Name: Luisina Rivoira's review of The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang
Item: The Black Tides of Heaven
Rating: 4
Author: Luisina Rivoira

JY Yang

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. Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as children. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While his sister received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What's more, he saw the sickness at the heart of his 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 to play a pawn in his 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 his sister Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond he shares with his twin sister?

The Black Tides of Heaven

Luisina Rivoira

carly smallbird

I pretty much loved this--I think the only couple things I want are really *more* of what's already there. Normally I tend to think that fantasy books over-explain the setting, but I think I would have liked a little more introduction to the magic elements, and there were a lot of secondary characters I'd have loved to see more of. (There are more books in this series, though, so maybe I'll get my wish?)

Is there anything I love more than unapologetically queer fantasy and different views on how gender can work? I'm not sure. Fantastic book, keeps you hooked until the end. Can't wait to read the next book. 

Robin

Lia Yuliana

Update 03/07/2022

You can find the rest of my reviews at  An Ode to Fiction. | Subscribe to my Booktube channel 

Other reviews in the series :
1.The Black Tides of Heaven
2.The Red Threads of Fortune
3.The Descent of Monsters
4.The Ascent to Godhood

Official Release Date : September 26th 2017
Buy the book :
Amazon|Book Depository

4/5 ⭐️


  
    “The saying goes, ‘The black tides of heaven direct the courses of human lives.’ To which a wise teacher said, ‘But as with all waters, one can swim against the tide.”
  


The Black Tides of Heaven is a fantastical and rebellious first book to a four part series that is unapologetically queer, epic, and south east asian.

The Black Tides of Heaven is the first book of a four part series titled Tensorate by Neon Yang. It is a fantasy novella that follows the lives of twins, Akeha and Mokoya, children of the Tensorate empire. Their mother, a calculative and cunning leader of the Empire, is a ruthless ruler that controls the empire with an iron fist. Mokoya and Akeha history goes back to the time when they are used as tools of bargain by their mother to settle a depth with the monastery. This first book focuses on their coming of age and early adult life (up to the age of 30s) as they both discover their own paths through separation, life partners, and reunion through life's tragedies. 

The sole POV of The Black Tides of Heaven focuses on Akeha. Through Akeha's POV, they take the rein in showing the twins childhood. Mokoya and Akeha share a deep connection that branches into the Slack. They can communicate internally and they are blessed with a deeper sense when it comes to each other. Their sibling relationship could be explored deeper in my opinion but what Neon Yang did with their introduction is enough to jump start readers interests to invest into the story.


  
    “In the monastery,” Mokoya said, “they taught us that fortune is both intractable and impartial. That when bad things happen, it’s the result of an incomprehensible and inhuman universe working as it does. The mountain shrugs, but thinks nothing of the houses crushed in the avalanche. That was not its purpose.”
  


The Slack is the magic system of the world that is elemental and nature based. Anything that come from nature can be tensed by the Slack and manipulated into energy or reshaped to the tensor's purpose. Tensors are the people that have learned how to hone and control the Slack by going to academy, but anyone can manipulate the Slack. 

The world building of The Black Tides of Heaven is epic in scale but minimized to certain places for this book. What I noticed is the familiarity of a few South East Asian inspired names in the world that I find very memorable. One that captured my attention is Cinta Putri. As an Indonesian seeing these words made my day and made me smile. 

A thing that stood out to me relating to the characters is how they are born non binary and then when they grow up or when they are ready to identify their gender they get confirmed and proceed to go through the gender affirming process. But some characters will choose to not identify as anything and remain un-confirmed. This is really interesting highlight in the book for me. 


  
    “Because he had always known, even as a child, that he was the lightning, while she was the fire in the core of planets. And the world needed both. Revolutions needed both. Someone had to wield the knives, but someone also had to write the treaties.”
  


For the first book in a four part series The Black Tides of Heaven is a good starter for the series and gives the right amount of grip to continue on to the second book. Though I would like to voice a few gripes I have with the book. The first thing that might deter readers is the time jumps. The second thing is these jumps are fast. I'll be frank that three decades can pass by so fast in this book so keep that mind when going into it. 

Because of these time jumps it is really hard to have a feel for the characters and have an attachment for them. Right now I am reading the second book and only now I feel a certain type of way for the characters compared to when I read The Black Tides of Heaven. Then there is the matter of character growth and development. Affected by the time jumps, the characters did grow old really fast and readers will miss a lot of things from their life and will only bear witness to pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of the character's lifes. This book has the mentality of "go go go go".


