It was hard to rate this one because my review is torn between two facts: the fact that I didn't personally enjoy it, and the fact that I would recommend it to a different audience than myself. To address the former, the characters all felt like caricatures to me with nothing really distinguishing them from the usual heist team archetypes. The complex relationship between Edie and Angel was the most compelling and genuine part, and it's what kept me reading through the end (though I'm still not sure why Edie's reaction to seeing the person who PUT HER IN JAIL after 8 years was so demure?????). The worldbuilding was pretty superficial and served more as window dressing. That being said, this would be a great introduction to sci-fi/cyberpunk for readers who've never delved into those genres, especially folks who are more interested in the main romance and interpersonal conflict than setting/political intrigue/etc (plus great queer rep!).

I was drawn to this book with the comp to Six of Crows, which is one of my favorite heist stories ever. Unfortunately, I think that set my expectations too high. There was a lot to love about this book, but also some misses for me. The main elements I loved were the themes surrounding family and the heist itself. Yamamoto focused both on the family you choose as well as the family you’re born into in different but equally important ways. I also really loved the actual heist. It felt realistic to me in the approach that Yamamoto took. Also, how can you hate on using a dildo as a vehicle to introduce malware to a system. That’s going to live rent free in my head for a while. The misses for me, though, were the build up to the heist and the pacing. I missed the tension and high stakes anxiety that usually leads up to a big heist. I also felt that pacing was off slowing down too much at points, where I struggled to stay invested in the story. Overall, I did enjoy it, and I’m glad I read it.
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Overall Rating: 3.5⭐️

I could tell from the first few pages that Hammajang Luck was going to be an average—though not unenjoyable!—read for me.

The fusion of elements of the Hawaiian diaspora with the off-planet setting of Kepler Station fascinated me. Although the characters still seem to hold onto earthly ties, the integration of Hawaiian pidgin, traditional foods, and relationship structures grounds their community anew. However, I wasn’t satisfied with the sparse hints of worldbuilding. I’m not sure how this specific cultural community developed—and in space!—or really what the universe looks like at all in the novel. The ‘cyperbunk’ aspect landed similarly for me; it was there, with technological advances like neural implants and cancer cures, but I struggled to feel immersed.

Edie didn’t stick out as a protagonist to me either. I think their character was too wrapped up in the far past and the far future, which made it difficult to connect with them in the present timeline. It seemed like tensions between them and other characters were only shallowly scratched, and I honestly wanted these tensions to boil over more. Eight years in prison is a long time, and though everyone kept remarking on the length, the changes could’ve been more apparent.

That said, Edie’s relationships with their family members were earnest and adorable, and I liked how their protectiveness of children extended to members of the heist as well. I wish I had gotten to know the side characters (Malia! Duke and Nakano! Even one-dimensional Atlas) more since they were written so compatibly, but I think the smoothness of the heist actually prevented a fair amount of depth.

(Also, I would not have forgiven Angel so readily, and I’m surprised that they remained such a central figure in the novel.)

Incredible world building, this follows a heist format so perfectly so you know exactly what to expect in the same way that you never really know what to expect once they’re in it.

I really, really loved Edie, I loved how they were an “I’ll burn the world for you” type character but never in a forceful way like you might see in a dark romance or romantasy, it felt like a quiet fire the entire book that could flare at any time.

There was language in here that wasn’t written for me, so it took a little brain power to interpret what was being said, but that’s because it’s not my language and was for the author and their culture and their community, and I loved that. It made the whole thing feel like a love letter to Hawai’i.

I think I wish some of the crew’s characters had been fleshed out a bit more, but I loved Sara and Malia, and by the end, I loved Tatiana. And it was so queer and diverse and inclusive, this really is a gay sci-fi Ocean’s 8 and I love that we now have this in the universe!

I have a lot of opinions about Angel, but they’re all deep in spoiler territory. So here goes:<spoiler>I don’t think I would’ve forgiven Angel, I think I would’ve sold her out at the first turn. And honestly, the romance was mid for me, but the heisting and planning was so good that it makes up for it? I’m just not really into falling for a manipulator, and I think I would’ve been better off if they’d been friends at the end.</spoiler>

If anyone’s looking for a queer as fuck book, this is going on an immediate recommendation list.

