Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this e-ARC in exchange for a review.
Hammajang Luck is a queer, cyberpunk, heist adventure with high stakes and memorable characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed the character writing. The strength of the story was in the distinct personalities of the characters and their relationship building. I was a fan of the inclusion of Hawaiian Pidgin.
I’d have loved to see more world building but overall had a delightful time joining these characters on their high risk heist!

This is a wonderful YA Science Fiction book and a unique one at that. It's written in an approachable manner but has important elements like code switching that would be great for studying in classrooms.

The protagonist is likable, smart, witty, and I felt I bonded with them.

I really enjoyed all of the tech references, as well as the creativity that this artwork of a book is.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this!

save me indigenous butchfemme heist criminal toxic yuri.. save me indigenous butch main character…. save me horny sapphic scenes in genre fiction…

To be honest, I'm a bit torn. There were some things about this book that worked so, so very well. For starters, Edie's relationship with her family was really something special. Especially their relationship with their older sister. There's a particular moment where Edie's older sister is confiding in them about how difficult things have been and currently are and it just punched me right in the gut. I also loved the casual and diverse representation. What I especially loved was seeing the author's culture reflected in both Edie and the main areas of the story. Some of the characters talk exclusively in Hawaiian Pidgin. It just added an extra level to the story and felt really comforting to read.

On the other hand, the main romance didn't quite work for me. I felt like the rift between Angel and Edie was just... not resolved in a satisfactory way. The author certainly tried, but they didn't quite hit the mark. I think it's because Angel starts off so standoffish and cold for, seemingly, no reason. Also, Angel's reasons for doing what she did to Edie didn't quite make sense. I think I would've appreciated more if we'd gotten a few backstory moments between Angel and Edie to really hit how their relationship could've turned out the way it did. Also, some of the other characters felt very surface-level. And, since the author really tries to sell that everyone in this heist ends up becoming a found family, I expected a lot more?

As for the heist, I feel like it's really difficult to do a heist novel, especially as your debut. There's been so many different iterations that it's quite difficult to do something out of the box and unique. I think, while the sci-fi setting adds a bit, it doesn't quite do enough. The Big Bad is almost cartoonishly bad and things wrap up a bit too cleanly?

Honestly, I almost wish this were a dual-POV between Edie and Angel. I think that would have added so much more to the story and both fleshed out the world and Angel's motivations. Plus, it would've given Angel a bit more agency than she actually seemed to have.

Overall, this definitely wasn't bad. There was a lot to like about it, but it just really fell short in a lot of other aspects for me. I think the author shows a lot of promise, though, and I'm interested in seeing what else they decide to write in the future.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto is a first person POV Queer sci-fi thriller centered around a heist. Edie has recently been released from prison after eight years behind bars. Their old childhood friend, Angel, contacts Edie and asks for Edie’s help to rob one of the richest men in the galaxy, Joyce Atlas, for more than enough money to improve the lives of Edie and their sister’s family. But Edie is going to have to work with Angel and there’s a lot of unresolved things there, including Angel’s betrayal that led to Edie going to jail in the first place.

One of the things I liked was how casually Queerness is discussed and the ways in which it is. It’s certainly not he first book I’ve read that normalizes Queerness, but this is the first book I’ve read in while that specifically draws attention to butches and femmes. Edie uses Mx. but is called ‘Aunty’ by their niece and nephew, Edie mentions that their current binder doesn’t fit properly anymore so they won’t wear it and Duke, one of the members of the heist crew, discusses their transition a bit.

Another really cool thing was the use of Hawaiian Pidgin throughout the book. It goes beyond a word or two every couple pages and is a large chunk of the dialogue between the heist crew or Edie and their family. The crew is aware that Pidgin is looked down on and one member even asks if they should ‘speak properly’ during the mission, but that gets rejected. I was somewhat familiar with Pidgin before, but hadn’t had a lot of exposure to it so seeing it come up again and again in a way that felt very natural and authentic was a very cool experience that added to the world and the main characters and how Hawaiian culture has continued into the future and beyond Earth.

