The music she plays is born from her trauma and her brave survival: as her soon-to-be mentor Shizuka notes, “hat the girl held was…echoes of hatred, of insanities, of melodies one sings only when one has survived emanated from her just the same.” Katrina is no mere victim: she is a strong, intense woman, but at the same time she is vulnerable to tempting offers from someone who might offer her security. She is a self-taught violinist, playing with surprising skill on a violin that is her lifeline in a world of sleeping on streets and crashing at friends’ houses, part-time jobs and occasional prostitution. The transformative nature of art, the idea that creative expression can transport people to a place where they can experience their true natures, are forces that can make uncommon stars of us all.Īt the center of this transformative process is Katrina, a transgender woman in Los Angeles fleeing a horrible life under the thumb of her transphobic and physically brutal father. Music and the desire to achieve perfection in an art, whether that’s playing the violin or crafting the perfect donut, propel the novel.

Here, the science fictional and supernatural elements are pieces of the same puzzle, and they fit together perfectly.Īs someone who plays the violin slowly and poorly, I am deeply envious of both Shizuka Satomi and Katrina Nguyen, the novel’s chief protagonists-they are not only unparalleled virtuosi, but are so completely enamored of music that they risk their lives and souls to be at its epicenter. The human condition transcends genres, and Aoki’s novel never feels disjointed or clumsy.

Such a book is Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars (Tor, 2021, $25.99), which combines fantasy (or, the supernatural, if you prefer) with science fiction in a plot that links the two genres together through the passionate emotional connections of its characters.

It’s an unexpected joy to find a book that should not work, yet absolutely does.

Ryka aoki books