  
    “Let the black tides of heaven direct our lives,” he murmured. He turned to look at his partner. “I choose to swim.”
  


Final thoughts, The Black Tides of Heaven is as wonderful start to a promising series with non binary to trans characters with potential, south east asian inspired world, and gripping plot about revolution and rebellion. Rereading this book was the best decision I've made because I didn't remember any of it when I first read it. I surely digested the story better now but in all honesty when I finished it this book almost made me go into a slump because thats what happens when I reread. But I will still continue on with the series and currently almost finishing up the second book so look out for my review for The Red Strings of Fortune.

Highly recommend if you are looking for a book with non binary, gender queer, and trans representation set in an epic world filled with political intrigued, good sibling relationship, and a plot that will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Risa C

The world crafted by Neon Yang blends fantasy and science fiction in a seamless and unique way and serves as a compelling backdrop to an interesting story whose rushed and simplistic telling does it somewhat of a disservice. Perhaps owing to the meager word count of a novella, there isn't much of an opportunity to let tension build and to really get invested into the characters' struggles and conflicts when everything is resolved at such an inexorable, frenetic pace. The dialogue is also largely expository and does a lot of heavy lifting to explain the themes the author wants to explore without much finesse.

Ultimately, although I was along for the ride and mostly enjoyed the experience, I felt the book thought it was more clever than it actually was and rolled my eyes at some of the references and beats in the story. I'd be interested in checking out more from this universe, but I think I'd need something more substantial.

Neon Yang

"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.

Rio (they/them)

The world building seems really cool, but I found this first book to be pretty boring. To me, the story seems really rushed and without any dept. Even the romance bits were too much too fast.
The only concept I really liked was the whole gender confirmation structure, but maybe I would have also liked the concept of “magic” in this universe if only it was explained even a little bit.
To sum it up, the book went by fast, but it felt rushed and it was pretty much underwhelming.

Kerri Miller

Sahi K

I’ve known about this series for a while now and having read the reviews, I felt intimidated because I thought it might be way too outside my comfort zone or maybe not my kind of writing style at all. But I also wanted to read it and appreciate it as much as others have. So when we decided upon this novella as our April BOTM for Stars and Sorcery book club, I was ecstatic and I devoured it as soon as I picked it up. 

The major drawback of this book is it’s too short size. I know I have to read the next novella as well to get a full picture of the story, but it could have been so much more wonderful if it was longer. And I say this with all my heart because I loved it and just wanted more. The world building that we get is limited in the amount but so expansive in scope and described so beautifully that I felt myself immersed in it. The elemental magic system is both familiar and new, but I also wanted to see so much more of it in action. The East Asian elements in the culture, world building and philosophy were integrated very seamlessly and that was some of my favorite part of the book. And the way gender is handled is wow. I have personally never seen gender being undefined and chosen by every single person in any fantasy novel before, and I was amazed at the author’s brilliant idea and how this choice affects the paths of the characters in the story. 

Akeha and Mokoya are great characters and it was fascinating to see the way their relationship change as the years went by and due to the choices they made, but I also wanted to get to know them better. Would have especially liked to know more about their lives without each other, their partners and their role in the rebellion which ends up being such an important part in the second half of the book, but which we only get glimpses of. The sibling relationship made me quite emotional, and I think it’s some of very good relationship arcs I’ve read in recent times.

On the whole, this was brilliant for what it was, but it did leave me wanting in the best possible ways. This is a world I didn’t wanna leave, and I know I’m gonna be binging the rest of the series very soon. If you are someone who loves unique fantasy worlds, I think you won’t be able to put this down just like me.

Nickie Mohler

This is the story of twins Mokoya and Akeha. They are the children of the Protector. Owing a debt to the Grand Monastery, the Protector gives her twins as payment. We watch as the twins grow up and decide which side of the rebellion they will choose.

I have to say that this started off weird for me. The way pronouns were used was kind of confusing and it was making it difficult for me to focus on the story. Once I got to the part that explained that, I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this. I usually feel like I need more from a novella, but I thought this was perfect. I loved the characters. Mokoya and Akeha are two of my new faves. I am going to start the second book tonight!

Ruby Huber

Wanted a little more from this, the story felt rushed at the most dramatic parts, I didn't get a good feel for the magic system, idk. It was like Legend of Korra in many ways which is not a criticism but is also not what I thought I was getting.

2.5 stars. Sadly, I didn't love this one as much as I had expected. The beginning is very strong: lovely prose, evocative descriptions of an inventive fantasy landscape, twins who are very connected but also very different from each other: it had great potential. 