I feel like comparing this to Gideon the Ninth in the blurb was a bit of a poor choice, as people who have read the book will come to expect certain things. But anyway. This book was slow, like really slow, much slower than you'd expect and still slower than you're probably imagining while reading this review. The author clearly put mental time and effort into the world-building but I just struggled with the descriptions sometimes--I had a hard time truly visualizing some of it. My last gripe was that the anti-hero/villain of the story just felt like a Disney channel movie villain--it felt cartoony, in a way, or like an exaggeration of a true villain to make it obvious and easier to pick out that they're the bad guy. The weirdest part about all of this is that I did actually kinda like this, and yet I struggled so much with it. I think that's why it was so hard for me to rate it, because on a finer scale I did have a handful of issues with this but on a larger scale I enjoyed it a solid amount, I don't know.

In Hammajang Luck, Edie is fresh out of an eight year jail sentence. Their former criminal partner Angel already has one last job (for real this time) she wants them on. It’s for an amount that Edie cannot afford to say no to, not if they want to be able to take care of their family. Edie gets swept up as Angel’s second in command, and they’ll need to build the perfect team if they want to take down their trillionaire target.

I had so much fun with this! The cast is varied enough that we get enough of each character for me to buy anyone could be a reader’s favorite. The target of their heist is cartoonishly evil and while “tech dystopia where you have mods the bbeg is literally listening to your thoughts and catering ads” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it doesn’t need to when it does the genre this well. Also, truly hats off for having the most reasonable explanation as to why Edie and Angel didn’t work out their relationship as teenagers.

I also have not encountered a sci-fi book so far in the future that was this interested with cultural identities from our present world. This book is not the same without the Old Earth Hawaiian traditions and customs that shape the way the cast of Asian and Pacific Islanders interact with one another. Gender and sexuality is literally whatever in this world and it is so beautiful (it might just be something that falls under further medical expenses but unfortunately capitalism tech dystopia means that’s a lot worse). I really adore sci-fi that engages with body modification without taking cheap transhumanism horror potshots and no further exploration.

This is the best sci-fi heist novel I’ve ever read. Let 2025 be the year of heist novels where we actually get to see the heist!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the eARC.

A certified banger and no doubt one of my favorite things I read in 2024. Although I read it slowly, I never wanted to put it down. This book is a queer, cyberpunk Ocean's Eleven style heist set in a futuristic Hawaiian inspired world and I had SUCH a good time reading it.

Prepare to fall in love with these characters and the world they live in. Despite taking place in a world with high tech body modifications, all of these characters feel realistic and relatable. Their concerns and motivations mirror those many readers will have, making them so easy to root for. I wouldn't say this is as warm and fuzzy as most found family tropes, but the vibes are definitely there. Found family but 2/3 of the family doesn't know how to express their emotions so they just do their best cuz they really truly do love each other, even if they don't know how to show it. Ditto on the romance, but I was here for it.

I also really loved the worldbuilding. I've never read speculative fiction rooted in Hawaiian culture, so this immediately felt very fresh and new and I fell for it hard. The little bits of language and dialect give such a strong sense of place. The details surrounding foods and social customs were the icing on top of what's already a rich, vibrant world that I would eagerly read about again. Add in the fact that this entire world operates outside of hetnorms and gender binaries and you've got a real win.

In addition to the fast-paced action and dramatic character development, the author also manages to take a solid look at social issues like classism, the poverty to prison pipeline, and the desperate things people will do when they feel trapped. In a bizarre way, it reminds me of the contestants on the show Squid Game - desperate people in helpless situations willing to risk their lives just for a chance to climb out of debt or make a better life for their families or afford necessary but unaffordable medical care. Take those same concerns and that willingness to risk it all and you've got a solid idea of what lies at the core of this book.

A fantastic debut featuring a richly detailed world, characters I'll miss hanging out with, an action-packed heist, and even a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance. Highly recommend. Can't wait to see what this author writes next, but I know I'll be buying it.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC in exchange for review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A sci-fi heist with a fun team and some emotional heft, Hammajang Luck is a good read if you want something super queer about stealing from the super rich.

I'm glad the jacket copy provided the finition of Hammajang! It borrows from the Hawaiian pidgin, which if you don’t know, is a language created between two peoples who don’t share a language - they take bits and pieces of both as it develops. Sometimes, it turns into its own language, but mainly, it’s used by both groups as a sort of pseudo-language. Some cultures develop to speak them as their main language, which is so interesting to me.

Anyway, this book includes a bit of that in dialogue between two characters, but it’s easy enough to follow and quite minimal.

