“The world is built on who carries what and for who."

Another incredible installment in The Singing Hills cycle. My favorite nonbinary cleric Chih is out in the riverlands this time, getting into all kinds of trouble on a walking journey with companions who are more than what they seem. There’s compelling tales told over campfires, wild pigs, women renowned for their talents instead of their appearance, epic fight scenes, and our dearest friend, the neixin Almost Brilliant. These novellas evoke such a particular mood: dark yet comforting, ferocious yet kind. And they always, always emphasize the importance of stories: of telling, of listening, of who gets remembered and how. I can’t wait to read another. Thanks to Tordotcom for the review copy!

Content warnings: death/murder, violence, injury, gore

The cleric Chih and their companion Almost Brilliant, falls in with two women and an older couple on their to the a Riverlands town. As they travel an ancient feud in the rough Riverlands seems to pass unexpectedly from the past into the present.

I really enjoyed this latest novella. It has elements that I really like, a through-line from the past to the present with the ancient marauders and thugs that suddenly exist in the present day and the story of the trio of fighters that came together. I loved how there was no true version oft eh story as it often happens. I liked how there was still a bit of mystery at the end also, but the snapshot of these peoples' lives felt complete. It was really nice to see Almost Brilliant back in the stories and I liked the interplay of all the characters on the journey. Definitely recommend!

Thank you to Nghi Vo and Tor Dot Com for the gifted copy !

Ooh, I really liked this one. I loved the first book of the Singing Hills Cycle, but was so "meh" on the second I wasn't sure I'd come back but I'm glad I did because this was excellent. It has everything I loved about the first one: the concrete sense of a wider world despite only being a novella, a whole host of stories within stories, and Queen Almost Brilliant! This one also had the benefit of being centered around martial arts.

Basically the only thing I didn't love about this one was how rushed the ending felt. Certain things, like the connection between Lao Bingyi and the play and why the Hollow Hand even attacked in the first place, could've stood a few more lines. But beyond that I really enjoyed this and would definitely recommend it, particularly if you're looking for a fun, engaging book you can knock out in a sitting.

I adore this series of novellas with my whole heart! They're gorgeously written and Chih and Almost Brilliant are two of the best characters I've met this year. Nghi Vo is a truly talented writer and I'm so impressed by how much depth and character development she accomplishes in so few pages. I'll admit that Into the Riverlands was my least favorite in the series so far, but it's still such a fantastic read! It just didn't stand out to me quite as strongly as The Empress of Salt and Fortune and When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. I'm so excited to see what Vo has planned for the next two books! This might be one of my favorite series of all time and I'm so glad it exists!

I really enjoyed this little novella. Nghi Vo has this amazing ability to give you plot, characters, world building and still pack a punch in themes, all in one little novella of a 100 pages.

This story is very strong on the feminist tropes and female empowerment. We have women as warriors and the ones saving the day, as well as the discussions on perceptions of beauty. There is also a big theme on the truth behind the stories people tell and the ownership of those stories.

My favourite quote is:

“𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙞𝙨, 𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘, 𝙞𝙨 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪’𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩. 𝘽𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩. 𝙈𝙮 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮’𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙩. “

Highly recommended 4 stars. Definitely check out the rest of the series which can be read in any order.

I have enjoyed reading The Singing Hills Cycle. The Riverlands is probably my favorite place that Cleric Chih has traveled through. This novella was so much fun with the sassy Almost Brilliant back, the one liners and the martial artists. Overall, a very entertaining read!

Thank you to the publisher and Nghi Vo for the gifted copy!

Into the Riverlands
by Nghi Vo

The third book from this author that i have read. I added the series to my to read pile.
She has a wonderful characteristic of writing, where the main character has a sympatric past. This book looks into the Chinese mythology bringing it into the modern age. I like how she draws from the mythology, creating a new and entrancing world for western readers.
This book would be great for classrooms due to it's short length, and multicultural experience.

I received an e-galley of Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo from Macmillan Tor/Forge via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love The Singing Hills Cycle series by Nghi Vo - since the very first book I've been entranced by the storytelling that these books weave. I found that in this third book in the series, the storytelling takes on a different approach but it's just as magical and compelling. Prior to this, the stories focused on the stories that Chih would listen to from their adventures that would be recorded. In Into the Riverlands, while there is still some storytelling that Chih and Almost Brilliant are listening to and recording, there is more of an adventure for Chih, allowing them to be almost central to a new story developing that can also be archived. I found this book to be more revealing about Chih as a character, and not just a narrator and third party witness to stories long passed. As always, I felt like I was being drawn straight into this world that Nghi Vo has created and when the book was finished, I was longing to return already.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC of this!

