Buying Options

Kindle Price:	$7.58
	includes tax, if applicable

promotions apply when you purchase

Add Audible Narration to your purchase for just $2.99

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Redeem a promotion code or gift card

Share <Embed>

The Black Tides of Heaven (Kindle Single) (The Tensorate Series Book 1) by [Neon Yang]

Follow the Author

JY Yang

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

by Neon Yang (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

493 ratings

See all formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$7.58

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Paperback

"Please retry"

$19.50

$16.86

Audio CD, Audiobook

"Please retry"

$48.21

—

"Joyously wild stuff. Highly recommended." —The New York Times

One of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, according to Time Magazine

A Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards for Best Novella

The Black Tides of Heaven is one of a pair of unique, standalone introductions to Neon Yang's Tensorate Series, which Kate Elliott calls "effortlessly fascinating." For more of the story you can read its twin novella The Red Threads of Fortune, available simultaneously.

Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as infants. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While Mokoya received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What's more, they saw the sickness at the heart of their mother's Protectorate.

A rebellion is growing. The Machinists discover new levers to move the world every day, while the Tensors fight to put them down and preserve the power of the state. Unwilling to continue as a pawn in their mother's twisted schemes, Akeha leaves the Tensorate behind and falls in with the rebels. But every step Akeha takes towards the Machinists is a step away from Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond they share with their twin?

The Tensorate Series
Book 1: The Black Tides of Heaven
Book 2: The Red Threads of Fortune
Book 3: The Descent of Monsters
Book 4: The Ascent to Godhood

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Print length

258 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tordotcom
Publication date

26 September 2017
File size

5157 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Product description

Review

"Joyously wild stuff. Highly recommended." --The New York Times

"Yang conjures up a world of magic and machines, wild monsters and sophisticated civilizations, that you'll want to return to again and again." --Ars Technica

"Full of love and loss, confrontation and discovery. Each moment is a glistening pearl, all strung together in a wonder of world-creation." -- Ken Liu, Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award winner and author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie

"I love Neon Yang's effortlessly fascinating world-building." --Kate Elliott, author of Black Wolves and Court of Fives

"A fascinating world of battles, politics, magic and romance." --Zen Cho, author of Sorcerer to the Crown

"Filled with memorable characters and set in a wonderfully imaginative and original universe." --Aliette de Bodard, Nebula Award-winning author of The House of Shattered Wings

"Like a Miyazaki movie decided to jump off the screen and sear itself into prose, and in doing so became something entirely new." --Indrapramit Das, author of The Devourers

"Relentlessly captivating, heartbreaking, and powerful." --Fran Wilde, award-winning, Nebula & Hugo-nominated author of Updraft, Cloudbound, and Horizon

"Yang's prose carries the reader along... A really good book." --Locus

"Yang's writing is quiet, but it is the quiet of strength. It doesn't need to shout to be heard." --Michelle West for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

"Yang captures an epic sweep in compact, precise prose." --Publishers Weekly starred review

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

JY Yang bursts onto the epic fantasy scene with The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune, standalone twin novellas that begin their silkpunk Tensorate Series. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01MTMY52H
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tordotcom (26 September 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5157 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 258 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 188,993 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 4,627 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- 7,745 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- 56,895 in Whispersync for Voice

Customer Reviews:
493 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

JY Yang

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

JY Yang is the author of the Tensorate series of novellas from Tor.Com Publishing (The Red Threads of Fortune, The Black Tides of Heaven, and The Descent of Monsters, coming July 31st, 2018). Their work has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Kitschy awards, and the first two Tensorate novellas made the Tiptree Honor List.

In previous incarnations, they have been a molecular biologist; a writer for animation, comics and games; a journalist for one of Singapore’s major papers, and a science communicator with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

JY works and lives in Singapore. They identify as queer and non-binary. Find them online at http://jyyang.com or on Twitter as @halleluyang.

Neon Yang
209
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.58
Neon Yang
126
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.58
Neon Yang
132
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.58
Nghi Vo
919
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.58
Nghi Vo
1,899
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $7.58
P. Djèlí Clark
1,901
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.48

Customer reviews

5 star		49%
4 star		31%
3 star		14%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

How are ratings calculated?

