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white_hartI think Ryka Aoki's Light from Uncommon Stars may be my favourite of the books I've read this year. I was so intrigued by the premise - 'Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts' - that I bought it shortly after publication despite not having previously read any of Aoki's work, and it absolutely lived up to that promise.
Light from Uncommon Stars centres around three women: Shizuka Satomi, a violinist who has damned six students to hell and must find a seventh before her bargain with the devil is complete; Katrina Nguyen, a young trans runaway who becomes Shizuka's seventh student; and Lan Tran, a starship captain who fled her dying civilisation with her family and now runs a doughnut shop in greater Los Angeles. It blends fantasy and science fiction with vivid descriptions of music and food and a love letter to the culture and cuisine of the San Gabriel Valley. It's a trans coming of age story, a lovely slow-burn romance, and a meditation on the importance of changing and adapting and accepting new influences rather than trying to preserve things just as they were in the past. It's not exactly fluffy - Katrina's experiences as a young trans girl, in particular, are often traumatic and upsetting - but it's hopeful and kind and uplifting and just a bit silly and I loved it.
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Lumberjanes is a graphic novel series co-written by N.D. Stevenson (creator of the new She-Ra. I downloaded the first volume for free some time ago and then discovered that it was impossible to read on a phone; having just bought a new tablet, I realised that I could actually read it now. It tells the adventures of five friends at a summer camp "for hardcore lady-types", as they keep finding themselves facing supernatural monsters and other weirdnesses. Fun, and very funny in places, but it didn't grab me quite enough for me to want to rush out and get the rest of the series.
Light from Uncommon Stars centres around three women: Shizuka Satomi, a violinist who has damned six students to hell and must find a seventh before her bargain with the devil is complete; Katrina Nguyen, a young trans runaway who becomes Shizuka's seventh student; and Lan Tran, a starship captain who fled her dying civilisation with her family and now runs a doughnut shop in greater Los Angeles. It blends fantasy and science fiction with vivid descriptions of music and food and a love letter to the culture and cuisine of the San Gabriel Valley. It's a trans coming of age story, a lovely slow-burn romance, and a meditation on the importance of changing and adapting and accepting new influences rather than trying to preserve things just as they were in the past. It's not exactly fluffy - Katrina's experiences as a young trans girl, in particular, are often traumatic and upsetting - but it's hopeful and kind and uplifting and just a bit silly and I loved it.
***
Lumberjanes is a graphic novel series co-written by N.D. Stevenson (creator of the new She-Ra. I downloaded the first volume for free some time ago and then discovered that it was impossible to read on a phone; having just bought a new tablet, I realised that I could actually read it now. It tells the adventures of five friends at a summer camp "for hardcore lady-types", as they keep finding themselves facing supernatural monsters and other weirdnesses. Fun, and very funny in places, but it didn't grab me quite enough for me to want to rush out and get the rest of the series.
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Date: 2021-11-13 02:48 pm (UTC)