The Black Tides of Heaven

I will be honest, the only reason I was eagerly awaiting the release of these books, and the reason I own them in hard copy, paperbacks is because I absolutely loved the covers.


So JY Yang's Tensorate series begins with two books, novellas really - The Black Tides is Heaven and The Red Threads of Destiny. The two are stand-alone novellas but are the beginning stories in the Tensorate series. One can read them in any order. I began with this one, because Goodreads marks this as the first in the series.

JY Yang is a Non-Binary, Singaporean author and I've loved their short fiction for sometime now, so I was excited to start their new series.

The Black Tides Of Heaven follows twins Mokoya and Akeha- but focuses on Akeha- as they discover their powers and go about their lives. Their mother is something called the Protector, in a very Asianesque, Silk-Punk, Fantasy world, something like a Queen, I assume.

Akeha is sort of a runaway, and Mokoya goes to the Monastery. Akeha, working with the rebels, and the Machinists, develop new technology to try and overthrow the Protectorate. Mokoya, on the other hand, gets visions of the future, and therefore, Mokoya's life is under constant threat. Akeha, therefore, is torn between wanting to take their mother down, and staying in touch with Mokoya.

JY Yang's world building in this series is wonderful, truly striking. I love how they've condensed such fascinating world building in such a short book! The magic and the politics of the world is also amazing. Another thing I liked about this is how much it reminds me of Singapore (where I now live), a mix of several Asian people - Chinese, Indians, Japanese, Koreans.

Given that Yang is NB, I loved the introduction of a society who brings their children up gender free, using the pronouns of “they/them” and then, once they reach a certain age, they can undergo confirmation, where they eventually pick their gender. The children are also given gender free clothing. I really think that's amazing, and its a pretty unique universe that they have created, and it makes me feel so good that such books exist. I really don't think I've read a book with such a society, unless you count LeGuin's Left Hand Of Darkness.

I really liked the story and the characters, and loved how the prose flowed almost like poetry. It's was a very easy read, and I thoroughly lost myself in the world. I can't wait to see where the series goes next! I believe that the second book is Mokoya's part of the story, while this was predominantly Akeha's. I reckon this series will be so much fun!

I might have pre-ordered these books solely for the covers, but I really did end up liking this one, and I think I'll like the other one too.