Nghi Vo – Emilie's Bookish Thoughts

Well. My efforts to avoid spoilers by not reading the summary before jumping into book 2 of the Singing Hills Cycle allowed me to be surprised when I realized that this is a standalone and the entire series appears to be like that 🙃

We are still following the cleric Chih on their journeys collecting stories but empress In-yo is no longer the center of the story – although we now are moving in the northern parts of the country where I believe In-yo is from. I want more In-yo to be honest. Anyways.

Chih is traveling with Su-yi on a mammoth when they cross paths with a band of fierce tigers. In an attempt to survive we spend the book ruminating on stories, who tells them, how and with what lens. The mighty tiger Ho Thi Thao and her scholar lover sure makes an interesting basis from which to contemplate the complexities of how stories get told.

This book was more magical than the previous one, instead of palace intrigue we get relationships between the various characters. We get to know the world in which Chih exists a bit more and it is definitely a world filled with gods, power and danger. I think Vo does nuance really well and I’m starting to feel like I have an auto-buy author. The fact that bodies and queerness just is – that the beauty does not lie in the male gaze but in the persons we are.

Cannot wait to continue on the series and then explore Vo’s other books!

I’m not a re-reader, with the exception of fantasy series (and an odd book here or there – who knows why). I re-read fantasy as I like to make up theories. I want to freshen up the details and not just the major plotlines when I’m continuing a series. Fantasy is my comfort genre and I really need that this year – and for the past couple of years as well since the pandemic started.

Book 3 of The Singing Hills Cycle, Into The Riverlands, is nominated for the Lambas in the LGBTQ+ speculative fiction category and I immediately wanted to read it. This year has been a reading slump overall for me, but seeing the books in the category sparked some reading joy. Still, I wanted to prioritize the International Booker shortlist which properly put me in a slump because the book I picked up didn’t work for me and I felt I “had to” finish it. More on that in another post maybe.

As I wanted to read book 3 I of course had to start a re-read of book 1 in the series and then read book 2. I remembered liking The Empress on my first read but it was even better on a re-read. The story is told by Rabbit, sold as a girl to the palace, and later serving the empress In-yo during the first years as tensions are rising. Rabbit is sharing her experiences of the time in service with the cleric Chih, which I believe is the main character of the Singing Hills Cycle. This means you are following two stories – the interactions between Chich and Rabbit as well as Rabbit’s memories.

The Empress Of Salt And Fortune is described as feminist high fantasy, which naturally intrigues me (frankly we need loads of these books to make up for the tired young man goes on an adventure and gets the girl recipe). I do not think the feminism is blatant (unless the fact that this is not focused on men is enough to rile you up) – it does not tell you what to think but there are many aspects that can be considered and discussed. Bad ass women in fantasy are amazing to read about and I want more of In-yo, for sure, yet the impact of her decisions on Rabbit leaves plenty to think about.

Read this if you want to follow a queer MC collecting stories in a fantasy world filled with interesting and dangerous women!