As ever, the latest entry in the Singing Hills Cycle is just breathtaking. This time, Nghi Vo goes in hard on grief, processing, and what we owe both future generations and the past. I was *sobbing* by the end. So, so good. Can't wait to buy a physical copy.

A lot more emotional than the other books in this series, this vivid story with themes of grief is a beautiful waxing moon of a story.

Mammoth at the Gates continues with the travelling of the Cleric Chich, though this time they come home to Singing Hills Abbey only to hear the news that one of the older clerics - Cleric Thien has died. And now the grandchildren of the Cleric want to take their body back to the Northern Bell Pass.
The book doesn't deal with a lot of emotions. With such a short book though it covered a lot of things, exploring different emotions is quite hard when you have a little more than 100 pages to do so. But still, it showed how different creatures and people deal with grief and other emotions when a close person dies. It also reminded me that the best thing that we get is our memories especially the good ones are worth remembering and cherishing more than physical things that we get as Cleric Thien told Ru. It is also about knowing the good and bad of people and being fair in judging. It gave me a lot to think about and to relearn too.

The Singing Hills Cycle is one of the most slept-on series in fantasy. I want these books to just keep coming forever and ever.

I love this series so much. The focus on multiple truths and multiple sides to every story makes for really tight thematic novellas. This installation's central themes include loss and grief, coming home, and the difficulty of telling the story of a life. I have some recency bias but I think Mammoths at the Gates might be one of my favorite stories from the Singing Hills series.

Cleric Chih returns to the Singing Hills abbey for the first time in this novella series, and finds things have changed: Cleric Thien, a beloved mentor, has died, and they’re just in time to participate in his memorial, and Almost Brilliant’s chick is growing fast and eager to meet them. Plus, there’s a pair of mammoths at the gates of the abbey, and some kind of quarrel growing up.

Homecoming can be strange, and Chih finds some of that difficult: a childhood friend is grown and even acting as the leader of the abbey, and the younger ones look up to them as an elder now. Almost Brilliant isn’t ready to travel with them again, and the abbey is strangely quiet (with everyone absent to go and record some fascinating uncovered previously-drowned ruins)… They have to navigate that and settle back down for a while, and try to figure out how to manage the whole mammoth situation (inasfar as that’s something they even ought to be managing).

It’s a lot, but as with the other novellas in this series, I loved it. We see a little more of the world, of all the stories those at the abbey gather and curate, and a little more now of where Chih comes from and what has shaped them. Especially fascinating to me, we learn a little more of the neixin, and meet several of them.

I loved Mammoths at the Gates just as much as all the previous novellas in the Singing Hill cycles (which is a lot). This book focuses more on Cleric Chih's perspective more, and I enjoyed getting a better look at Chih's personal history and relationships. I loved the reflections on grief and the different kinds of grief, and the different kinds of stories that are told about someone after they have gone, or after they have changed from how you remember them.

5/5 stars
Recommended if you like: fantasy, novellas, grief stories, character driven stories, queer characters

This review has been posted to Goodreads as of 5/5 and will be posted to Instagram on 5/23 and to my review blog on 5/24.

Another fantastic chronicle from the Singing Hills Cycle! I'm so hoping that the series expands beyond the 5 books that are currently planned because I love exploring Chih and Almost Brilliant's world!

In this story, Chih returns home for the first time in several years and finds much changed. The old Divine has recently died and Chih arrives in enough time for the interment ceremony. The death of their old mentor and the new maturity in their friend Ru results in some growing pains for Chih as they come to realize that not even the Singing Hills Abbey is immutable in time. That realization and the feelings they grapple with over it are very relatable since it pertains so much to the way friendships change and grow (or even end) as people grow older and move into different phases of their lives.

In a similar vein, Cleric Thien's (the previous Divine who died) neixin, Myriad Virtues, is grieving terribly as a result of her loss. While much of the story focuses on Chih and their relationships and feelings re: coming back to the abbey and seeing or not seeing old friends, a similar bulk of the story is dedicated to Myriad Virtues' grieving process. The way she grieves doesn't make sense to everyone around her, neixin and human alike, resulting in multiple discussions of how grief affects people differently and the strange things people do as they feel it.

The mammoths are also a part of the grieving story as they belong to two young women who were Cleric Thien's granddaughters. In opposition of the traditional practices for clerics, they want Thien's body so the can bury them in their homeland. There's a lot of debate about this and the discussion of grief is brought in here as well.

I liked getting to see the abbey and some of Chih's friends. I also liked that we get to see Almost Brilliant (she wasn't in Into the Riverlands) and that we get to meet Almost Brilliant's chick, Chiep. Chiep is definitely a personality and was quite funny, so she was an enjoyable addition to the book.

