The Red Threads of Fortune

August 14, 2017
Yang returns to the fascinating world of their (Yang’s preferred pronoun) debut, The Black Tides of Heaven, with mixed results. Four years after the events of the first book, Mokoya, daughter of the Protector, has fled the capitol and its painful memories of her daughter’s death. In her traumatized state, she no longer has access to the prophetic dreams of her youth. Working in tandem with her twin brother’s antimagic populist rebellion, she hunts down dangerous creatures that the Protectorate has weaponized to quash dissent. While tracking a giant naga, she encounters and improbably falls instantaneously for Rider, an ungendered outsider who uses magical Slackcraft in unorthodox ways. As Rider trains Mokoya in these new methods, Yang frequently digresses into explaining how the magic system works. Yang efficiently captures the action of the physical battles that Mokoya, her estranged husband, and her brother fight to protect the city. The underdeveloped diplomatic conflicts remain a bit murkier, with a confusing layering of political jurisdictions and fealties. Though not as gripping as its predecessor, the novella authentically depicts trauma and lays promising groundwork for future books in the series. Agent: DongWon Song, Morhaim Literary.

September 15, 2017

To satisfy a debt to the Grand Monastery, the Protector has promised to give the abbot one of her children to raise. Unwilling to part with her grown offspring, the Protector magically conceives again late in life and gives birth to twins Mokoya and Akeha. At six years old, they are sent to the monastery. The two are inseparable, until Mokoya develops a prophetic ability that makes her valuable to her mother once again. This ability sets the twins on different paths, placing their relationship at the heart of these two novellas by nonbinary Singaporean writer Yang.

The first volume, "The Black Tides of Heaven," focuses on Akeha and how his world is changed once Mokoya's gifts manifest. The second title, "The Red Threads of Fortune," concentrates on Mokoya and the growing forces resisting the rule of the Protectorate. Yang's world is imbued with magic, yet a burgeoning rebellion eschews that magic for technology. The other striking bit of worldbuilding is that children in this world do not have gender until they choose which sex they wish to be, and the stories are full of fascinating gender explorations. VERDICT While published simultaneously, each volume can be read separately, as each story builds nicely upon the other. Taken together, they make an impressive, fresh debut steeped in Chinese culture. A second pair of novellas are scheduled for 2018.--MM

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