Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei!

This book is a captivating and immersive read that hooks you from the first page. The writing is beautifully crafted, with vivid descriptions and strong character development that makes the story come alive. The plot is well-paced, balancing moments of tension with quieter, reflective scenes that allow the characters to grow. The themes explored are deep and thought-provoking, resonating long after the final page. Whether it's the emotional depth, the twists and turns of the plot, or the unforgettable characters, this book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys rich, engaging stories. Highly recommended.

Started off strong but unfortunately dropped off sharply part way through. It was hard to stay engaged with the characters and the plot was no longer particularly interesting.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Maya, a graduate student & former thief, promises to help her dearest friend steal the object xyr species needs to repopulate. Only, with Earth’s military after them, & something destroying the pathways between space, everything is much more complicated than she had anticipated.

This was gorgeous. Heists? Yes. Heists in space? He’ll yes! This is was the reverse Indiana Jones story I have always wanted! Maya’s a thief who regularly stole artifacts and returned them to the alien species they belonged to along with her best friend, a Fenro named Auncle.

This had a wildly diverse & interesting cast that I loved every member of, & a twisty turny plot that kept me hooked. I was wondering where this story could go around the half way point, and then we dove headfirst into the rest of the universe and I was swept away.

There was a bit of a slow start, & a little info dump heavy sometimes, but well worth the read. And definitely putting Kitasei on my radar for future projects.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron books for this arc.

THE STARDUST GRAIL by @yumewrites was an exceptional queer, cozy mystery set in space! This is my second from this author and I never knew I needed cozy otherworldly mysteries until I read them! Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @macmillan.audio and @flatiron_books for the audio-ARC and physical ARC.

I loved these characters, their relationships, their flaws and their strengths!

Read this one if you like:

💚Found family
🖤Cobbled together heist
💚Hard truths and forgotten memories
🖤Cast of memorable unique characters

Also I have to give a shout out to the narrator, @katharinechinactor for her excellent narration of the audiobook! There was a part of the book where basically all the characters voices are spoken together and it was impressive how well she did! Really rounded out the story.

I loved this title and apologize for not noticing I didn’t submit the feedback sooner. I have recommended this title several times. Thank you for the advanced copy.

I had really loved Kitasei’s debut, The Deep Sky and had really liked the themes she had built her story around. I definitely went into this one with high expectations and it absolutely didn’t disappoint. There were a lot of elements to this story, and Kitasei kept the world building well balanced well with the action packed plot. Beyond all the action though, I loved the themes Kitasei explored in this one. The interspecies friendships and interaction really reminded me of Becky Chambers’ novels. I also loved the anti-colonialist commentary. I also think this will be an entertaining one to read even if you aren’t too familiar with sci-fi.

4.25 stars.

I really enjoyed this story. I love The Deep Sky and was super excited to see where this book went. We follow Maya Hoshimoto, a floundering grad student and former art thief who is contacted by their alien friend Auncle to do one last job - finding the legendary grail, which is the last chance for Auncle's species to have children. But Maya and Auncle aren't the only parties interested in the grail, and it quickly turns into a race against time as jump gates to other worlds start collapsing.

This is a very fast-paced book and I found it easy and engaging to read; I probably would have gone through 100 pages at a time if I could've! The relationship between Maya and Auncle is incredibly deep and complicated, and they played with my emotions the whole time. The ensemble cast were all endearing while still being dimensional and flawed. I liked that Kitasei took a pretty serious look at topics like anthrocentrism and how history is written. Although this is definitely a heist book, it does engage with real issues and has a lot of heart. My only complaint is that I wish some of the side characters were more fleshed out. I still had a great time and would gladly read five more books about Maya and the crew's adventures.

What do you get when you cross:
- an telepathic octopus alien with a slight air of recklessness hellbent on achieving their goal
- a female human space colonist/ex-treasure hunter/PhD hopeful with the most authentic inside voice I've ever read (anxiety, fears of the future, hope for the future, and high self-confidence all bundled altogether)
- a distrustful human "Space Marine" fighting against her in-bred prejudices
- an ex-military military droid who longs for sentience
- and one fully-fleshed universe with space travel and multiple species of aliens?

