#THE RED THREADS OF FORTUNE BY NEON YANG

[betterbooksandthings]

"Do you want to read something bite-sized and impossible to put down? If so, may I offer you a list of 11 Queer books under 250 pages to solve your plight? It is wonderful to be able to pick a book up and finish it in a sitting or two. These books do just that and they are queer. What more can you ask for?

With Pride month in full swing, many readers opt to celebrate by adding more queer books to their reading lives. However, June is a busy month full of work, travel, Pride celebrations, and summertime ennui. Sometimes you want something small that you can take on a trip, or something short to read in your downtime. In case you have a busy month or need a short book as a break, this list of queer books under 250 pages is here to help you out. Ideally, it will let you accomplish your queer reading goals and still make it to all the events on your calendar."

[ninsiana0]

I finally finished THE TENSORATE SERIES by Neon Yang! Each book is written in a completely different style than the others, and is told from a different character's perspective. They're magical, queer, and morally gray.

You should read all four novellas, but for the sake of consistency...

Read THE BLACK TIDES OF HEAVEN if you love twins, breaking free, dysfunctional families, tyrants, monasteries, uprisings, discovering your identity, prophesies, genderfuckery & beginnings.

Read THE RED THREADS OF FORTUNE if you love grief narratives, deserts, running away, running forward, scars, discovering new powers, trauma narratives, breaking & entering, and cute enbies.

Read THE DESCENT OF MONSTERS if you love epistolary tales, mysteries, detectives, cover-ups, missing children, destiny, creepy settings, beasts, class dynamics, and heroes.

Read THE ASCENT TO GODHOOD if you love drunk protagonists, reminiscing about the past, dancing girls, espionage, ending at the beginning, f**ked up families, young queer love, unlikable people & beginning at the end.

[muchotravka]

The sun falls upon an empire stewing in its rot and corruption, upon a Protectorate where well-fed children play in manicured gardens while orphans starve in the gutter, upon mountains full of ugly secrets and cities determined to keep them buried.

- The Tensorate Series: The Descent of Monsters, Neon Yang

[box-keeper]

[worldsinc]

the red threads of fortune   by   neon yang

it’s me. i’m not dead yet.

you have completely lost your mind.

i know you think i know nothing.

we go at sunrise.

you’re really moody today, you know?

you don’t have to worry about me.

you didn’t want to listen, did you? you never listen.

right now, the most important thing is to decide what we do next.

sooner or later it’ll come back. we need to be prepared.

i should be the one apologizing.

birth day, death day. same day.

i should have been gentler.

admit it-- it helps having me around.

once upon a time, i met someone bold and bright as a leaping river.

i’m sorry. i won’t push you. that rarely ends well.

i don’t want your name. who sent you?

come sit by me. we should talk.

you saw my vision, didn’t you?

are you certain you do not wish to stay?

forget everything you have learned. it will not help you.

this day has just taken a massively hell-shat turn.

i’m not that easy to read.

oh, my love. you haven’t changed.

i won’t blame you if you decide to go.

don’t waste my time again.

i don’t expect you to kneel.

have you been going through my things?

i’m not getting any better. i’m afraid all the time, i can’t control my thoughts. i don’t know how long i can go on like this.

if you want something to be sure of, i can give you one.

you will find me waiting there. always. no matter how long it takes.

this city is your home. you must care about it, even just a little bit.

did anyone ask what would make me happy? no.

this isn’t a game. thousands of people could die if we do nothing.

do it for your mother’s sake, if nothing else.

trust me. i know what you’re feeling. i know what it’s like.

i hid it from you. that was my decision.

if that is to be my fate, then i embrace it.

of course expecting gratitude from you would be too much.

violence is the fault of the one enacting it. always.

i want you to look ahead with no regrets. i want you to carry the memory of what happened here into the future.

in another iteration of the world, we might never have met. it was fortune’s blessing that we did.

forget the world in my embrace.

you’re alive, even though you shouldn’t be.

why was i surprised to find that you’d run off to martyr yourself?

[contracat25]

Alright as it is Trans Day of Visibility (Hi still not cis, still here etc.) and the final day of the extended Trans Rights Readathon I thought I would post about a few more of my favorite books by trans authors because hopefully everyone will be reading books by trans authors and about trans characters/topics all year round. Because to me this day is about supporting others in the community as much as anything else. The world is pretty on fire right now so if you can support a trans creator, artist, organization or friend today (and beyond) then do it!