I love that these stories are interconnected but don’t require really remembering everything that happened in the previous ones, my memory is awful, so can be read in any order is lovely for that. The characters are interesting and diverse, and the world is fun to read about. The length is perfect, just right to sit down and read in one go or to listen to while doing chores for the afternoon and get to hear the whole book.

This is not Vo’s first book for me amd I wasn’t disappointed; I am loving this book series from the start to finish and find every one of them, including Into the Riverlands, deeply imaginative and beautifully told. Reading Into the Riverlands was like watching a beautiful asian fantasy martial arts movie, just like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It was an amazing read, compelling and lush, and I loved as always the “story in the story” structure. I wholeheartedly suggest you read this and the other before it if you haven’t already!

We love bards and a good underdog. The Singing Hills Cycle novellas make me so happy and I always look forward to the next installment. Yet again, Into the Riverlands and Vo explores the nature of stories. All the ways we can be the villain, the hero, the god. The different shades of light our lives can be refracted into. The way stories become real and lies become truths. This is a world of titles and conflicts and this latest release is full of action.

What praises can I sing about the Singing Hills Cycle (pun mostly unintentional) that I haven’t said already? Into the Riverlands brings us another well-crafted tale-within-a-tale; this time, Chih and Almost Brilliant find themselves traveling with mysterious companions who have stories that span far beyond themselves. These novellas are decadent and delightful and Into the Riverlands is no exception. Much like the other entries in this series, this will be a book I revisit over and over again to luxuriate in its rich prose and thoughtful world.

Thank you to Tordotcom and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.

#TheSingingHillsCycle novellas really pack in so much detail and characterisation, no word is wasted!

They can be read in any order and don’t have any overlapping arcs. It follows wandering cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant, a talking memory bird, as they gather up tales and anecdotes from people they meet on their travels.

In this newest story #IntotheRiverlands they travel to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. I really enjoyed how the story unfolds, each person who tells Chih their own perspective of an event adds new dimensions to the overall history and messages. This method of writing may not be to everyone’s tastes, when reading you need to be patient and allow these stories to unravel naturally. I particularly liked the discussion on women's perceived beauty or ugliness in stories. It was so clever and explored issues of inclusion and beauty

💛🤍💜🖤BOOK REVIEW

I was so excited to dive into the third instalment of the Singing Hills Cycle. I’m a huge fan of Nghi Vo’s writing and the way she sets up these tales of mythicism as told to our collector of stories and non-binary cleric, Chih.

This book centred more around the adventure Chih has as they travel into the river lands and listen and live folk tales and legends. Vo explores who gets to be in stories? Why do they get popular? How are they portrayed? Which is something I love about every book.

I really enjoyed it but 100% recommend the audiobooks as Cindy Kat is absolutely amazing and I missed her reading this one too. If you haven’t started this series yet you can’t jump into any of them but the first is the Empress of Salt and Fortune; all the books are really short and atmospheric!

Great for fans of Zen Cho and Joan He.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to @macmillanaus and @netgalley for the E-ARC! Into the Riverlands is out already so enjoy!!

Looking for an enchanting tale about a wandering cleric that collects stories? Check out The Singing Hills Cycle, written by Nghi Vo. Into the Riverlands is the third novella in this series, and I still love every moment of it.

Chih is a wandering cleric – by choice and by trade. They love their task, as their only goal is to collect as many stories as possible. Through this, their order can ensure that the voices and stories of the people are heard.

This adventure has taken Chih to Betony Docks, a dangerous area. Chih likely would have ended up in quite a bit of trouble had two young women, and an older couple not all decided to travel alongside Chih. Along the way, there will be more stories to collect.

My description of Into the Riverlands does not do it justice. Seriously – I adore this series, but I think Into the Riverlands is my favorite of the bunch (so far). It is intense and beautiful. In truth, I could add a hundred more adjectives and still feel like it doesn't encompass how this novella made me feel.

So, why did I love this novella over the others? I think it's the tone and perhaps the moral of the story. Much of the tales told in Into the Riverlands focus on beauty versus ugliness and how women are portrayed in tales. There's something we can all learn from that if you ask me.

It's also simply a lot of fun! I adore the new characters and am sad to see them go. I understand why they couldn't take up permanent camp alongside Chih and Almost Brilliant, but you can't blame me for hoping.

If you haven't read The Singing Hills Cycle but love fantasy and legends, please take a few moments to check it out. If you've read the previous two, you've got to pick up Into the Riverlands and give it a read! It's worth it.

Into The Riverlands features the same main character, our chronicler, who gathers stories across the world. Chi of course takes center stage and this time they are traveling into the Riverland's, self explanatory, as the title clearly states but they have a small crew with them this time. 2 martial artists sisters and an old married couple but not everything is as it seems between them all. This story has a very compelling focus on the way heroes are almost always considered to be beautiful, and what that means and how that can be addressed. It was a really interesting view and this one dives deep into Chi characters as well way more than the previous 2 so it felt more personal but still had a really fun feel to it with all the characters joining in on telling stories.

