Khan Wong creates a rainbow-sparkle interplanetary consortium of worlds that includes 9 species, as well as a sentient star. There are evil scientists and mafiosos dogging our hero Jes's heels, but the focus is on the emotional texture of his experiences. Appropriate, since one of his unusual abilities is empathy--he experiences the emotions of people around him directly. Can Jes find a place for himself after running away from his home planet where his parents despised him and sold him off for scientific experiments? Can an asexual boy find romantic love (he's not aromantic)? How can he get a blackmailing circus landlord off his back and those of his newfound friends? Finding out will be entertaining and touching.

I thought the plot, the setting, and the pacing were all fantastic. The only things that left me scratching my head were elements of worldbuilding, but I let that go pretty quickly. Wong himself is a circus performer, so the depiction of the dynamics of circus life rang especially true. There's enough interesting questions raised by the unusual worldbuilding to allow for a whole universe of sequels. This was Wong's debut novel and I hope he writes more.