Hammajang Luck

A Novel

By: Makana Yamamoto

Narrated by: Jolene Kim

Ocean’s 8 meets Blade Runner in this trail-blazing debut science fiction novel and swashbuckling love letter to Hawai’i about being forced to find a new home and striving to build a better one—unmissable for fans of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Edie is done with crime. Eight years behind bars changes a person—costs them too much time with too many of the people who need them most.

And it’s all Angel’s fault. She sold Edie out in what should have been the greatest moment of their lives. Instead, Edie was shipped off to the icy prison planet spinning far below the soaring skybridges and neon catacombs of Kepler space station—of home—to spend the best part of a decade alone.

But then a chance for early parole appears out of nowhere and Edie steps into the pallid sunlight to find none other than Angel waiting—and she has an offer.

One last job. One last deal. One last target. The trillionaire tech god they failed to bring down last time. There’s just one thing Edie needs to do—trust Angel again—which also happens to be the last thing Edie wants to do. What could possibly go all hammajang about this plan?

©2025 Makana Yamamoto (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Fantastic narration and a great story

I enjoyed this so much! First of all if you can, get the audio book. Jolene Kim is an amazing narrator. There were moments when I forgot this wasn’t a full cast production. Second, it’s a heist – a queer sci-fi heist. There’s a dash of second chance, friends to enemies to lovers romance, but mostly it’s about Edie trying to figure out their life when they are surprise paroled from prison.

cool idea

I like the idea behind the story. it reminded me of Owans 8 combined with Leverage. but nothing Super surprising happened.

Ocean's 8 meet Gideon the Ninth meet Blade Runner

The description of this book having notes of Ocean's 8 meet Gideon the Ninth meet Blade Runner is so spot on. The banter in the book between the cast of characters (which you'll love if you loved Gideon's banter) was my favorite part! I loved the sheer amount of culture added into every aspect of it as well.

I think Edie is relatable. Someone who wants to do good but finds it easiest to do bad things to get to the end good goal. A sort of the ends justifying the means.

I do think the book could have used some extra development in some areas. I feel like we were told, not shown, a lot of the story. I also feel a little bit like a few of the large cast of characters didn't have the time for extra development so they felt a little bit stilted or dry.

I loved the book though and would recommend it to anyone who liked any of the three inspiration media titles mentioned!

Great Heist book

This is exactly as fun and as gay as promised. 10/10 inject it straight into my veins

Predictable, low stakes, just not very good

I was super excited about the prospect of a lesbian cyberpunk heist story but it just.....wasn't very good. It was predictable, the bad guys were cartoonishly bad, and the sudden found familyness of it felt forced. It didn't establish a sense of place well and nothing really stood out about it taking place on a space station. The representation was great but that's not enough to carry a book. This is the last booktok recommendation I'm taking, nothing that community has recommended has been worth reading.