Mammoths at the Gates is the fourth installment of Nghi Vo's exceptional novella series 'The Singing Hills Cycle'. In this book we finally get to visit the eponymous abbey and explore a far more personal side of the protagonist Chih as they deal with the grief of returning home to find their mentor has passed. This is not made any easier by the presence of the deceased cleric's family demanding they be returned home.
This story was yet another wonderful exploration of oral history and perspectives on storytelling - possibly the most powerful of the books so far in terms of theme and personal connection. I never quite know where a Singing Hills book is going to take me and was surprised by how emotional this particular novella made me. Where I had felt that Into the Riverlands didn't hit quite so hard as the first two books in the serie - Mammoths at the Gates provides a firm punch to the gut - in the best way.
Fans of the series will no doubt love getting to learn more about Chih and the monastery while still appreciating the plot of the novellas. For those who have yet to pick up any of the books in this series I would highly recommend doing so (my personal favourite way to consume them is by audio) especially since we now know definitively that these four books together are truly fantastic.
Nghi Vo is a master of the novella format and I look forward to reading more in whatever worlds they are creating in at the moment. A firm auto-buy author for me for sure.
My rating: 5 stars
I received a free digital review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley - all opinions are my own.

As always, Nghi Vo delivers! As the fourth installment in The Singing Hills Cycle, we finally catch a glimpse of the Singing Hills Abbey; moreover, as someone who is fully immersed in this world, it was very interesting to see the customs and some more of Chih's past. It does read a bit differently than the first 3 books; however, the essence of storytelling still plays a major role in a way that is unique to the series.
Additionally, the reader sees more of the personalities and inner thoughts of the characters. Chih plays a more central role, where we see more of who they are. We also see the nexien, which has always intrigued me, and I hope to learn more about this world through more novellas.

Mammoths at the Gates

By: Nghi Vo

Publish Date: 12 September 2023

Publisher: Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom

Sci Fi, Fantasy

100 Book ReviewsProfessional Reader

I would like to thank both NetGalley and Tor Publishing for allowing me to read and review this book.

Good Reads Synposis:

The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.

Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass–and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honoring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve.

But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .

Book Review:

This is the fourth and final book in the series. I gave this book 3 stars. I wasn’t as invested in this book as the one before it. This story seemed to drag on for me. I did like that I could feel their pain of a lost one. I kept getting lost in the story and having to go back in the book to figure out what was going on and who was who. I really wish I could have given this last book a better rating and review, but the book was just ok for me.

4 stars!
I had to go back and read the Singing Hills Cycle series because I was like hold up wait what. I'm glad I did because I was able to understand the book even better and my favorite part was the friendship. Is it just me or does friendship in well written books just makes you emotional? I just love this and I thank the publisher and Netgalley for this e-ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC edition of this book.

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo is another installment of the Singing Hills Cycle. These books are small but mighty, containing and entwining multiple tales into one. It is representative of Cleric Chih's experiences from the prior novels as Chih has come home at last from years of travel. Instead of the anticipated rest and filing of the stories into the archive, there are quite literally mammoths at the gate, and things are not quite as they recall them being when they left on their travels. This series is definitely one of my favorites and I always look forward to the next one. I loved getting the chance to finally arrive at the Singing Hills Abbey. These books are such a pleasure to read and Vo's ability to use the characters and their personal narratives to tell the tale is phenomenal.

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo is, as is usual for any entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, a lot of stories in one story. Usually the interwoven tales are the result of Cleric Chih’s journeys as they collect tales for their abbey, but for this fourth installment, Chih has finally returned home to recuperate from years on the road.

Only, as the title suggests, there are some mammoths at the gates. War mammoths specifically, which readers will recall from the first book, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, are powerful enough to topple empires. Yet there they stand, outside a humble monastery while their humans demand to take charge of a recently deceased cleric’s remains, Cleric Thien—their grandfather. And with their remains, the story of their life.

The stakes in Mammoths at the Gates were also a bit uneven for me. I never really believed that a military contingent was going to demolish the abbey, even if there were family troubles being aired. Maybe if it had been one sister, overrun with grief or blinded by tradition, but two? Somebody always has a wiser head or colder feet, and even from the very beginning Mammoth Corporal Vi In Yee seems to have both. She counsels Chih on defusing the situation, and then allows Chih to just…go into the abbey. Chih goes through the gate, says hi to everyone, even hands out candy to the novices. The threat stops being so threatening.

