Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

Publisher - Tordotcom

Published - Out Now

Price - £18.99 hardback £8.99 Kindle eBook

The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest. Because Cleric Thien was once the patriarch of Coh clan of Northern Bell Pass--and now their granddaughters have arrived on the backs of royal mammoths, demanding their grandfather’s body for burial. Chih must somehow balance honoring their mentor’s chosen life while keeping the sisters from the north from storming the gates and destroying the history the clerics have worked so hard to preserve. But as Chih and their neixin Almost Brilliant navigate the looming crisis, Myriad Virtues, Cleric Thien’s own beloved hoopoe companion, grieves her loss as only a being with perfect memory can, and her sorrow may be more powerful than anyone could anticipate. . .

Stories have purposes we as readers know that. Stories can help us explain the world, warn us of dangers, promote empathy, compassion and what being human means. We often wrap that in stories of the imagination but the other side of the coin are the stories of the real, the memories of people and events that keep things alive and sometimes tell us things we never knew. In Nghi Vo’s elegant fantasy novella Mammoths at the Gates this type of story is explored as well as a tale of grief, loss and acceptance that life will always change.

Cleric Chih finally returns to Singing Hills Monastery after many adventures. But finds things have changed even beyond their new understanding of the world. At the gates are a pair of Mammoths and a military patrol holding the monastery to account. Inside many clerics are away on a unique assignment and Chih’s best best friend Rhu is in charge as Chih’s beloved tutor, leader and friend Thien has passed away. The clerics plan to bury their body per their traditions but the military leader outside claims Thien is her grandfather and wants to take his body home to their land under his old name. If she does not get this she will attack Singing Hills.

This is a quiet tale of love, loss, grief and finding out no one is ever known entirely to anyone. Vo captures the feeling of how life inevitably changes you sometimes without you knowing and sometimes just as with all things a cycle of life and death that itself creates change. Chih is already aware that after their travels around the world home is not the world anymore. It is lovely to be back but we sense they know they will not stay long. In meeting Rhu we see how friends change now shouldering responsibility and perhaps not being as playful as they once were. They may be taking being serious too far and provoking the military outside. Chih is having to rebalance that relationship but at the heart is the loss of Thien. In addition the strange nexin, the mysterious talking birds that also record the legends the clerics here are unsettled and Thien’s loyal companion Myriad Virtues is acting very strangely.

It’s bit of a shock that Tuien who we tend to think of as Chih’s wise mentor/parental figure has died and unusually in fantasy due to nothing untoward just old age. So although we have military mammoths threatening to break in we have a story much more based on reality of grief. Death creates changes we are not prepared for and everything feels out of balance. What comes next? Vo really captures the upheaval that death creates.

The centrepiece is a an uneasy dinner ritual where everyone starts to bring their memories of Thien as a story. This is a beautiful part of the the storytelling we get a reminder everyone has facets. A reminder across a life no one and the same person forever we even get glimpses of a Thien that doesn’t match our own memories. In some ways shocking and yet people do have secret sides that perhaps led to later choices. It’s not a tale of judgement but a reminder people are complex and change. The resolution to this battle for Thien is unexpected, bittersweet and fantastical and works to neatly round out these different images of one person.

Mammoths At The Gates is a quiet story the stakes are relatively low, the magic is subtle and the world and characters are yet changed. Death moves the world on whether we want it to or not it’s also reminds us that as a Doctor once said we are all stories in the end. A rather thoughtful and beautiful story I strongly recommend.