The Stardust Grail

After a heist goes horribly wrong, Maya retires from her career as a thief to take a postgraduate degree in xenology, but her old partner Auncle persuades her to have another go at getting the Stardust Grail. If she does, she may have to choose between extinction for Auncle's race, the Frenro, and cutting off humanity's access to interstellar travel.

Great adventure story with lots of twists and turns, though I was pleased something I'd wondered about early on did turn out to be the case. The ending leaves it open for the crew of the spaceship Wonder to have lots more adventures together. I really want to read about it if they do.

It took me a bit of time to warm up to Ms. Kitasei's initial novel, but "Stardust Grail" immediately hooked my interest and I can go so far as to call it fun. That said, the folks who have some issues with pacing probably have a point, as the semi-humorous shenanigans the novel starts with do become a little at odds with the rising existential stakes of the story. Also, it appears that Kitasei's "brand" is becoming about protagonists that are driven by a lot of internal personal conflict. Be that as it may, I expect to be looking at the author's work in the future.

Great world-building, characters worth reading about, and a plot that tangles itself in its own tentacles trying to be tricky. The last quarter of the book, while not unreadable, renders a good buildup into so much wasted time.

I loved this, finally a fun and meaningful space heist romp that really feels like we're traveling through space and new worlds. The pacing is great, there are several climaxes that keep the plot rolling towards the main goal, and the characters are so fun to follow.

This novel opens intriguing and continues with a quick pace. In the distant future, Earth is connected to an interstellar web that connects to other planetary systems through nodes. Maya, now a graduate student, is a former thief tapped for one last job - to steal the Stardust Grail, an object that can be used to create new nodes. This job takes on urgency when its revealed that an unknown entity is destroying nodes, cutting off worlds in the process. Joined by some old and new friends, Maya races across space in pursuit, hoping to save both her friends and multiple worlds. I liked this book, although I would have appreciated a more complete conclusion.

Maya Hoshimoto, the protagonist of Yume Kitasei’s second novel, Stardust Grail, is an art thief-turned-Princeton-graduate-student. She was born off-planet, and her best friend is a long-lived alien who needs her to help a grail that has—avoiding spoilers—unusual properties. Kitasei admits to being inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark, as well she should. She has a well-worked-out interstellar civilization with six sapient species, and it helped me to jump to the appendix and read their thumbnail descriptions before I got too far into the weeds. The plotting is a bit rough, but her Interstellar Web has plenty of room to grow.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this on audiobook through NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: This was a fantastic sci-fi read. I loved the wonderful characters, amazing adventures, and intriguing story line. I really enjoyed every minute of this book. I did listen to this on audiobook, and the narration was beautifully done. Parts of this would have been challenging to narrate correctly, and the narrator did an amazing job. I definitely recommend listening to this on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks.

The story follows Maya, who was once the best art thief in the galaxy, is now a graduate student of anthropology back on Earth. When an old alien friend reaches out to her with an intriguing offer, she finds it impossible show more to resist. They want to go and find an old alien relic that could prevent the extinction of their race.

I absolutely loved the characters, the new worlds we visit, and the complicated storyline about the history and politics of these different alien races. This was a wonderful adventure, combined with intriguing history and political maneuvering. I really enjoyed some of the character development as well. There is a lot of discussion about consideration around expectations about how people (aliens included) act when they are from an alien race or culture.

This review doesn't really do this book justice, it was just so fantastic. However, I just got back from a long vacation and am playing catch up, so it will have to do!

My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved this! This book included wonderful adventures and new worlds, excellent characters, and an intricate and well done storyline. I enjoyed every minute of this, and it made me wonder why I haven't read anything by Kitasei before! I plan on pickinggup her debut novel, The Deep Sky, to read as well and really look forward to future novels by her. show less