Hammajang Luck

Like if Oceans 8 had a focus on Fast and Furious's family, but set in a cyberpunky space station with lots of representation. You've got a team of people set on liberating valuable items from a corporate CEO with the intent to ransom them back to him and make bank. That's basically it, but it was enough for me.

I'm gonna fly in the face of everyone here who had complaints about the boring plot and say up front that the plot is secondary to the characterization. Is the heist fun? Absolutely. It's clear the author did a lot of cybersecurity/physical security research, and it shows without being too bogged down in technical minutiae. Is it incredibly satisfying/tense/subtle/layered? Not particularly. There isn't a lot unexpected here to keep anyone guessing. But I thought the real joy in this book, and the reason for the five stars, was getting to know Edie and Angel and the complex relationship between them. Even the secondary characters, the people making up the crew, were interesting, I thought, and each had their personal strengths they brought to the table to make the heist happen.

I especially enjoyed the Hawaiian lens we experience the story through. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator really nailed all the various slang/pidgin thrown in to really bring conversations to life. I wish that I had a bit of translation or a glossary or something to reference sometimes, though, but context clues did a good job of carrying meaning through.

Just a fun heist with colorful characters in a unique setting. Highly enjoyed it.