The Black Tides of Heaven (Kindle Single) (The Tensorate Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

I’m not sure how to describe this book. Others have described it as silkpunk (it’s not), Asian fantasy (kind of but not really), or some sort of epic thingy (that’s not written in the style of an epic at all). I don’t usually like to provide details of an author’s created world in my reviews because authors work really hard to introduce readers to their worlds in their stories. Who am I to short circuit that introduction? At the same time, though, I want to give others kind of a heads up of what they’re getting into if they were to pick the book up. So, the highlights: it is an entirely fictional world, set in an entirely fictional country that has magic, and the magic fuels technology levels to more-or-less 19th century/early 20th century. There is an “Asian” flavor, but that’s confined to pretty much names and some creature/legend stuff.

Now that the description of the world is out of the way, we come to the real question…is it any good? I don’t know if it’s good or not – I’m not some gatekeeping arbiter of all that is Good and Worthy in the written world – but I do know that it is not a book that I particularly enjoyed reading.

The length of the book felt wrong. I know that this is the first of a series, and that’s fine, I’m not bothered by the way the story ended. No, my complaint is that the story felt…jerky. I didn’t understand characters’ motivations, and it was not because the author was showing rather than telling; it was because sometimes the characters’ actions made no sense. I had a hard time really understanding WHY the protagonists felt the way they did towards various authority figures or each other.

The world building is uneven. It seemed like the author tried to fit too much into one tiny book: unique gender dynamics, a magic system, a political situation, various factions, ethnic groups. Some of those aspects of the world – unique gender dynamics and a magic system – were described at least at a basic level such that I could follow the action and hope that the sequels provide more detail. On the other hand, MAJOR characters are sometimes given only two or three “lines,” and I didn’t understand why I should or should not be rooting for one particular political entity over another. I didn’t understand the main central external conflicts of the book.

The Black Tides of Heaven also felt heavy. It’s a depressing read, with almost no humor or joy to be found within. There are occasional cool action sequences, but the extremity of the violence and aftermath of pain and sadness counters whatever short-lived joy a fan of action scenes may experience. And sometimes, when I feel that I was expected to feel sad, I felt nothing, due to the aforementioned lack of characterization or world building.

As is, the book had some fine elements and interesting concepts. It just felt more like a rough draft of a longer, better book.

It's not every day you have a Singaporean queer non-binary writer making a fantasy novella with queer characters set in an Asian inspired world. As a queer non-binary person myself, I came for the queerness & got that and more.

This novel tells the story of two twins who strive to define themselves & their place in the world. It is told from the perspective of Akeha, but also features their twin Mokoya. Mokoya has the power to see the future, which the twins use to try to use to get out of the calculating control of The Protectorate, their mother.

As the story progresses, Akeha has to decide whether they can gain the free will to define themselves on their own terms. It's a introspective journey as well as a political one since their mother rules the world with an iron grip.

When it comes to the world building, the most striking aspects is how the characters get to freely choose their gender when they come of age. Until then, they are addressed with gender neutral pronouns they/them and it is never confusing.

Beside the world building, I also enjoyed the magic system. It is a combo of elemental magic and steampunk technology, which made action scenes interesting.

While the slow pacing made getting into the story a little difficult, the characters, storyline, world building, and magic made it pay off. It was a satisfying read & it has made me consider getting the companion novella.

When I read The Red Threads of Fortune, I was blown away by the intricacy of this fantasy novella. The Black Tides of Heaven was released at the same time, and both novellas stand alone. That said, The Black Tides of Heaven takes place before The Red Threads of Fortune.

The story starts out with the birth of twin children (Mokoya and Akeha) to the Protector, who promptly gives them to the Grand Monastery to pay off a debt. The story follows Akeha as they grow up and discover a path separate from their prophetic sibling.

One of the most notable elements of The Black Tides of Heaven is Yang’s treatment of gender and sexuality. In the culture Yang’s created, children are not assigned a gender at birth. They are referred to with non-gendered pronouns and wear specific non-gendered clothing until they chose their gender (either male or female), usually in their teen years although some chose as young as three. I think there’s a tendency to paint these sorts of fantasy worlds as queer utopias, but it’s still a culture where adult gender is considered binary, which is brought up more in The Red Threads of Fortune with the introduction of an adult nonbinary character. It also interests me what the expectations are for the different genders and how they still seem to have designated gender roles, although the society is also non-patriarchal.

The Black Tides of Heaven spans over thirty years of Akeha’s life. As you might expect, it’s a coming of age story. The core of the novella is Akeha defining himself as an individual distinct from his sister and expectations for a child of the Protector. But his individual journey takes place within a larger socio-political conflict. I think The Black Tides of Heaven gave me a better perspective on the Tensor/Machinists conflict than The Red Threads of Fortune, possibly due to the larger time span. I’m also glad that I actually saw the character of the Protector, since I’d heard a lot about her in the other novella.

Of course, there’s a lot happening here for just a novella, and as a result the story feels thin in some places. While I thought The Black Tides of Heaven gave more of a picture of the world, I still think I need to see more of it. Luckily, there’s going to be two more novellas in the series! Unfortunately, that doesn’t help with some of the issues in The Black Tides of Heaven. Specifically the development of character relationships. I thought the relationship between the siblings was the strongest, but there’s a lot of relationship building that gets lost in the time skips, especially when it comes to the romantic relationships.

Yang is a fantastic writer, and I highly recommend their work. Do yourself a favor and read the Tensorate novellas.