This story starts quite abruptly, a change from the usual Singing Hills novellas. I noticed, but figured it was Vo wanting to try something different fore the 5th entry. I should have paid a bit more attention.

This story seemed to me to be a mix of a European folktale and asian mythology, but there are also a lot of themes that seem to be universal among humans. For example, I just learned today of a historical myth around one of the big samurai families that involves a swordsman meeting a monk at a bridge and engaging in battle that is reminiscent of Robin Hood. As usual, it’s hard to talk too much about the story or themes of these novellas without ruining the twist (they almost all have a parallel story structure to a mystery story). I would say that another clue things are off within this narrative is that Chih doesn’t quite ever get the stories she seeks.

A very different environment for Cleric Chih, but no less about stories than the other entries in the series. We even learn a bit more about Signing Hills and the neixin. A great story that has hit me extra hard this year due to some family stuff, but I don’t want to spoil the story.

As always, I love Nghi Vo’s magical realism version of China. The cleric Chih and their mission to document all the knowledge reminds me somewhat of Sazed from the first Mistborn trilogy, another favorite character of mine. This time she’s in the Riverlands, which seems to be a kind of asian version of the American wild west (at least as depicted in movies and tv shows). It also introduces (I think…I don’t remember seeing it before) some wuxia into the Singing Hills series.

I think this book is my second-favorite of the Secret Novels (or Hoid novels), after Tress, and potentially tied with Yumi or just ahead of it. Like many of the Secret Novels you can get through most of it without knowing too much of the Cosmere, although, like many of the Secret Novels, portions of the climax and falling action might sound like nonsense to you if you aren’t caught up with The Cosmere. Although if you’ve read up to Stormlight 5 you’ve likely read all the rest of the Cosmere, if you’re one of those Cosmere readers that reads each series in order rather than in publication order, Stormlight 5 has the many relevant connections to what’s going on in this story. I would also say that Isles of the Emberdark would also be highly relevant to this story.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I love retro dice. A year or so ago I backed the Kickstarter for a set of 80s D&D Adventures and character options and I finally got the dice that were the one physical item I backed. I absolutely love the design:

I especially love the cassette tape for the 20 spot on the d20. I’m now torn on my favorite retro dice. The VHS dice form 1985 games has the best case. I love the Miami-style dice as someone who grew up there, but these dice epitomize the color scheme of the early-to-mid 80s. Reminds me of the colors I would see on clothes and building decorations.

I just posted the following to my Github profile about AI usage in my programming projects. Sharing here to document my current thinking on the subject:

AI Usage

I know that opinions on AI usage are very divided at the moment. Some people I respect, like the hosts of Fallthrough and Mike Kennedy of Talk Python don’t see any issues with using it as part of the development process. (Although the Fallthrough hosts are against AI Slop, especially in communications ). Others won’t touch any repo that has included AI contributions.