Light from Uncommon Stars

Beautiful, devastating, and somehow ultimately hopeful. All the characters were so perfectly created and I loved them all. I will fight anyone who hurts Katrina Nguyen!

Also, you MUST listen to the Bartok sonata at the end. It's absolutely essential to the understanding of the book.

I think one of the best books I've read this year and I'm going to be hounding everyone to read it.

oh man I'd heard great things about this book but the title + cover pairing made me think it was going to be more Srs Sci-Fi than it actually is. It's a little goofy–I saw a review comparing it to Good Omens and I think that's pretty apt–and so sweet and such an original take on some fairly common themes (power of food/music/culture, deal with a devil, uncaring space empires, etc) but so well-executed and with such great characters!!

I love the book and especially that I play the violin, I have a deeper appreciation and understanding for classical music and the composers they're talking about. The only thing I would critique is the way Ryka Aoki develops the magic and world building since it can be slightly confusing to follow at times. Otherwise, I'm grateful to read it at a book club and don't regret reading it again.

So a transgender, self-taught violin prodigy escapes her abusive family and happens to be discovered by the “Queen of Hell” who hopes she will be the seventh and final musical soul consigned to damnation which frees her from her debt to the demon Tremon. Meanwhile intergalactic refugees escaping the “Endplague” are hiding in plain sight at Stargate Donuts where they replicate doughy treats to sell while quietly constructing a warp gate for some imagined future filled with Imperial tourists.

Thats a lot, and I haven't even mentioned the sentient AI seeking some sort of autonomy, a violin repairer contending with her family's legacy and rampant duck abuse. (no assortment of waterfowl should, in good conscience, be fed the sheer volume of donuts evidenced here)

With that many balls in the air you don't pay too much mind when a couple fall to the ground. There is no shortage of nitpicking and lost threads that could be argued, but honestly with so much plot you're just holding on for the ride. I love that Katrina's trans identify is her superpower and Aoki writes about musically so beautifully that I wished I still had my viola to pick up (even if only to remind myself once again why I put it down in the first place) I adored the argument of how technical perfection isn't enough and that there is an ineffable art to evoking the notion of “home” in your craft whether it's a concerto or a cream-filled. And there's the budding romance, the growing confidences, the looming deadline, the inevitable sacrifices and the unexpected curveballs just kept me turning the pages. I might quibble with the plot holes but I can't complain about the propulsive story.

Second time around I'm just as in love as the first. This is a story with violinists, demons and aliens and I absolutely adored it. It's about a lot of different things and I can see how this won't be for everyone because of that, but if you like books with a lot of different moving parts, especially around characters and themes, I highly recommend.

Shizuka Satomi has sacrificed the souls of six violinists to the devil, and has now found her seventh soul in runaway teen and violin prodigy Katrina. When she visits a local donut shop, owner Lan Tran catches her eye. What she doesn't realise is that the donut shop hides a spaceship, and the Tran family are actually aliens from another planet.

In amongst the quirky plot, the book touches on a lot of serious topics. The main one being the transphobia that Katrina experiences throughout the book. Her parents are unsupportive and abusive, she has to do sex work to make a living, and there's mentions of sexual assault. When she performs as a violinist on stage, she's misgendered and made fun of for wearing a dress. Most of the characters are Asian, so we also see some casual racism directed their way, as well as some bigotry towards two other LGBT characters. There's also the side plot of a violin-maker with super low self-esteem, because her father told her that the secrets of violin-making can only be passed down to his sons.

Unfortunately it didn't quite come together for me. The book tries to straddle too many things. I'll admit I went into expecting a comfy sci-fi read (the book is described as “Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet”) so I finished it feeling really confused and disappointed.

DNF - PG 34

Why?

Look, I had been interested in the title several times but then read the synopsis and immediately knew it was not the book for me. Then the absolute waste of my money that is Just the Right Book decided that this was ‘just the right book' for me and ....

Okay. First of all, not really a fan of contemporary, earth bound sci-fi or fantasy. Which this is. Combining sci-fi and fantasy can be a mixed bag. This does.

The line breaks are serious annoying. I just opened this book up to a random page in the middle (190 and 191 in my paperback copy) and there are five line breaks on those two pages - only one of which has the ‘***' that indicates a point of view shift.

There are usually multiple line breaks every page. Chapter one is five pages long and it has seven line breaks including one that is for a POV shift. Chapter two has this scene as the entirety of the story between line breaks:

‘But if this wasn't the right student, either?Soon the kitchen filled with the gentle aroma of the simmering soup. Astrid dropped the heat to low, so it would be ready when Miss Satomi returned.And then Astrid waited. For now, that was all that she could do.‘

...

I kid you not. This section deserves its own line break before and after.

The shortest line break I came across in the part I actually read was all of three lines for a total of fourteen words. This book needs to be reformatted in the worst way.

Shizuka Satomi is immediately unsympathetic and, ostensibly, our main character. (That likely gets everything she ever wanted and the romance to boot.) Because she is selling the souls of young musicians to the devil. No. Literally. It's an interesting concept. I don't see how that can be made sympathetic and someone you actually root for to succeed.

But the real reason I quit reading this book is because I went searching to see if anyone else agreed with me that Shizuka was unsympathetic and was instead treated to new information.

The one friend that Katrina can call on to live with when she runs from her parents? Just casually rapes her, says it's for rent. [According to: https://www.reddit.com/r/romancelandia/comments/u9uovr/light_from_uncommon_stars_please_dont/]

There are many, many places that give Content/Trigger Warnings on this book that look like this:

This book contains references to and depictions of sexual assault and rape, verbal and physical abuse, suicidal ideation, drug use, and violence. It explores themes surrounding LGBTQ+ identities and features verbal abuse and slurs directed toward trans women and lesbians. It also depicts prejudice toward immigrants and people of color, particularly those of Asian descent.

And this:

Transphobia; parental and familial abuse, including mental, physical, and sexual; rape and sexual assault; depiction of consensual and non-consensual sex work; racism; mentions of self-harm and suicide.

I don't want to read this. I don't have a grand reason - and I don't need to, other than the fact that I don't enjoy reading books with this kind of content. You might say that this is important stuff to have in a book, but I've heard that Katrina's whole story is torture porn. I don't know.

I do know that I'm not enjoying the book, I don't like the content that has been tagged as needing a warning, and I don't need to have a reason for DNFing a book beyond I am not enjoying it.

I am not enjoying it.