The Singing Hills Cycle
#3874.01 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 7 books Status Ongoing 2020–present Reading commitment High Nghi Vo Last reviewed 2026-08-18
Overview
The Singing Hills Cycle follows the wandering cleric Chih and their talking hoopoe companion, Almost Brilliant, as they travel a richly imagined world collecting oral histories, unraveling the true stories behind legends of empresses, tigers, and ghosts along the way. Nghi Vo's ongoing cycle of connected novellas began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune in 2020, which won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 2021, and has continued at roughly one volume a year since, through 2025's A Mouthful of Dust and a further installment slated for 2026. Each novella is largely self-contained, built around a different story or legend Chih records from witnesses met on their travels, while accumulating a loose overall picture of the setting's history and the Singing Hills abbey Chih belongs to. It is Nghi Vo's second universe in this canon, alongside The Chosen and the Beautiful, and shares that novel's interest in unreliable, layered storytelling.
Mythic fantasy, Fairy-tale retelling · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (7 works) counts toward ranking
The Singing Hills Cycle Nghi Vo
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Empress of Salt and Fortune | 2020 | 1 | core | 3.89 (48,067 ratings) |
 | When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain | 2020 | 2 | core | 4.15 (19,772 ratings) |
 | Into the Riverlands | 2022 | 3 | core | 3.99 (11,307 ratings) |
 | Mammoths at the Gates | 2023 | 4 | core | 4.20 (8,318 ratings) |
 | The Brides of High Hill | 2024 | 5 | core | 4.12 (6,760 ratings) |
 | A Mouthful of Dust | 2025 | 6 | core | 4.17 (3,863 ratings) |
 | A Long and Speaking Silence; 7th entry in the Singing Hills Cycle, published May 5, 2026. | 2026 | N/A | core | 4.09 (2,155 ratings) |
Ongoing connected-novella cycle following the wandering cleric Chih and their hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant, collecting oral histories across the world of Anh. A seventh entry, A Long and Speaking Silence, has been announced but not yet published as of this record.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Singing Hills Cycle? The Singing Hills Cycle's Core Canon is 7 books.
- What is the reading order for The Singing Hills Cycle? Publication order, starting with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Singing Hills Cycle finished? Ongoing (2020–present).
- How much reading does The Singing Hills Cycle take? High reading commitment (estimated from 7 Core Canon books · ~586 pages).
- How is The Singing Hills Cycle ranked? #387 in this site's official ranking, based on 100,242 reader ratings across 7 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #387?
Ranked #387 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.01 across 7 core books.
- Backed by 100k reader ratings.
- Less than 0.01 behind #386, The Book of the New Sun (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 7 books · Ongoing · 100k ratings · Ranks #387 overall
Good choice if you want a long-running mythic fantasy universe that's still ongoing, with new books still coming.
Reading order
Publication order (7 Core Canon books)
- The Empress of Salt and Fortune (2020)
- When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (2020)
- Into the Riverlands (2022)
- Mammoths at the Gates (2023)
- The Brides of High Hill (2024)
- A Mouthful of Dust (2025)
- A Long and Speaking Silence (2026)
Documented internal/story order: 6 of 7 Core Canon books
- The Empress of Salt and Fortune (2020)
- When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain (2020)
- Into the Riverlands (2022)
- Mammoths at the Gates (2023)
- The Brides of High Hill (2024)
- A Mouthful of Dust (2025)
Internal chronology is documented for 6 of 7 Core Canon books; the remaining 1 are not yet mapped onto the same ordinal scale.
Awards (verified)
- Hugo Award (Best Novella), 2021: won: The Empress of Salt and Fortune
- William L. Crawford Fantasy Award (Best First Fantasy Book), 2021: won: The Empress of Salt and Fortune
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what The Singing Hills Cycle and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Elemental Masters Historical fantasy / Fairy-tale retelling · Ongoing · High commitment · 3.97
- Five Hundred Kingdoms Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · High commitment · 3.91
- The Green Man Urban fantasy / Mythic fantasy · Ongoing · High commitment · 4.16
- Elements of Cadence Romantasy / Mythic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.15
Official resources
- The Hugo Awards: 2021 Hugo Awards
- IAFA Crawford Award Winners List
- Wikipedia: The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.01 across 100,242 ratings on 7 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Singing Hills Cycle admitted accepted 2026-08-18
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-18
Rule: Core = all 6 published novellas to date; a 7th, A Long and Speaking Silence, has been announced but not yet published.