The Red Threads of Fortune by J.Y. YangMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'll second all those who say to read The Black Tides of Heaven first. Though the events are loosely connected temporally, all the world building happens in the first book. The world is still involved, we have the magic-using Protectorate vs. the technological Machinists, and both are making progress. But that dynamic is only lightly explored and is peripheral to this story. It's really all about the relationships. Mother to child, husband and wife, and non-binary lovers all get an interesting treatment. Many reviews focus on the non-binary relationship between Mokoya and Rider, and it is in front, but what makes it interesting for me is the way Yang is able to set it with other, more familiar relationships that allow us cis-gendered readers a way to bridge in. I am partial to big-picture social and technical stories so maybe was not as interested in this, but it's still good. I began to tire a bit of Mokoya's getting in her own way, but that's real too. It just feels to me like if the author allowed herself double the pages she could actually double the depth, and we'd have something really special.
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