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JY Yang: Descent of Monsters
Jan. 29th, 2019 09:30 amJY Yang’s novella The Descent of Monsters takes place in the universe of the Protectorate created in their earlier works, The Black Tides of Heaven and The Red Thread of Fortune, but the main characters of those narratives, Sanao Akeha and their twin sibling Mokoya, rebel children of the Protector, appear only as secondary characters, as does Mokoya’s lover, Rider, who has travelled to the Protectorate in search of their own lost twin.
The Descent of Monsters is an epistolary novel, told in diary excerpts, letters, transcripts, and excerpts from reports within a frame that tells us as we begin that the main character, Tensor Chuwan Sariman, a junior investigator, is already dead, and their lover Kayan is urged to continue the investigation detailed in the documents and discover the truth that Chuwan has died for.
The investigation centres on an experimental facility where Tensorites are supposedly breeding guard animals for farms. But something has gone wrong, a huge and dangerous creature, certainly no farm guard, has escaped and everything in the facility - humans and animals alike - is dead, torn to pieces. Found hiding in the ruin are Rider and Sanao Akeha, wounded, apparently having killed the escaped creature. Yet as Chuwan investigates, their personal diary entries make it clear that the easy narrative has mysterious gaps in it. Interrogation notes are heavily redacted, anomalies and highly unusual circumstances - such as the total absence of all written documents, including diaries and personal correspondence - are ignored, and Chuwan is instructed not to search for the truth, not to follow clues or ask questions, but just to rubberstamp the official narrative and forget everything else.
Chuwan of course cannot do this. They break into the interrogator’s office and steal the unredacted transcripts, and run, in an attempt to personally contact Rider, Sanao Akeda, and the other rebels. A chance encounter with Yuan-ning, the sibling of one of the victims gives them access to letters from the facility that suggest secret, and horrifying, research programs.
Even after connecting with Rider and the others at the Grand Monastery, Chuwan continues to investigate, with help from Yuan-ning and the rebels. What they find means their death, as the reader has known from the beginning, but it reveals exactly what was going on in the Tensorate’s secret facility, leaves so many other questions unanswered and demands future actions - which no doubt Yang is writing as I write this.
This is a work of great craft, and it forms a key part of a story that I have become deeply involved in. I need to know what comes next in this astonishing world Yang has created.
The Descent of Monsters is an epistolary novel, told in diary excerpts, letters, transcripts, and excerpts from reports within a frame that tells us as we begin that the main character, Tensor Chuwan Sariman, a junior investigator, is already dead, and their lover Kayan is urged to continue the investigation detailed in the documents and discover the truth that Chuwan has died for.
The investigation centres on an experimental facility where Tensorites are supposedly breeding guard animals for farms. But something has gone wrong, a huge and dangerous creature, certainly no farm guard, has escaped and everything in the facility - humans and animals alike - is dead, torn to pieces. Found hiding in the ruin are Rider and Sanao Akeha, wounded, apparently having killed the escaped creature. Yet as Chuwan investigates, their personal diary entries make it clear that the easy narrative has mysterious gaps in it. Interrogation notes are heavily redacted, anomalies and highly unusual circumstances - such as the total absence of all written documents, including diaries and personal correspondence - are ignored, and Chuwan is instructed not to search for the truth, not to follow clues or ask questions, but just to rubberstamp the official narrative and forget everything else.
Chuwan of course cannot do this. They break into the interrogator’s office and steal the unredacted transcripts, and run, in an attempt to personally contact Rider, Sanao Akeda, and the other rebels. A chance encounter with Yuan-ning, the sibling of one of the victims gives them access to letters from the facility that suggest secret, and horrifying, research programs.
Even after connecting with Rider and the others at the Grand Monastery, Chuwan continues to investigate, with help from Yuan-ning and the rebels. What they find means their death, as the reader has known from the beginning, but it reveals exactly what was going on in the Tensorate’s secret facility, leaves so many other questions unanswered and demands future actions - which no doubt Yang is writing as I write this.
This is a work of great craft, and it forms a key part of a story that I have become deeply involved in. I need to know what comes next in this astonishing world Yang has created.