Into the Riverlands

by Nghi Vo

Overview

Nghi Vo's Hugo and Crawford Award-winning series, The Singing Hills Cycle, continues...

"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 Singing Hills Cycle

The Empress of Salt and Fortune
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
Into the Riverlands
Mammoths at the Gates

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250851420
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/25/2022
Series:	The Singing Hills Cycle , #3
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	24,820
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain and The Empress of Salt and Fortune, a Locus and Ignyte Award finalist and the winner of the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/01/2022

Historian cleric Chih returns in Vo’s spellbinding third Singing Hills Cycle novella (after When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain). This time, Chih and their companion Almost Brilliant, a bird with near-perfect memory, wander into the riverlands of Anh, where an encounter with a bully brings them together with two young women: a martial artist skilled in a rare style and her sworn sister, a self-proclaimed “ugly girl.” The four of them accept an elderly couple’s offer to escort them through the land’s winding trails, though their guides have no patience for the myths and rumors that Chih collects. When they come upon the remains of a man killed in the fashion of one of those very myths, Chih finds that they can no longer just passively record stories—they’re in one. Vo expertly weaves myths and histories of this fantastical land throughout, while also offering readers a deeper understanding of Chih themself, a character who may have been left as a framing device in lesser hands. The result is a pitch-perfect series installment. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful. . . . The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR

Praise for Into the Riverlands

"A thrilling, wuxia-style addition to the series."—BuzzFeed News

​"Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen

"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

"Spellbinding. . . . Vo expertly weaves myths and histories of this fantastical land throughout, while also offering readers a deeper understanding of Chih themself, a character who may have been left as a framing device in lesser hands. The result is a pitch-perfect series installment."—Publishers Weekly, (starred review)

"Rides the knife edge between telling a story and being in the middle of it and explores how tales become legends. . . . Highly recommended for . . . anyone who likes high fantasy inspired by Imperial China or wuxia movies and stories."—Library Journal (starred review)

“Those familiar with the Singing Hills Cycle know by now to expect marvelous little novellas like perfectly cut jewels, dense with facets and brilliance. Into the Riverlands, Nghi Vo’s third installment, is of course no different….buy this book, because you’ll want to revisit these particular stories again and again.”—Geekly, Inc

"The novella is written in Vo’s rich, lovely language, and it’s nice to have such a wonderful fantasy series be totally accessible in standalone volumes. . . . Fans of folklore-inspired fantasy will eat this one up."—Booklist

“The Singing Hills Cycle can be read in any order, but this seems the perfect entry point for new readers.”—LitHub

“Continues the magical, mythical and memorable adventures of Chih . . . . The series . . . can be read in any order—and you don’t want to miss them!”—Ms. Magazine

“This is a beautiful, cozy, fantasy tale. . . . gentle, soothing, whimsical, feminist.”—Fantasy Book Critic

“Novelist Nghi Vo has a fantastic gift for creating sweeping epics that weave together history and myth.”—Arlington Magazine

Praise for the Singing Hills Cycle

"Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect."—Seanan McGuire

"A quiet, wrenching tale of resistance, resilience, and court intrigue."—R. F. Kuang

"A glorious, beautifully-written tale that is both tragic and triumphant, unfolding a secret history through the ordinary artifacts of everyday life."—Kate Elliott

“Uncovers a nuanced history of how the disenfranchised shape history, and can come to rule it, though at great cost."—Buzzfeed

"A masterpiece of understatement and implication. . . it gives the impression of effortlessness while being quietly meticulous in every stitch."—Nerd Daily

"[A] gorgeous debut novella."—Paste

"Vo's debut has it all: from sapphic love to cruel betrayals; from political intrigue to lakes that glow red to ghosts that continue to walk old paths."—Booklist, starred review

"A stunning feminist fantasy."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An epic in miniature, beautifully realised."—Zen Cho

"At once epic and intimate, this story of revenge, power and the weight of history is a small, masterful jewel."—Aliette de Bodard

"Resides in the intimate margins of its (beautifully imagined) world's history, portraying how the marginalized may yet shape those narratives and harness the power of stories."—Indra Das

"Rich details and emotional prose captures readers from the first page of this imaginative and powerful novella. "—Library Journal

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2022

The third novella in Vo's Crawford Award-and Hugo Award—winning "Singing Hills Cycle" (after When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain) continues to follow cleric Chih as they travel through the empire of Ahn, collecting stories for their monastery, which is devoted to the preservation of history. On a little-used trail through the Singing Hills, Chih is accompanied on their journey by two young sisters (one of them a martial artist) and a local middle-aged couple, who take turns telling tales to ease the journey. One such story is the local legend of two martial artists, Wild Pig Yi and Gravewraith Chen, who fought over the treasure carried by the beauteous Nin but banded together to face a dangerous gang. It's a good story that Chih is determined to preserve, but when the party reaches their destination, the cleric learns that not all good stories are true—or over. Like the previous books in the series, this one rides the knife edge between telling a story and being in the middle of it and explores how tales become legends. VERDICT Vo's (The Chosen and the Beautiful; Siren Queen) latest is highly recommended for readers of the previous books in the series and anyone who likes high fantasy inspired by Imperial China or wuxia movies and stories.—Marlene Harris

Library Journal