The characters are the focus of the story, and it’s told in first person by Edie. At first, I wondered how that was going to work with the heist aspect, as the best part of heist stories is how it all fits together with people doing different tasks, but the way it is shown is clever (generally through descriptions of video feeds or via dialogue) but also because the story is less about the heist than the characters and found family aspect.

The story does suffer a little from pacing. It takes awhile for it to get the team gathered and the heist to actually start, but that did give us time to understand Edie and their background.

Yet, one aspect that needed a bit of bolstering was Angel. I found it hard to understand why Edie seemed unable to just drop her, and her dilemma around their friendship could have been broadened.

The other characters were fun, but they could have used a few more scenes devoted to them for me to really grow to care about them on a deeper level.

Yet, the world-building is easy to understand and picture. It’s a dystopian corporate world where the rich are getting richer and the poor even poorer. It’s also about gentrification, technology, and family ties. It’s not exactly cozy but it’s also not dark. It’s like Ocean’s 11 if everyone were queer.

Anyway, read this book if you like:
Stories where nearly everyone is lgbtqai+
Heists where taking the bad guy down a notch is almost better than the money
Cultures adapting to diaspora and that diaspora being in space!

This book is many things: a heist novel; a romance; a found family narrative that doesn't skimp on the blood family ties; and all of that in an SF setting, Kepler Station (a location never clearly defined, but definitely far, far away from Earth). The heist plot feels very heisty: mastermind Angel has a plan to steal tech from her unscrupulous employer. She's put together a dream team of specialists, and her first recruit is MC and POV character Edie. Edie has just been released from prison, and they. have a complicated relationship with Angel... because Angel is Edie's first love, first partner in crime, and the reason Edie has just spent 8 years in prison.

The SF here is used with a deft touch: we know this is set in the future and on a space station, but the year and location are never specified. It feels like a near future dystopia. The issues Edie and their family and friends face are things like paying for medical treatment (Edie's niece has cancer, and while cancer has been cured in this future, the treatment isn't free) or finding jobs that aren't soul sucking.

For me, the really interesting part of the book is in the characters' sense of identity. Edie is part of the Hawaiian diaspora, as are many of the residents on Kepler Station. Much of their dialogue is in Hawaiian pidgin, lending a sense of authenticity and depth to the characters. (Also super fascinating and led me down several research wormholes!) Edie is NB and many in the heist circle are LGBTQ: Edie and Angel revolve around each other with simmering sexual tension; the team's "grifter's" are a devoted sapphic couple; their "muscle," Cy, is trans. The way these overlapping identities are woven into the narrative, matched in the overlapping genres of the book, make this a unique read.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

This book was actually pretty hard for me to rate. It was advertised as Oceans 8 meets Gideon the Ninth, and I go feral for anything Gideon related. Sadly, this was misleading, and it was absolutely nothing like Gideon the Ninth. But let’s get into it.

The good: the characters are SO lovable and cute. I loved Duke and Nakano, and I thoroughly enjoyed the main character. The writing was great, and the plot was enjoyable. I liked seeing every step that it took for the heist to be successful, and seeing the different roles everyone played.

The bad: this book was SO. SLOW. Like, nails on a chalkboard slow. As someone with very bad ADHD, it was a chore to push through even though I enjoyed it. The villain was cartoonish in nature, and I never really bought him being some kind of mastermind. I wanted to slap Angel. I had a really hard time visualizing the world-building— but I think that is a personal issue more than anything. The author was very descriptive, I just couldn’t comprehend it.

Overall, it ranged somewhere between 3-3.5 stars. I’ll keep it at 3 I think? Again, I had a hard time rating this. The ending alone was 4.5 stars, but the first 4/5 of the book were a solid 3.

You know what? Hell yeah!
I don't read sci-fi very often, but I found this a refreshing take on the genre, featuring a voice not often found in trad pubbed spaces. Yamamoto features an incredibly diverse array of characters, making for a fun and compelling take on an exciting heist tale in outerspace!

This was a fun and fast-paced heist story. I blitzed through it after the heist and team were established. The team was well fleshed out and enjoyable—with enough tension—as a unit. I expected more conflict during the heist; there were only a few hiccups. Angel was not a lovable character. And I was surprised by the romance between the main characters. I didn’t buy it. I also didn’t see enough growth from Edie. Eight years in prison didn’t seem to change them much—maybe that’s the point, but it wasn’t enough growth for me. Overall, it was a great read and I’m glad I found it through NetGalley!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Made it to 10%, was getting interested in the story and the premise of Eddie getting out of prison after a job went wrong 8 years ago and what came next, but then they went ti visit act an old friend and started talking Pidgin-I’m sorry but having to decode what reads like pages and pages of typos totally took me out of it.

