The Single Hills cycle is a group of short novels by Nghi Vo, a queer Vietnamese-American author, and they centre around the character of Chih, a non-binary monk whose job is to record stories with the aid of their familiar spirit with a perfect memory. I’ve read three of them so far: The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountains, and Into the Riverlands, and I’m currently reading the fourth title in the cycle, Mammoths at the Gate.
The beauty of these stories, aside from a strong worldbuilding of non-Western influence, is in the centrality of the story itself: the monk Chih either listens or tells a tale, and the tale within the tale is the main character. It evolves, we discover hidden truths about it, we care for it and anguish for its wellbeing, just like the monk.
Of the three novels, The Empress of Salt and Fortune remains my favourite, as the tale is told through the exploration of objects discovered in a long-abandoned shelter where the titular Empress spent years in exile, and the truth it unveils is very powerful.
Into the Riverlands is very nice too, a little slow to take off, but it has a good pace and the description of martial arts, a novelty in the series, are very well-crafted. I was expecting the final revelation to be something different.
My least favourite is When the Tiger Came Down the Mountains. The premise was fine, I kept loving the universe and the story in two versions was interesting but the execution felt a bit rushed, the two versions of the story didn’t complement each other enough to explain some plot holes you’re left with, and I would have loved for a third truth to emerge but we’re sadly left with an epilogue that doesn’t feel like one.
Still, I highly recommend the cycle, and I think I’ll keep reading as many as the author wants to write.
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