Light from Uncommon Stars

In September we'll discuss Ryka Aoki's delightful Light from Uncommon Stars, a genre mashup of fantasy and science fiction. Shizuka Satomi has trained six brilliant violinists to soaring career heights before turning their souls over to hell in fulfillment of her own faustian bargain. Now she’s looking for a seventh and final student to pay off her debt. Katrina Nguyen is a young transgender woman on the run from her abusive family, trying to make ends meet with a cheap violin and occasional sex work. Lan Tran is a mother, a starship captain and the owner of a doughnut shop, protecting her family of alien refugees from the Galactic Empire by passing as human refugees. Their paths cross by a duck pond in El Molino Park: Shizuka and Lan start dating, and Katrina agrees to become Shizuka’s student. Light from Uncommon Stars was a Hugo Award Finalist and received critical praise when it was published in 2021. Author Becky Chambers wrote that the book "broke my heart and glued it back together stronger than before. Absolutely gorgeous." Light from Uncommon Stars is available in local libraries and online in both print and audio forms. Join us in September to discuss this playful and moving story!