Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Nghi Vo's Hugo and Crawford Award-winning series, The Singing Hills Cycle, continues... "A remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR on The Empress of Salt and Fortune Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themself far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be. Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face. The Singing Hills Cycle The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands 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 entry point. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A perfect confection of a story.

I slightly disliked this. Maybe because it is the third iteration of this series but this book was both shorter and had fewer stories and more plot. Which is the opposite of what I liked about the last book. I still really like Chi as a character and their weird adventures and especially compared to the last two novellas this one is disappointing.

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.

I was hoping to love this novella series more than I did. I love fantasy stories influenced by cultures outside of my own, but unfortunately that is my favorite part of this. I wish they were a bit longer so I could get more attached to the characters, or to just understand who they are and what their intentions are. I will continue this series with hope that I'll eventually rate them over a 3 star.

Thank you to Macmillan, Tor/Forge, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.