Gary K. Wolfe Reviews Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

Mammoths at the Gates, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom 1-250-85413-7, $19.99, 128pp, hc) September 2023

We are our stories. That’s been a recurring theme in Nghi Vo’s ‘‘Singing Hills’’ cycle of novellas, which reaches its fourth volume with Mammoths at the Gates, following last year’s Into the Riverlands. While that novella was peppered with fast-moving martial arts sequences interspersed with tales told by mem­bers of an improvised fellowship on a classic journey, Mammoths at the Gates is more quiet and ruminative, and the fellowship at its center is a venerable one bound by ancient rules and traditions – namely, the Singing Hills abbey itself. The cleric Chih, returning home after three years away having those other adventures, learns that their mentor Cleric Thien has died, their best friend Ru has more or less assumed leadership of the almost-deserted abbey (many of the monks are off on an archaeological expedition), and – most worrisome–a pair of mammoths are literally at the gates, threatening to break in and destroy the abbey’s rare collec­tions. Even though that threat of violence hangs over much of the narrative, one of the dramatic high points near the end is basically a memorial service. This doesn’t mean that it’s a less com­pelling narrative, but that it draws largely on a different kind of tradition. In each of the Singing Hills stories, Vo has drawn on different story types – bits of high fantasy in The Empress of Salt and Fortune, bits of Scheherazade in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, bits of wuxia in Into the Riverlands – and each has prominently featured characters telling stories to other characters.

The reason for those mammoths (we learned they were part of this world in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain) is that the late Cleric Thien was previously the patriarch of a clan called Coh, and the two women riding the mammoths claim to be his grandchildren and are demanding that his body be returned to his old clan for burial, even though they don’t really have a legal claim. While that standoff looms over the entire tale, a more elegiac tone emerges with the mourning of Thien, especially on the part of Myriad Virtues, his personal neixin – one of the intelligent talking hoopoe birds who serve as companions to the monks. Another touching scene involves Chih’s reunion with their own neixin, Almost Brilliant, who was such a lively presence in Into the River­lands but who has been separated from Chih, and their meeting with Almost Brilliant’s de­lightful daughter Chiep. The theme of change and succession is developed not only through Chiep, but through Ru’s ambition to formally become the abbey’s Divine, replacing Chien, and even the sense of family continuity which is so important to the clan women with their mammoths.

Vo does finally resolve the standoff in a surprising and satisfying manner, but that was never really the central plot of Mammoths at the Gates. With its themes of friendship, loyalty, continuity, and loss, its main strengths derive from an appealing cast of characters, some of whom, like Chih, have grown more complex over the four volumes of the series. Though a fundamentally decent and honorable character, we’ve gradually learned that Chih is a bit more of a trickster than we might at first have sus­pected, while Almost Brilliant has grown from a sharp-tongued sarcastic sidekick into a loyal friend and devoted mom. Even the venerable Chien has a backstory that implies a good deal more than the wise and spiritual mentor he at first appears to be. As with the earlier volumes, Mammoths at the Gates reveals additional details about Vo’s empire of Anh, suggesting a much broader epic with a complex history, while maintaining the comparatively intimate focus provided by the novella form. Though each Singing Hills volume can be read as a stand­alone, having some familiarity with this world adds a good deal of depth to this latest entry, just as it adds considerable emotional resonance to an already impressive series.

This review and more like it in the August 2023 issue of Locus.

While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We rely on reader donations to keep the magazine and site going, and would like to keep the site paywall free, but WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT to continue quality coverage of the science fiction and fantasy field.

©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.