So too the threat of haunting: Rather unexpectedly, this is a ghost story. (Kind of. It’s complicated in a way I won’t spoil, but it’s great.) Thien may or may not be haunting the abbey, disquieted by the conflict or perhaps just eager to ameliorate it. Or—maybe it’s another entity masquerading as Thien?

Vo had a lot of good ideas in Mammoths at the Gates and a lot of threads. I don’t think she did a bad job in weaving them together, either; it’s more that the weft was too short. Vo put herself on a narrative clock, with an imminent interment and a literally and figuratively looming threat of violence via mammoth, but then needed time and space to explore the subtler themes of homecoming, evolving friendships, grief, responsibility, disability…and honestly, the list continues, but that’s a lot already. All of which are handled with grace and respect, but not a lot of room to breathe.

There were also layers of nixin politics I didn’t quite understand, resulting in scenes of high stakes and drama feeling a bit underwhelming. I really did care about Cleverness Himself and Myriad Virtues—but only insofar as Chih cared about them. There just wasn’t enough context for their personalities or relationships beyond that, so I kept waiting for more details, and didn’t always get them. It’s a fine line to present details of a world in which the reader and the protagonist have asymmetrical information: Chih knew every part of the abbey intimately and instinctively, but Mammoths at the Gates is our first visit. In trying to focus on the pressing issues of the present—Chih’s homecoming, the martial threat—Vo didn’t always provide quite enough details about the situations in which these conflicts existed.

This was not an issue of past/present. There are many affecting and complete anecdotes that do tremendous work in creating a complex narrative of both Chih’s childhood and Thien’s life.

How can a person do something terrible, but also repair the relationship he damaged? How can a person be manipulative to the point of terrifying a whole community, but do so in the name of a greater sense of justice? Mammoths at the Gates doesn’t have a single, pithy answer to that; it’s more concerned (and rightly so) with centering the ambiguity. Is Thien a good person who did a bad thing, a bad person who then did some good things, or is the entire idea of moral absolutes the wrong basis for evaluation? As always, I adore how Vo offers deep insight into both the matters at hand (who controls a legacy?) and into the art of storytelling (who controls a story?).

Overall, this is a good book and a solid continuation of the story of Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant. But more than once I found myself missing their adventures on the road, which had clearer themes and both a cast and history that were as unfamiliar to Chih as they were to us. I hope that we get to visit the abbey under less pressing circumstances in the next volume, or that we can find ourselves once more on an adventure to elsewhere.

Chih is a wandering Cleric of the Singing Hills Abbey, journeying out to find stories, information, research, or gossip and jokes. Anything worth recording, anything worth remembering. Singing Hills, like its sister abbeys, collects this information in its vast archives, recording the history of the world, from the mating habits of finches to the rise and fall of kings. This time, though, the adventure seems to be waiting for them at home rather than something they find along the road.

There are two mammoths outside the gates of the abbey — royal mammoths — and their riders are demanding the body of Cleric Thien, Chih’s mentor. They hadn’t known about, and were certainly not prepared to come home to, the loss of their beloved teacher, a teacher who chose to make their home Singing Hills Abbey, a teacher whose body will be prepared and interred along with the bodies of other clerics as they deserve. But Thien’s granddaughters are insistent. They want the body, and they’ll bring down the walls of the abbey to get to it.

What is owed, and to whom? Thien’s life before they became a cleric is a life gone and put away. The wife they left behind and the children, the position in court. None of it has any place in the life they chose to make in the abbey. Cleric Ru, Chih’s dearest friend, is acting Divine and refuses to back down. Everything Chih does to help is met with anger, and Chih has no idea how to help, all while still grieving for their teacher.

But Chih isn’t the only one grieving. Myriad Virtues, an abbey neixin whose heart is broken by the loss of her human companion, has had her wing feathers cut. No longer able to fly, she now walks. Instead of making new memories, she is living in old ones. And Chih still has no idea how to help.

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 entrypoint. Chih, as a cleric, has no set gender. They — and their fellow clerics — are referred to as they/them, and each cleric seems to have a bond with one or several neixin, magical creatures in the form of birds who remember everything. Everything a foolish young novice did, every oath they took and the ones they broke, as well as the stories they are told. They’re fascinating and are one of the best parts of this book.

