Monday, October 4, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

 




Light from Uncommon Stars is the latest novel from Ryka Aoki and was a novel I'd heard some praise for, to go along with a marketing comparison that naturally raised my interest - "Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet."  I've actually never read Good Omens, but Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series is a major fave of mine, for its showing of groups of different people trying to make their different lives work together and alone, in a way that expresses hope for the future.  So a comparison to that - plus blurbs from Chambers, John Scalzi, Max Gladstone, TJ Klune, Charlie Jane Anders, Jenn Lyons....yeah that got my attention enough to request this book from the library long before it came out.  

And Light from Uncommon Stars is more than worthy of that praise - no it might be better than even the praise makes it sound.  It's the story of a group of people - a master violinist who made a deal with hell to train 7 geniuses and to give their souls to hell, a queer trans girl runaway with no possessions other than her violin and no hope of a future, an alien space ship captain hiding as a refugee as a donut store owner, and the daughter of a long line of obscure violin repairmen - who come together in strange ways (and others) as they struggle with their own internal and external conflicts.  It's a story about the power of music in a mindlessly cruel world to enlighten the soul, as well as the power of people to come together and work alone to do things they once thought impossible, despite a world which at times seems to put them down...but not always.  It's about far more than that to, like what it means for something to be home and comfortable....and well, I'm going to fail at conveying how much I loved this book in this review, but let's just say it's probably the best thing I've read all year - the themes are great, the characters will have you caring for them near instantly, and the dialogue and prose is just...great.  
-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Shizuka Satomi - the "Queen of Hell" - is almost done with her deal with Hell.  She's mentored and trained 6 violin geniuses and delivered them right into hell's grasp, and all she needs is to deliver one more in the next year to regain her own musical talent and recognition.  But for some reason she is struggling to find a seventh student, as no one seems just right, even the supposed prodigy she returned to LA for in the first place.....

Lan Tran took her family across space and time from the Empire to this backwards planet, supposedly for the purpose of building a stargate to view a tourist attraction.  But really she brought them along to flee from the destruction of their world - and so now she and her family use their advanced technology to run Starrgate Donuts in LA.  But something isn't right in their donut sales...in their family itself....and in Lan herself, as she finds herself attracted to and growing close to Shizuka, a woman like none she'd ever encountered before......

Katrina Nguyen ran away from her family for LA, hoping the one friend she knew there would be willing to shelter her - a trans girl in a world that won't accept her in full, and won't let her forget how strange and not normal she is.  All she brought with her  is her e-bay bought Chinese-made violin, which she barely knows how to play at a beginner level.  But when she plays some exercises at a park, she catches the eye of Shizuka, a woman like none she's ever encountered, a woman who actually believes....in her.  

Shizuka, Lan, Katrina and others in LA will soon find themselves, over a fateful year, all being drawn together in ways that will change their futures, their lives, and maybe even their own damnations.......
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Light from Uncommon Stars tells its tale through the perspectives of a number of characters, who come and go as the year of plot goes by.  Most of the story is told from Katrina and Shizuka's perspectives - with Lan's perspective, or the perspective of those around Lan (such as her Aunty Floresta, who gets large segments) being a solid third - but a number of other perspectives get shown as well, such as the rest of Lan's family like her virtual daughter Shirley, or the violin maker/repairer Lucy Matía.  Like the Becky Chambers book this is compared to in advertisements, this is not a book that tackles just one theme or plot element at a time, but handles multitudes alongside one another, and handles them all really well and interestingly - fair warning, for the sake of this review not going too long, as well as for the sake of not spoiling, I'm likely not going to discuss all of those themes here.  But they're all done so well, helped along by Aoki imbuing each of her characters, no matter how few pages we spend with them, with real believable personalities and beings, such that you care for them all almost immediately.  

