When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From Locus and Ignyte finalist, Crawford Award winner, and bestselling author Nghi Vo comes the second installment in a Hugo Award-winning series
"A stunning gem of a novella that explores the complexity and layers of storytelling and celebrates the wonder of queer love. I could read about Chih recording tales forever."—Samantha Shannon, New York Times bestselling author of The Priory of the Orange Tree
"Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today."—Taylor Jenkins Reid on Siren Queen
The cleric Chih finds themself and their companions at the mercy of a band of fierce tigers who ache with hunger. To stay alive until the mammoths can save them, Chih must unwind the intricate, layered story of the tiger and her scholar lover—a woman of courage, intelligence, and beauty—and discover how truth can survive becoming history.
Nghi Vo returns to the empire of Ahn and The Singing Hills Cycle in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a mesmerizing, lush standalone follow-up to The Empress of Salt and Fortune.
The Hugo Award-winning Singing Hills Cycle
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
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.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vo follows The Empress of Salt and Fortune with another dazzling, standalone novella featuring Cleric Chih as they explore the northern region of Anh. A quick trip to a local way station is derailed by a trio of tigers who corner Chih and their guide, Si-yu, in a barn. When the tigers, who speak with human voices, learn that Chih is an accomplished story archivist, they demand to hear the human version of a legend shared among their kind before eating the travelers. At their request, Chih tells the story of Scholar Dieu, a woman dedicated to her studies, who comes upon the tiger Ho Thi Thao. Though the tigers frequently interrupt Chih to counter the human narrative with their own version of events, it is clear Dieu and Ho Thi Thao are intricately linked in both human and tiger history. Vo elegantly threads the legend through the frame story, and Chih's personal history is equally, if not more, fascinating than the legend of Ho Thi Thao. Readers who missed Vo's debut will have no trouble following the second leg of Chih's travels, and those returning will be pleased to sink into another lush, sophisticated story of queer love and survival.
Customer Reviews
Fabulous worldbuilding
Evidently I’m making a habit of reading Vo’s Singing Hills novellas in odd contexts. I read the first sitting on a gurney in an emergency room, and this one hanging out in a park near the Apple Store waiting for my phone’s batter replacement to be completed. This has nothing to do with the content of the books, but is a testament to their convenient length and engrossing content. The tie between the two books, aside from the alternate-China setting, is the framing character of the story-collector Chih who this time finds themself unwilling audience to three tiger shapechangers who are willing to be distracted from their hunger by the chance to set the record straight regarding a previous tiger-human interaction. One partaking variously of romance and the tricky etiquette of the circumstances under which one may eat a guest. There’s enough uncertainty in how the story will come out to keep the reader unsure of just what genre they’re reading. My favorite aspect was the characterization of the tigers, who are never anything but very very tigerish.
Stories within stories
I love the way this novella tells a tale within another tale, or should I say tail. I feel immersed in the world created by these pages that feel too few and I look forward to the next story.
A Beautiful Story Within a Story
“When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain” is the second novella in the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo. It is a fantasy, set in a Asian-inspired alternate world. The novella tells a story nestled within a story.
In the beginning story, Chih, a Cleric of the Singing Hills Temple is taken into the mountains by a member of the mammoth riding corps. When they reach their way station for the evening, they are menaced by three tigers. Chih speaks respectfully to these tigers, who then assume their human forms, and he engages them in conversation seeking to prevent them from attacking the party. He then begins to tell them the story within the story, which is about a poor scholar who meets a tiger on the way to take the Imperial Examinations.
The world in which this story is set resembles a medieval Asia of our world, but has a few supernatural and alternate historical differences. In addition to tigers who can assume human form, there are the mammoths. These elephantine animals are used by the northern people as mounts and in war. It’s a great story, and I look forward to future tales in the Singing Hills Cycle.