Nghi Vo is an auto-read author for me and it is large part to this series of novellas. Each story is expertly crafted and tells incredibly human stories of love, friendship, and home. The Mammoths at the Gate is no different.

Perfect for a few quiet hours and a refreshing story, this series should be on everyone’s list.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Tor for letting me read this early.

This series of books is definitely worth the read. I always recommend it to customers who are looking for a different, and short, fantasy read.

Nghi Vo's *Mammoth*, the fourth entry in the Singing Hills Archives series, masterfully blends subtlety with profound emotional resonance, exploring themes of change, homecoming, and the nuanced tapestry of memory and grief. The novella unfolds as a contemplative journey rather than a traditional narrative filled with overt action. As Chih returns to the Singing Hills Abbey after four years of travel and storytelling, the reader is invited to reflect on the complexities of returning home—not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.

From the outset, Vo captures the essence of change with evocative prose, skillfully contrasting the familiarity of Chih's past with the new realities they encounter. The juxtaposition of the comforting yet unchanging Abbey with the presence of war mammoths, powerful symbols of both threat and transformation, emphasizes the novella’s central tension. Chih's reflections on their past relationships, coupled with the inevitability of growth and adaptation, illustrate the often-painful process of coming to terms with how much we—and those we love—can change. The poignant assertion, “If you love someone, you must let them change,” resonates deeply, encapsulating the novella’s core message about acceptance and the necessity of letting go.

Vo’s writing is beautifully restrained, avoiding the conventional story-within-a-story structure prevalent in earlier novellas, which allows for a more focused exploration of Chih's character. The lyrical quality of the prose invites readers to fill in the gaps, rendering the experience immersive. The simplicity of the narrative's structure may initially seem a limitation, yet it ultimately serves to heighten the emotional weight of Chih’s journey. As they grapple with memories and the evolving landscape of their relationships, the exploration of grief and the passage of time takes on a tender poignancy.

Despite its brevity—just 118 pages—*Mammoth at the gates* grapples with substantial themes, although not without some pitfalls. The initial array of plot elements can feel overwhelming, as the story flits between various potential narratives: the imminent threat of the mammoths, Chih's homecoming, and deeper explorations of their background and community. This ambitious scope can leave certain elements feeling underdeveloped, creating an uneven experience. However, this does not detract significantly from the overall impact; rather, it invites reflection on the limits of narrative and the beauty found in what remains unsaid.

The novella is rich with imagery and humor, balancing moments of levity—like the absurdity of smoke bombs made from horse dung and spicy peppers—with the weighty themes of loss and change. The humor, particularly embodied in new characters like Chiep, provides a refreshing counterpoint to the more serious reflections on mortality and identity.

Ultimately, *Mammoths at the gates* serves as a profound meditation on the nature of stories—both those we carry within us and those we collect throughout our lives. Vo's exploration of memory, love, and the passage of time is both heartbreaking and hopeful. While the novella may leave some threads untied, it undeniably enriches the tapestry of the Cleric Chih series, inviting readers to embrace the beauty of storytelling and the importance of connection in an ever-changing world. In *Mammoths at the gates*, Nghi Vo has crafted a quietly powerful work that resonates long after the final page is turned.

Like the other instalments in this series, Mammoths at the Gates is much too short. Vo writes with so much care when telling these stories, I want to spend as much time as possible inside this world. I think the length of the story this time may have worked against everything Vo was trying to accomplish. There were a lot of big ideas and loose ends to bring together and with a limited amount of time I was left feeling like the resolutions were a little shallow. It doesn't take away from Vo's beautiful storytelling, though.

Another wonderful addition to Vo’s Singing Hills series. Vo’s ability to fully flesh out the world and character in such a short book awes me every time.

This series keeps getting better and better! While this installment leans less on the cozy side due to its subject matter, it still retains a very sweet essence. One thing to note is that this book may not pack as much of a punch if you haven't read the previous entries in the series.

I wasn't expecting the level of drama and sadness but it is a great addition to the series as a whole.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read the other books in the series!

A poignant story about the grieving process that details the importance of holding the memories of those we've lost in our hearts.

Cleric Chih is coming home to the Singing Hills, but they are not met with the warm welcome they expected. Many of the clerics have gone, the beloved Cleric Thien has died and there are two giant mammoths at the gates with riders who claim that Cleric Thien was their grandfather and want to take his body back to be buried in Northern Bell Pass.

Full of tranquil settings, magical bird spirits, and loveable nonbinary clerics, Mammoths at the Gates is a poignant story about the grieving process that details the importance of holding the memories of those we've lost in our hearts.

