Light From Uncommon Stars
by Ryka Aoki · first published 2021
100% recommend
An 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, retire
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Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki Heart warming, heart breaking, sad, funny. And a great story.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2024?” ↗…large. Arkady Martine's Memory Called Empire and Desolation Called Peace, both Hugo winners, are incredibly thoughtful depictions of societies on the verge of disruption from new technology. Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a 2022 Hugo nominee, while somewhat of a sci-fi-fantasy genre crossover, is both harrowing and exhilarating in its discussion of gender through a speculative lens (content warnings apply). If you're…
on “Science Fiction Is Dying. Long Live Post Sci-Fi?” ↗I read Light from Uncommon Stars this week. It was a little uneven in spots, but overall it was very well written and an awesome fusion of many genres and topics (sci-fi, demons, violins, transgender teens) that sounds crazy but works.…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