I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei Published by Flatiron Books on June 11 2024
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Heists, found family and deep space adventure come together in Yume Kitasei’s thrilling space opera.
Yume Kitasei has done it again—her sophomore book, after last year’s wonderful The Deep Sky, is just as imaginative and well written, and I may have loved it even more. As the author herself says, this is a fun mix of Indiana Jones and Star Trek, a space opera that’s also an action packed mystery, with the found family trope thrown in for good measure. Readers who are looking for an adventure tale set in a futuristic world will want to take a look at this. And bonus if you love anthropology and museums, since alien artifacts are important to the story.
Maya Hoshimoto is a grad student at Princeton, working on her PhD in comparative culture studies. Although she’s expected to do research and write papers for publication, Maya’s true love is exploration and field work. She’s traveled extensively throughout the many worlds of the galaxy, planets connected to each other by nodes—like worm holes—that allow speedy travel to distant alien worlds. Her idol is an explorer named Dr. Wei Huang, a woman who disappeared a hundred years ago while searching for an alien artifact called the stardust grail. Maya herself has been obsessed with finding the grail, although there isn’t any proof that it actually exists.
One day, however, a new shipment of artifacts arrives in Maya’s department, including a long lost memoir written by Dr. Huang herself. Maya is convinced that clues to the grail’s location can be found in the book, and her chance to test that theory arrives with a message from an old friend, an alien named Auncle who needs her help. The nodes between planets are collapsing, and without the grail—a device that creates those nodes—the connections from one planet to the next will be lost forever. Maya jumps at the chance to leave Earth to search for the grail, but others are also looking for it. If the grail falls into the wrong hands, Auncle and his people would be wiped out. But if Maya finds the grail and gives it to Auncle, Earth could suffer the consequences.
The Stardust Grail is full of layers, much like a Russian nesting doll. I loved joining Maya, Auncle and their crew on Auncle’s ship the Wonder, as they follow the clues from Dr. Huang’s journals to find the grail. This is a grand adventure, full of both wonders and dangers, and Kitasei’s sparkling characters make the adventure all the more fun. Some of the stranger sights that Maya encounters gave me Jeff VanderMeer vibes, and later the story reminded me a bit of Ender’s Game, as there are some exciting, large scale fight scenes in space. The first part of the story has a lighthearted tone to it, as we get to know the characters and the world. But the last section turns very dark, as the crew end up in one of my very favorite locations in the story, a vast, hidden museum called the Encyclopedium. This section veered into horror territory a bit, and I loved every bit of it!
In addition to the fantastic world building (of which I’ve only scratched the surface), the author adds in thoughtful commentary about the meaning of “home” and finding your place in the world. Maya faces some negativity about basically being an immigrant (she was born on an outer planet called PeaceLove and came to Earth to go to college), but she’s not afraid to correct people who are insensitive about it.
The world building is fantastic, but I loved the characters as well. Maya is such a complex, interesting woman. Her moral compass is quite strong, as she always tries to do the right thing and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She loves everything about Earth, but she’s also full of curiosity and the desire to learn new things, hence her love of space exploration. But beneath this façade, Maya is also a thief, and her specialty is stealing artifacts from museums. She’s like a modern day Robin Hood, returning priceless objects to their original owners, and in this story, her goal is to find and steal the stardust grail and return it to the Frenro, the alien species it belongs to.
Maya has a unique relationship with Auncle, the Frenro she used to travel with. Auncle is a many tentacled, giant squid-like creature who lives in water, yet somehow the two manage to form a wonderful bond. A big part of the story takes place on Auncle’s ship, which has compartments for both humans and Frenro, giving them the chance to coexist during their travels. We also meet two other quirky characters who make up the crew: Wil, a retired soldier whose arms have been turned into weapons, and Medix, a robot assistant who acts as ship’s medic and reminded me a lot of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Later in the story, they are joined by Maya’s college advisor Liam, who is also looking for the grail but has a completely different agenda. I loved these characters together, especially the way their relationships changed over the course of the story.
If I have any complaints, it’s that I wanted to know more about the past exploits of Maya and Auncle. Kitasei includes a few intriguing flashbacks of their time together in the past, and I suspect there’s a whole adventure that we don’t get to see in this book. Let’s just say I wouldn’t say “no” to a prequel story about these two!
The last part is tense and exciting, and I loved the way the author wrapped up her story. I love a feel-good ending, and Kitasei delivers with some emotional themes about learning from your mistakes and moving forward, as well as the nature of “endings,” which don’t always mean the end. Yes, I shed a tear or two because I didn’t want to say goodbye to these characters.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Sounds amazing! I still need to get to The Deep Sky, but I’ll keep an eye out for this one too!
Either one would be a good place to start:-)
Glad you really enjoyed this one!
Stormi recently posted…Two Bloggers One Series ~ Secrets in the Dark (Blackbird #2)
Thanks Stormi!
Now I want to read these even more. I have the first one on my library hold and keep pushing back. Too many I really want.
There are WAY too many books, lol.
I’m glad you enjoyed this one so much. The museum sounds particularly intriguing, although from the name of it the fact that it had horror vibes surprised me. Sounds like it has a very varied cast of characters too.
The museum was so cool, I wanted to visit it:-)
A fun mix of Indiana Jones and Star Trek? Those are two of my favorite things so even thougj I haven’t read it yet I’m already half in love. It sounds like it both has great character and world building. I still haven’t read The Deep Sky so now I have two books of Yume Kitasei on my wishlist. I need to get around to this author already!
I hope you check them out at some point, both are sooo good!
I am sold!
Emma @ Words And Peace recently posted…TBR Thursday: May 2024
She’s such an imaginative writer:-)
Hey—we agree! High five
Yes! And we also agree on the review I posted today, lol.
Indiana Jones, Star Trek, heists and a squid-like character?! All that packed into one story makes this sound like a lot of fun. Glad you enjoyed it so much 😀
Yes, so much fun!
This is such a great review!! And now I am even more curious to read this one!!
It’s so much fun, I hope you get to read it!
Well, I was just sitting here debating on whether or not to enter a giveaway for this book, and I think you’ve just settled that debate for me. 🙂
Oh yes, definitely enter!
I’ve been having a hard time writing reviews these days, so it’s amazing to read your very thoughtful and beautiful of this book. I too enjoyed this one maybe more than the author’s debut and loved all the characters so much.
Aww thank you! Yes, the characters were sooo good:-)
This sounds very good. Great review!
Mervi recently posted…Wyrd and Wonder Wrap-Up
Thanks Mervi!
Your mention of “heists, found family and deep space adventure” and the five-star rating just placed this book at the top of my “wanted” list: this sounds like the kind of book I love to lose myself in…
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I think you’d love this. I’m so impressed with both her books:-)
This sounds like huge fun – and just my kind of read. Thank you for sharing, Tammy – I’ll keep an eye out for this author.
I think you’d love it!
Happy to see this worked so well for you.
Lynn 😀
I don’t read a lot of space operas, but this one does sound good. Like a good tv series maybe! The cover is so cool too. Great review, thanks for sharing this one
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…E-galley Review: Isabel and the Rogue (The Luna Sisters #2) by Liana De la Rosa