4.5 stars

I’ve always been amazed at good novellas. Yes, they have more time than a poem or flash fiction or a short story, but they still have roughly half the length of a novel (most of the time, it seems), and they’re still able to fit in plenty of character depth and growth, as well as intriguing stories and magic systems and plots. It’s amazing and impressive. Being able to pack that much of a punch in only a 100-200 pages is amazing.

Plus, I love novellas for palette cleansers when reading a bunch of huge fantasy books, or just as a way to boost myself up at the beginning of a readathon because I can read them fairly quickly and then I feel accomplished in a short amount of time. It’s the same reason I start my readathons with a few volumes of manga.

Anyway, The Singing Hills Cycle follows Cleric Chih and their talking fantastical bird companion Almost Brilliant, and this particular installment feels like the most emotional of the bunch so far. It was also nice to get to follow Chih back to the abbey where they were trained and get some of those memories, while also confronting fellow clerics who stayed behind while Chih went out into the world.

We get to see this woven tapestry of blood family and chosen family, and the way life paths diverge and reconnect, as well as exploring the nature of grief, while looking at how a person can change over their lifetime and how that can affect those around them and those they leave behind.

For some reason I still don’t own any of the novellas in this series, and I think I need to correct that oversight, because I have been swept away by each of these stories, and I really should have them on my shelves. I also need to explore Nghi Vo’s other works, because I definitely do like her writing style and her plots and characterizations.

I love the Singing Hills series so much. Mammoths at the Gates was another great addition to the series. I love Vo’s writing and the adventures of our favorite cleric!

Mammoths at the Gates, the fourth novella in Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills Cycle, finally introduces readers to Cleric Chih’s home monastery. Chih’s return to Singing Hills is not as joyous as it should be. Chih’s mentor, Cleric Thien, has passed away. Most of the monastery inhabitants are away studying a recently uncovered flooded city. And Singing Hills is being threatened by the granddaughters of Cleric Thien, who want their grandfather’s remains to lie in state, because of his high status as clan head before becoming a Cleric and be buried alongside their recently deceased grandmother. Chih must find a way to help the acting head of the monastery, who also happens to be Chih’s childhood best friend Ru, deal with the granddaughters while honoring Thien’s memory and teachings under the traditions of Singing Hills.

Mammoths at the Gates is one of several books I’ve read recently that delve into the myriad ways in which we process grief and loss. Both Chih and Ru exhibit behaviors I found very familiar as they process their loss: the great outpouring of emotion only when alone or with the closest of friends, and the using of work, even if it’s just “busy work,” to blunt the raw emotions enough to get through the days/weeks that follow the loss. But while for Chih keeping busy is a choice, for Ru it is a requirement; as acting head of Singing Hills Ru must attend to the visitors at the gates as well as the day-to-day operations of the monastery. Vo also expertly addresses the swings that happen from recalling happy memories to recognizing the reality that the person is truly gone, including those moments when we “hear” the person, or “see” them out of the corner of our eye and think for a moment that maybe news of their passing was incorrect … or those moments when we simply forget the person is gone.

By contrast, there is Thien’s avian companion Many Virtues. In the Singing Hills Cycle, Cleric are accompanied by neixin, birds with infallible memory – they recall everything they see and hear, which makes them amazing repositories of world history, legend, and the details of an individual’s life. The bond between Cleric and neixin is indelible and deep. Through Many Virtues, Vo explores what happens when our sense of loss is so profound we cannot imagine continuing to live without the one we’ve lost, and how sometimes that leads to self-harm (off-screen, in this case).

Through Thien’s granddaughters, Vo also looks at the way we sometimes mourn an idea rather than a real person. These granddaughters didn’t actually know their grandfather. But they were brought up on stories of his career and they say the palpable love their grandmother held for their grandfather even after he’d become a Cleric. But they still mourn the loss as though they knew him directly, mirroring the way in our world we mourn the passing of celebrities we’ve never actually met as though we knew them intimately.

Vo also comments on the cultural/societal ways in which we “say goodbye,” the rituals that are attached to acknowledging a person’s passing and the impact they had on our lives. I found Singing Hills’ ceremony, one of storytelling about the deceased with a touch of ritual rather than one focused more on the ritual than the person, to be sweet and ideal, providing some of the most poignant moments of the book.

Chih also must navigate the changes in their relationship with Run. As a traveling Cleric, Chih has been away from the monastery more than they have been present, while for reasons of health Ru has not been able to travel and has had to forge a life in the absence of their best friend. Watching Chih reconcile the past with the present was a bit uncomfortable at times but was important for both characters.
Even though this is the fourth book in the series, the Singing Hills novellas are all stand-alone. So even if you haven’t read the preceding three books you can pick up Mammoths at the Gates and quickly understand Cleric Chih and their world. For those that have read the earlier novellas, there are oblique references to those events that will tantalize without making new readers feel like they are missing vital information. (And the fifth Singing Hills Cycle entry, The Brides of High Hall, comes out on May 7, 2024!)

