If you’re looking for a rich fantasy world full of cool magic and vivid characters, you’ll love Nghi Vo’s The Singing Hills Cycle. This series of fantasy novellas follow a monk named Chih as they travel through the world of Singing Hills and collect stories. Each book is about Chich collecting a different story in a different part of the world. Each book also offers its own take on a different genre: When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain is romance, The Brides of High Hill is horror, Into the Riverlands is an action-packed wuxia story. The first book in the series is The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but you can start anywhere in the series—the books can all function as standalone stories (but they’re even more fun when you read them all together).
I love fantasy, but I find lore-heavy, military-forward fantasy to be a bit exhausting. There’s always a war and we never get to see much of the world outside of that war. The Singing Hills Cycle is, more than anything, a series about worldbuilding. The world of the books is lush and populated and full of myth, but not confusing or overly complicated. The books are full of realistic cultures, beautiful settings, and interesting characters—exactly what I want from a fantasy series. Plus, novellas! Novellas are the best. We need more fantasy novellas in the world.
–McKayla Coyle, Publishing Coordinator
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