Occasionally, the novella reclaims these early qualities for a beautiful sentence or two. But it felt as if it was only a novella (instead of a novel) because the author was too lazy/uninterested in several important plot points and character developments to actually write them out properly. A character is sent on a quest to retrieve phoenix feathers from a mountain top? Just summarize the trip in a sentence. A main character travels the realm, witnesses suffering, participates in a civil war, makes friends, watches those friends die? Only mentioned later in a summary, we never actually meet those friends nor witness his reaction. The interesting viewpoint character in the first chapter? Becomes irrelevant soon after. He's literally introduced with "[He] did not know it yet, but this night would change the course of all his days." Except it doesn't! He keeps his position, his job, everything continues exactly as before for him. His life doesn't change. 

In addition, we start with the wonderful set-up of dual viewpoints, seeing things sometimes from one twin's perspective, sometimes from the other's. And then that just stops and we start getting only Akeha's perspective for the rest of the book, except for a few pages at the end. We later learn that the other twin was very busy during his absence and accomplished and grew a lot, but this is also only told in a summary, we don't get to experience any of the excitement. 

So what are the pages spent on? Mostly: individual fights, most often against some monster that suddenly appears, and that has nothing to do with the story. Or a fight against a random drunk who also has nothing to do with the story. And teenage sexual angst, lust and self-doubt. Towards the end, we are *told* how much the twins supposedly always loved each other, and that love was the main characteristic of their relationship. But while they're actually still in the same town, we mostly see bickering arguments, jealousy, constantly comparing themselves to the other and feeling inferior or rejected, and even betraying the other by making out with their romantic partner. Uhm. Sorry, but that's pure ego drama, not sibling love in any way. And this episode is never alluded to again, never apologized for, nothing. By the way, all of the romance in this book is insta-love. 

The world-building was wonderfully inventive, but also a total mess: none of it made sense in its wild mixture of historical detail, magic, and futuristic tech - none of it explained. The invented religion reminds me of the Force in Star Wars: The Slack is all, and all is the Slack. [...] All that is, exists through the grace of the Slack. All that moves, moves through the grace of the Slack. Except it doesn't, because again and again, the characters refer to "the fortunes" as moving everything, determining one's fate, granting favor or crushing you, and it's not explained why this doesn't contradict the "everything moves through the grace of the Slack" doctrine. 

I guess my problem with this was mostly that the book's overall plot of a complicated civil war, technological progress in warfare, and rebellion against a tyrant, would have really benefited from a typical epic fantasy writing style. Descriptive, long, various POVs, fleshed-out, world explained, showing instead of telling. Instead, the author chose a very dreamy, fairy-tale like style that mostly tells instead of shows (except all those brief but irrelevant fight scenes of opponents unrelated to the plot), and leaves huge gaps of many years that aren't fleshed-out even though they contain absolutely crucial character development! 

Maybe I shouldn't have read The Empress of Salt and Fortune before this one because they're pretty similar: the story of a revolution is told, the style is lyrical, the world is very unique and Asian-inspired, and there's the same amount of LGBT/non-binary representation and use of singular "they". Except in Empress of Salt, everything made sense, and even the writing style worked because the story was told as a story-within-a-story by a character narrating it, trying to convey what really happened through subtle allusions. The character didn't want to spell everything out, she just alluded to things, implied things, and you got it. I think it was just handled much more elegantly there. There, the short novella format also made sense, I didn't expect nor want everything to be fleshed out and was happy to leave it as a somewhat vague fairy-tale - that was part of its beauty.

What I did like here: I did feel with the twins, I was emotionally attached to them, and I loved the beautiful Asian-inspired setting. It just didn't quite come together for me, it was a bit too unpolished, not fleshed-out enough. Yang clearly has a wonderful imagination and a lot of talent, so I'd be happy to try this author again at some point in the future.

Vitor Augusto Dal Molin 

The first half of the book was SO GOOD (like 5 star), but unfortunately the rest wasn't, idk yeah.

Alexia Cambaling

I’ve looked forward to reading The Black Tides of Heaven for months now and only just got around to picking it up recently. I ended up finishing it in around two to three hours of reading time in a single day. It’s also a novella, which means that it’s around less than 250 pages, so there really isn’t any excuse for me not to read it, considering its short length and the fact that it’s critically-acclaimed.

