Despite a decent amount of hype, I only read Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune when it showed up on the Hugo ballot in 2021, and it was one of the biggest pleasant surprises of my Hugo reading. I never circled back to the second entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, but given that they can all be read as standalones, that didn’t stop me from requesting an ARC for the third: Into the Riverlands.

Like the rest of the series, the story is framed around cleric Chih and their feathered companion Almost Brilliant wandering the countryside searching for stories, whether historic or mythic. Into the Riverlands sees them enter the titular, rough-and-tumble riverlands, where they encounter some tales and some people who are larger than life.

While The Empress of Salt and Fortune was a single story, told obliquely through a series of vignettes around a central character, Into the Riverlands has much more the feel of story-collecting. We see much more of Chih and Almost Brilliant in their travels, and though there is a line connecting many of the tales they encounter, it still feels like a collection of tall tales, rather than a single epic.

But Vo absolutely nails the folkloric voice in the each tale, and Chih’s travel companions are entertaining enough to keep the journey interesting in its own right. And with a length that barely passes the line from novelette into novella, it doesn’t really need a strong central plot—it may be hard to keep a reader engaged for 300 pages with traveling and storytelling punctuated by periodic action, but it makes for an excellent 100 pages. And the details really add to the overall experience, from the interruptions as different characters recount slightly different versions of the same central legend to the entire party roundly mocking an absurd theater production of a classic story.

As the book progresses, connections between various stories become more and more obvious, building to an entertaining and satisfying climax. But it’s not the sort of tale that ties every single thread together in a neat bow. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. The group of travelers is plenty entertaining enough to fill a short novella with chatting and telling stories. There’s certainly danger at times, so I hesitate to slap it with the “cozy” label, but I expect Into the Riverlands to hit big for fans of low-stakes fantasy.

Recommended if you like: low-stakes fantasy, folklore, odd travel comparisons.

Overall rating: 17 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

Into the Riverlands is a cozy novella that follows a cleric named Chih and the stories they gather on the road. It has a couple beats of action, and packs a surprising amount into such a little tale. The world has a lot of depth and this book made me excited to check out the other ones in the series. I did read this as my entry into this world and it absolutely worked as a standalone!

There’s not a lot to say about this one, but if you’re looking for a quick cozy read, this is a solid option.

Chih, a cleric charged with gathering histories along their journeys, has reached the riverlands with their faithful talking bird companion, Almost Brilliant. The pair fall in with traveling martial artists and discover multifaceted stories from many perspectives. The Signing Hills Cycle is contemplative and lyrical, and Into the Riverlands fits in well with its sibling stories. An excellent morsel of a book, though its short length left me wanting more.

All of Vo's writing reads like a dream you are slowly remembering you had last night, like a story you forgot you knew perfectly. She nails the coming together of these characters and the mini-family they build for their journey. The questions of backgrounds are left almost confirmed, but with just the lightest touch of vagueness that you feel like you have been let in on a secret, rather than had something spelled out for you. I didn't realize that this was part of a larger series when I read it. The characters here are fully able to stand on their own without any prior knowledge. I devoured this story in a day, and almost wish I had taken more time to savor it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for providing me with this arc!

Loved this book. An excellent story about stories. The Singing Hills Cycle contains wonderful stories to drag you right into their world. If you’re looking for a quick and delightful fantasy, this is the book for you.

Into the Riverlands brings us to a different area of the world when Chih encounters a bar fight and is trust into the company of two unlikely duo's.

The Singing Hills Cycle is a unique look at the world these stories are set in. Cleric Chih, accompanied by the talking bird Almost Brilliant, sets down a wonderful world building and a great cultural and historical feel. And that shows again with Into the Riverlands.

Chih is a pleasant character to follow because they bring balance and an interesting look into the story. She manages to open up people to tell their stories and is always genuinely interested. She knows the importance of stories and recording events as they are. Multiple sides if needed. And that is such a needed perspective, even in our current times.

As with the previous two instalments, I really enjoyed this novella. This one ventures into new territory, literally and figuratively, as we move into the Riverlands and also get some fantastic martial arts scenes. The young me who loved anything related to martial arts was squealing in glee. I thought the people Cleric Chih meets in this one were particularly brilliant, and I loved the stories they both did and didn't tell. This one ends with a whiff of mystery; the author lets you draw your own assumptions about what you think happened, and I really loved that.