My favorite relationship was Edie and Angel’s. Edie has very complicated feelings around Angel, not only due to the betrayal, but also how Angel has always been part of Edie’s life and there’s been something romantic bubbling under the surface but they’ve never crossed the line into exploring those feelings before. The tension between them is layered and multi-faceted and I loved seeing each part explored for Edie and Angel to dance around each other until they finally started opening up.

I would recommend this to fans of Queer sci-fi who also like heist novels, readers looking for a sci-fi with a non-binary lead, and those who love a sci-fi thriller

I think the comp titles for this book made my standards a bit too high, especially because the novel missed what I think made the books they were compared to so good. (the books in question are six of crows and gideon the ninth, some of my favorites of all time). However, I think this book was pretty good, but happened to fall short in some ways. There was too much buildup to the heist and not enough actual heisting, and the dynamics weren’t built up that well. Not to mention one of the scenes that was meant to be emotionally impactful literally lost any of the impact that it could have had by the end of the chapter.

When Edie is unexpectedly released from prison thanks to the woman who betrayed them, they struggle to find a job supporting their family. With a pregnant sister and a sick niece, they know they can’t afford to fall back into their old ways of crime but money is tight and no place will hire them. As Angel, their childhood friend and the woman who puts them into prison, waltzes back into their life with the heist plan of a lifetime, Edie must reconsider their promise to their sister. Together they must recruit a team without their past personal issues getting in the way of the plan. What started as a plan to rob a powerful trillionaire soon exposes uncomfortable secrets.

Ocean's 8 is one of my comfort movies. To me, who doesn’t usually consume heist media a lot of tropes of the genre and ideas felt fresh and genuinely appealing. My interest in anything centering on a heist is often limited because there’s only so much twist you can put in this genre. I won’t lie Hammajang Luck remains formulaic in this aspect but innovates in many others. Hammajang Luck, as it is aptly comped, is cyberpunk Ocean's 8 with a crew of Asian and Pacific Islanders trans, nonbinary, butch, and femme lesbians and I couldn’t put it down.

One of my fears was how the book would balance the three pillars of Edie’s interest: their familial life, the heist and its cast, and their romance with Angel. It’s easy to neglect one but as they tied back into each other (Angel is an old family friend of Edie, Edie is doing the heist for their family, Angel and Edie constantly work together for the heist, you see the idea). Edie’s care and love for their family is a highlight of this book for me and I believe will be for other reviewers. Edie’s sister Andie is a constant presence that I grew to care about. Their family hasn’t forgotten the Old Earth Hawaiian customs and ways of living.

As a character, Edie has a small arc (I did feel that their character took a back seat to the three pillars I mentioned earlier) about their need for belonging and finding a place (and people I assume). However, the power of telling a butch lesbian who spends the book convinced they must sacrifice themself for everyone, for their family, that they are loved, that they are wanted and will not be left behind, that everyone would rather they be safe and alive than sacrificed is just too powerful. Subversion of the butch martyr.

Now, is the romance with Angel a bit toxic? The twist of why Angel did what she did is predictable, anyone familiar with genre romances could tell who is behind the medical fund, etc. But we’re not the protagonist and we’re witnessing it through Edie’s lens. I enjoy the tension, the messiness, the years of yearning and pain and reconnecting. So much to unravel there.

Also I really loved the side cast? They have a small role (Duke and Nakano forever) but each is given at least a small spotlight role once in the book.

As a lover of butch SFF (Gideon the Ninth, The Unbroken, this year’s Metal from Heaven), I always look at the way butch identity is written and incorporated in fantasy and science-fiction settings. What is kept and what is added, what are the norms to defy, the paladin or the scholar, the rebel or the cop? Hammajang Luck is very influenced by old-school (working class) butch/femme lesbian bar culture. If you have read Stone Butch Blues, you’ll know what I mean. Edie (they/them), Cy (he/him), and Duke (she/her) are clearly identified as butches in the text (the word is used thanks to the privileges of sci-fi over fantasy). Cy and Edie are long-time friends and have this familiar best-friend dynamic (also denoted by language as Edie is more comfortable falling back into what I think is Hawaiian Pidgin around him than other characters). In contrast, Duke is a newcomer with a different experience and yet forms this butch camaraderie with Edie, giving them advice, teasing them, and playfully fighting with them. I want to highlight those butch friendships and maybe mentorships (as well as different forms of butch expression) that are so rare in media and yet are one of the backbones of Stone Butch Blues.

