Hammajang Luck

November 1, 2024

DEBUT After eight long years--too long to be away from the family that needs them and to think about why they were behind bars in the first place--Edie is finally out of prison on early parole, trying to find a way home from the icy prison planet. Angel, the only person Edie trusted and the one who sold them out, shows up with a ride back to their space station home. She has one more job; one last chance to fell the wealthy tech mogul they failed to take down before. To make the job work means putting trust in Angel again; trust is, for Edie, in short supply, but Angel has a plan and a team. What could go wrong? VERDICT Fans of Ocean's Eight and Leverage will find this a delightful ode to team heists. The enemies-to-lovers trope, queer characters, and Hawaiian culture and language create a unique backdrop for a familiar plot line.--Kristi Chadwick

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 6, 2025
Yamamoto draws on their Hawaiian background while giving Ocean’s 8 a space opera twist in their entertaining debut. After a heist gone wrong, Angel Huang took a deal and sold out her partner in crime, Edie Morikawa, resulting in an eight-year stint at the Kepler System Penitentiary for Edie, and a job as chief of security to multitrillionaire Joyce Atlas for Angel. Now out on parole, Edie wants nothing to do with Angel, but Angel needs Edie’s skills as a runner and their knowledge of Kepler Space Station’s catacombs to pull off her biggest heist ever: stealing Atlas’s top secret tech prototypes from his vault and holding them for a one trillion credit ransom. Edie’s share of the money could mean life or death for their niece, Paige, who has cancer, and so they reluctantly agree to one last job. Yamamoto keeps the fun plot moving while hitting all the expected heist story beats, complete with a crew of ragtag misfits, each with a special skill. They handle a diverse cast of races, genders, and sexualities with remarkable sensitivity, especially Edie and crew member Cy, who both identify as “not women, but not men either.... Dad called us Māhū—in the middle.” This is a blast. Agent: Keir Alekseii, Azantian Literary.

Starred review from January 1, 2025
Edie has been in prison for eight long years. Their sister, Andie, has been struggling in the lower wards of Kepler with two kids and not enough money all this time, so when Edie gets out of jail early, they're determined to help her. Problem is, they're blacklisted from just about everywhere. The only person offering employment is Angel, the ex-partner in crime who put them in prison in the first place. Angel is proposing one last job: Ransom the tech secrets of bioengineering mogul Joyce Atlas, and the two of them, along with their newly recruited crew, will have more money than they know what to do with for the rest of their lives. But first Edie has to decide if they're willing to trust Angel again. Hammajang Luck (hammajang is Hawaiian pidgin for "all messed up") features all the best sf has to offer, from sick body modifications to a dystopian magnification of wealth inequality. Between the lovable, queer cast of characters, the Hawaiian representation, and the action-packed heist, Yamamoto will leave readers excited for their next book. Especially recommended for those who loved the group dynamics of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows (2015), though the tone of this story is much cozier.

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