This has been one of the most fun series I’ve read in recent times, so I was very excited when a new installment was announced. And this felt like something that was written just for me.

The past two years has been me absolutely binging and adoring Chinese wuxia dramas, so imagine my delight when I read the premise of this story. The author does a brilliant job bringing the delight and charm of those dramas to this lovely little novella and we get a tale of legends, amazing martial artists, awesome fight sequences and discussions of their styles (really reminiscent of Condor Heroes) and the overall freedom in being able to traverse through the dangerous riverlands and fight against bandits.

It’s always nice to be back with our favorite cleric Chic and the sassiest bird Almost Brilliant whose one liners make this book even more fun. But I thought this was all Lao Bingyi’s show - mysterious woman and brilliant fighter, who definitely has so much more to do and share with the world. Wei Jintai didn’t have too many lines in the book but she definitely is a legend in making herself and I had this intense wish to know what happens to her next.

Overall, this was a slightly bloody, but charming story, reminding one of all our favorite wuxia stories, whether you’ve watched the dramas or read Jin Yong’s books. It starts off with the signature tavern brawl and only gets more fun from there, so if you wanna indulge in some nostalgia, don’t miss this quick and entertaining read.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian-Tor/FORGE for my ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Nghi Vo continues "The Singing Hills Cycle" series with "Into the Riverlands". Our wandering cleric, Chih, travels to the riverlands to record stories of these mysterious and notorious near-immortal martial artists that are known to haunt the region. What Chih expected to be an easy time of gathering stories becomes far more than they anticipated. Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, they encounter new dangers and stories.

I love Vo's writing. I've been a huge and consistent fan since "The Empress of Salt and Fortune" and I have rarely been disappointed by Vo. I still have yet to be disappointed! With this recent entry into the series, while it is definitely a slower burn in comparison to the other books in the series, it was fun! Vo's storytelling is still top notch and the stories we're told were all so interesting and led to a bigger story. I just really enjoyed this one.

I love the "The Singing Hills Cycle" and really enjoyed this one despite the slower entry. Vo's writing really pulls towards excellence. I will not be surprised if this series becomes a classic.

What Vo keeps bringing to The Singing Hills Cycle is just raw and enjoyable storytelling. With every installment, the stories get bigger, the enemies from the shadows reincarnated, the companions are powerful and mysterious and our cleric's appetite for documenting and consuming stories is still insatiable. Their way of also reflecting the beauty of queer relationships is stellar as well as the subtle yet poignant way in which she calls out who gets centered in stories that are passed down. There was never a dull moment and I do hope that there is more to come in this series.

I was fully expecting to love Into The Riverlands after enjoying the first two Singing Hills books. I wasn’t disappointed. Nghi Vo writes with such eloquence, each book feels like a fully realised tale despite its length.

Into the Riverlands again follows story historian cleric Chih and their cheeky bird companion Almost Brilliant as they search for more local stories about evil bandits and heroic warriors. The first two books focus on the stories recounted to Chih, this book instead places the cleric in the middle of an unfolding, exciting adventure. We get more time with Chih than we ever have, experiencing their emotional reactions to the action around them (something I felt was sometimes lacking in the earlier novellas).

One of my favourite elements of the series is the queer representation, from a non binary main character throughout, to sapphic romances in the first two books, to something different and equally lovely in this novella. Everything feels right and fluid in the world Vo has created. The new characters we meet are well rounded and the best kind of mysterious. There’s fighting, romance and several surprises. Although it takes a little longer than the other books to get to the crux of the story, Into the Riverlands has the most satisfying ending/reveal so far. Highly recommend.

The Singing Hills novellas never cease to captivate me and to leave my heart so full once I'm done. This one's not an exception : I found very refreshing the change of pacing with the the two first books because of the events actually happening in the present timeline. I adored the story that Chih is told and the lovely older polyam relationship we get to witness.
And I loved the final message : your story is your own and you deserve to be remembered.

