*I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.*
Cleric Chih returns home for the first time in years only to discover their mentor has passed away and his granddaughters are threatening the safety of the Singing Hills Abbey to retrieve his body. Chih must work quickly to honour their mentor’s life while stopping the mammoths at the gates from destroying everything the clerics have worked for all these years.
While the author notes that the series may be read in any given order, each release can be considered its entry point; Mammoths at the Gate feels like such a brilliant story that fits easily as the middle story of Chih’s journey. (We are, thankfully, getting more from Cleric Chih. I don’t think I’m ready to let them go yet.)
Chih has turned home for the first time in almost three years. However, the Abbey is silent as ever, as most of the clerics are elsewhere, and the few left are undoubtedly incapable of handling the giant mammoths that could trample them in seconds. Chih barely has time to truly mourn their mentor as they are spurned to stop the war at their doorstep. But Chih isn’t the only one mourning. The mammoths are controlled by the granddaughters of their mentor, Cleric Thein, the family that he left behind once he joined the singing hills, the other clerics, some old friends of Chih, some new, and not to mention Cleric Thein’s hoopoe companion, Myriad Virtues.
Life and death and how it is passed through stories is the core element of this series, and Chih is now a character instead of a bystander this time around. This novella deals tightly with grief and change, and Mammoths at the Gate is emotional and heartfelt. Sure, Chih has shown emotions, but seeing them return to their home, to their familiar surroundings and realising how much has changed in the time they were gone felt so much more affecting.
As clerics, they understand how memory is a fickle thing, and how it used to remember the life of Cleric Thein before and after his time as a cleric was an excellent way to touch upon the topic of grief and the grieving process. His granddaughters recall a much different person than Chih, but it doesn’t mean their perspective is wrong; it reminds them that the world is constantly changing. The stories about you, too, can affect people differently. All in all, this is my favourite entry in the series so far. Simply well done and beautiful.
as told by zaheerah 