This is a lyrical story about loss and grief, about the difference between justice and morality, about the memories of people — the ones they leave behind, and the ones they make. It’s the love between friends, teachers, and students, and it’s beautiful and I love it. It’s the sort of book you start, thinking you’ll just read the first few pages, and look up some unknown time later, regretting that it’s over. The world building is lush, the writing is gorgeous, and I could easily devour an entire epic taking place in this world. This is the fourth book in the Singing Hills Cycle, though — as mentioned above — every book is a standalone. I am now off to go get the other three.

I really hope you take the chance to read this novella.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC edition of this book.

This series is definitely one of my favorites. I wasn't expecting to cry during reading this one, but there is just something about Vo's writing that brings subtle emotions to the forefront of my mind and cracks them open. Every time I pick these up I understand perfectly what critics mean when they say a writer uses a deft hand to create a masterpiece. This story was no different, and I loved getting the chance to see the Singing Hills Abbey, even under "unusual" circumstances. These books are literally such a gift.

Another great entry in The Singing Hills Cycle. Even though the first is still my favourite this was a close second (after book 3 which I found super refreshing). Mammoths at the Gates feels less of a standalone than the rest of the series, which is why I would definitely recommend you read them in order. This time around Cleric Chih is back in the temple just to find a dispute for the body of their mentor, Cleric Thein, who recently passed away.

This one was centred about grief and change and deeply melancholic yet still extremely easy to read. And while I find the story really good there was a hint of a story about a city that was flooded that just caught my eye and hope we see in later instalments.

Again, just another fantastic addition to this series and I just hope they keep coming.

This was such a beautiful way to end this series. Each of these novellas were heartfelt but this one was by far the most. Following Cleric Chih throughout their journey was incredible but seeing them come home to deal with grief and change. Heartbreaking. The entirety of the Singing Hills series will be a top for me this year.

Mammoths at the Gate is the fourth installment in The Singing Hills Cycle where we follow Cleric Chih and their companion Almost Brilliant as they collect stories and history on their travels. In this book Chih has returned home to their abbey to something amiss.

This series is so fascinating and I love the way that the book uses stories from its characters to create the story we read. How once people are gone, its only the stories that remain.

I am pleased to have Almost Brilliant and Chih reunited. I love their dynamic and Almost Brilliant is such an interesting character and meeting her daughter was so fun! Being back at the abbey also meant that most of the characters we met had gender neutral pronouns and presentation, I think this was the most characters using they/them pronouns I've read about all in one book.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you Tordotcom for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

These little novellas never disappoint! In this installment of The Singing Hills Cycle, Cleric Chih is called home to the Singing Hills Abbey only to find out one of the older clerics has passed away. One of my favorite aspects of this series is how the stories that Cleric Chih collects also serve as world building. Honestly, I’m a sucker for stories within stories so in this aspect, I am very easy to please.

I really loved how this little novella packed in so much about grief and friendship. Chih goes through a lot of emotions in this book because the cleric who was away was their mentor and Chih had been gone from their home for years. But in Singing Hills fashion, one way for the Chih and the other clerics to process is their grief is to recount stories about Cleric Thien’s life.

Whenever I finish one of these books, I always wish they were longer! I can’t wait until the next book comes out. The Singing Hills Cycle is the perfect series if you’re looking for a palette cleanser!

Ahoy there me mateys!  The first book in this series won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2021.  All four can be read as standalones but I am glad I read them in order. This book was a gem and may be the best of the series.  Chih the cleric gets to go back to the Abbey after four years on the road.  They are excited to be home.  Upon arriving, Chih finds chaos and sorrow.  Their mentor, Thien, has passed away.  Thien's family is at the gates with mammoths threatening battle if Thien's body is not given up.  The majority of the clerics are not home but on an archeological dig.  The neixin are bitter and politicking.  And Chih finds other unexpected changes.  This was a beautiful book about the past, grief, changing friendship, memory, love, stories, and reevaluating purpose.  It felt bittersweet but certainly ended with hope.  I read late into the night in one reading and was captivated.  I cannot wait for book 5 (and hopefully more).  Arrrr!

