Description:
Nghi Vo's Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle returns with a standalone gothic mystery that unfolds in the empire of Ahn.
Featured in BookBub Book Riot Gizmodo Amazon Best SF&F pick An NPR Best Book of the Year Hugo Award finalist"A remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."--NPR on The Empress of Salt and Fortune "Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."--Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen
The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to the aging ruler of a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. The bride's party is welcomed with elaborate courtesies and extravagant banquets, but between the frightened servants and the cryptic warnings of the lord's mad son, they quickly realize that something is haunting the shadowed halls. As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo's previous wives and the dark history of Doi Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight. The Singing Hills Cycle has been shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award, and the Ignyte Award, and has won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award. The novellas are standalone stories linked by the Cleric Chih, and may be read in any order. The Empress of Salt and Fortune
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
Into the Riverlands
Mammoths at the Gates
The Brides of High Hill
A Mouthful of Dust
A Long and Speaking Silence
Brief description: Nghi Vo is the USA Today bestselling author of Siren Queen, The Chosen and the Beautiful, Don't Sleep with the Dead, and The City in Glass, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and Lambda Literary Awards and the LA Times and Ursula K. Le Guin Prizes, and has won the Crawford, Ignyte, and Hugo Awards. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
Review Quotes:
Featured in BookBub Book Riot Gizmodo An NPR Best Book of the Year Hugo Award finalist
Praise for the Singing Hills Cycle "A delicious bonbon of a novella about stories and their unreliable narrators, who wink at their listeners (or readers), fully expecting us to catch on."--The Wall Street Journal "Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful...A remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."--NPR "Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect."--Seanan McGuire "So good I want to marry it."--Martha Wells "A quiet, wrenching tale of resistance, resilience, and court intrigue."--R. F. Kuang "An epic in miniature, beautifully realised."--Zen Cho "Spellbinding...Vo expertly weaves myths and histories of this fantastical land throughout...The result is a pitch-perfect series installment."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[E]very bit as beautiful and thought-provoking as its predecessors. Highly recommended for fans of the previous books in the series and for anyone who loves their fantasy colored with myth, legend, and bittersweet truth."--Library Journal(starred review) "Vo's debut has it all: from sapphic love to cruel betrayals; from political intrigue to lakes that glow red to ghosts that continue to walk old paths."--Booklist (starred review)