So here are a bunch of shorter reads: books, graphic novels, novellas etc. I didn't really notice how many novellas I had been reading recently till making this list, but there is something about a wel- written short book that just really works for me. Also a lot of these just have really creative or lovely concepts and I am a sucker for those. Plus the characters in these are soooo good! Also a lot of these have lovely audiobooks or e-books, hence me not having a physical copy (yet). Many of these have trans characters as well, but not all of them. Though most have some form of queer rep because I don't read much that doesn't. I included muliple by some of the authors, including sequels because... I just really like them and couldn't pick just one. Most of these authors have other books that are also wonderful. And these are just a handful of examples, there are so many fabuluous books by and about people who are trans.

Six Months, Three Days, Five Others by Charlie Jane Anders

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

The Companion by EE Ottoman

The Barrow Will Send What It May by Margaret Killjoy

Taste of Marrow and River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Nimona by Nate Stevenson

Gender Queer by Mia Kobabe

The Seep by Chana Porter

Future Feelings by Joss Lake

Pet by Akwaeke Amezi

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

The Black Tides of Heaven; The Red Threads of Fortune; The Descent of Monsters; The Ascent to Godhood by Neon Yang

Finna and Defekt by Nino Cipri Coffee Boy and Caroline's Heart by Austin Chant

ID: Slide one has a stack of 10 books on a teal background. Slides two through four have a white background and four book covers and a boarder of books in the trans flag colors.

[lvllns]

book recommendations!

i got tagged by @rosebarsoap and @narrativefoiltrope!! thank u both!!

i'm gonna taaaaag @pensdragon @pinkfey @waspgrave @venusmages @queerbrujas @princesshoneytea and anyone else who wishes to do this!!

the last book i read: excluding manga, the red threads of fortune by neon yang!

a book i recommend: always always always the darkness outside us by eliot schrefer. do you like science fiction? would you like to experience the slow unraveling of a mystery aboard a spaceship as two young men gradually fall in love amidst the backdrop of Shit Being Weird? do i have the book for you! i still think about this book two years later. it had me staring at the wall for three days after i finished it contemplating life and what it means to be human.

a book that i couldn't put down: i will not bang on about the previous book so here's a different queer science fiction novel, winter's orbit by everina maxwell. science fiction, political nonsense, trying to solve a murder, slowly falling in love. it's just so good.

a book i've read twice or more: i've read tithe by holly black like. a dozen times by this point. i love the modern faerie tale books so much.

a book on my TBR: re-coil by j.t. nicholas! more science fiction! this time with the ability for people's consciousnesses to be backed-up and then downloaded into a new body!

a book i've put down: i've only ever put down two books. thr*ne of glass and ac*tar. it's a no from me.

a book on my wishlist: somewhere beyond the sea by tj klune! the sequel to the house in the cerulean sea! i'm greatly looking forward to meeting back up with arthur, linus, and the entire group of kids.

a favorite book from my childhood: i can't pick one so the immortals quartet by tamora pierce!

a book you would give to a friend: the city of brass by s.a chakraborty. doesn't matter if you like fantasy or not. you get this book. read it. read the whole trilogy.

a book of poetry you own: cracks knuckles i'm actually sad bc i can't remember if i saved all my poetry chapbooks from undergrad :( however! the year of blue water by yanyi was. amazing. incredible. i know i saved it because it just changed me so fucking much. salat by dujie tahat was also fucking incredible. they spoke to my poetry class and they were a DELIGHT!

a nonfiction book: broken by fred kay which is about the suspicious death of alydar, a famous thoroughbred stallion.

what are you currently reading: the horse god built by lawrence scanlan which is about triple crown winner secretariat, focusing heavily on his groom, eddie "sweet" sweat, and the influence eddie had on the stallion. also diving into looking at how grooms, black grooms specifically, are often overlooked when it comes to the entire package of a race horse.

what are you planning on reading next: oh man probably intimacies, received by taneum bambrick, who was my poetry writing professor (and many other classes professor lmao), and it's a poetry chapbook! and then following that, i will probably pick the tensorate series back up with the descent of monsters by neon yang!