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I didn’t really care for this entire series. Which is surprising, because I like the authors other works very much. I feel like I was thrown into these, and it wasn’t good for me as a reader. I like to have a little bit of set up.

The Mammoths at the Gate is one of the most beautiful novellas I have read. The Singing Hills novellas are all beautifully written and show such a love for story telling and what that can mean to/for people. The Mammoths at the Gate covers grief in such a beautiful way. It explores what it means to grieve for someone who may have done some bad things. Should we feel love, should it be diminished. Nigh Vo covers this topic with care and grace in a way no one else can. I highly recommend this to all.

Another solid novella in this wonderful series! It's a little on the quieter side than the rest, but it's no less good! I'm such a fan of this author and these books, and I can't wait for the next ones.

The Singing Hills Cycle is one of my favourite series, so it was no surprise to me that I enjoyed this book immensely; what did surprise me is that Mammoths at the Gates is my favourite entry so far. This novella revolves around grief, the ways we cope and stories we tell after someone is gone, and the fallibility of our objectivity in the aftermath. Each of these novellas has a fable-like feel and this one more so than most. I loved it and I will continue to devour each new entry in the Singing Hills Cycle for as long as it goes on.

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

Another gorgeous entry into the Singing Hills cycle. I really liked that we finally got a look at the abbey itself, and a bit more about Cleric Chih's own life and friends and of course - the neixin!! Also, sorry to say that though this does offer a really beautiful meditation on grief and how stories and memory are what we leave behind my absolute favorite part was the neixin baby daddy reveal at the end. That was excellent and added a lot of interesting depth to all the aviary scenes, and answered my burning question of, "really, Almost Brilliant is just going to leave her daughter alone for a whole night while she sits up with Myriad Virtues??"

As always, it's just a real pleasure to be in this world. At this point in the series there's been enough other material that we're getting some call-backs but also a lot of new glimpses into the world and its history, which is a great balance to strike. You really can't go wrong with these books if you want a little treat of inventive fantasy, and this is one of the stronger entries of the group.

Chih returns home after many years to things being very different and yet, somehow, the same in many ways. But the changes that are there with people result in a lot of grief and reflection on the past. The Singing Hills Abbey is also threatened by the presence of (two military mammoths, a furious lawyer, and a practical military leader. And Chih tries to find a way to resolve the conflict whether it is their place or not.

Overall, I liked this. It's about change, grief, and loss. It was sad, but also sweet and hopeful and nostalgia. I loved seeing more of the neixin and the family life there. Chiep is adorable. It was really nice to read and learn more about the Abbey and Chih' relationship with it and Ru. The ending was not my favorite, since it just relies on the unknowns around the neixin, but overall, would still highly recommend.

A beautiful story about grief, and loss, and home — this book took my breath away. This is one of my favourite installments in the Singing Hills Cycle - it was truly incredible.

I couldn’t read this when i first got the arc, because it hadn’t been long enough since my dad passed and i wasnt ready. I’m still not ready, nor will I ever be, but I found comfort in this book. Thank you for reminding me just how important memories are.

MAMMOTHS AT THE GATE by @nghivowriting is the fourth installment of THE SINGING HILLS CYCLE and it's as enchanting and delightful as its predecessors. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher, @tordotcompub for the e-ARC.

This episode of this cozy, historical, fantasy novella series finds Cleric Chih, our travelling cleric, returning to their home, the Singing Hills Abbey after three years of travelling and collecting stories, to help bury their mentor. They find themselves in the middle of a cultural and political battle for the corporal remains of this great cleric: his granddaughters have arrived upon the backs of royal mammoths demanding the abbey turn over his body to be buried with their clan. Chih must help to alleviate the tension between these two factions to keep the peace and protect their home.

Listen, I can't rave enough about this series. Wholesome, cozy, inquisitive, heartbreaking AND heartwarming, and magical are some descriptors that come to mind. There is lgbtqia representation, historical and cultural references from the Asian diaspora, articulate avians with fancy names, thought-provoking dialogue, adventurous journeys, found family, mythical storytelling, and much more. AND all the installments are novellas so far so they can often be read in one or two sittings.

This one is out in the world now and the next novella is coming out in 2024. Muppet arms!! What are you waiting for?!?!

What is (are) your favorite book series right now and why? I am super into novella series right now so this, WAYWARD CHILDREN and MURDERBOT are probably my current top 3.

💚SMASHBOT 💚