Into The Riverlands, a novella by Nghi Vo, impressed me a lot. This isn’t particularly surprising, given that Vo is one of the best new voices in fantasy and Riverlands is the third in a novella anthology that all have been fabulous. But the thing that really resonated with me about Riverlands, and The Singing Hills Cycle in general, is that in the evolving and exploding realm of novellas, this series feels like the gold standard of what to do with the space. I will dig into this more, but let’s talk about Into The Riverlands’ plot first.

The Singing Hills Cycle follows our wandering cleric protagonist, Chih of the Singing Hills, as they travel to the Riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. Much like the previous chapters of this series, this standalone story focuses on Chih going to a new location rich in myth and talking to locals to try and get to the bottom and record local legends. The Riverlands is essentially a floodplain of drunk martial artists beating the crap out of each other, and Chih is left to weave their way through flying fists and chairs to interview people who are in the middle of combat. It is a charming and funny tale that uses its short form to showcase some fabulous martial arts and make some powerful points before wrapping up and heading out.

We have written some about Martha Wells’ incredible Murderbot novellas (which we love), but represent a worrying trend in publishing. Novellas are a wonderful space to tell very targeted stories, but they are getting expensive, and doing a long-form story across five $15 novellas as opposed to one book can be frustrating, no matter how amazing the content is. Conversely, The Singing Hills feels like the perfect use of the medium even though the number of volumes is ballooning.

Each entry in this series focuses on and examines mythology, storytelling, history, and personal truths. Each novella has these foci and each one knocks it out of the park. But they also all have their own specialized themes, ideas, locales, and cultures that they explore to great effect—and the stories can be picked up, put down, and completed in any order and still completely work. In particular, as a dungeon master who has been running campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons for a while, I am just blown away by Vo’s ability to explore narrative, myth, worldbuilding, and storytelling in such a small space to such great effect.

I adore Into The Riverlands. This martial arts short adds new dimensions and richness to The Singing Hills Cycle, only increasing my desire to sell this series like a street corner crier. These stories are worth your time, will warm your heart, and will make you a better storyteller at the same time.

Rating: Into The Riverlands – 10/10
-Andrew

Thanks NetGalley and MacMillian/Tor for the e-ARC.

I loved this little novella, it was a perfect quick read. The way the lore wrapped around and informed real characters was a cute and unexpected link.

Nghi Vo creates such a beautiful world with few words but with incredible weight. Novellas can sometimes fall flat in their worlds but I felt like I truly grasped at how lush and beautiful this truly was. The wuxia vibes really pulled me in immediately and I was laughing out loud at some moments and grinning at others. I was engaged in this book in a way I don't get to experience as often as I'd like to.

Chih is such a fun character to follow, and Almost Brilliant makes for one of the most fun animal companions! The way stories grow and are told to us as a reader is something that makes this so unique and beautiful.

The vibrancy, the banter, the way these characters grow and show off these multiple facets of themselves... to accomplish such a thing in a novella is something truly admirable.

The fight scenes are memorable. The action leaves you breathless and almost moving with it, holding your breath and gripping your seat.. The love of story-telling shines through as these tales are woven like a rich tapestry. The way Chih listens and tells us, the reader, what it all means while still giving it room to blossom... truly, all I wanted was more and more. I especially loved the way Chih notes that one day they will be asked to recall how Wei Jintai asked them to make sure the world knows her sister is beautiful, handsome, and strong. It certainly spoke to the way beauty makes for stories and rarely for history.

While this is my entry into this series, I will immediately be going to read the others. There are authors who manage to capture lightning in a bottle and it's few and far between, and boy... was this lightning.

I liked this so much I’m going to go read again. Brb.

The third installment in a series of novellas that loosely centers on Chih, a disciple of The Singing Hills monastery in China, which collects stories. Any and all stories, traveling the land with their neixin bird, Almost Brilliant, who has eidetic memory and serves as a living story repository. They’ve come to the riverlands to seek new stories.

“The whole world talks about the martial legends that come out of the riverlands, and I would like to see what the riverlands might want to say if they were asked.”

Character development is perfect for a novella length story, giving us insights into travelers Chih and Absolute Brilliance meet on their journey. They meet the young women Wei Jintai and Mac Sang in an inn when they stop for lunch, and are soon joined by the middle-aged couple Lao Bingyi and her husband Khanh. Chih’s plays a larger role in this book, not just guiding story collection, and I found I enjoyed the moments the narrative focused on them.

