The Stardust Grail was indeed a thrilling anti-colonial space heist – and the action and exploration made me SWEAT. But what really touched me were the conversations around home, love, and our tiny space as humans in the universe.

We follow Maya, a former art thief (she returned looted alien artifacts to their civilizations) who is now busy on Earth studying to receive her graduate degree in anthropology. Maya was born on another planet and is considered Infected, meaning she has visions of past and future through migraines thanks to an alien virus she caught as a child. She thinks she’s ready for a quiet life - until one of her oldest and dearest friends reaches out with a lead on a powerful alien object that has been lost to the universe. 

They set out with a small team, but Maya’s visions warn her of betrayal and extinction, and they’re also not the only ones on the hunt for the stardust grail.

Maya grapples with xenophobia from those who view her as a curious off-planet creature, and also sits with her own feelings leaning away from an anthropocentric view of the universe. Her team is faced with massive moral and ethical dilemmas concerning the fates of many species, and readers are left with a lot of lingering philosophical questions.

Zooming in a bit, though, one of the strongest aspects of the book was its focus on love and friendships in all of their forms. Maya and her friend Auncle care very deeply about each other, but they are from different worlds and there are some gaps that will always be there. Their love for each other - through every barrier - was lovely to read about. (And shout out to Pickle, too! I want more of Pickle.)

Each character is brilliantly crafted. We have Maya figuring out her identity & life goals, Auncle who doesn’t quite understand humans but craves that connection, Medix who has escaped the boundaries of AI and wants more and more, Wil who would have once been an enemy and now challenges the group, and a handful more eccentric voices.

The battle scenes were intense, but the much scarier scenes (dipping into horror towards the end) involved landing and navigating new places. It reminded me a bit of Annihilation, where so much seemed to be happening just out of our eyesight and the plants and creatures challenged my imagination. 

The Stardust Grail involves impossible choices. It imagines and dissects communal existence. It challenges utopia, and suggests that everyone has a bit of darkness. It encourages us to imagine an intergalactic community, with all of the messiness of our differing Earth communities. It’s also cautiously, sweetly, optimistic. 

I was charmed. Yume Kitasei crushes it once again!!

CW: death, genocide, war, colonization, pandemic, suicidal thoughts, guns, torture, blood, vomit, gore, excrement, infertility, xenophobia, chronic illness, confinement, grief, ableism, fire, medical content

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(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)