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A review by bluestjuice
The Red Threads of Fortune by Neon Yang
3.0
Right, so as promised, I picked up the twin novella to The Black Tides of Heaven, which I reviewed last month. I have a few quibbles. First off, I don't think it's reasonable to say that these books are 'twin novellas both of which work as starting places for the series.' The Red Threads of Fortune distinctly picks up after the action of the first book, and includes plenty of details that would be utterly lacking in context without having read Black Tides first. It also doesn't spend nearly as much time worldbuilding, meaning that reading it alone would, I think, be an exercise in frustration. They are pretty clearly just books 1 and 2 in a series and I'm not sure why the publisher was coy about this structure.
As anticipated, this book is from Mokoya, the more demonstrative twin's perspective, but we don't really revisit plot points that are already established too much. In several ways this is more successful than Black Tides, not least of which because the action in the narrative is constrained to a single 'episode' of Mokoya's life and therefore has the breathing room to dig in and play it all out. Where Black Tides felt like it skimmed across the surface and covered too much territory, Red Threads has far better pacing and digs better into the turmoil of Mokoya's emotional states and motivation.
Since questions of gender inevitably come up with this series, I'll add that we learn nothing new here about how Genderfree status works in the Protectorate, and not much more about the Protectorate/Machinist conflict. It seems that this book almost entirely features characters who have established their gender, with the notable exception of Rider, who is described as nonbinary. I don't really think this was a problem, because despite the interesting premise of gender in this world it doesn't necessarily move the plot forward and it's not necessary to have gender constantly centered in the narrative. But worth noting, I think. I did rather like the respectful polyamorous relationship dynamic that emerged, which is something one doesn't often get in literature. Altogether gender and relationship dynamics emerged in a very organic way in this book and I enjoyed that.
I would rate this probably 3.5 if I could just for the more cohesive storytelling, but I left it at 3 since that's about where my average for the series so far is still hovering. I'm definitely going to pick up the third book though.
As anticipated, this book is from Mokoya, the more demonstrative twin's perspective, but we don't really revisit plot points that are already established too much. In several ways this is more successful than Black Tides, not least of which because the action in the narrative is constrained to a single 'episode' of Mokoya's life and therefore has the breathing room to dig in and play it all out. Where Black Tides felt like it skimmed across the surface and covered too much territory, Red Threads has far better pacing and digs better into the turmoil of Mokoya's emotional states and motivation.
Since questions of gender inevitably come up with this series, I'll add that we learn nothing new here about how Genderfree status works in the Protectorate, and not much more about the Protectorate/Machinist conflict. It seems that this book almost entirely features characters who have established their gender, with the notable exception of Rider, who is described as nonbinary. I don't really think this was a problem, because despite the interesting premise of gender in this world it doesn't necessarily move the plot forward and it's not necessary to have gender constantly centered in the narrative. But worth noting, I think. I did rather like the respectful polyamorous relationship dynamic that emerged, which is something one doesn't often get in literature. Altogether gender and relationship dynamics emerged in a very organic way in this book and I enjoyed that.
I would rate this probably 3.5 if I could just for the more cohesive storytelling, but I left it at 3 since that's about where my average for the series so far is still hovering. I'm definitely going to pick up the third book though.