The Black Tides of Heaven
A couple of years ago, JY Yang burst on to the SFF scene, releasing two books in the same day. Though everyone initially said that the two could be read in any order, fans quickly reached the consensus that this one came first. Which makes sense to me. It starts on the day the twins are born and outlines the major events in their lives as they grow.
This book actually focuses on Akeha, which took me a bit to figure out. In this world, all children are considered gender neutral, and they choose to become male or female (or neither) as part of their coming of age. Thus, all children are referred to as "they". And in a book told from a third-person limited perspective about twins who are close enough to share a telepathic connection...well I had to do some mental gymnastics to figure out whether any given pronoun referred to Akeha, Mokoya, or the two of them together. But after a few chapters I settled in and the rest of the story was easy to follow. (It became even easier once the twins grew up, chose genders, and their lives diverged.) One of the great things about books is that I can do those exercises and get more comfortable with the language in my own head, where my slip ups remain private.
The story itself is interesting, if a little sketched in. After all, it covers over 30 years in less than 300 pages, you can only provide so much detail with that kind of scope. But since this is really about Akeha escaping the influence of his mother and carving out a life as an individual, it makes sense. Focusing on the pivot points of his life allow for that journey to happen quickly, while providing a nice introduction to this incredibly rich world.
This book actually focuses on Akeha, which took me a bit to figure out. In this world, all children are considered gender neutral, and they choose to become male or female (or neither) as part of their coming of age. Thus, all children are referred to as "they". And in a book told from a third-person limited perspective about twins who are close enough to share a telepathic connection...well I had to do some mental gymnastics to figure out whether any given pronoun referred to Akeha, Mokoya, or the two of them together. But after a few chapters I settled in and the rest of the story was easy to follow. (It became even easier once the twins grew up, chose genders, and their lives diverged.) One of the great things about books is that I can do those exercises and get more comfortable with the language in my own head, where my slip ups remain private.
The story itself is interesting, if a little sketched in. After all, it covers over 30 years in less than 300 pages, you can only provide so much detail with that kind of scope. But since this is really about Akeha escaping the influence of his mother and carving out a life as an individual, it makes sense. Focusing on the pivot points of his life allow for that journey to happen quickly, while providing a nice introduction to this incredibly rich world.
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