dark magic and ancestral secrets to reclaim her agency and rewrite the ancient vows that bind them all. read more