The third cover in the series of Yang’s Tensorate novellas is gorgeous, and you should be reading all of the words, too.
Here’s the scoop on what we can expect from The Descent of Monsters:
JY Yang continues to redefine the limits of silkpunk fantasy with their Tensorate novellas, which the New York Times lauded as “joyously wild.” In this third volume, an investigation into atrocities committed at a classified research facility threaten to expose secrets that the Protectorate will do anything to keep hidden
You are reading this because I am dead.
Something terrible happened at the Rewar Teng Institute of Experimental Methods. When the Tensorate’s investigators arrived, they found a sea of blood and bones as far as the eye could see. One of the institute’s experiments got loose, and its rage left no survivors. The investigators returned to the capital with few clues and two prisoners: the terrorist leader Sanao Akeha and a companion known only as Rider.
Investigator Chuwan faces a puzzle. What really happened at the institute? What drew the Machinists there? What are her superiors trying to cover up? And why does she feel as if her strange dreams are forcing her down a narrowing path she cannot escape?
The New York Times called Yang’s Tensorate series “Joyously wild stuff. Highly recommended,” while my former boss, Annalee Newitz, writing for Ars Technica, said that “Yang conjures up a world of magic and machines, wild monsters and sophisticated civilizations, that you’ll want to return to again and again.” We think Yang, “a queer, non-binary, postcolonial intersectional feminist,” is creating works right up our favorite reading alleys.
If you’re just dipping your toe into silkpunk, here’s author Ken Liu’s description:
Like steampunk, silkpunk is a blend of science fiction and fantasy. But while steampunk takes as its inspiration the chrome-brass-glass technology aesthetic of the Victorian era, silkpunk draws inspiration from classical East Asian antiquity.
And Liu—who’s won Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards—had this to say about the Tensorate novellas: “Full of love and loss, confrontation and discovery. Each moment is a glistening pearl, all strung together in a wonder of world-creation.”
The Descent of Monsters comes out July 31st, 2018, and you saw it here first! While we wait, spend some time with the first two Tensorate novellas, The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Threads of Fortune. In case you needed any more incentive to check out Yang’s fascinating world, here’re the covers that came before—also by artist Yuko Shimuzu—which are equally stunning.
(via Tor.com/Tor/Forge, image: Yuko Shimuzu/Tor)
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