I was not disappointed by this book. It does condense more than three decades in one volume, but I find that it’s handled relatively well. However, there are parts when it can feel kind of rushed, hence why I docked half a star from the final rating. Still, The Black Tides of Heaven is an absolute stellar novella and I would heartily recommend it. It is also one of the most unique stories I’ve read in a while, my only regret being that I did

The novella spans several decades and follows the lives of twins Akeha and Mokoya. They are the youngest of the Protector’s children, the woman who rules the Protectorate with an iron fist. I loved the worldbuilding in this novella. I’ve see it described somewhere as ‘silkpunk’ and I agree that it’s the feel I got while reading. All of the elements of the ‘punk’ genre is present here, coupled with an Asian-based culture.

I enjoyed the Asian setting of the world it’s set in. There are elements from different cultures present in the world. Personally, I welcome any setting that’s based on the diverse cultures in Asia and I found the setting to be very lush and immersive. While it is short, it manages to paint a vivid picture of the world and the setting. The magic system is based on something called Slack, which I don’t fully understand yet, but what I gathered to be something that is connected to the world. I also think that it’s based on natural elements, but I’m not too sure. Apparently it’s based on the classical Chinese elements? Again, I’m not exactly sure. I don’t mind not understanding the magic system though- maybe I’m just slow, which is why I didn’t get it.

Slackcraft is also apparently extremely prevalent in the world and a lot of people rely on it in their everyday lives, giving rise to the Machinists, a group of people who want the population to become less reliant on slackcraft. The magic shown here still managed to be pretty interesting and I’m definitely going to read on to learn more.

However, the most interesting part of the novella, and one of the primary reasons why I would heartily recommend it to YA readers is because of the diverse representation. This is also an Own Voices book because the author is non-binary. While I am not non-binary, I think that queer youth might really enjoy reading these novellas because of how the representation is treated. Here, children are born genderless. They are referred to in neutral pronouns and basically ‘confirm’ their gender later on when they become adults.

This actually becomes a major plot point in the book as Mokoya confirms her gender as female while Akeha confirms as male. I’m actually wondering if Akeha is in fact non-binary as it seemed like he/they felt compelled to confirm a gender since Mokoya did so. I’m not quite sure but in any case, this actually becomes a catalyst for them being separated and drifting apart.

Aside from that, there’s plenty of diversity portrayed here in terms of sexuality. All kinds of sexuality are deemed acceptable in society and I haven’t seen censure for it. The main character here is in a relationship with another man and no one really gave him a hard time for it. I think that it really shows that you can write about a problematic fantasy society without homophobia and books are often better without any.

The characters are well-developed for such a short novel. There’s plenty of growth to be seen here and I liked how they were portrayed. I think that the characters are very interesting and I enjoyed following their journey through the years here in this book. What I also appreciate is the fact that there are so many powerful women figures in this novella. They aren’t put on a pedestal either- it showed that powerful women can be complex, they can be manipulative and power-hungry or kind and nurturing. This queer, feminist take on the genre is definitely a welcome one.

The plot does progress so fast, it sometimes makes my head spin. Still, it remains compelling and made me eager to read more. It’s mostly character-driven here and shows us the progression of the characters and how they became how they’re like in the present. The climax and the ending were a bit surprising, but also powerful and heart-wrenching. The writing is beautiful and there are some very poetic lines which I’ve highlighted on my Kindle app.

Overall, I’d recommend The Black Tides of Heaven regardless of who you are. It’s a beautiful story and has one of the best inclusive world-building I’ve seen so far. I am definitely going to pick up The Red Threads of Fortune and The Descent of Monsters and I’ll also anticipate whatever JY Yang might release next.

This review is also on  The Bookworm Daydreamer

Leelynn Brady

Full review on my blog 

I forget where I found out about this novel from, or who recommended it to me, but I’m honestly really glad that I got to experience this novel. I was also kind of surprised that it was listed as a novella because even though it looks small, it really ended up packing a huge punch for me and I just could not even sit down to think about what I wanted to say for this review. But I knew I wanted to write it because I rarely hear about people reading this novel and I wanted to share my thoughts on it, and hopefully get others to try it out and let me know what they thought about it.

Judy Hudgins

A bit of an unusual read. Set in an ancient Asian style world, the people are born with their gender unassigned. At some point during their early years, they decide if they want to be 'confirmed' into either male or female. There is also a form of magic called the 'Slack', a nature-based power. 

A very interesting read.

Ben Nathan

This was fantastic. Such a smart idea. Great characters, well written. Interesting combination of magic and technology that existed. The style flowed beautifully. Huge fan! Looking forward to reading more work by JY Yang

Luisina Rivoira &
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang

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