Light From Uncommon Stars

Product Information

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island. But how could the mere concept of mortality be enough to topple advanced civilizations? People live, people die, and so what?” Music, sometimes great music, from the hands and hearts of those who infuse their art with their very souls.” 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… Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

In a review for Locus, Caren Gussoff praised the novel's portrayal of women and its use of speculative fiction tropes to explore the meaning of womanhood in the modern day. However, Gussoff criticized the male characters as "two-dimensional 'not-women'" and thought that the ending was "too sweet" given the stakes of the novel. [7] This article about a 2020s science fiction novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. But as I said, it is also a story of hope. For Katrina finds a place where she’s appreciated when she grabs the attention of Shizuka, a violin teacher with a Faustian deal, one soul short of freeing herself of her bargain and only a year left in which to do so. Shizuka could care less that Katrina is trans, or that her violin was paid for with sex work; all that Shizuka cares about is how Katrina’s playing makes her feel. And yes, she intends to harvest Katrina’s soul to fulfill her contract, but nobody’s perfect.Raised among the ruins of a conquered mountain nation, Maren dreams only of sharing a quiet life with her girlfriend Kaia—until the day Kaia is abducted by the Aurati, prophetic agents of the emperor, and forced to join their ranks. Desperate to save her, Maren hatches a plan to steal one of the emperor’s coveted dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold.

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. But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself. As a civilization progresses, it goes through wars, pandemics, catastrophes. those that survive grow more astute, more perceptive, more advanced. Diseases are conquered, infirmity eliminated. Life spans increase. Suffering becomes largely a memory. The lives of three women—Katrina, Shizuka, and Lan—become entangled by chance and fate in Ryka Aoki’s Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure publishing September 28th with Tor Books. From the author: Pushed apart and drawn together in equal measure by their often conflicting beliefs, Seema, Tahera, and Nafeesa must confront the complex yearnings in their relationships with one another—and within their innermost selves—as the events that transpire over the course of one fateful week unearth an accumulated lifetime of love, betrayal, and misunderstandings.Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Bay Area family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined. Shizuka looked about her room. Thanks to Astrid, her move was already complete. Clothing, furniture, her instruments, all were ready and waiting. Her car had made the trip from Japan and was parked in the driveway downstairs. Shizuka Satomi has sent the souls of six of her students to hell, choosing them carefully, training them as violinists, and then letting them play with her special, cursed dogwood bow so that their souls are consigned to damnation. When she hears teenager Katrina Nguyen playing in the park, she recognizes something in the girl’s playing: she’s far from being a virtuoso right now, but she has an instinct that can’t be taught. Shizuka takes her on as a student with every intention of feeding her soul to the devil in exchange for Shizuka’s own.

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.

Light From Uncommon Stars

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. Survival against impossible extraterrestrial odds: Invasion ends its second season with hope … and not? (S2, E6-10)