Light From Uncommon Stars

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If Maren is to have any hope of succeeding, she must become an apprentice to the Aromatory—the emperor’s mysterious dragon trainer. But Maren is unprepared for the dangerous secrets she uncovers: rumors of a lost prince, a brewing rebellion, and a prophecy that threatens to shatter the empire itself. Not to mention the strange dreams she’s been having about a beast deep underground… Helping her transformative journey is Lan Tran, the mother of an outwardly Vietnamese family who runs a much-loved donut store in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles, and who is, and here’s another fantastically well-realised left turn of epic proportions, also an interstellar starship captain who has worked tirelessly to get her family, who also double as the crew, to earth where they find safety from a violent end-of-civilisation conflict that is close to bringing down the Galactic Empire they usually call home. Food, too, is a constant in Light from Uncommon Stars—we hear of bitter melon, noodles, kiwi boba, tea eggs, tangerines and eggplant parmigiana. Its presence in the novel is comforting, and a perpetual source of delight to its characters—a pleasure we readers soon begin to share in. Anyone who makes it through the book without exceeding their daily recommended caloric intake should consider it an achievement. Food is also a welcome refrain in a novel that can be morally discomfiting, and in which danger constantly looms. It is synonymous with home, whether for Katrina, for our aliens, or for the immigrant families in Los Angeles’s San Gabriel Valley who grow fruit and vegetables in their yards. Food is occasionally even a character unto itself, obtruding unapologetically on conversations where souls hang in the balance, as in this one between Tremon and Shizuka:

Those four little words sear themselves into Rahul’s brain. While he’s not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds it, bullies like Brent Mason will stop torturing him at school. And he won’t be worried about staring too long at his classmate Justin Emery. With his best friend, Chelsea, by his side, Rahul is ready to crush this challenge…. But what if he discovers he isn’t the bestat anything? So when chance and circumstances bring her to a roller derby bout, Daya is hooked. Yes, the rules are confusing and the sport seems to require the kind of teamwork and human interaction Daya generally avoids. But the opportunities to bruise are countless, and Daya realizes that if she’s going to keep her emotional pain at bay, she’ll need all the opportunities she can get.Eventually, her crew might learn to make donuts as the Thamavuongs did, but for now, Lan’s duty was to their safety and their mission. courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) We live in a grievously unbalanced world. No surprises there you say; one look at the 24/7 news cycle or at the place we work or the society in which we live and it becomes clear that fairness very rarely rules the day and Continue Reading

Note: I write this review while listening to Béla Bartók’s “Sonata for Solo Violin.” No disrespect to the other orchestra sections but strings are the best ones. This was no surprise. After all, this planet hadn’t yet harnessed fusion, let alone point singularities or antimatter. The civilization then rushes to probe other stars, even other galaxies; it increases its research, attempting to manipulate space, time, in the hope that somewhere, someone might have found an escape, a loophole. Most often, however, we arrive at planets like this one … long forgotten after the Endplague has left them for dead. I played Handel. The survivors cried. They told me of the crimes they had committed. I told them of mine. Many were angry. More were ashamed. They asked, “Do we even have the right to hear this music? Is this okay?” But as I played, they listened. And slowly, their music welcomed them home. What did they find? Perhaps themselves. Perhaps each other—who am I to say? All I know is that I was not playing alone.” Aoki's novel is an exciting, wild web of an adventure, an unputdownable book about music, found family, and identity. Diving into the tough subjects, Aoki's book emerges with a joyful, queer, radical ballad of a story. . .”— Booklist, starred reviewThose who’ve never ridden a big white Asian bus probably never will. These buses don’t load at Greyhound bus depots or train stations. Instead, one catches them at an Asian shopping center or supermarket. Her seamlessly wrought storytelling alchemy is buoyantly given extra vigour by characters who are as memorable as they are authentically, charmingly and sometimes heartbreakingly themselves.

The story of a young trans runaway meeting a woman who has one more soul to gather before she can get out of her deal with a demon, also featuring aliens, Light from Uncommon Stars is a bizarre and brutally honest book about finding the real you, finding your place in the universe, and the healing power of music. Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts. A beautiful story of friendship and love . . . incredibly soothing and kind and sweet and delightful. I fell in love with these characters and did not even realize how desperately I needed this story right now.”—Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky

Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe. Bingo Squares: Standalone (hard mode), Readalong Book (this one!), Urban Fantasy (hard mode), BIPOC Author, No Ifs, Ands, or Buts (hard mode), Family Matters (hard mode) Danny has been an artist for as long as he can remember and it seems his path is set, with a scholarship to RISD and his family’s blessing to pursue the career he’s always dreamed of. Still, contemplating a future without his best friend, Harry Wong, by his side makes Danny feel a panic he can barely put into words. Harry’s and Danny’s lives are deeply intertwined and as they approach the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook their friend group to its core, Danny can’t stop asking himself if Harry is truly in love with his girlfriend, Regina Chan. With Katrina, Shizuka used what had always worked: let her listen, let her follow…. Just play and trust her to follow. Even Miss Satomi didn’t know how difficult it was when you didn’t feel real. Even Miss Satomi didn’t know how it felt when the only real thing genuine about you was the hurt your existence caused.”