Light From Uncommon Stars

by Ryka Aoki

hardcover, 368 pages

Published Sept. 27, 2021 by Tor Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-78906-8

(22 reviews)

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something …

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

2 editions

screamsbeneath reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Loved This

5 stars

Yes there were really hard parts, yes I was triggered at times, but Aoki managed to expertly balance this with such heartfelt and grounded writing that I never felt unsupported when the story ventured to the cliffs edge. This has been added to my list of all time favorites and will be slotted in as a challenging comfort read I return to to remind me that it’s ok when life gets hard and the worlds ugly - I just have to find the friendly face in the dark.

I’m so happy I listened to this, Cindy Kay was the perfect narrator. She also narrates the Sing Hills novellas, so check those out too if you want more expert story telling.

Lilith reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

One of the rare times I teared up reading a book

4 stars

I had a problem getting used to the writing style at first, but as I got used to it I could see the beauty of the story

briellebouquet reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

passionate, tense, wonderful

5 stars

aoki weaves passion for music together with a sci-fi subplot and a devil's bargain, in what feels like a very strange combination when you read the synopsis, but in fact works perfectly. aoki discusses trans issues, redemption, music, race, and technology with nuance and wit. her characters are vibrant and lively, flawed but lovable. i can't imagine anyone reading this without caring about aoki's characters to the point of tears in both its darker, and more uplifting moments.

i can't recommend this book strongly enough.

ekes reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Wonderful

5 stars

A book driven by its characters. I think it would be hard not to empathise with Katrina. The momentum keeps going and you want it to keep going for the characters. Leap of faith in the storyline, no problem, I want this to happen for them.

Written with the narrators view it was able to weave the stories of several people together, but with a strong emphasis on a couple of characters. The narration was also used to skip some of the exacting detail about Katrina's early life while explaining it. For sure a content warning for some of that though.

David Hughes reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

"You’re a selfish little thing, aren’t you?”

3 stars

Content warning Very poor ending; selling souls to hell does pay!

I accept that I'm probably not the target audience for this, but here we go... I so wanted to like this as I've seen lots of good reviews and the book does have lots of good aspects: it's nice to see Asian-American communities described so ...lovingly, the food and violin bits are well done, one of the protagonists is a trans woman. But... it's not well written (too many POV changes, too much telling and not enough showing), Bad Things Are Done directly or indirectly by main characters without accountability, characters lack agency and do things because of the authors being able to make them do things as opposed to them being sufficiently well-developed so that you think they're making their own decisions (e.g when Astrid catches Katrina at a webcam). The sciency bits are complete gibberish. The two plot strands come together very clumsily at the end (really would have benefited from omitting the intergalactic donut salespeople (and another thing, if sales are dipping, why not replicate ...money instead of donuts?) and concentrating on the violin/souls aspect). It's also heinously missold as "Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet". It's neither and is a long way from either. I think we can all agree that misgendering is pretty shit, but it doesn't need to be a capital offence; a bit of wish fulfilment perhaps? The quote in the title is said by a character to Katrina but applies to Shizuka, who really is quite a problematic character. And the book lacks empathy for others; there's Katrina, Shizuka, the Trans (get it? the TRANS!) and a few others, but many other people in the book don't rise above NPC level and can be treated accordingly. I feel my blood pressure rising, so I'll stop, but before I do, maybe the book needs content warnings for sexual assault, transphobia, racism and homophobia among others.

Derek Caelin reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

A lot in here!

4 stars

Faustian bargains, aliens, the love of music, and the journey of a transgender woman. It all fits together pretty well. I understand the comparisons to Becky Chambers, in that a chosen family supports one another.

David Bremner reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

a fun mess, with some touching moments

4 stars

Content warning mild spoiler about ending

This book is a combination of a serious coming-of-age / YA novel about a transgender teen girl escaping an abusive family, a star trek parody, and a comedic judeo-christian-urban fantasy along the lines of Good Omens.

The coming-of-age parts are quite touching, although the protagonist is meant to be so extraordinarily talented, it requires a fair amount of disbelief to be suspended.

The soft-sci-fi aspects are amusing, with echos of Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, and some attempt at something more serious (the "Endplague") which didn't quite engage me.

The silly-Hell plot points work better with the YA part of the book than the scifi. The climactic battle between the forces of Hell and the Good Aliens is a bit perfunctory.

I didn't find this addressed issues on the same scale that the Becky Chambers books it is often compared with, although it dives into more depth on the specific trials of transgender teens. I guess it feels a bit more like a diary and less like extrapolation.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the Asian-American-Experience aspect of the book, which is interesting, although mainly manifests through loving discussion of food. I would not know how people feel about being referred to as "Asian" in the USA, but it seems to be an identity claimed by people in the book. It is interesting that the love interest of the Asian-American violin teacher is a space alien, but a space alien who looks Vietnamese (yes, the boat-people metaphor is a bit obvious).

John Wilker reviewed Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Review of 'Light from Uncommon Stars' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not sure what I think. Did I enjoy it? Sorta. I did finish it, so that's something.

Not a spoiler per se, but the end lacked oomph. It builds and builds and builds then petered out into "everything was fine."

Will reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

So many mixed feelings

4 stars

I enjoyed so much of this book. The prose was beautiful in parts and genuinely stirring. But I expected it was building to a stronger ending than what it ultimately delivered.

Jonathan Zacsh reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Going into my short list of all time favorite books

5 stars

Going into my short list of all time favorite books.

Rainer reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Too Much Happening Here

4 stars

There are some really beautiful aspects of this book, but there's just far too much going on in this story for my taste. This felt like at least 2 different novels that were mashed into one, and perhaps that's part of what the author was going for. The plot might suggest that something which seems a bit off and out of place is exactly what the author is trying to create, but even in the midst of knowing that the ending was still a weird combo of beauty and also head scratching. Good read, would recommend for someone to take on a vacation but definitely set your expectations.

debby_joyblue@bookrastinating.com reviewed Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Review of 'Light From Uncommon Stars' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This sci-fi/fantasy/LGBTQ story fell short of its promise of a Good Omens-esque “defiantly joyful adventure,” but it’s not without merit. Read my review here.

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