“They weren’t brave, and despite the shaved head and the indigo robes, they weren’t particularly virtuous, but more than anything else, they were curious, and sometimes that could stand in for the rest.”

Chih’s development builds nice layering into the meaning of Into the Riverlands and about how stories are both historical and living; that even as we are the audience for stories, meaning is different on perspective; stories are also lived, and in fact, one may be part of a living story right now.

“‘Sometimes you get told about it,’ they said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe you get told about it two or three times, and you just don’t know what you’re hearing.'”

There’s also the story-within-a-story device, and those shorter pieces are equally well developed.

Really, it’s an intriguing little tale that I wanted to go on and on. It reminds me quite a bit of Bridge of Birds, with less silliness, more gravitas. It also reminded me just a little of The Steerswoman, which also contains a community of people devoted to collected knowledge by travelling throughout the land. Highly recommended. This is a series that would be a delightful addition to have in hardcover for my library.



Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Tor/Forge Publishing Group for the ARC. Of course, all opinions are my own.

This was a quick fable from the author of "Siren Queen" that went down easily. We get to revisit the wandering cleric Chih with their talking bird "Almost Brilliant." This brief adventure was fun to read but didn't dwell as much on the main characters and their interactions, which I found most entertaining in an earlier volume. Vo's writing is, as ever, a delight to read.

Into The Riverlands, the third in the Singing Hills Cycle, is my book of the day.

“Chih didn’t spend very much time with children, but they lived in stories, and for a little while, they could invite the children of Betony Docks into a house they made, offering them the fragile shelter of a story they had all built together.”

Almost Brilliant rejoins Cleric Chih as they collect stories in the Riverlands bound to a new collection of travelers. While reading all of the Singing Hills Cycle in order is a treat, it isn’t required as each novella is a unique adventure. Traveling with an expert martial artist and a lady of means they stumble into a resurgence of “The Hollow Hands”, bandits using violence to exploit others.

Full of outsized, colorful characters as the members trade stories of martial arts masters defeating bandits and villains of the Riverlands. Gloriously visual storytelling with some secrets tucked inside. Readers who enjoy folktales and fables will find much to enjoy in this and all the Singing Hills Cycle. A great quick read for those in a reading slump or looking for a “palate cleansing” read between long, involved books.

Thanks @Netgalley and @TorDotComPub for the opportunity to preview this title out 10.25.22

Did I expect this novella to be exceptional? Yes. Was I therefore pleased as punch when I read it, and it was even better than I’d hoped? YES. The first two installments of the Singing Hills Cycle were masterpieces of storytelling, and Into the Riverlands is no different. How Nghi Vo manages to pack so much into ~115 pages is beyond me. The story had that quality of feeling effortlessly great, which of course means a remarkable amount of work and talent went into it. The world is lush and boasts a complex, fascinating history, the characters are intriguing from the moment you meet them, and our protagonist Chih is the perfect viewpoint into it all. (They might be my most favorite aspect of this series, honestly; a cleric whose job is to travel around and collect stories/histories? Said cleric uses they/them and does such things as abandoning their supposed vegetarian diet whenever no one will notice? I LOVE Chih.) I can’t find anything to fault here, this took me all of a slow morning to read and it was a good time the whole way through. If you haven’t picked up any of these novellas yet, get on it.

Nghi Vo’s books are always such a delight, and the newest instalment of The Singing Hills Cycle is no different.

In Into the Riverlands, we’re following the Cleric Chih and their companion, Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with incredible memory. The two collect and document the stories of those they meet and the adventures they experience along the way.

Book 3 in this series sees Chih and Almost Brilliant meet and travel with a group of 4 vastly different, wonderfully unique people with whom they learn from and lean on throughout their journey.

After reading the first two books in this series, I already loved Chih and Almost Brilliant, and this instalment confirmed that. I also thoroughly enjoyed the new characters in this one and would love more of them. I’d read a book just about Wei Jintai anyday!

The writing in this book is beautifully done, with poetic descriptions and fast-paced action. I loved hearing all of the different stories told throughout the book, and the witty quips here and there made it fun to read. I devoured this in one short sitting so if you’re looking for a quick read that’ll soothe your soul, I highly recommend Into the Riverlands and the entire Singing Hills Cycle!

Thank you so much to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!