This provided some nice insight into Chih's backstory and is a good addition to the series. Vo does a good job of mixing the heavy topics with lighter moments, and it's a bit more character-led than in previous books. I was quite invested in what the characters were experiencing and sped through the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. I think this is my favorite installment of this series yet - I loved that it focused more on Chih, and that we finally got to learn more about their background at the Singing Hills Abbey and the other clerics. I really appreciated how this book dealt with grief. Chih finally returns to the Singing Hills Abbey after their travels, only to learn that one of their beloved elder clerics has passed away. The way Nghi Vo deals with the complexity of grief was very well done, and I loved that this book was more emotionally-driven rather than action-driven like the other installments of this series. I love the worldbuilding of the Abbey and the idea of the neixin birds who are the clerics' companions.

I will never stop recommending this series! 5 stars.

tl;dr 3.5 rounded up to 4

This wasn't my favorite of the Singing Hills Cycle, but it was still very good. Unlike the first three novellas, which focus on world-building and collecting stories from around the fantastical world Chih lives in, MAMMOTHS AT THE GATES is more introspective: we learn how the clerics grieve, how they honor their dead, and the different facets of a person throughout their long life.

Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey to find both home and himself changed. I loved that this novella focused on Chih's background and the stories were related to those he knows. I really enjoyed havig more time with Almost Brilliant and learning more about the other neixim.

I think this addition might be my favourite of the series thus far and I'm not entirely sure why!

This novella just captured me from the start, I was so thrilled to be back in this world with Cleric Chih and Almost Brilliant as we followed new important messages and found new (and old) characters to adore.

I think my favourite thing about these little novellas is how much heart, love and hope can be packed into so few pages.

Especially as this one had an extra layer of tension at the beginning (much like the others but this felt BETTER). I loved it. I hope there are many more of these stories to come!! Whether you need hope or something just entirely philosophical - these books will have a message you'll need to read.

Thank you to TorDotCom and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mammoths at the Gate is easily my favorite installment out of all four Singing Hills Cycle books. The reader is finally taken to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in the series, and we get a glimpse of Chih’s life before they began traveling. We also get to learn more about the neixin, the companions of the Clerics, who act as recorders for stories.

Being remembered after death is a subject matter that I always love reading about. So this story, with its Neixin and their infallible memories, and a whole Abbey dedicated to preserving information, was particularly important. I loved how they dealt with the grief and the preservation of memory after a beloved community member passed.

I highly recommend reading Mammoths at the Gate when it releases on September 12, 2023. Thank you again to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group, Tordotcom for a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review.

Iv previously only read the first of the Singing Hills series and felt that it didnt matter that i hadnt gotten round to the other 2 before this one as it takes place within the same world but can be read as a standalone.

Nghi Vo has a colourful and descriptive writing style and writes her characters and their relationships beautifully. This book explores grief and companionship really well and ill definitely be continuing with the series

I love this short story series by Nghi Vo. This particular installment may be my favorite as it touches on grief and letting go. What I love about this book is that it combines Asian culture with mystical beasts and creatures, important themes and morals, and an interesting narrative voice.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

I love this series so much. Cleric Chih returns back home to this one, which made me happy because we get to learn more about them and see Almost Brillant again. I couldn't get enough. Nghi Vo is an auto-read author for me at this point I think. If you liked the previous ones in the series, you like/love this one.

5/5

Amazingly vivid experience. I jumped into this not knowing anything about the series but I was sucked in and I bought the other books. Can’t wait to read more!

When Cleric Chih finally returns to the Singing Hills, they find a small army and a few battle-ready mamoths preparing to lay siege to their home. The mammoth riders have come to claim the body of their grandfather, Cleric Thien, now that they have passed, but the Singing Hills are reluctant to give up one of their own.

With each Singing Hills Cycle novella, Nghi Vo uses oral storytelling from various sources in order to weave her tale. The subjects become mythic yet human, the many facets of their character revealed through the different lives they've touched. In Mammoths at the Gates, however, the stories are told about Cleric Thien, someone much closer to Chih's heart, and so the emotions feel more grounded.

It's a softer story than some of the previous entries in this series, but a fitting end to this series (if it ends up being the last book). I really enjoyed getting to explore the lore of the Singing Hills, finally, and man do I love the birds.

This was another brilliant addition to the Singing Hills Cycle series.
This instalment was less action driven than the previous one, instead Nghi Vo went with a more emotional plot that focuses on grief.
I loved this novella and I wish I could read the next one already. And the one after that. And… okay, I’ll stop here.

Another stunning edition to the Singing Hills. Mammoths at the Gates focuses on loss and love, and how people are a composite of stories that you can't truly know. Overall a beautiful tale of loss and grief told through Vo's amazing story telling ability.