Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki
Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki
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Light From Uncommon Stars

Author: Ryka Aoki

Narrator: Cindy Kay

Unabridged: 13 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/28/2021


Synopsis

"Cindy Kay masterfully narrates this unique audiobook, which combines a variety of genres to tell a moving story of self-acceptance and finding safety even in the bleakest of times." - AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award review

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.

Hugo Award Finalist
A National Bestseller
Indie Next Pick
New York Public Library Top 10 Book of 2021
A Kirkus Best Book of 2021
A Barnes & Noble Best Science Fiction Book of 2021
2022 Alex Award Winner
2022 Stonewall Book Award Winner

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 as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

About Ryka Aoki

RYKA AOKI (she/her) is a poet, composer, teacher, and novelist. Her latest novel, Light From Uncommon Stars, was an Alex, SCKA, and Otherwise Award winner, and was also a finalist for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Awards.Ryka is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for her collections Seasonal Velocities, and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul, and her first novel, He Mele a Hilo, was callled one of the "10 Best Books Set in Hawaii" by Bookriot. She has been recognized by the California State Senate for “extraordinary commitment to the visibility and well-being of Transgender people,” and her work has appeared or been recognized in publications including Vogue, Elle, Bustle, Autostraddle, PopSugar, and Buzzfeed, as well as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She was also honored to work with the American Association of Hiroshima Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors, where two of her compositions were adopted as the organization’s “songs of peace.”She has an MFA in creative writing from Cornell University, and is currently a professor of English at Santa Monica College.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Charlie on October 03, 2020

I've been a fan of Ryka Aoki forever, so I was beyond excited to hear she'd written a novel that combines science fiction and fantasy, featuring a young trans girl protagonist. But wow. Light from Uncommon Stars is so much wilder and more beautiful and sweeter than I could ever have expected. No spo......more

Goodreads review by Emily on April 30, 2022

(3.25) I decided to pick up this book because I kept hearing it had similar vibes to Becky Chambers who I love. While it did in the beginning, I wouldn't really compare them. I liked the focus on music, the trope of making a deal with a demon... but the whole alien portion felt pointless. The ending k......more

Goodreads review by Shaun on October 17, 2021

This book was an unexpected treasure. I never expected a book about a soul-stealing violin teacher, a transgender violinist, and aliens running a donut shop to be so perfect, but it is. Everything in this book just works. The writing is gorgeous, the story is heartbreaking and hilarious, the charact......more


Awards

  • Hugo Award - Nominee
  • L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist
  • Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
  • ALA Alex Awards Winner (Adult for Young Adults)
  • NYPL Best Books of the Year