[dalliansss]

or perhaps Finwë with this? 'you're being really moody today, you know?"

the red threads of fortune   by   neon yang

Finwë has discovered one sure-fire way to escape Fëanáro's nuisance of exercise programs every morning. It was very easy, really -- and the idea was given to him by his grandsons Turukáno and Findaráto when the youngsters asked Finwë to join them and baby Curufinwë in their room. So, of course, the first time this was suggested, Finwë immediately found an extra mattress and dragged it over to the room where his three youngest grandsons were sleeping.

Of course, this meant the children joined Finwë on the floor -- but the unexpected perk of it was that Fëanáro would then not dare disturb Finwë at four in the morning for accursed jogging programs around Formenos that lasted until six in the morning and left Finwë redder than chili peppers and panting and huffing and puffing as if he were going to drop dead from exhaustion and exertion within the next five minutes.

Fëanáro was loathe to disturb the children, and Finwë hugged the babies to his fluffy girth to shield himself from his eldest son. And so far, it worked.

(It's comical though, that the King of the Noldor in Aman would use his baby grandsons to shield himself, as it were, from Fëanáro's ill attempts of roping him into fitness programs.)

Today though, there is no exercise program. Instead, Finwë is given charge and care of baby Curufinwë, while everybody else runs around busy in the main keep of Formenos doing various chores or hunting. Chores! Goodness. Finwë could not quite believe how Fëanáro and Nerdanel just let everybody do chores around Formenos -- and they had no servants at all! They had a system in place, supervised by Tyelko. Chores were relegated to a specific person and rotated every week. For example, Findekáno was on kitchen duty for a week, which meant Findekáno was in charge of all meals the entire family would consume for that week. Then next week, he will transfer to laundry duty while Turukáno takes over the kitchen-- and so on, and so forth.

Finwë of course had tried to raise a peep -- his grandbabies are princes, Náro! Why would you make them do laundry?!?!?!?! -- but Fëanáro simply brushed away his father's concerns -- there is no better learning than experiencing things yourself, Atar, look how far they have come. These children will all survive with their bare hands, if the situation called for it.

But! But! But butbutbubtubtu!! BUT!

Baby Curufinwë is not in a good mood today; has not been for the entire morning, since breakfast. He is in Finwë's hold and care, because Turukáno and Findaráto, his usual babysitters, are off with Tyelko to hunt. Curufinwë has been wailing nonstop for half an hour now, and Finwë has tried every trick he could think of: funny faces, offers of cookies, lots of smooches, jiggling cha-cha -- ah! None seems to assuage the terrible sorrow Curufinwë has! Ai!

"You're being really moody today, you know?"

Finwë pouts and stands, and tries jiggling cha-cha for the third time. Baby Curufinwë wails in his hold, turns and twists, and buries his red face into his haru's chest. Jiggle jiggle. Come on, baby, what's wrong?

"Haru?"

Finwë turns. Curufinwë reduced to hiccuping sobs in his arms. Findekáno is there, big curls of dark hair pulled up into a ponytail. No gold ribbons today.

"Do you need help with Curufinwë?" Finno asks with a dimpled smile. The same dimpled smile Finwë has bestowed him through Nolofinwë. "I'm done with folding the laundry, so maybe if you wanted to rest, I can watch Curufinwë for you."

"Ai, no, it's alright, Finno, sweetheart," Finwë laughs. He looks around quickly to see if Fëanáro is anywhere near. Then he winks at his fourth eldest grandson. "If I watch the babies, your Uncle will not make me go through his convoluted exercise programs!"

Finno laughs. "Ah, right. Right. Are you certain you don't want a break, haru?" "I'll be fine, sweetheart, thank you-- oh! Wait!"

They both perk. They hear the barking and baying of Tyelko's hunting hounds. Findekáno and Finwë exchange a look, and they proceed to go to the courtyard, where Tyelko has just dismounted his horse. Findaráto and Turukáno are likewise dismounting, leaves in their hair, their cheeks flushed with the excitement and exertion of the hunt.

About twenty dogs circle Finwë and Curufinwë in a chaotic mass of wagging tails and cold noses. Curufinwë even stopped crying to peek at the happy dogs.

"We're home!" Tyelko announces. "Productive hunt this morning, haru!"

Finwë beams. "I'm proud of you all."

Then baby Curufinwë makes a whiny sound, and extends both arms toward his elder brother. Tyelko beams. "Awwwwww, little elf, you missed me?" Still grinning, Tyelko takes Curufinwë from Finwë's hold and carries his baby brother. "There there. Why're you ugly? Did you cry? I hope you didn't give Haru a hard time!"