To start, I will say that I really enjoyed this cast of characters—they were incredibly well written (very show and not tell) and definitely entertaining. This was probably one of the first heist-style stories that I have ever read. And while I’m not sure this plot/trope is necessarily for me, I did enjoy this book as a story and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for that heist style story!

I think the only thing I have to say about this book, is that for me, reading it actually felt a little less culturally impactful and, particularly given the way the character dialogue is written and the incorporation of Hawaiian Pidgin phrases (as evident from the title). I think that listening to a narrated copy would have potentially made a bigger impact on me as the reader. However, I did love how the Hawaiian culture was written into this book, and it has great representation, so I wouldn’t let the format deter you from reading by any means - just something to point out if you have options!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing the eARC for an honest review. (Rounded up from a 3.75)

Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto is not my typcial read. Once I started reading I could not get into the story and found it hard to finish.

3.5 stars.

The vibes in Hammajang Luck remind me of that Fast and Furious meme where Vin Diesel emphasizes that nothing's stronger than family. And while I'm a hater at heart, the way that this book presents that theme is actually pretty heartwarming and I ended up liking it.

TLDR; I came for the heist, but stayed for the cozy family vibes and Hawaiian community ties.

And I'll admit, as someone who works in a similar field (sadly, not black hat heist related), I really appreciated the attention to detail when it came to the heist portion. The physical security cracking and code breaking were right up my alley, and you could definitely tell that the author did research on all of this.

I also loved the family drama, and I'm saying this as a hater of sappy family dramas and sob stories. Edie, her sister, and Angel's relationships feel so real that I felt like I was a part of their family, like some cousin hanging out at the periphery waiting for the tea to spill.

The Hawaiian pidgin added another layer to the family dynamic and closeness I felt to the characters. While I spent my childhood on an island that's almost 7k miles away from Hawaii, the pidgin felt so familiar that I could easily feel myself among family members. It's details like this that'll always make me an advocate for representation and diversity in books and all media.

While the villain and the other characters that took part in the heist were ultimately forgettable, I honestly still had fun with this book. I'd recommend this for someone looking for a lighter futuristic read.

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for this arc.

This was such a fun and fast-paced sci-fi heist story. Edie is released from prison and immediately pulled into another job by the person who betrayed them. The characters are vibrant, the stakes feel real, and the story weaves in commentary on class disparity and capitalism.

The tension between Edie and Angel was great with their shared history and unresolved feelings. I wish their relationship had developed more naturally earlier in the story, but it was still an engaging part of the book.

The heist itself was clever, full of risks, and packed with twists. It reminded me of Ocean’s Eleven in a futuristic, cyberpunk setting. Although I wanted to spend more time getting to know some of the side characters, this was a thrilling and heartfelt read.

This is a perfect pick for anyone who loves ensemble adventures and queer representation in science fiction. I am excited to see what Makana Yamamoto writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley & Harper Voyager for the review copy! 🖤

First read of 2025 and I was not disappointed! Giving this a 4.5 out of 5. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

At its core, this is a queer-normative sci-fi heist against capitalism and I love it! The characters in the crew are each nuanced and you honestly are rooting for them to succeed. In some ways I wish there was more clear/explicit confirmation of individuals identities, because bi erasure and saying the words helps with visibility, but given how clearly enmeshed queerness is to the story and the world building a lot can be assumed.

My main critique is the romance between Angel and Edie, because while they have a lot of history going back to their childhood, in my opinion Angel SERIOUSLY did Edie wrong in several places and never expressed remorse or even explained themselves to Edie until they were forced to. I wish ye physical part of their relationship started earlier in the novel and then allowed us to see them progress back to trusting each other, because as is it felt a bit rushed. But we also don't see a lot of what happened behind the scenes.

Overall FANTASTIC read.

Gods I loved this book. One of the best books I've read this year with the cast of characters encompassing so many identities and the use of pidgin in the book made it that much more real to me. The stakes were high, the jokes were hilarious and I think so many folks will fall in love with the characters like I did! All the stars!

This ended up being a really fun heist novel, with lots of double crossing and complicated emotions (ie dealing with being on a heist with the person who landed you in future jail the first time around and the fact that you're still in love with her), and the feel goodness of taking on a major shitty corporation and getting away with it. Debut novel, and recommended for a great bright read this winter.