This new installment follows Chih returning to the Singing Hills Abbey after three years, where they discover their mentor has died and where two sisters with royal mammoths are at the gates demanding the body. I was excited when I found out that this novella would take place in the abbey, as it’s a place that has been mentioned since The Empress of Salt and Fortune. I really liked getting to explore the aviary and the introduction of other neixin, especially Absolute Brilliance and Chiep.

This novella is a little bit different from the previous ones, as it focuses more on the conflict that is taking place in the abbey rather than on collecting stories from other people. And although I liked it, I have to admit this one is my least favorite of the series so far, precisely because my favorite element, which is the characters sharing stories, doesn’t happen until the last 35%. But I really appreciated the overall themes of grief and memories, and how the author pinpoints the fact that we may only know one version of a person.

I need you to know that I was tempted to make my whole review about mammoths and the metaphors for grief. But this book is probably my new favorite in the series (I say with each new addition)

I don’t think I’ve loved an installment of the Singing Cycle this much since the first one. To be clear, every installment of this series is excellent in their own way, but this one was absolutely captivating and consuming, with Vo’s signature, elegant prose and the unmatched mythological worldbuilding she’s become so well-known for.

Nghi Vo’s become an auto-buy author for me. I honestly can’t take criticism from people about her books. She’s not only one of the most well-read authors in the SFF game, but she’s one of the best researchers and her body of work reflects that. Her sentence structure is dreamy, her pacing is impeccable, and in The Singing Hills Cycle works, she’s a master of the art of economy of words. This carries over into her full-length novels, where she knows that filler and fluff are not appreciated.

The story in Mammoths at the Gates is timeless: Grief and how different people grieve in different ways. Cleric Chih has been gone for four years doing what they do best, which is gathering stories for the abbey’s records. Sadly, during their time away, many events have unfolded quickly, chief among them is the passing of their beloved mentor, Cleric Thien. Cleric Thien had not always been Cleric Thein, however. They had a life before the Singing Hills Abbey, and now the Cleric’s family has come to demand the body be surrendered to them so it can be laid to rest next to the Cleric’s once-wife. Of course, this isn’t something that can be allowed, but there are literal huge mammoths at the gates threatening to break through and take the body by force, if needed. Not only that, but most of the Abbey’s staff is currently away on an archiving mission, leaving Cleric Chih’s old friend, Ru, in charge.

It is a time of change and tumult, and the abbey is vulnerable. It’s up to Chih, Ru, and the abbey’s beloved neixin to try and solve this issue without bloodshed and without having to surrender their beloved mentor’s body.

What I appreciate the most about this book is that it doesn’t go heavily into the psychological aspects of grieving. Instead, it focuses on memories and stories of the deceased. When the people we love are gone, that’s all we’re truly left with. That would’ve been even more important prior to the time of photographs or video. That’s why storytelling was such an important part of life for so long: it was the only way to remember. Nghi Vo showed that, in this case, one side only had old stories told from one person and the other side had both stories and memories. The issue was finding a diplomatic way of giving the side with the disadvantage something to make up for the stories and memories they missed out on without violating the tenets of their order.

This is a touching and emotional book that’s sensitive to the subject matter while not beating around the bush. I loved it.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Coming of Age/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Historical Fantasy/Mythological Fiction/Novella/Supernatural Fantasy

Thank you to NetGalley and Tordotcom for the advanced copy.

More thoughts coming in a video, but I think this is my favorite entry in the Singing Hills Cycle thus far. I used to recommend this series by saying you could pick up any of them to start, but I will have to change that because this one truly shines if you've already read the rest and understand the dynamic between Chih and their companion Almost Brilliant.

It includes really great world-building, which we don't usually get much of in these novellas (not a bad thing, because Vo writes so well that we don't need much to feel submersed in the setting). Also a really beautiful story about grieving and how we remember the lives of those we love.

The mammoths were also fantastic. 10/10.

Trigger Warning for misgendering. I actually really like how Vo includes and addresses this part by making Cleric Thien's gender identity another facet of their life that is remembered differently by different characters. Chih being patient with the two women who remember Thien as their father, then subtly correcting them after the funeral now that closure has been achieved, just beautifully weaves into the overall theme of accepting and resolving the two lives of Cleric Thien into the one person they all knew and mourned.

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

I'm actually going to stray a bit from my established formula because:
This is the fourth book in the series (although you can technically read them in any order) and the fourth time I'm saying that Vo's writing is both poetic and approachable, her characterization is sharp, and her approach to storytelling within a story clever and enjoyable.
This is a story about grief, and the discussion goes deeper than a list.