"Not at all," Finwë grins. Beside him, Findekáno also smiles.

[kitschykitchen]

🍽️Hot and Fresh Review🍽️

Ideal Snacks for While You’re Watching: An ice pack for the headache you get while reading.

Main Ingredients:

A set of twins: the rambunctious and rebellious boy twin, and the motherly yet grief-stricken girl twin

A cast of characters that diminishes as the plots progress

A storyline that acts like a roller coaster, taking you to the top before dipping horridly down

I first encountered The Tensorate Series by Neon Yang when I read the first standalone novella, The Black Tides of Heaven, in mid-2020. I was using Kindle on my phone during a power outage and found great joy in immersing myself. The setting was intriguing--a fantasy realm based on the Asian continent with a gender-choosing system where people at a certain age can start hormone therapy when deciding on what they want to be. The plot itself was also a familiar comfort. We have a tyrannical mother who leads her empire with an iron fist, with only the rich having access to the magical powers known as "tensing." Her twins end up going down separate paths when the girl twin, Mokoya, joins the family as a prophet who can predict enemy attacks. In contrast, the boy twin, Akeha, joins the revolutionaries who use machinery to battle against the tensors. On my first read, I was a bit disappointed by the ending, but overall, I found the book enjoyable and knew I had to read the rest of them.

Fast forward to this year, when I decided to buy the complete edition and finish the series. I was surprised to find that every book after the first one took an axe to whatever praises I originally had.

It is not an exaggeration that reading the rest of this book series is like watching a trainwreck--slow but disastrous. The second book, The Red Threads of Fortune is from Mokoya's perspective, an expected change considering the first book was in Akeha's perspective. However, the narrative is jarringly different. We've abandoned the plot of the twins leading different lives to now find Mokoya with the machinists and apparently searching for naga in the desert on a mission. From there, the story unravels to reveal a subplot of how the tensors, the rich and powerful who use tensing, have been experimenting on monsters like naga and raptors by embedding them with human souls. The book does take time to give us a glimpse into Mokoya's psyche. In Black Tides of Heaven, we learn of the tragic passing of Mokoya's young daughter in an accident that also caused Mokoya to have a new arm grafted. In Red Threads of Fortune that, it's revealed that Mokoya's raptor she's riding was embedded with her daughter's soul on Mokoya's orders. The antagonist of this novella is a young girl attacking the city with a naga who has the embedded soul of her late mother. Mokoya is forced to confront her trauma by stopping this girl from going on her rampage due to her grief. While Yang does well to create the link between both characters, we are left with a lot of unanswered questions as a caveat. Like, how many times have they done this experiment? Are there more naga/raptors out there with human souls? Why are the machinists getting involved?

If you thought book three would answer these questions, you'd be wrong. Instead, The Descent of Monsters follows a different character outside of our recurring cast. We follow a detective who is investigating a tragedy at a laboratory where they find that a naga-raptor crossbred monster has wiped out all the scientists. Our main cast gets involved as there are also children being experimented on beneath the lab, one of which is Rider's long-lost twin (Rider being a character introduced in Red Threads of Fortune). The detective struggles to get taken seriously by her upper management and ends up working with the machinists to get to the bottom of it. In the end, she finds that the children are training to be prophets who can predict the future and change the outcome. Sounds cool, right? The detective finds Rider's twin, but she can't save the twin as the detective is attacked by the naga-raptor crossbreed and dies at the novel's end. What a cliffhanger! And even more questions! What are the children going to do? Apparently, they escaped the monster, so where are they being held now? Will the public learn of this soon? How will Rider take the news that their twin is alive?

You thought we were going to get answers to any of that? Fat chance. Last book of the series and--hoo boy! The Ascent to Godhood takes a total nosedive as far as contingency goes. We're away from all of the previous plot threads--no more monsters, no more secret child experimentation, no more machinist revolutions. Instead, we're at the end of the revolution! The machinists have successfully assassinated the current empress, Akeha and Mokoya's mom, though they do this off-screen. Our story now follows a first-person point-of-view conversation with Lady Han, one of the members of the machinists, and a brief character we met in the first book. Lady Han tells us all about how she fell in love with the twin's mom, having been her handmaid and spy. Things became worse in their relationship as the empress hungered for more power. She discarded Lady Han and the two effectively parted ways on tense terms. Our last few moments in this story are spent with Lady Han discussing her appreciation for her time spent there, her love for the empress, and the sadness she feels at her passing, before turning over to us--the grieving lover of the detective from the last book. We don't say a word to her and then the credits roll.

