You know what I hate? When you finally get released from prison, but the person waiting for you is the one who double-crossed you. And it’s not like you can avoid them, since you’re on a space station. In the future. Where are you going to go? McDonalds!?!
But as so often the case, annoying situations in real life make for interesting ones in fiction. Which is why I wanted to do the following email interview with author Makana Yamamoto about their noir sci-fi crime story / cyberpunk lesbian space heist novel Hammajang Luck (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
To start, what is Hammajang Luck about, and when and where does it take place?
Hammajang Luck begins with our protagonist, Edie, leaving prison on parole. But waiting for them on the outside is Angel, the woman who put them there after double-crossing them eight years ago. Angel offers them One Last Job: a job with a payout big enough to save their family from debt and displacement.
It all takes place on Kepler Space Station, in the year 2170.
Where did you get the idea for Hammajang Luck, and how different is the finished story from what you originally conceived?
A tweet, if you can believe it. It was something along the lines of “childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers hits different.” In my mind it collided with my love of heist stories, and the idea of two partners in crime turned enemies after an emotional betrayal coalesced. The core of the story is the same, but for a long time I wasn’t sure if the “to-lovers” would happen.
So then what are Edie and Angel? Friends? Lovers? Both?
They honestly don’t fit neatly in one category or the other. I wanted to play with really intimate, really intense queer friendships that live on the boundary between platonic and romantic. Edie and Angel were never together as a couple, but I think friendship break-ups — particularly ones as intense as this one — can be just as devastating.
It sounds like Hammajang Luck is a sci-fi crime story. But it also sounds like it could be more than that, like maybe noir. How do you describe it, genre-wise?
The joke answer I give is that it’s a cyberpunk lesbian space heist. So in terms of genre, I’d call it a sci-fi crime story, but it’s also got a lot of cyberpunk in its DNA — which in turn is heavily influenced by noir. I’ve been told that Edie’s voice is very noir-esque, so that’s definitely present.
Hammajang Luck is your first novel, though I’m guessing it’s not the first thing you’ve written. Are there any other authors, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Hammajang Luck but not on anything else you’ve written? Because it’s been compared to such novels as Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows and Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon The Ninth.
Hammajang Luck was heavily influenced by other books in the cyberpunk genre, classics and new entries alike. In particular were books like [Philip K. Dick’s] Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, [William Gibson’s] Neuromancer, and [Neal Stephenson’s] Snow Crash.
What about non-literary influences? Was Hammajang Luck influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because the PR materials say it’s “Ocean’s 8 meets Blade Runner.” Which is weird; you’d think George Clooney and Brad Pitt would’ve met Harrison Ford sooner than this.
Heist movies were a big influence. I grew up watching the Ocean’s franchise, as well as other classics like The Italian Job, The Sting, and The Fast And The Furious.
I’m also a big gamer, so video games like Cyberpunk 2077, Mass Effect, and Halo are influences, too. One of the biggest is a TTRPG I played with my friends in a very cyberpunk-esque setting, where I really got in touch with my love of storytelling again.
And what about your cats, Steve and Olive? How did they influence Hammajang Luck?
They were some of my first alpha readers, adding in their thoughts with keyboard smashes and purrs.
Steve, Olive
Science fiction novels are sometimes stand-alone stories, and sometimes they’re part of a series. And the same is true of crime novels. Is Hammajang Luck the first book in a series, or a stand-alone story?
Hammajang Luck is the first of three interconnected stand-alones. So the idea is that you could pick any one of them up as a stand-alone, but there will be familiar faces and places in each of them.
The second book is The Obake Code, and it’s set three years after Hammajang Luck, and follows Malia, the wonderkid hacker as she navigates her first heist as a mastermind.
The third doesn’t have a name yet, and it’s a prequel that follows Duke and Nakano, the grifter power couple as they first step into the criminal underworld.
The Obake Code should be out winter 2026, and the third book winter 2027.
Earlier I asked if Hammajang Luck was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Hammajang Luck could work as a movie, a TV show, or a game?
I think Hammajang Luck would be fun as a movie. Feels very full-circle to be inspired by heist movies and see this transformed into a heist movie.
And if someone wanted to make a heist movie based on Hammajang Luck, who would you want them to cast as Edie, Angel, and the other main characters?
I’m not sure who I would cast. Probably unknowns. It’s important to me that the racial and gender identities of my characters are accurate, and honestly I don’t know of any Native Hawaiian trans actors. But I think that would be fun, seeing people break into the industry through my movie.
So, is there anything else you think potential readers need to know about Hammajang Luck?
I glibly call it Ocean’s 8 but lesbians and in space, but Hammajang Luck also has a lot more to it. It’s my love letter to my home, Hawaiʻi (as you can tell from the Pidgin title!), an homage to lesbian history and culture, and a story about rebuilding after loss. It’s a fun heist, and it’s also deeply meaningful to me.
Finally, if someone enjoys Hammajang Luck, what sci-fi crime novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out while waiting for The Obake Code?
For specifically sci-fi crime novels, I recently read The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei and loved it.
I also highly recommend The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan.
For a more sci-fi noir spin, These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein, and The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel are excellent cyberpunk crime fiction.
For more general cyberpunk, I’d recommend The City Inside by Samit Basu and Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood.
