This is going to feel a little awkward to review, because it's always going to suffer by comparison. It's an excellent novella in its own right, continuing to examine the basic concepts of storytelling, what's true and what's going to be remembered. The ending in particular resonates as a parallel, reality at that point ably emulating the legends that have been told thus far. Cleric Chih isn't one of the three particular characters perhaps walking into legend but he gets to watch it happen; an entirely different experience for him. He's been telling and recording stories from another time and suddenly finds himself right in the middle of history being made.

So this is more wonderful stuff from my favourite author of the moment, Nghi Vo, the third in her 'Singing Hills Cycle'. The problem is that I've just read the first two novellas in this series over the past couple of months and, as glorious as this is, it isn't up to their standards. I found it late with the sixth book, 'A Mouthful of Dust' which was a dark joy, but the seventh is better again and the first two, to which I went next, even more so. Frankly, the first of them, 'The Empress of Salt and Fortune', is so astoundingly good that it ranks with some of the best writing ever of any genre. It must feel frustrating to be cursed by merely being excellent, but that's this book's lot.

I should add that it doesn't matter if you read this series out of order, because each instalment is a standalone episode within the adventures of Cleric Chih and, usually, Almost Brilliant, without an obvious series arc. Sometimes we can place a story within their career or the history of the land in which they work, 'A Long and Speaking Silence' clearly being the earliest according to the internal chronology, but mostly that's obscured. Attempting to order them is madness. This is just in there somewhere, like most of the others.

Even having their head shaved, Cleric Chih manages to get stories. Their barber once shaved the heads of the four Gao brothers, infamous bandits of the Carcanet Mountains, but only after they died, hoisted on their own petards. As always, this seemingly irrelevant snippet capably serves as a warm-up to where we're going, which is epic fights of legend, recounted and encountered during a journey into the riverlands to Betony Docks, a river town and hub for the west. That's why Chih and Almost Brilliant are there, to hear and record the stories of the riverlands.

The first fight is small by comparison but important. A waitress trips and spills tea on a huge man, prompting a violent response. Chih is dining there so steps in the way and a young lady, also there for the food, takes offence. She's tiny by comparison but she takes him down efficiently with what Almost Brilliant gleefully recognises as the notably rare Southern Monkey style. She's Wei Jintai of the Fengxi Wei in the Verdant Islands and she's on her way to the Betony Docks with her sworn sister Mac Sang. Another older couple, Lao Bingyi and Mac Khanh, join them on all the journey to play into safety in numbers.

Of course, that provides plenty of opportunity for stories to be told and everyone has a turn, with most of them revolving around epic fights. Lao talks about when the Hollow Hand ruled the lower riverlands, only to be defeated by the Shaking Earth Master who dropped a mountain on them. It doesn't seem like we should take that literally but then they reach a shelter on the road and find a corpse hung with a white handprint on his chest. Maybe the Hollow Hand are still around. Khanh tells the story of Wild Pig Yi while they're sharing watch, all the way to a tasty boss battle with the gloriously named Gravewraith Chen. They fight but then team up to take down more Hollow Hand.

It's a bright, lively story that's surprisingly sparsely populated by characters. The first two books featured restricted casts too but much more obviously so, especially in their framing stories. This one feels busy even when it isn't, though ironically the big fight scenes tend to feel a little less so because nobody ever cares about the faceless masses being taken down left and right. It's always about the major players, the Wild Pig Yis and Gravewraith Chens. Who else fought in that battle? History doesn't care.

And that's where the depth starts to creep in. This series has been wonderfully enjoyable on the surface while showing us substantial depth underneath. 'The Empress of Salt and Fortune' was an impeccable look at the fall and rise of kingdoms, as told through the little stories of objects being inventoried by Cleric Chih. 'A Long and Speaking Silence' covers upheaval of entire populations by war through the smaller stories of individual refugees in an alien city. In each novella, the depth grew over time but was there early. Here it doesn't seem to be but eventually shows up and finds us when we're least expecting it. Some, however, may not find it at all, as it's a more obscure and ephemeral depth tied to the relationship between storytelling and history.

It's still highly recommended, but I've read five books in this series now and I'd rank it fourth with only 'A Mouthful of Dust' below it. I have the two novellas in between still to find, 'Mammoths at the Gates' and 'The Brides of High Hill'. I look forward to them when they show up, but next up for me in Nghi Vo's bibliography is her new one, a standalone novel called 'The Scarlet Ball', which is due for release next month from Tor. A new Nghi Vo is like birthday and Christmas all at once, so I can't wait. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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