I’m embarrassed by how long I put off reading The Black Tides of Heaven. J.Y. Yang wrote an incredible novella and the amount of intricate world-building and character depth they packed into 230 pages blew me away.

It’s difficult to sum up The Black Tides of Heaven. Despite its short page count, this sprawling silkpunk epic fantasy takes place over 35 years. It’s a story told in vignettes following Akeha and Mokoya the twin children of the Protector, a ruthless monarch who rules over her Protectorate with an iron fist. The story follows their lives and how their relationship and place in the world change over time.

Akeha is a fantastic protagonist. We follow him from birth until adulthood and Yang conveys the progression of time and his growth and development excellently. Although you don’t spend a lot of time with him at the various stages in his life, each phase of his life from child to adolescent and adult felt rich and well explored. I truly understood how he went from a quiet child in the shadows of his sister to a smuggler and a member of the rebellion against his family.

I instantly connected with his relationship with his sister Mokoya. Yang conveys how intense and unwavering their bond is so well. I was particularly drawn to their relationship as teens because I love the exploration of messy sibling dynamics. Yang contrasted Akeha and Mokoya’s personalities well and I understood their place in each other's lives deeply. I appreciated Yang's emphasis on the importance of creating an identity for yourself outside of your family.

The worldbuilding in this book was phenomenal. I’d never heard of silkpunk before I picked this book up and now I’m chomping at the bit for more. The way Yang blended their unique elemental magic system with technology was excellent and I loved how these two elements played off each other in the story. I adore seeing how magic is used in mundane so both the complex and simple ways the five natures were utilized in this story were breathtaking.

Yang also conveys the dense politics of the sprawling Protectorate incredibly well. They managed to weave lore, history, and culture seamlessly into the narrative. Their approach to worldbuilding felt like delicate brushstrokes that ultimately lead to a complete and detailed picture. But they still had enough unexplored avenues that I’m excited to see more of in the future.

I love it when speculative fiction imagines words with different relationships to gender than our own so Yang’s exploration of that in this book was a treat. In the Protectorate, all children are raised non-binary and eventually choose a gender and transition. Books with non-binary characters always challenge my perception of gender and it was interesting to imagine a world in which children aren’t necessarily raised with gender roles. Yang’s representation of what it can be like to transition and realize your gender identity was one of the most engaging aspects of the story.

I was very impressed by how impactful the Protector was as an antagonist. She exists in the background of the story and we only see her a handful of times, but she had such a presence on the page. She was sharp and manipulative in such an engaging way. I think she’s going to make an excellent antagonist as the series progresses because Yang truly sold her ruthless cunning and complex relationship with her children.

While this is a minor point in the story I need to shout out the magnificent romance in this book. I’m not being hyperbolic when I say Akeha and Yongcheow almost instantly became one of my favourite couples of all time. I’m a sucker for established relationships so Yang’s depiction of these two as time progressed was stellar. Yang communicated a deep and immovable bond between the two and dare I say invented tenderness. J.Y. Yang said get yourself a man you can name weapons of mass destruction with, and I lived for it.

I will say The Black Tides of Heaven won’t be for everyone. The vignette style and frequent flash-forwards can be very jarring. While I grew to appreciate it as the story continued, and I believe Yang conveys relationships and time passing incredibly well, I can see people finding this book a tinge hollow with too little character development. So keep that in mind if you pick this one up.

Tor.com is killing the game with their novellas. I have a deep need to devour the rest of the Tensorate series and all of Yang’s other work as soon as possible. This novella was just amazing and anyone putting this series off like I was, needs to get on it asap.