The Black Tides of Heaven
core novel 2017 The Tensorate Series
Record
| First published | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.69 (13,863 ratings, collected 2026-08-29) |
| Page count | 236 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765395412 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Black Tides of Heaven, published by JY Yang in 2017, opens the Tensorate series. Twin children of the ruling Protector, Mokoya and Akeha, are given up as infants to the Grand Monastery in payment of a debt, and raised there under its discipline rather than in their mother's court. As they grow, Mokoya reveals a prophetic gift that draws the Protector's attention and favor, while Akeha, kept in his sister's shadow, instead develops a sharp awareness of the political strings being pulled around them both. When a rebellion led by Machinist insurgents rises against the magic-wielding Tensorate establishment that keeps the Protector in power, Akeha is forced to decide where his loyalties truly lie, caught between the mother who gave him away, the sister he has always followed, and a cause that promises to upend the world both were raised to serve.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Tensorate Series
- Series: The Tensorate Series core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: JY Yang
Awards (verified)
- Nebula Award (Best Novella), 2017: nominated
- Hugo Award (Best Novella), 2018: nominated
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novella), 2018: nominated
- Locus Award (Best Novella), 2018: nominated
Notes
- From the series record (The Tensorate Series): A completed 4-novella silkpunk sequence by a Singaporean author, set in a wuxia-inspired secondary world; each volume can be read largely independently, following different members of the same royal family across a shared timeline.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Tensorate Series: position 1 of 4: next The Red Threads of Fortune (2017)
Sources
← The Tensorate Series dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.