When I tell you I wish I could get the time back that I spent on this book...

It goes without saying that this was a travesty when it comes to craft or context. The longer the stories went on, the more convoluted things became. Neon Yang has acknowledged that the novellas were separate stories that they wrote about the same fantasy world, but if you intend to sell this as a complete series, you should be prepared to edit for continuity. Perhaps it would be better to market this as an anthology, though I still think editing should have been done to make the stories have conclusive ends and beginnings.

Overall, The Tensorate Series is a meal that I would never order again, nor would I recommend it to a friend.

Michelin Stars: 2.75/5 (⭐⭐)

[larkaloke]

Books I've Been Reading

I've been thinking about posting some kind of short "books I read last year" list for a while (since the end of last year, in fact), so I'm just going to go ahead and do it now. This should be from 2020 through to 2022, but a couple from 2019 might have snuck in there as well, mostly in non-fiction. I'm more sure of the fiction.

FICTION

Elatsoe (Darcy Little Badger)

The House of Shattered Wings (Aliette de Bodard)

The House of Binding Thorns (Aliette de Bodard)

The House of Sundering Flames (Aliette de Bodard)

Of Dragons, Feasts, and Murders (Aliette de Bodard)

Of Charms, Ghosts, and Grievances (Aliette de Bodard)

* The Killing Moon (N.K. Jemisin)

* The Shadowed Sun (N.K. Jemisin)

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)

The Broken Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)

The Kingdom of Gods (N.K. Jemisin)

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (Kai Ashante Wilson)

Witchmark (C.L. Polk)

Stormsong (C.L. Polk)

Soulstar (C.L. Polk)

Conspirator (C.J. Cherryh)

Deceiver (C.J. Cherryh)

Betrayer (C.J. Cherryh)

Intruder (C.J. Cherryh)

Protector (C.J. Cherryh)

Peacemaker (C.J. Cherryh)

Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)

Green Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)

Blue Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson)

Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

Harrow the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

Nona the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)

* Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie)

* Ancillary Sword (Ann Leckie)

* Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie)

Hermetica (Alan Lea)

Binti Trilogy (Nnedi Okorafor)

The Black Tides of Heaven (Neon Yang)

The Red Threads of Fortune (Neon Yang)

The Descent of Monsters (Neon Yang)

The Ascent to Godhood (Neon Yang)

If you got the idea that I tend to read series, yeah, that's true.

NON-FICTION

* Dinosaurs Rediscovered (Michael J. Benson)

The World of Dinosaurs (Mark A. Norell)

The Paleo Art of Julius Csotonyi (Julius Csotonyi and Steve White)

Dinosaur Art (edited by Steve White)

Dinosaur: Facts and Figures: the Therapods (Molina-Perez and Larramendi)

Dinosaur: Facts and Figures: the Sauropods (Molina-Perez and Larramendi)

Astrophysics For People In A Hurry (Neil de Grasse Tyson)

* The End of Everything (Katie Mack)

* The Disordered Cosmos (Chanda Prescod-Weinstein)

How Steam Locomotives Really Work (Semmens and Goldfinch)

Non-binary: Memoirs of Gender and Identity (Rajunov and Duane)

Stage Combat: Swordplay From Shakespeare to the Present (John Lennox)

Combat Theory: The Foundations of the Fight (John Lennox)

Ghosting the News (Margaret Sullivan)

The Bright Ages (Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry)

In Emergency, Break Glass (Nate Anderson)

* Learn How to Master the Art of Kart Driving (Terence Dove)

I was going to do some sort of ratings or something, but I'll save that for a more in-depth post somewhere else.

I was going to do some sort of ratings, but in lieu of that I just marked with a * books that ended up as new favorites (for fiction) or were particularly interesting or useful (for non-fiction). Not to imply that I disliked the others, of course. Something I actually disliked would probably not have been finished.

[ninsiana0]

Books 43-48 read in 2023.

I'm too sick to think up quippy lil' summaries, so you'll have to imagine them for me, darlings.

