The Black Tides of Heaven
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4.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
"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
One of the 25 Best Fantasies of All Time, according to Good Housekeeping
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yang introduces a captivating Buddhist-inflected steampunk setting in their (Yang's preferred pronoun) delightful debut novella. The imperious Protector, needing to satisfy her debt to an important abbot, gives her newborn twins, Mokoya and Akeha, to a monastery. As they grow, they show prodigious abilities in Slackcraft, Yang's version of magic, which is based on shaping the flows of natural elements. Like all youth in this society, they remain ungendered until they choose genders for themselves. When Mokoya develops the ability to see the future in her dreams, the twins' mother reneges on her promise and takes them back to better exploit Mokoya's foreknowledge. Mokoya decides to become female and leverage her visions to help Thennjay, an outsider of a different ethnic group, become head abbot; this drives a wedge between the siblings. Akeha takes a different route, becoming male and living as a smuggler on the fringes of the Protectorate. Decades later, as a revolution fueled by new machines heats up, the estranged twins are drawn together once again. Yang captures an epic sweep in compact, precise prose. The only complaint readers will have is the brevity of their time in this evocative new world.
