Reviews with content warning for War - The Tensorate Series

this was deeply unenjoyable. I had all four books in an ebook and couldn’t even make it past the first one. good gracious

the characters were flimsy. the setting was pretty, but extremely cobbled-together the longer things went. the author just threw a bunch of made-up words and places together and expected us to keep up, skipped whole years worth of emotional and political development… it felt like someone made a kpop twitter-style edit of a full book. just random snatches of pretty cool stuff with 0 context or reason.

I think this universe has a lot of potential, but it was so unenjoyable and rushed to read that I can’t fathom completing the series.

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I read the entire series one after the other in a couple of weeks and, on one hand, it was a good choice because the story was still fresh in my mind but, on the other, it might've been a bad choice, I think I got a bit burned out on it, especially given that I haven't read such a heavy fantasy story in a while.

The characters and their storylines were interesting but I think that we did not get a well-rounded depiction. Partly, this is due to the inherent shortness of these novellas, but it also felt like the author only gave us a rough sketch and left out some important scenes/moments to really flesh out the characters' personality and growth.
Some relationships, for example, felt a bit out of blue for me and went from zero to ten in the blink of an eye, there were some development and depth lacking.

Also, I didn't particularly care for the last installment in the series, I'd rather have followed other characters than having to read about Lady Han's backstory, especially because there were so many loose ends from the previous novellas.

The worldbuilding is quite interesting and is also not overly difficult to grasp (I have tried other fantasy or sci-fi books that were so complicated and confusing that they made me exhaust all of my brainpower and I still couldn't understand a thing). I especially liked the way the theme of gender was included and explored in this fictional world, it was such a refreshing and impactful take.

In places, it was too much graphic for my personal taste, especially when describing death and/or horrible injuries, I really do not need that level of detail.

All in all, it was quite a different and interesting read but it didn't steal my heart away, so to speak.

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painausten314's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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anniereads221's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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thereadingskeleton's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Rep: Asian-coded cast, nonbinary/genderfluid characters, sapphic characters, queer characters, chronically ill and disabled characters

The Tensorate Series collects four novellas set in the same world: The Black Tides of Heaven, The Red Threads of Fortune, The Descent of Monsters, and The Ascent to Godhood. I absolutely love the world Neon Yang has created within these novellas. It’s rich and imaginative, and I wanted to know everything about it. You’ll find elemental magic, revolutionary technology, raptors, nagas, and more, and if that doesn’t intrigue you, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Each of the four novellas has a different style, which is something that I enjoyed but which might make some readers feel the stories lack cohesion. The first two are the most similar, told from close third-person POV, but the first spans many years while the second is a much more self-contained incident. The third is told through letters, transcripts, and the like, and the fourth is presented as a story being told aloud by a character. These second two novellas, with their more experimental styles, really work for me. I love the piece-by-piece reveal of information in the third novella, and I adore the amount of character voice the oral-storytelling style of the fourth allows.

(As a side note, I enjoyed the first two on audio and read the second two in a physical copy. I would suggest the physical copy for at least the third novella, as its format is more visual than the others. Highly recommend the audiobooks for the first two, though!)

Aside from these storytelling techniques, my favorite part of this collection has to be the queerness inherent to the world. For one, children are not assigned a gender at birth. They explore their gender identity as they grow up and can choose their (binary) gender when they are ready. Of course, there are still flaws in this kind of system: What happens if a child doesn’t want to choose? Why does anyone have to choose at all? These questions are explored (although not necessarily centered), and there is at least one character who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Almost all the main players are queer in some way. Many of them show attraction to the same gender or multiple genders, and the sheer amount of sapphic rep makes my heart so, so happy. The world described isn’t necessarily a queer paradise, but it does absolutely brim with queer folks who just get to exist as queer folks, and I’m so here for it.

Overall, I enjoyed this series, and I’d be excited to read more stories set in this world. I’m also excited to see what the author produces next!

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