The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei
After years of pulling off interstellar art heists, Princeton graduate student Maya Hoshimoto now uses her skills of evasion to dodge her nagging thesis advisor. But when she stumbles upon a rare library book containing a map to the Stardust Grail—an artifact that could save an alien civilization—she and Auncle, her alien partner-in-crime, team up for one last job.
Armed with the stolen library book, a mercenary with guns for arms, and a robot who dreams of becoming human, Maya and Auncle set off in search of the grail. But they aren’t the only ones looking. Pursued by Earth’s military, a Yale scholar, and an alien race that remembers them from their last heist-gone-wrong, the ragtag crew of The Wonder races to find the grail within the vastest museum in the galaxy—without reigniting an old interspecies conflict.
The Stardust Grail is inventive, deeply felt, and reads like an intergalactic Indiana Jones.
Reviewed by Emma Radosevich, collection development librarian, Whatcom County Library System
(Originally published in Bellingham Alive April 2025 issue.)