When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (The Singing Hills Cycle #2) (Paperback)

Description

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"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

"Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful. . . . The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR

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.

About the Author

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Nghi Vo was born in central Illinois, and she retains a healthy respect for and love of corn mazes, scarecrows, and fifty-year floods. These days, she lives on the shores of Lake Michigan, which is less a lake than an inland sea that she is sure is just biding its time. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, PodCastle, and Fireside, and her short story “Neither Witch nor Fairy” made the 2014 Otherwise (formerly Tiptree) Award Honor List. Nghi mostly writes about food, death, and family, but sometimes detours into blood, love, and rhetoric. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.

Praise For…

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"Dazzling. . . . 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."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"You don’t have to read Nghi Vo’s debut in order to follow this second short novel, but you’ll want to! Feminist, layered and queer AF, Nghi Vo’s storytelling will mesmerize you. You should probably just read them both."—Ms. Magazine

"As a piece of fantasy literature, Vo’s worldbuilding is a command performance... We are in a golden age of the novella, and Vo knows how to make the most of the form, with short, propelling chapters and potent ideas. The world is scaffolded off real history and folk traditions but feels fresh and interesting, and Vo once again succeeds in using a scholarly, contemplative protagonist to tease deep emotion and significance out of old stories. It’s an incredibly, quietly skilled and entertaining accomplishment."—The Chicago Review of Books

"So good I want to marry it."—Martha Wells, New York Times bestselling author of The Murderbot Diaries

"Reads like a combination of my bà ngo?i's bedtime stories and a sharply self-aware queer retelling. Plus sapphic excellence."—Aliette de Bodard, winner of the Locus, Nebula, and British Fantasy Awards

"Vo is my favorite fantasy debut of 2020."—Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

"This lyrical story of the cleric Chih unraveling the story of a ravenous tiger is unforgettably original and gorgeously written."—PopSugar


Praise for The Empress of Salt and Fortune

"Dangerous, subtle, unexpected and familiar, angry and ferocious and hopeful... The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a remarkable accomplishment of storytelling."—NPR

"Gorgeous. Cruel. Perfect."—Seanan McGuire

"A quiet, wrenching tale of resistance, resilience, and court intrigue."—R. F. Kuang

"A tale of rebellion and fealty that feels both classic and fresh, The Empress of Salt and Fortune is elegantly told, strongly felt, and brimming with rich detail. An epic in miniature, beautifully realised."—Zen Cho