Detail
Title: Waiting on a Bright Moon ISBN:Published July 12th 2017 by Tor Books · Kindle Edition 41 pages
Genre: Short Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Romance, Lesbian, Adult, Novella
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User Reviews
karen
On the stage the colony’s four starmages stand arrayed in a rectangle: Tiger, phoenix, dragon, horse. Each of them clutches in both hands a long metal rod, painted the red of justice. They drown out the thousand murmuring voices by pounding the rods onto the stage floor in an accelerating crescendo. Echoes drill into skulls. The house lights dim; the show is about to begin.
Two masked figures haul a third onto the center of the stage. Traitor is naked except for the ropes that bind her hands in front of her. Once she had a name, but now and forever she will only be known as Traitor. Nine iterations of her family will be thus disgraced, their names wiped from the register and those two characters written in their place. Her skin is blanched funerary white but her face is swollen with the red of beaten flesh. They force her to her knees. The sound of bone against wood lingers.
You look at her face. Its shape is young, its features arranged in despair. This girl could be Officer Ouyang. This girl could be you.
i tend to pass over the novellas when i'm choosing what to read for my weekly tor-short undertaking because i'm usually squeezing 'em in during the few golden hours i have before my saturday workday, and it's better for me if i can honor my self-imposed commitment and still have time for other obligations before trotting off into the world to earn my keep.
but my pickings were slim, so i took the plunge with this one, and risk was rewarded—i loved this story and i'm grateful to have spent time in its bubble. it's not even *that* long, as far as novellas go, and yet, content-wise, it feels like i read a whole damn book. it is packed with details, rich and gooey with characters, setting, and the "it's complicated" relationship between magic and ideologies that scaffolds this imaginary-but-relatable world.
i didn't even mind the romance.
the writing is absolutely lovely—the delicate intimacy of sexual awakening, the righteous heat of rebellion, the bittersweet nature of absence—it's highly visual and simultaneously dense and light and i do not know how they managed that feat, but hats off.
i didn't realize at the time that this was the same author who wrote Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy; a tor shorty i read a few years back, but i'm hooked now, and hoping for more on the horizon.
read it for yourself here:
https://www.tor.com/2017/07/12/waitin...
come to my blog!!Elle (ellexamines)
Read it here!
This is a novella I feel a bit mixed on.
It certainly wasn't bad - I adore the writing style, and the themes were quite intriguing. The issue is that I didn't get quite enough invested in the characters or in the romance. All of it was cute, all of it was intriguing, but none of it was compelling enough.
There’s a tone sapphic women and nb people use to write about love that isn't usually - sometimes it is, but not usually - there when men write about love. I can 90% of the time tell whether a novella is about a straight men in about 20 seconds, and I would not class that as a good thing. This author writes in the Tone Of The Gays™️ and I love it.
This was a short novella and I want to try more by this author later, especially after really liking their earlier Tiger story.
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— Massiel
Waiting on a Bright Moon was so damn amazing. I really didn't expect to like this novella so much I just couldn't get enough and wanted to keep reading. I wouldn't mind if the author released a book in the same world building or a future set with the same characters.
I had to re-read some sentences because there were some hanzi so it was a little confusing but at the same time lovely. This novella passed by quickly, the whole plot just kept getting better and the romance between Xin and Suqing was so tender and warm I just wanted more chapters about them.
Sahitya
Probably more of a 4.5.
I’ve only read one novella by the author before but found it so beautiful, that I’m not surprised that this short story is also equally wonderful. In so few pages, the author is able to make us feel invested in the two characters and their budding romance, we start believing in their rebellion which wants to overthrow the extremely sadistic imperial authority, and we also understand the basics of the world and the magic system even though they are not always explained completely. It’s just masterful writing and I was totally captivated by it, and I can’t wait to read more of the author’s works.
Shafay Ishtiaq
More of a 2.5 stars book.
The book is written in Second person POV and it is short story. Since it is a short story so there was no proper World building but I think the author has done a fine job in that regard. The book overall is a nice mixture of Science fiction and Fantasy but at the same time it was a little confusing and I wouldn't say that it is nicely written as I have to re-read many phrases to understand it.
Victoria Rose
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It's amazing how talented some people are, in that they are able to portray a strange, uncomfortable world full of things like "ansibles" and "starmages", and 3 paragraphs later you're like: "Ok. I get it, I'm invested, let's do this."
Yang's novella is set in a sci-fi universe and concerns the inhabitants of Eighth Colony. Tian is an ansible - a person with what I can only assume is a magical gift which allows her to create portals using a 2 way connection forged with singing voices. Suqing is a starmage - a powerful officer whose word is law. The two women begin a relationship amongst a rebellion that aims to overthrow the authoritarian government of the colonies.
The world Yang draws is violent and sadistic, featuring an execution that was utterly brutal. However, it's also tender, beautiful, and lyrically written. The relationships described are emotive and sympathetic, and the story itself might be full of hard edges, but it's ultimately warming. The incorporation of Chinese culture adds a really beautiful depth to the story, regardless of if you read Mandarin (I tried, but fell back on google translate!).
Go here for one of the songs mentioned in the story, and listen to it as you read!
Norah Una Sumner
“I joined the rebellion so my fate wouldn’t be decided by men like you.”
A very interesting and magical novella. The choice to put the main character's narration in the 2nd POV was definitely not something I encounter that often but it somehow worked well here. I'd love to read a longer story on this and to see the characters, which have a lot of potential, be more flashed out. That sapphic rep, though... a dream.
You can read it here.