THE BLACK TIDES OF HEAVEN by Neon Yang

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE RED THREADS OF FORTUNE by Neon Yang

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE DESCENT OF MONSTERS by Neon Yang

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE ASCENT TO GODHOOD by Neon Yang

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS by Vajra Chandrasekera

(received for review)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

RAVENSONG by TJ Klune

(received for review)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[hectorthereader]

Books read in / Libros leídos en 2022

1. The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons / El desfile ilustrado de los cien demonios (Matthew Meyer) 2. Fairy Tales / Cuentos completos (Wilhelm Hauff) 3. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 / La maldición del tranvía 015 (P. Djèlí Clark) 4. The Wheel of Time II: The Great Hunt / La rueda del tiempo II: La gran cacería (Robert Jordan) 5. The Red Threads of Fortune / Los hilos rojos de la Fortuna (Neon Yang) 6. Changing Planes / Planos paralelos (Ursula K. Le Guin) 7. Binti: The Night Masquerade / Binti: La Mascarada Nocturna (Nnedi Okorafor) 8. Foundation's Edge / Los límites de la Fundación (Isaac Asimov) 9. Buddhist Fables: Twenty Jātakas / Fábulas budistas: Veinte jātakas (Efraín Villamor Herrero) 10. The Grace of Kings / La gracia de los reyes (Ken Liu) 11. Complete Poetry / Poesía reunida (William Butler Yeats) 12. A Master of Djinn [+ A Dead Djinn in Cairo] / El señor de los djinn [+Muerte de un djinn en El Cairo] (P. Djèlí Clark) 13. Odyssey / Odisea (Homero) 14. The druids / Los druidas (Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h y Françoise Le Roux) 15. Hyperion (Dan Simmons) 16. Neuromancer / Neuromante (William Gibson) 17. Antología Premio Domingo Santos 2021-22 (VV. AA.) 18. Elantris (Brandon Sanderson)

[aseriesofvariousevents]

Tensorate Series

I originally read these novellas partially because I just genuinely enjoy novellas, but also because the cover art was truly spectacular, and these stories fully lived up to their covers. Neon Yang crafted a detailed and intense world that slowly unraveled as the stories went on in a fascinating way. The mythology was complex, the characters were remarkably human, and the writing was a treat to read. 

Novellas are always a bit of a double-edged sword for me. In this case, I loved the characters and the society that had been created, but slack was always a bit disjointed for me and I wish we'd gotten to see more of what was happening in-between. The way Yang discussed gender was super fascinating and really unlike any other story I'd read before, fantasy or otherwise, and I thought that added a lot to the overall immersion. Akeha really grew on me as the story went on, and his relationships with the other characters (particularly Yongcheow and Mokoya) felt real and complex. I ended up loving this much more than I had anticipated and am ready to dive into the other Tensorate novellas.

Favorite Quote: As long as there was love, there would be hope. It was enough. 

I (surprisingly) didn’t like Mokoya as a narrator as much as I’d liked Akeha, but this was still a lovely novella. Grief was explored in a very multi-faceted and genuine way which definitely added to the complexity. I loved that Mokoya began to accept herself, and she and Rider had a sweet relationship. The monsters were cool and though I do find it odd that this was billed as a companion novel since reading them in the opposite order would greatly detract from both stories, it was still a fun sequel.

Favorite Quote: Violence is the fault of the one enacting it. Always. 

This is easily my favorite Tensorate installment as of yet. I adored the hybrid of the epistolary style with the mystery and investigation and thought it made for a really compelling narrative. This one also added a ton of depth to the crimes of the Protectorate and the complicity of people involved. Sariman’s voice thoroughly hooked me, and the juxtaposition of her personal journey with the overall nefarious plot was what really made the story feel so urgent. Non-traditional storytelling can be a bit of a hit or a miss for me, but in this case, Yang totally knocked it out of the park.

Favorite Quote: Cruel as the fates may be, they cannot match the cruelty of humans. 

This story in it of itself wasn't my favorite, but I loved all the ways it tied itself back to the other books and really made this world make sense. The story Lady Han told almost made me sympathize with the Protector (spoiler) particularly the loss of her child, and how that loss effectively stayed with her all the way up until she attempted to sacrifice herself for Akeha (end spoiler) and really just added a dimension to the story. Lady Han's story itself was an exciting tale and the "drunken monologue" (Yang's words, not my own), while maybe atypical, really encapsulated the emotions of the story. I definitely would not be opposed if Yang ever decided to continue with this series, but as it is now, this is a solid end point.