In Mammoths at the Gates, Chih returns to–and officially brings the reader into for the first time–the Singing Hills Abbey. Upon return, they discover the titular mammoths: two massive royal mammoths, the breed used to break down gates. They soon learn the reason: Cleric Thien, not only their elder cleric, but something of a personal mentor, has died. But before Cleric Thien was a cleric, they were Thien An Lee, and Thien An Lee's granddaughters have come (with mammoths) to demand Singing Hills hand over the body.

Mammoths at the Gates is about grief, and the passage of time, and the memories we leave others with, and the stories they'll tell. A beloved elder cleric is dead, and with most of Singing Hills Abbey away, Chih finds their best friend, Ru, left in charge at the abbey. There's a lot of emotions at hand: not only do THEY grieve for Cleric Thien, but the cleric's beloved companion neixin (a sort of magical hoopoe bird) suffers from grief so extreme that she's asked someone to cut off her feathers.

At the same time, Chih discovers Ru hopes to be more than just acting leader of Singing Hills one day, and they reflect on how things have changed. Once, Chih and Ru planned to travel together, but Ru permanently damaged their foot. There's a lost future to mourn between them, and a strange new future they're both defining the shape of, and a shared past they can reminisce about, but to which they can never return.

Having lost a close grandparent somewhat recently, Cleric Thorn's death (and the related controversy, unfortunately) struck a chord with me. In the intervening years, my mom's confessed how Grandma was a less-than-stellar parent while Mom was growing up. My grandma was always a place of refuge and unwavering support to me, and these revelations… hurt.

Vo approaches this painful situation with grace and respect. It's awful, because the bad parts are true. It's complex because the good parts are true.

And what does one do with a complicated grief?

It's such a personal thing, and while Mammoths at the Gates isn't an instruction manual, it provides a thoughtful meditation on an upsetting situation.

YMMV:
Established world. The thing about the world developed within the Singing Hills Cycle is that if you grab one at random, you might feel as if there's a huge amount of world building you've missed, because Vo will mention other areas within the Singing Hills world. But besides "they have mammoths in the north," it's all new information. Each book focuses on a small, local area and the stories from that region. So, you might FEEL like you're missing out but you're technically not.

Final thoughts:
Said it before, say it again: I love each entry into the Singing Hills canon even more than the last, and this is a series where the VERY FIRST BOOK Vo wrote for it was already clever and poetic and meaningful.

That said, Mammoths at the Gates is officially my favourite.

Cleric Chih returns to the Singing Hills Abbey and learns their mentor Cleric Thien has died. Cleric Thien is laid to rest among the archivists and storytellers in the storied abbey, but his granddaughters arrive on mammoths demanding his body for burial. Chih wishes to honor their mentor’s wishes and keep the women from destroying the abbey. Cleric Thien’s own companion is grieving, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate.

This is the fourth book of the Singing Hills cycle, following Cleric Chih and their search for the stories and folklore of the land. (Prior volumes are The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and Into the Riverlands) The themes in this novella revolve around grief, family, and home. Everyone in the abbey is transformed by grief, and the usual memorial service in the abbey involves storytelling. The two granddaughters want to reclaim the grandfather they never knew from the place he spent decades, hoping to complete their family after their grandmother's death. The neixin grieve as well, with their long lives and flawless memories. As with prior novellas, what seems like a chance saying as part of a small story becomes the solution to the impasse. This novella is quiet and subdued compared to earlier ones due to its topics, but it's just as beautifully crafted.

This one is for all my cozy fantasy readers. One of my favorite things is discovering a new novella in the Singing Hills Cycle from @nghivowriting All feature the same protagonist, traveling Cleric Chih. As they pass through the countryside they collect stories and record them, sometimes accompanied by Almost Brilliant, their record keeping, talking Hoopoe companion. Mammoths at the Gate tells the story of Chih’s homecoming to Singing Hills Abbe to discover how much they and it have both changed and what of their past persists. I love the intensity of relationships, the depth of worldbuilding and the amount of reflection possible in the short page count. While the protagonist persists across all four volumes, each reads as a stand alone story. Readers can happily dip in anywhere, but I recommend starting with Empress of Salt and Fortune. So far, Empress and Mammoth at the Gate are my two favorites.