Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Ascent to Godhood

In this final novella, we finally learn the backstory of the Protectorate, and how she came into her power. The point of view is from Lady Han's drunken retelling of her history to another character, after the Protectorate has died. Lady Han has a vulgar and comedic voice that was a delight to read, and she was a character I was very much interested in learning more about, so I'm glad she was the chosen narrator. She was bought from her family to be an entertainer, then stumbled into the Protectorate's circle, where she became enamored with her. We all know how her tale will end, as we know exactly how evil the Protectorate can be, but the journey there is a gripping read. I became fascinated with both characters, and how they were tangled together. It's crushing to know that the Protectorate is of course using Lady Han, which just made her admiration and love of her all the more tragic. It's not entirely backstory; there's a few tidbits at the end about the current state of affairs that give enough answers while still encouraging the reader to imagine what the future of this world will be like. All in all, I can't recommend these novellas enough.

Content Warnings

beebeewin's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Another good installment in the Tensorate series! Like the third book, I appreciated how this story fleshed out the world more, while still staying lightly connected to the previous plots. It is refreshing to have such a casual queer story, a slow burn rebellion tale, and a backstory to a character I hadn't thought about before. Once again, Neon Yang writes a short but impactful read. Sad that I finished the series but interested in reading more of their work. Overall, Yang writing improved across the series and the character exploration felt deeper and more realistic. I didn't necessarily love or deeply connect with this installment's characters, especially to fully understand their motivations. That is the sacrifice of a short novel, but I would definitely recommend this series for anyone looking for a short and enjoyable science fiction read.

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

And here we are, the last novella in the Tensorate series. And the conclusion of another successfully completed "read-aloud before bed" series for my partner and myself.

The Ascent to Godhood opens with the Protector's death. As always with the fall of a leader, some rejoice and some mourn. In a tavern deep in the countryside, the leader of the Machinists and the Protector's greatest enemy, Lady Han, is drowning her feelings in drink. When she is approached by a young rebel interested in joining the cause, Lady Han finds herself telling the story of how she first met the Protector, before she was the Protector, back when she was just Hekate, and Lady Han was just a faceless dancing girl.

I really enjoyed getting the back story on Hekate, her rise to becoming the tyrannical Protector we've been introduced to in these last few novellas. I have always loved a well done (villain) origin story, so I appreciated getting that here at the end. I also overall liked the narrative style (though my partner did not - he said it took him out of the story too much), but I do have to say that it wasn't as much fun as the dossier/journal style of the previous novella. Also, I found it a bit strange how varied the different styles of writing for each of the four novellas were. Perhaps if I had read them more spaced out, it may not have been as big of a deal, but all together in one tome like this, it felt a little disjointed. Regardless, this was a really short final installation, so love or hate the style, it didn't last long.

A lot of the themes from the previous novellas were not revisited here, which I think might be why I was so hesitant about how this would wrap things up. However, due to the nature of Lady Han's relationship with and knowledge of the Protector, we did get an interesting sort of paralleling or parody of progress in the perspective, in the way that change is seen/told differently by different people, depending on who benefits and who doesn’t. I thought it was a worthwhile message, to consider that even if things could (always) be better, it's still worth looking back to compare with how they used to be (and see how far we've come) as well. But other than that, none of the previous topics like gender and identity, governmental overreach and experimentation, treatment of foreign and marginalized peoples, etc. (nor any of the characters from earlier novellas, really) are revisited/re-addressed here in this conclusion to the saga.

So, to reiterate, I was nervous, reading this, about how (and if) it would be able to wrap up the full saga/story. It felt to me like the first three novellas were more or less furthering the same characters and story, but this one was so different and removed from the rest of the world that had been built. And while there were definitely some hanging characters/points that I would have loved to see more conclusive "this is where we leave them" details for, I'll admit to being impressed (and corrected) in that the final chapter (which was all of a single page), Yang managed to bring all the major plot threads to a legitimate and fairly satisfying conclusion. As with all novellas, due to their length, there are many specifics that are left up to the imagination of the reader to fill in, but the overall "reveal," if you will, was gratifying.

Overall, I have to say that I (and really we, I'll speak for my partner here as well) were lukewarm on the series as a whole. But, we did enjoy our time reading it, especially the world-building, the speculation (that the author gave lots of space to the reader to explore), and (for me) the writing and big picture ending.

“How do you compare a dream and reality? They don't exist in the same world and don't follow the same rules.”

“…small people like me are the first to be broken on the spearpoints of history and discarded by the powerful.”

“Was it brilliance? Was it madness? Well, both of them are states of mind, aren't they? It depends on who's telling the story. What is called madness in one mouth is called brilliant in another. The mad who succeed and win love - or at least little hatred - are remembered as simply brilliant.”

Content Warnings

tahsintries's review

Go to review page

4.5

Content Warnings

bex_knighthunterbooks's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Such a good finale to the series! The way the story was told as a bar conversation worked really well for me and I actually really loved having the focus be the deep character moments while the main action was in the background. At its core this story was one of Sapphic villains in a lovers to enemy arc, which was just so much fun.

Content Warnings

jamielikestoread's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

omnombailey's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Absolutely excellent. Loved the backstory involving the mother of the twins. And to have it told as essentially a bar story after her death from a lover was quite interesting. I only wish it was longer! I hope this doesn't conclude the series, because I would love to read more.

Content Warnings

ellanarose's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

More...