Katie Gallagher
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This week I went back to Tor.com to take a look at another short story by JY Yang. I read another short story by Yang earlier this year and LOVED it, so was very interested to read something else by this author. You can read the short story for free here…
So some of you may not know this, but I majored in Chinese language and literature in college and I’ve actually spent a lot of time in China. I no longer have a day job that requires me to use Mandarin, so I’m growing rustier by the day, but suffice it to say that I know a lot about the Chinese language and culture. Lo and behold, this story has a lot of Chinese songs and poems interspersed throughout, along with many details that draw upon Chinese culture, so this added a fun element to the piece for me. I will say, though, that some translations for the Chinese text could go a long way in bridging the cultural gap for an English-speaking audience. I can understand not including a translation for a language with many English cognates, such as Spanish or French, but Chinese is decidedly not that.
I ultimately had a difficult time connecting with this story. It’s another one of those short stories where there is a ton of worldbuilding, but in the “thrown in the deep end of the pool” style. In media res-style details are tough enough in longer works, let alone in short fiction. All the details, with very little seeded explanation, made the whole narrative feel ungrounded. I also think this would be a doubly challenging story for readers who do not have any sort of background in Chinese; there are no translations provided for the Chinese text, and many Chinese cultural and historical touchpoints are thrown in without explanation. For example:
Only the starmages have the ability to defeat the Starmage General. But their suits have a limiter that stops them from performing the Seventy Two Transformations, and that is under the Starmage General’s control.
In the above quote, this was the first time I was hearing anything about the “Seventy Two Transformations.” In fact, this is the only time the transformations are mentioned in the entire story. However, a quick Google search revealed that the transformations are performed by a character in Journey to the West, a Chinese literary classic. I happen to think it’s cool that these referential details are included, but a little seeded explanation or context would be appreciated.
I also don’t understand why the author chose to put the whole piece in second POV. It’s a bold move that didn’t seem to add much to the story, and I’m curious to know the rationale behind the decision.
Whew, Short Tuesday has gone on a bit longer than I anticipated! To sum up, this was an interesting read, especially for someone with an interest in Chinese language and culture, but there were many aspects that took away from the story as a whole.
Prabhjot Kaur
Waiting on a Bright Moon is set in the outer space and it was woven with Chinese elements. Whilst the premise was really interesting, it didn't hold my attention all that much. I wanted to but I didn't feel connected to the characters or the romance or the rebellion. I liked the writing though, it was beautiful.
2 stars
gauri (A Book and Chai)
so short but so profound, i loved the writing immediately. the sapphic yearning!!!
Bhavya
“Is she watching? What is she thinking? How could she just stand there? But then, are you not also sitting where you are, and watching?”
3 stars! This was ok. I loved the writing, but the story in itself was flat and a bit confusing. I think this could have been very interesting had it been a bit longer (maybe 100 or 150 pages) and expanded on a bit more, because most of the book did not make sense to me.
Overall, while it has its flaws, it was a bit entertaining. I might check out more by this author in the future.
Content/ Trigger Warnings- Gore, Torture, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Grief
Note- I have tried to include all the content warnings that I noticed, but there is no guarantee that I haven’t missed something.
“I joined the rebellion so my fate wouldn’t be decided by men like you.”
Review written on 6th August, 2022.
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DISCLAIMER-All opinions on books I’ve read and reviewed are my own, and are with no intention to offend anyone. If you feel offended by my reviews, let me know how I can fix it.
How I Rate-
1 star- Hardly liked anything/was disappointed
2 star- Had potential but did not deliver/was disappointed
3 stars- Was ok but could have been better/was average/Enjoyed a lot but something was missing
4 stars- Loved a lot but something was missing
5 stars- Loved it/new favourite
Corrie
A short story with a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy. I thought the world-building was very imaginative and well executed for a novella this size. It was easy to picture it all in my head anyway (including that horrific execution scene!). The 2nd person narrative is not something I see a lot so that takes a page to get used to. I didn't know J. Y. Yang but I would certainly read more of them. These Tor short stories are a great way to broaden your horizon.
f/f
4 stars
TL
Read the story here: https://www.tor.com/2017/07/12/waitin...
2.5 stars
Nice idea but not very clear at times. There were hints of things that weren't completely explained and others that were just thrown out like we are supposed to know what they mean/signify.
There was a brief scene of torture that may bother some, (not extremely graphic) but to me it felt... mechanical/wooden.
I was interested enough to keep going till the end but my eyes still glazed over at times.
The ending was okay, but abrupt.
IMHO, this would have been better served as a full length novel or even a novella.
*I did enjoy the Love story, very sweet*
Quotes:
"The body arrives during the second refrain. It slaps on the receiving dial with the wet sound of rendered flesh, and the processing officer, a young woman fresh from the originworld, screams.
It’s the scream that alerts you. You didn’t see the body come in, didn’t witness its ungainly, sprawling materialisation through the white of the portal. When you lift your voice in concert with your song-sister on the originworld, the act consumes you. 怒发冲冠、凭栏处。You are in rapture. You see nothing and hear nothing but the music your twinned voices produce. 抬望眼、仰天长啸、壮怀激烈。Your existence dissolves from the throat outwards while you deform the shape of the universe: 三十功名尘与土、八千里路云和月。You are no longer a person, but ansible, transmitting matter and energy across light-years through your song.
Like a clawed hand, the woman’s scream shreds into this ecstasy. It tears you out of verse and chorus. You look, and there lies the thing on the dais: naked, skin flayed, flesh laid open in petals. It came through the portal you and your song-sister created across the yawning gaps of space. A man, eyes open and filmy. There’s no blood.
You scream. That too is a kind of song, of fear expressed in unorchestrated keys.