You get one very good space quest book with found family and lots of emotion (and a high dose of horror that comes squarely in the second half - I wasn't expecting it but it was THRILLING). This found family is on the quest for the titular Stardust Grail and the twists and turns along the way are honestly some of the best I've read yet. I don't usually externally react to plot twists but there's on in particular that made me scream out loud at midnight (I also don't usually stay up late reading books, so if that doesn't make you pick this up, I don't have much more I can really say to convince you). I've heard that Yume Kitasei's debut book is very book, and I believe it based on the caliber of "The Stardust Grail" alone.

tldr: really interesting, though-provoking read, while still having a fun space heist.

this would be a great book to discuss with people because it poses so many moral questions. these questions also made for a great reading experience, so I won’t say too much here—so that you can read it for yourself—and I’ll just give you a quick list of the things I loved.

the first has got to be the worldbuilding. you get the flavor for that right away and woven effortlessly throughout. this is a grounded and thoughtfully envisioned potential future world for us earth folk. the ways in which the different space-faring peoples were imagined felt open and curious (actually, the whole book felt this way, now that I say it). seeing how different forms of life were imagined and communicated with each other and were different and alike was super interesting.

next, the plot. a good amount of stuff happens. I think there’s three core big events in this story and a different writer would’ve stretched these three events to two, maybe three, books. it’s to Kitasei’s credit that they spent enough time with each event to make its full impact known and felt, while maintaining an efficient pace. as much as I love a good series, I don’t think this would’ve been as impactful had it been stretched out. This is tight, quick novel, asking big questions of its characters and readers and I really like that.

lastly, the aforementioned big moral questions. without saying too much, it asks questions of responsibility, and blame. about life’s biological impulse to survive, and the things that can make people do. about fear, and the things that can make people do. people and *a people*. all of this from an anti-colonial viewpoint which (back to the worldbuilding) was set-up for the main character through her background growing up on earth-colony during wartime.

speaking of the characters’ backgrounds, they created this interesting blend of perspectives in our main crew that lent itself well to the discussions being had. they all felt round and real. I especially appreciated the complex relationship between Maya and Auncle, particularly as it changed in the second half of the book. I do wish we got a little bit more personality from our characters—not that there wasn’t any but because I’m a reader who really loves that stuff—but I understand it taking a slight backseat here.

that’s all! go enjoy this book<3

Anyone up for a space heist with a human, a “retired” soldier, a robot who has tweaked his programming, and an alien? How about if they were on a quest to find the grail?

This book was a fun space adventure meets heist story, I enjoyed the characters, but would have liked to get to know Will more. She was one of my favorites.

On the whole it was a good book and certainly worth a read.

A very enjoyable science fiction adventure set some unspecified time hundreds of years in the future. Main character Maya grew up in a far off colony, then spent a while traveling with an alien named Auncle from a species called Frenro (very different than our own), trying to find and retrieve/steal Frenro artifacts. When the book starts, Maya has gone legit and is a grad student at Princeton - but then Auncle comes back, wanting them to look together for the object of the title, but an Earth government agency is looking for it too.

Part space opera in a complicated world with lots of aliens, part Indiana Jones style quest for an object/heist, part unlikely ragtag crew comes together, this book has it all - action and adventure, world-building, found friendships, more cerebral musings. I loved it! I will say this is not one I would call sci fi for beginners, there is a lot going on here. (Yume Kitasei’s also great debut novel The Deep Sky is one that’s more accessible for new sci fi readers.) But for all my science fiction lovers out there, add this to your list! I’ve already recommended it to my husband and kids. And while the end does wrap things up satisfyingly, I thought it also left room for a sequel and I really hope there will be one!

I'm not sure how to rate this one.

It started brilliantly. Maya is a thirtysomething (yes!!) graduate student coming back to Princeton after a ten-year hiatus doing...art heists. Stealing artifacts from museums and private collections and returning them to their peoples and/or places of origins. She left after an accidental tragedy—ditching her long-time partner and friend and xyr quest for children.

There's commentary on academia and and colonialism and history and climate change and depression and heartsickness and everything else.

When the heist began it kinda started to fall apart, just a little.

What I adored about this was the lore: the worldbuilding, the future, the history of this richly imagined world. The idea that the Infected can see the glimpses of the future and the past. The world itself is queer as hell.

What I struggled with were the action scenes, particularly some epic space battles that I just wasn't really feeling strongly about. Also, some of the characters fell really flat for me (not the aliens—those were fine—it was the humans I had issues with).

What I wanted was a little more exploration on the stakes. Maya is making a choice that is going to end one entire species or another: either her own or the Frenro. Humanity will be cut off from the rest of the galaxy if they don't get the stardust grail. Without the stardust grail, the Frenro will not be able to make children and will slowly die out. I also wanted a little exploration on the Infected and what it means for them.

Anywho, it ended on an interesting note. I enjoyed it. The twists were fun. However, I could definitely tell this was a book written under a deadline. It feels a touch rushed. Which isn't bad, but I just know what with a little more time it could have gone from a four to five star read for me.