At the story's heart, and keeping it going forward, is Katrina and Shizuka.  Katrina is a trans girl who fled from a family who didn't understand who she was, with abusive parents...particularly her father.  She's never really had a supportive group of friends around her either - the friend she flees LA hoping for support from never really cares much about her, and exploits her, and she finds herself constantly doubting her own understanding of her own body...especially as others openly don't accept her for it.  At the same time, she's not just adept at the internet - from games (where she finds a lot of her music) to having what is essentially an onlyfans account, which she uses to earn money with her body, even if a lot that money comes from those who are essentially creeps who like in private the idea of a trans girl's body.  Katrina's faith and confidence is shaky at best in most areas, and she always expects any gifts or warmth to come with strings attached - she even lacks faith in her ability with the violin, the one thing she took with her from home that she enjoyed. 

And so a large amount of story is Shizuka trying to show Katrina that music can help her be herself, and that there are people out there who will accept her (Katrina's first public performance has a really nice twist in that respect), and that there are ways to adjust for Katrina's own dysphoria and discomfort to make her still feel safe and warm inside - whether that be taking Katrina to a boutique because Shizuka notices that the salesman is clearly queer (NB), or adjusting an exercise that usually relies on the musician using their own physical voice - which Katrina can't do because to her that voice is wrong, and she is constantly trying to shift her voice away from that of a boy's. 

But the teaching goes both ways between Katrina and Shizuka as well - with Katrina teaching Shizuka about the modern elements of music, like playing video game music, or posting videos and music online and getting thousands of views - views from people who are truly finding themselves in the music - just as people attending concerts once did for Shizuka.  Katrina has always learned from her outsider-ness to both follow others and then to predict their actions to avoid bad consequences, and she uses that in her music to learn and teach Shizuka new ways of inspiring and healing. 

For Shizuka, Katrina is supposed to be the last step towards her reclaiming her music, but in Katrina's insecurities, and her sheer brilliance in invoking love and feeling in her violin - even without technical brilliance, Shizuka too falls in love, especially as Katrina tries to give back by achieving what Shizuka wanted in ways Shizuka could never have imagined.  It'll go as no surprise that Shizuka - who is warm, accepting of differences (and even doesn't blink at discovering Katrina's only fans work), and cares so much for creativity in music as opposed to safety and doing what's normal - won't want to by the end go through with sending Katrina's soul to hell, and it all makes perfect sense.  

And then there's her relationship with Lan, who is struggling to let go of Lan's own home - out there in space, an Empire being destroyed by the Endplague, a depression comeabout from realizing one's own mentality - while also trying to support her family....and falling in love with Shizuka at the same time.  Lan's relationship with Shizuka is affected by her not really understanding music, anymore than she understand why her donuts coming out of high-tech replicators aren't quite doing it for people as time goes on (which forms its own subplot), and her struggles with her attraction, her missing home, her despair at the endplague, and her desperation to keep her family safe are really well done and form their own heart in this book - and add to Shizuka's own struggles as she too falls for Lan.  

Then of course again there are so many other characters with their own plots, like Lucy Matía, who is the heir to a business of repairing special - often cursed - violins called Matía and Sons, which she doesn't trust she can really live up to since she isn't a "son" (and her father was emotionally abusive), and whose plotline goes ways that are anything but typical.  Then there's the holographic daughter of Lan, Shirley, who struggles with her own reasons for existence, the son of Lan who gets angry at homophobic comments at his mom and is desperate for word of his father; the aunty and other son who search for a way to make their donuts feel special again, etc. etc.  There are so many themes of belonging, of music, flavor, and other things making one feel at home, of providing support even in a world where so much is cruel and unaccepting, and of people coming together and striving alone to be better, all demonstrated through all these characters, in ways that come together in many different and heartwarming ways all throughout the whole book.  

I have barely talked about the plot here, and I won't really since I'm running out of words, but all I'll say is that it surprises frequently, it helps those tremendous themes come about, and the prose and dialogue is just amazing - if you follow me on twitter you may have seen me posting bookquotes from this constantly.  This is a story about the power of music...but it's about so much more, and I'm going to leave it at that.  Go read this yourselves people - it's that good.  

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)