Story: B+
Prose: A-
Characters: B-
World: B-
Theme(s): A
Enjoyment: B

The Good:
Solid prose: Vo has a lovely and well-developed writing style that is also fairly readable.
Clever: Every novella in the series says something clever about stories and storytelling and the storytellers!
Enjoyable and distinct cast: They were fleshed out well for the short period of time we spent with them, and enjoyable to read about.
Satisfying blend of plot and historical tales: if you didn't know, the main character is a travelling cleric who listens to regular folks recollect stories/history, and there is usually a small twist about the person and the story.


The Bad:
Some weak sentences: There were some awkward sentences with easy fixes. But they might be changed in the retail version! I read an ARC, after all.
World: You can technically read the series in any order, but the first one has the most information about the world. You don't need this information at all to understand or appreciate the story, but I know some readers get annoyed when they don't know everything. A little blurb at the beginning would go a long way.
Bit of a slow start: Takes longer to get to ease into the "meat" of the story than previous novellas.

Other:
Thematic satisfaction vs making the reader feel clever. This is where we come to the YMMV portion. Riverlands is about how there is no 100% perfectly true version of a tale, but how every version of the tale contains some truth. Of the many stories Chih hears during their journey, Vo could have made it very clear which pieces form the ultimate "true" story, which would make the readers feel smarter for seeing the pieces, but come at the cost of thematic integrity.

I went into this not having reading any of the previous novellas set in this world and I have to say it was super easy to get stuck into the story. I quickly bonded with Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant, a talking bird and their companion who can recall everything they have ever been told. Their job is to roam the riverlands, in search for new stories to take back and pass on. The story starts with them meeting two young women, Wei Jintai and Mac Sang, when they stop at an Inn for lunch, quickly followed by an older couple, Lao Bingyi and her husband Khanh. All looking for safe travel, they decide to band together and risk the walk through the bandit rife riverlands. But Cleric Chih quickly comes to realise that his travel companions are not all that they seem, and before long find themselves embroiled in an ancient feud where they are forced to confront old legends and learn that every story bears more than one face.

This isn't my first story by the author, having read Siren Queen earlier this year, but Into the Riverlands is told in a much lighter and entertaining voice that I couldn't help but adore. For such a small story, we still get plenty of character exploration, especially around Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant. Their interactions, were both heartwarming and hilarious in parts, and I loved how Chih understood Almost Brilliants need to stay away from danger, that the stories he carries are worth more than Chih's life, something which he never resents.

I'm a sucker for stories that contain stories, so this was the perfect novella for me. Vo really shows how important it is to pass on tales to future generations. How stories are passed from person to person, and sometimes these are the only way we have of knowing that something actually occurred. But she also shows that perception plays such a large roll in the telling of the stories. How a person wants to be, or is perceived can change the tale completely, how focusing on one trait; their beauty, their wit, fighting skills, brains can eclipse anything else about the person, and through this novella we see how all stories have more than one perception, more than one idea of what actually happened, something that Vo shows us, not just with the tales she tells throughout the story, but through the characters in the novella itself.

Safe to say I fell a little in love with Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant, and I will certainly be picking up the first two books in the series. If you want a little light fantasy, filled with stories and folklore but also plenty of action then I can highly recommend this series!

I'm loving The Singing Hills Cycle and this novella was a great addition.
Nghi Vo deliver another gripping and intringuing story and I can't wait to read the next one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

A wonderful new addition to Singing Hills Cycle. It was a quick and adventurous read that swept me in the whole time. I love when a book makes me forget I'm reading. Especially, when a book is less than 100 pages.

I did feel like this one was more of an adventurous feel than the other two. There was more action going on than storytelling. The other two required a lot more storytelling that took up most of the length. That wasn't the case with this one.

I hope the author visits the Riverlands again, because there is a lot more I want to know. Like the Hollow Hands and more stories of fighters from the lands like the Wu siblings.

In this book, there was a lot more not explained. Like there was more mystery still left rather than wrapping it all up. I feel like those stories that were partially mentioned should be completed like the first two.

And like Chih was able to ask questions through the story and they were answered but that didn't happen this time. I felt like Chih was a bit of a different character than in the other two books.

But I do like how this book gave me an almost homey feel. All of their books have done that. Maybe it's the storytelling involved that makes you think of your own times, telling stories.

Anyway, I can't wait for the next installment in this series. Like I previously stated, I would like Chih to stay in the Riverlands a second time and get more stories out of it.