Review this product

Write a customer review

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Emma K. Osborne

Beautiful stuff

Reviewed in Australia on 30 January 2018

Verified Purchase

I for one love a good origin story, and this one was lovely. I particularly liked the idea that people can choose a gender - or not - as they grow and discover who they are. What a beautiful concept. I also thought that it allowed a lovely lead into the complex and interesting worldbuilding that Yang is doing. The world felt very real and very lived-in.

I'd start with this before Red Threads, but can highly recommend both.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

zoid

but I can't recommend it and I wasn't interested enough to purchase the ...

Reviewed in Australia on 29 May 2018

Verified Purchase

This story failed to engage me. I finished it because I was waiting to see if something interesting happened, but it didn't. The background confused me . . I didn't really know where the story took place - either in time or in space. The characters were rather bland, as well. In summary, it's OK, but I can't recommend it and I wasn't interested enough to purchase the next book in the series.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Imyril

Epic silkpunk world-building frames questions of identity & emotional bonds

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2018

Verified Purchase

The first novella of the Tensorate is a whirlwind of world-building, establishing character and setting up political context. Akeha and Mokoya, inseparable twins, are political pawns: born purely so that their mother (the dictator of the Protectorate) can settle a debt. When Mokoya develops the gift of foresight, Hekate realises her error and summons them back to court - but the twins have no wish to be their mother's tools, and find themselves leaning towards dissident elements who wish to bring down her rule. All of this is nested around a tale of finding an identity and establishing yourself as an individual.

It's a tall order to cram 30-odd years of backstory into a novella, and at times it feels this is at the expense of some detailing that would help explain the world - but the focus is on Akeha's struggles to figure out where they fit and on the increasing strain the twins' bond comes under. This isn't, ultimately, an epic story of Machinist rebellion against Tensor rule (in spite of the gloriously evocative setting), but a personal story of resistance and the emotional entanglements that drive us - and I have a soft spot for personal stories told in big epic settings. Good stuff.

2 people found this helpful

Greatgreenbird

I've liked this writer's short fiction so I was interested to ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 December 2017

Verified Purchase

It's not often I pre-order stuff but I made an exception for this pair of novellas, The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune, by JY Yang. I've liked this writer's short fiction so I was interested to see what a slightly longer format would provide and wasn't disappointed, though I liked the first of the two novellas slightly more. The covers look great too, which makes the fact they're ebooks a little frustrating!

Both novellas are set in the world of the Tensorate, which is a place where people can manipulate energy to do all sorts of things (known as the Slack) and which is ruled by the mother of our two main characters. She's a distinctly ruthless individual, for example giving birth to Akeha and Mokoya in order to give them to the temple which had provided her with support during an attempted rebellion, in 'payment' for help received. After that, in The Black Tides of Heaven, she shows minimal interest in their welfare until Mokoya begins to demonstrate prophetic powers and the rest of this novella is the aftermath of that dynamic.

Anyway, the world-building is something I liked very much about both these, including the use of gender terms - this is a world where people declare they are male or female when they feel certain about it, using they/them until that point. In the second novella, Mokoya spends some time trying to figure out her relationship with the power she thought she'd lost and also testing the boundaries of what she can do with the Slack. All in all, I enjoyed them and would very much like to read more set in this universe.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Wow! I loved every second of it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 October 2021

Verified Purchase

This was absolutely perfect. The pacing was excellent, the twin thing, the factions, the mind reading, the monastery...and, of course, Mother.

Downloading the second book as we speak!

Alison Carminke

Interesting story about the bond between twins who are forced ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2018

Verified Purchase

Interesting story about the bond between twins who are forced apart by their mother's expectations for them. The idea of gender being something you choose when you're ready is explored in the setting and feels very natural. Throw in some revolutionary intrigue and there's plenty going on.

One person found this helpful

Butler

You need to take better care of books!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 August 2018

Verified Purchase

Pages are a bit wavy like the damp had got to it, and some of the corners are bent slightly which is a shame but I look forward to reading this.

Buying Options

Follow the Author

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

Product description

Review

Review

Book Description

From the Publisher

About the Author

Product details

About the author

JY Yang

Customers who read this book also read

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top reviews from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries