The Singing Hills Cycle

Set in a gorgeously realized world inspired by East Asian and Southeast Asian history and mythology, Nghi Vo’s “remarkable” (NPR), award-winning Singing Hills Cycle follows the archivist and cleric Chih as they record the stories of empresses, handmaidens, cultivators, ghosts, bandits, and many more. The series begins with The Empress of Salt and Fortune, which won the Crawford Award and the Hugo Award, and was named one of the twenty best fantasy debuts of all time by Book Riot.

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 entrypoint.

“A quiet, wrenching tale of resistance, resilience, and court intrigue.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang

“A stunning gem . . . celebrates the wonder of queer love. I could read about Chih recording tales forever.”
—New York Times bestselling author Samantha Shannon