The Stardust Grail: A Novel

“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙨.” Maya (ex-art thief, now grad student)’s best friend in the whole universe is an alien who’s species is facing extinction without the fabled Stardust Grail. Now, she is on a mission to find it, but her and her group aren’t the only ones searching for it. I want to preface this review with the fact that I digested this novel via audiobook, and I think that’s may have actually hindered my enjoyment of it. The performance itself was fantastic. Katharine Chin brought these characters to life, and I especially enjoyed her performance of Auncle. Where I had difficulty was actually understanding what was going on, and I think it would have helped me tremendously to actually *see* the words in front of me. I usually have no trouble with that, even with dense fantasy, but for some reason, I just couldn’t wrap my head around some of the terms and descriptors being used, and would actually suggest having a physical copy of the book to reference for those reading for the first time. Other than that, I did enjoy the found family aspects to the story, and how our MC had to grapple with how specific decisions would affect one species or another. And the final act was full of action which was exciting. Overall, as a fan for character-centered stories, I did feel disconnected from the characters in this one, which also made it harder for me to fully engage with the story, but I definitely think others will enjoy the ride more than I did. Thank you to @macmillan.audio for providing me an ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review. What this book is giving: ✅ Science Fiction ✅ Aliens ✅ Xenoanthropologists ✅ Found Family ✅ Heists