Ryka Aoki

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. 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.

Light From Uncommon Stars

Lindsay

Most people would have heard a tone. A trained musician might hear A440.

And a very special musician would hear the violin waking up, saying goodbye morning, once again coming to life.

Lan closed her eyes and felt the sun on her face. Not too bright, not too dim. Good yellow star.

I forgot who Tremon was for a hot second.

Yes, Hell accepted that it could neither create talent nor control where it landed. Paganini had all the tools for immortality 

 he signed over his soul. As did Tartini, or anyone else who claimed the Devil came and made them great.

"The world is changing, you know. A pity you aren't ready to live in it."

Catalonia Matía would smile whenever someone described great music as divine.

To him, that was nonsense. Great music is all about weakness, uncertainty, mortality– what does Heaven know of these?

Legacy. It mattered for burritos. For donut shops.

No matter where you live, if you have an Asian friend who can set you up with free WiFi, you go with it and don't ask questions.

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