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thereadingskeleton's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Rep: Asian-coded cast, nonbinary/genderfluid characters, sapphic characters, queer characters, chronically ill and disabled characters
The Tensorate Series collects four novellas set in the same world: The Black Tides of Heaven, The Red Threads of Fortune, The Descent of Monsters, and The Ascent to Godhood. I absolutely love the world Neon Yang has created within these novellas. It’s rich and imaginative, and I wanted to know everything about it. You’ll find elemental magic, revolutionary technology, raptors, nagas, and more, and if that doesn’t intrigue you, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Each of the four novellas has a different style, which is something that I enjoyed but which might make some readers feel the stories lack cohesion. The first two are the most similar, told from close third-person POV, but the first spans many years while the second is a much more self-contained incident. The third is told through letters, transcripts, and the like, and the fourth is presented as a story being told aloud by a character. These second two novellas, with their more experimental styles, really work for me. I love the piece-by-piece reveal of information in the third novella, and I adore the amount of character voice the oral-storytelling style of the fourth allows.
(As a side note, I enjoyed the first two on audio and read the second two in a physical copy. I would suggest the physical copy for at least the third novella, as its format is more visual than the others. Highly recommend the audiobooks for the first two, though!)
Aside from these storytelling techniques, my favorite part of this collection has to be the queerness inherent to the world. For one, children are not assigned a gender at birth. They explore their gender identity as they grow up and can choose their (binary) gender when they are ready. Of course, there are still flaws in this kind of system: What happens if a child doesn’t want to choose? Why does anyone have to choose at all? These questions are explored (although not necessarily centered), and there is at least one character who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Almost all the main players are queer in some way. Many of them show attraction to the same gender or multiple genders, and the sheer amount of sapphic rep makes my heart so, so happy. The world described isn’t necessarily a queer paradise, but it does absolutely brim with queer folks who just get to exist as queer folks, and I’m so here for it.
Overall, I enjoyed this series, and I’d be excited to read more stories set in this world. I’m also excited to see what the author produces next!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Medical trauma, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Grief, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Child abuse
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