Mammoths at the Gates
Ratings35
Average rating4.1
15
Ratings35
Average rating4.1
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. . .
Note: 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
How could I stop myself from reading this lovely novella..?? I know there's still time for the release but I just needed a bit of familiarity and being back in the world of Singing Hills was a joy and I'm so glad I got the arc of this book.
Our favorite cleric Chih is back at Singing Hills too and it was so nice to finally see their home through their eyes, even though it's dampened by the grief of losing their mentor and the threat of mammoths at their gates. Almost Brilliant also finally makes an appearance, now already a mother and even more authoritative than I remember. But what this lovely novella is ultimately about grief and loss - how losing someone important maybe inevitable but how we grieve them can be different, each person's grief can manifest in myriad unexpected ways but nothing is wrong with that, and it's the bonds we have built and shared that help us through the tough times.
This is a short and maybe bittersweet but also hopeful tale about losing, grieving and moving on, finding our ways through change, and cherishing the friendships and relationships we have built over the years - all told through the form of stories. It's a perfect addition to this amazing series, carrying forward its theme of how stories keep memories alive, and paving the way for our main characters' future adventures. I can only hope that the author will let us be a part of these future journeys too.
Really interesting examination of grief and how people change over time, I also really liked the commentary on memory and identity.
Not my favorite of these, but probably my second favorite after the first one.
7.5/10
I liked this book better than its predecessor in the series, Into the Riverlands, because of its emphasis on the interactions of individuals and their memories. Riverlands was an emphasis on the local stories the cleric was collecting and less time spent on the group being travelled with.
In Mammoths I did have alot of confusion keeping track of who was talking when the word 'they' was being used. I interpreted this to be a community of individuals that refer to themselves as they/them, which means 'they' could mean the individual doing the speaking or could mean another person being spoken of, in the same sentence.
This confusion didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story or the characters.
Featured Series
5 primary booksThe Singing Hills Cycle is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2020 with contributions by Nghi Vo.
