The Black Tides of Heaven - Book #31

The Black Tides of Heaven is a neo-fantasy novella by author Neon Yang (formerly JY Yang). Set in a world where gender is decided later in life and all people are born genderless, Mokoya and their twin Akeha try to make their way through a complex life as the children of the Protector who were given to the monastery at birth. Mokoya, it turns out, has a gift of prophecy and is reclaimed by the Protector, their mother. Akeha, not wanting to live without their twin, follows them back to the palace, where they spend the rest of their adolescence.

Summary

This bite-sized fiction (well, bite-sized for me, anyway - 236 pages) focuses mostly on Akeha, who runs away from their life at the palace after a falling out with their twin, decides to have their gender confirmed as male and heads out into the world, constantly in hiding from his mother the Protector. However, word gets to Akeha that his twin Mokoya and her family were involved in a terrible accident - and he must decide if it is worth his life to go back and see his sister again.

Initial Reaction

My first thoughts on finishing this book were "wow, that was a wild ride" and "It's over already?" It was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be and there was somewhat less detail about the political structure of the world and the magic system than I would have liked. I found myself with a lot of unanswered questions about the world. The characters, however, were really well written and developed and I thought the premise was quite interesting. I've also never read a book featuring non-binary characters that use they/them pronouns, so it was a little odd to get used to but this is only the first book of several gender-diverse that I am planning to read so it was a good introduction.

What's Important

The things that stood out to me in The Black Tides of Heaven were the characters and the style of writing. The writing style was very poetic and rhythmic, and painted a vivid image in the mind. Take this quote for example:

Darkness had fallen like a cool hand onto the peaks of Chengbee's exhausted, perspiring roofs. As the Head Abbot mounted step after step, his robes clung to him: under his arms, in the small of his back. The moon rolled uncloaked across the naked sky, but in less than an hour, the sun would return to scorch the land, bringing with it the start of the next waking day. On good days the nighttime exhalations of the capital city took on a lively air, the kind of energy that gathers where the young and restless cluster around the bones of something old. But all summer Chengbee had lain listless, panting like a thirsty dog.

The similes, metaphors, and personification in this passage are really exemplary of Yang's work in this novel. My inner English teacher wants to give you a lecture on all the different literary devices in this passage alone.

The two main characters, Mokoya and Akeha, are really interestingly written and developed. Because we follow mainly Akeha, we get to know more about them/him (depending on when in the book you're reading) but we see a lot of Mokoya as a child as well. We see their roles kind of switch - in the beginning, Mokoya is introspective and cautious; Akeha is impulsive and rash. Later, once Mokoya's gift of prophecy gives them more freedom to move around, Akeha is lost in their twin's shadow, following behind. Then Akeha gains more self-agency after running away and Mokoya continues to live at the palace, under the thumb of their tyrannical mother.

Rating

The Black Tides of Heaven gets 4.5 stars and 1 spicy pepper from me.

I loved the thematic material, the style of prose, and the characters in this book but I found the world building a little lacking. I was confused for most of the book as to how the magic system worked - actually I'm still a little confused. In my opinion it's okay to have your reader confused for a while (rather than putting a dissertation on how everything works at the beginning) but by the time we get to the halfway point I should know how most things work. Once spicy pepper for innuendo.

Favourite Quotes

"Don't be frightened," Akeha said. "I'll protect you."

"Protect me from what? The future?"

"Anything."

"In the monastery," Mokoya said, "they taught us that fortune is both intractable and impartial. That when bad things happen, it's the result of an incomprehensible and inhuman universe working as it does. The mountain shrugs, but thinks nothing of the houses crushed in the avalanche. that was not its purpose."

"My personal belief? I don't care about the fortunes. I care about doing whatever you can, with whatever's in front of you. Because it's the only thing you can do."

"The saying goes, 'The black tides of heaven direct the courses of human lives.' To which a wise teacher said, 'But as with all water, one can swim against the tide.'"