I received an ARC from NetGalley

THE STARDUST GRAIL by Yume Kitasei (Deep Sky) is a very well-written stand-alone space adventure. The main character is named Maya Hoshimoto; she is a reformed thief (of sorts!) and a graduate researcher about other life forms. Her best friend is named Auncle, a multi-tentacled creature whose Freno species is at grave risk. They come across new information in the search for a stardust grail which could help the species repopulate or save Earth from being isolated from the rest of space as connecting nodes are increasingly disappearing. With more than one group seeking the grail, Maya and her team (includes Wil, a former CNE government guard, and Medix, a fairly sentient robot) are often in great danger as Maya decides to attempt another heist. They face numerous ethical questions and continue learning about each other, especially cross-cultural emotional differences, as when Auncle says, "I didn't realize the joy could feel so ... sad at the same time." THE STARDUST GRAIL received a starred review from Kirkus ("... covering everything from the rise and fall of alien civilizations to what it means to be a person, this is a luminous work.... Wondrous, new, and altogether alien.") and Publishers Weekly ("Readers will be riveted."). Enjoy the quest! 4.5 stars

Maya used to be an interstellar thief, repatriating cultural artifacts back to their planet of origin. But years ago a job went bad, and now she’s retired, trying to be just a regular graduate student on Earth. When an old explorer’s journal turns up a lead on the one artifact she’s always been desperate to find – one which could ensure that her dear friend Auncle’s species can continue after nearly being wiped out – she can’t resist going after it. But there are competing interests also desperate to find the same artifact for different reasons, but for whom the stakes are just as high.

The author has a very cinematic and engaging writing style - I kept thinking I’d love to see a movie of this book. It would make one heck of an adventure film. Everything from the alien artifacts and alien worlds to the action sequences was vividly described. I didn’t like this one quite as much as The Deep Sky and I can’t put my finger on why – that's not to say I didn’t like it, just that I didn’t love it the same way I did that one. I still liked it well enough to give it 4 stars and a hearty recommendation.

Representation: POC characters (including main character), LGBTQ+ characters

I really enjoyed this author’s debut The Deep Sky, so I was very excited to get to this sophomore novel. And it makes me so happy that I probably enjoyed this one even more than the previous one.

This is technically a space opera heist novel with species level stakes, galaxy spanning adventures, diverse groups of species inhabiting the universe and in some form of contact, and seemingly accessible space travel options - but ultimately it’s a story of friendship, even as unlikely as between different species with all its misgivings and misunderstandings and a hope for more; this is a found family story about what it means to be human, the perils of colonization even when we justify it as for the greater good, the struggle of survival while also trying stick to one’s moral principles, and amidst it all just forging bonds with each other that will last lifetimes. It is both expansive and intimate, with tense thrilling moments interspersed with quiet joyful and humorous ones; violence and gore marred by the realization that while it may be necessary, it’s never without cost; and ultimately about the hubris of advanced species who think they know better for everyone.

I have to say, I loved listening to the audiobook. Katherine Chin is amazing as always, but here she takes it a notch above with her various voices for the different characters and species, making it a truly remarkable experience. Highly recommend the format and the book, especially if you are a fan of thrilling space operas with an intimate touch.

This book is a fun romp, like Dr. Aphra/Indiana Jones fanfiction in a good way. There were some things I didn't quite get, like the pacing was incredibly fast. There was so much that happened in the book, I wish it had been made as a duology, because with the pacing the way it was, it was a struggle at times to see how the characters had earned events that happened in the novel. That being said, there was a lot I liked in the way that Kitasei wrote about artifacts from other cultures and how other sentient species were portrayed. The extreme differences between species was one of my favorite things in the book.

came here for the space heist to return stolen artifacts. stayed for the contemplations on: archives, lost histories and civilizations; the search for knowledge and truth; the nature and purpose of life, and what it inherently means to be alive; and the complex webs that are woven between duty and love and friendship.

the stardust grail is a gift that kept on giving. I think I very much expected to enjoy the book from the outset (there was in fact a point where I briefly wondered if I should have instead picked a career in library studies and archival management), and I did have an enjoyable time throughout, especially with each bit of worldbuilding dropped into the story. but it was really the last 1/5th of the book which was when the story truly went places that I was not expecting it to go, with twists and reveals that literally gave me chills and I will be thinking about for the next week. it is also where I wish we had more time to sit with all these said reveals and teases at really interesting thematic ideas, so they could have been explored a bit further after that. I just want to know more!! what happens after... everything in the end wraps up so fast and it just feels like there should have been maybe another chapter after?

on the same note of wanting more.. this world!! this universe that has been created is just so interesting to me. everything about the Frenro species was so interesting to read about, and there's also so many hints of the hundreds of years of history that we only get hints of but I am just so curious to know more about. and I think it's an incredible accomplishment to make a world feel so large and historied for a standalone novel.

but at the end of the day, to me the story is, despite how grand it is, about connection and friendship. life seeking out life and trying to bridge what feels like are the impossible gaps in the ways two life forms can experience the world so differently, but love each other all the same. it's about independence and self-actualization, about choice. even if knowledge of the future is within your grasp, it's fluid.

some doors are not meant to be opened. but other doors are meant to stay open. and other new doors will be opened.

Kitasei seamlessly combines a fun Sci-Fi heist story with deep themes focused on morality, space and time, sentience, diversity of life forms, and their experiences and values.