Now that I've read all the Tensorate books: totally decent solid fantasy/steampunk with tons of queer, trans, poly, etc characters. There's not, like, a lot going on underneath it I would say, other than the author's delight in creating the world. And it's a good world! But that's not quite enough to elevate the series into a favorite.

The second and fourth books got the closest to having interesting character arcs.
* Would have liked to see something more than only-and-perfectly-supportive-of-his-wife from Mokoya's husband; he's so cuddly it's unreal.
* I was of course here for Akeha's gender journey, but Akeha's other motivations are kind of muddy and kind of boring.
* Rider reminds me of Tamora Pierce's Daine in a lot of ways; and I *loved* Daine when I was a teen, and that teen is still in me, but as an adult... a character like Rider is a bit flat.
* I normally like a documentary story, but I managed to completely forget that the detective who's ostensibly the main character of the third book existed. ( )

Collection of novellas set in an East Asia-inspired fantasy world. Together, these novellas tell the story of rebellion against an empire. Each novella focused on a different character, each of which played an important role in the overall narrative. The novellas are also all written in different styles - the first two are the most similar in that regard, though this makes sense since they focus on two twins. The world itself was fun to learn about & explore. We are thrust right into the story, without any explanation of the more fantastical elements. I wish there had been some explanation of these elements, such as the Slack, early on, though at the same time I understand it's hard to do so without it being tedious & boring. I especially appreciated this book's approach towards gender, & the characters' exploration of that helped provide great insight into them. Overall, I really loved this book. ( )

A fantastic set of novellas, each using a different narrative style. The interconnected plots are interesting, especially as each novella seems to focus on one of the side characters from the previous entry/entries. The overarching story is interesting without taking away from the plot of each novella (and vice versa, each main plot is interesting while adding to the overall plot). For queer representation, especially with a heavy focus on genderqueer/a non cis-focused analysis and understanding of gender, you really cannot do much better than the Tensorate series. The focus on non-Western mythology and the concept of "silkpunk" both run strongly through the series as well, which makes for a refreshing change. The overall style tends more towards the understated worldbuilding/narration rather than the epic fantasy tendency to explain everything in great detail, which can be a refreshing change as well. Overall a fantastic set of novellas in a single volume. ( )