There’s a specific line right after we meet one of the crew members, Sara saying that butches like Edie and Cy ended up in warehouses and docks as opposed to femmes like Angel and Sara worked in clip joints and street corners, all trying to survive in their own ways. While the cyberpunk elements are light in this book (or rather start being slightly more prominent towards the end of the book), the genre can only really be engaged with from a working-class perspective and I find the added perspective of the recognizable available jobs the world gives to you for how you present to be really interesting.

Transness is also a strong undercurrent of the book: Edie and Cy are nonbinary (specifically referred as Māhū in text) and have sought or are seeking a form of transitioning during the story whereas Nakano is a trans femme woman and Duke’s partner.

Lastly, I want to reflect on this trope of pairing a darker-skinned butch (often reduced to a himbo, golden retriever, a brainless jock, sometimes perceived as more aggressive) with a smart paler-skinned femme. I don't think it's fully my place to speak on it (and also I don’t want to ignore the nuance of who is writing those stories, reflecting their own lived experiences and the people in their lives) but I find Edie to subvert this trope in many ways: as the main character and narrator, they have a depth that is not often offered to butch characters outside of their role as a sex object/eye candy/bodyguard, then it’s shown again and again that Edie is quick on their feet, have a deep knowledge of the station which makes them the best runner, is a leader that people trust and can take quick decisions as well as good and reading people and a smart player (the poker game)

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the arc! Hm, I appreciate what this book was trying to do, but it did fall very flat to me. Let me break down my grievances:

I did like the world building we got, but there should have been more. I wanted to be more immersed than I was. I felt the same with the descriptions. I loved what cyberpunk descriptions we did get, but for a book that pitched itself as a Blade Runner comp… yeah I was let down.

The plot was boring and damn laborious to read through. I ended up being uninterested in the plot pretty early on, but pushed myself through. Yet, my apathy didn’t go away, even as it ended. I think my feelings (or lack thereof) stemmed from the fact that I’ve read many stories like this before -the plot was not unique in the slightest. So many books have done what this book is trying to do, and so much better.

I could have hung on more if only we had compelling characters. Unfortunately, I was not engaged with any of the characters, nor were they compelling. In addition, the antagonist I found to be cartoonishly bad. He was as dimensional as a straight line.

The romance was irritating and predictable, not to even mention the fact that there was barely any development. In my opinion, this was the weakest aspect of an already weak book. The relationship between Angel and Edie was toxic and unbelievable all the way through. You’re telling me that Angel ruins Edie’s life and the for the vast majority of the book they fight all the goddamn time, yet all of a sudden they’re in love and have loved each other forever??? Huh??? Jesus fucking Christ give me a fucking break.

The ending made me roll my eyes. This book is a Lifetime movie

I will give this book points on its cultural (diaspora) and socioeconomic commentary. The most intriguing parts of this book came from Edie and their family practicing and hanging onto their cultural identity. The same can be said for Edie’s thoughts and feelings on class difference and gentrification; of wanting to become the man, yet hating them all the same. The author ate with that one little thing

To make the long fucking story short, if you’re looking for a good sci-fi, cyberpunk-esque read, unfortunately you won’t find it here. There were a couple things this book did well, yet most of it I found lacking and uninteresting. I’m very disappointed and sad, and if anyone has any diverse cyberpunk recs, I need them indubitably 😭 -2.5 corporations rounded up

Makana Yamamoto wrote this perfectly and had that scifi element that I was looking for. I thought the world was wonderfully done an enjoyed getting to know that world and characters. I cared about what was happening to the characters and how they worked in this story. I enjoyed the heist element and wanted to continue reading this universe and from Makana Yamamoto.