Favorite Quote: Maybe I’ll start from the beginning. My beginning. After all, I’m the one telling the story, am I not?

While the novellas are each about different characters, different circumstances, and different times, they managed to connect in truly marvelous ways from story to story. The discussions on gender throughout these novellas was something I’ve never seen on paper and it was so refreshing to read about, and I’m beyond thankful that Neon Yang had this opportunity to discuss their experiences in this way. I definitely liked some of these more than others, but the series as a whole was well-crafted, extraordinarily innovative, and just really fun to read. The series was weird, with the latter stories being especially so, but definitely worth giving it a shot (especially since there’s a 4-in-1 collection available).

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Books in Series: The Black Tides of Heaven; The Red Threads of Fortune; The Descent of Monsters; The Ascent to Godhood

Author: Neon Yang

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

Dissolve memory, dissolve personhood. She was no longer Mokoya, yet she remained unchanged. A collection of occurrences in space and time, mathematical possibilities intersecting and colliding, not a living thing but a coalescence of probabilities.

The Red Threads of Fortune (by Neon Yang)

[jesse-is-inarguably-purple]

sometimes a family is an ex-prophet, her revolutionary twin brother, her husband (who he has kissed at least twice), his husband, her new lover, and the dinosaur she stored her dead daughter’s soul in

[elliepassmore]

The Red Threads of Fortune review

5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: sci-fi, fantasy, short novels, LGBTQ+ characters, grief stories, rebellion, magic, wlw, mystery

Black Tides of Heaven review

Red Threads takes place somewhere between 2-4 years after Black Tides ends (hard to tell), and things have changed quite a bit with everyone's favorite twins. This story is narrated by Mokoya as she hunts naga and deals with the grief associated with having lost her daughter. This story definitely packs and emotional punch on multiple levels, and I liked seeing how the characters worked through them. For people who weren't a huge fan of the time jumps in the first book, this book takes places over a single period, perhaps a week or a bit more. It was interesting seeing things from a different POV from the first book. The style of narration has changed as well, so we get a bit more insight into the rebellion than we did with Akeha. I thought it was funny/interesting to see how Mokoya views Akeha vs. how he views himself. There are clear differences in how Mokoya and Akeha view the world, but it's also still clearly the same world, just perceived by people who have seen and experienced different parts of it. Mokoya in the first book comes across as somewhat fragile, despite helping with the rebellion seemingly from the start. In this book it's clear that she's a lot tougher than she appears. I enjoyed reading about Mokoya using her powers. We get to learn a lot more about Tensing in this book than in the last one, though I still feel like there are gaps, and I liked getting that 'first hand' experience. Mokoya's journey in this book is pretty largely centered on her grief and how she is (or isn't) dealing with it. She's fairly wrapped up in what happened and not having been able to save Eien and the grief, guilt, and anger that goes along with that, but she also has to deal with this new person who has shown up that Tenses in a different way than they teach in the Protectorate. This story is about grief, but it's also about healing and the different ways you can do that. I really enjoyed reading from Mokoya's POV. Despite the distance, both Akeha and Thennjay (and also Yongcheow) show up in the book. Thennjay and Yongcheow are, honestly, the most understanding of Mokoya's grief. Thennjay is dealing with his own, just in a different way, and is willing to give Mokoya as much room as she needs for as long as she needs, even if it's forever. Yongcheow doesn't seem like he really wants to be where he is, but he also pushes back against some of Mokoya's worst ideas in a way that imparts caring. Akeha is a bit (a lot) rougher, but I think that perhaps comes from knowing Mokoya the best and understanding that sometimes she needs to be pushed. At the same time, he still is kind of a dick at times. The new character is Rider, who Tenses in a new way and is a whole lot of (good) trouble. They clearly have secrets from the get-go, but they also have a clear understanding of what Mokoya is going through and is also against the Protectorate (and also the giant naga everyone is hunting). Rider works well with Mokoya due to their understanding of grief and the desire to run until you feel better. I like the relationship that the two of them develop, they work well together. Rider also provides a way for Mokoya (and us) to better understand the magic system of the world. They have a different understanding of how magic works and it's interesting to see the depth of magic that's possible. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and think it pairs well with the first one. The magic system is explored more here, which I think was helpful. The story is largely centered around Mokoya's grief journey and how she deals with it and begins to recover. There are a lot of parallels in this book, which I liked, and I thought worked well both for the readers and Mokoya.