Name: Sarah Sammis's review of Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
Item: Space Opera
Rating: 5
Author: Sarah Sammis

Catherynne M. Valente

Space Opera

2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision in bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente's science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest…and the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Species far and wide compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes, or faces. And if a new species should wish to be counted among the high and the mighty, if a new planet has produced some savage group of animals, machines, or algae that claim to be, against all odds, sentient? Well, then they will have to compete. And if they fail? Sudden extermination for their entire species. This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock.

Sarah Sammis

Follow Catherynne M. Valente on Twitter and you'll learn just how passionate she is about Eurovision. Last year during one such love fest / bitch fest Space Opera was born. It started as a joke and like so many fantastic off the cuff ideas, it quickly took on a life of its own. By November, the joke had become a book deal to be published by the same house that published The Refrigerator Monologues.

Space Opera is set in the near future and alternates between stories about life the universe and everything and the tale of a 2000s glam band wrangled to save Earth from total destruction.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2018/comm...

IN SPACE EVERYONE CAN HEAR YOU SING A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented-something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for Galactivision - part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete. This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny - they must sing. A one-hit-wonder band of human musicians, dancers and roadies from London - Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes - have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.

Maria

the premise of this book sounded insanely interesting, but it turned out to be waaaaay too weird and confusing; i felt detached from the entire story, hence why i genuinely don’t know how to properly rate this book

Vicky  Nuñez 

I feel like Catherynne Valente jumped into my brain and took note of all the random things I like and smashed it together into a book, and that's Space Opera.
Space Opera is the tale of the end of the world. Earth gets a notice that its time for the latest edition of the Metagalactic Grand Prix, and they are invited. This Grand Prix is a singing contest among worlds, and the loser's planet gets destroyed. Eurovision mashed with Hitchhikers' Guide. 
Valente created a masterpiece not for the faint of heart.

Wynter

If you are into Douglas Adams type of humour and can stomach very obvious self-flagellating commentary on humanity, then you'll love this one. I thought the author had a very good way with words, but the rest of her artistry was a complete disconnect for me. I've been meaning to try Valente's writing for so long, but as of right now I feel like I'm not the audience she writes for. The earnest, pink-cheeked liberal arts student maybe, but not the cynical bitch like me. The novel focused so much on checking off boxes that it forgot to tell an engaging story. Not much happened at all. But damn, what a skillful vocabulary use... For that alone Space Opera deserves an extra star.

It is abundantly clear that Catherynne M. Valente is an incredibly and creative author. Her work is always brimming with ideas and her joy and enthusiasm to indulge in them is never not palpable. 

All of this is valid for "Space Opera", too. Within the bounds of the novel, Valente play around with language and with narration, striking a good balance between a humorous and another, more emotional tone which fits the subject matter perfectly.  (It bizarrely reminded me of Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" in its tone.) 

However, the essence of the book - unfortunately - leaves a bit to be desired. Valente indulges almost too much in exploring her alien worlds and species, to a point where the book tends to lose focus here and there. 

Likewise, the idea of an intergalactic Eurovision feels somewhat superficial. It is the first time I find myself saying this about Valente's work but it cannot help but feel like an American's version of something European. I guess you do have to have a dog in the race to truly experience it. 

The novel then ends up just sort of... ending once whatever it shows from the competition is over, leaving a bizarre feeling of unfulfilment. There is something about it that feels somewhat unfinished and rushed. 

That being said, the book can still be a lot of fun, though it would not be everyone's cup of tea.

It is abundantly clear that Catherynne M. Valente is an incredibly and creative author. Her work is always brimming with ideas and her joy and enthusiasm to indulge in them is never not palpable. 

All of this is valid for "Space Opera", too. Within the bounds of the novel, Valente play around with language and with narration, striking a good balance between a humorous and another, more emotional tone which fits the subject matter perfectly.  (It bizarrely reminded me of Zadie Smith's "White Teeth" in its tone.) 

However, the essence of the book - unfortunately - leaves a bit to be desired. Valente indulges almost too much in exploring her alien worlds and species, to a point where the book tends to lose focus here and there. 

Likewise, the idea of an intergalactic Eurovision feels somewhat superficial. It is the first time I find myself saying this about Valente's work but it cannot help but feel like an American's version of something European. I guess you do have to have a dog in the race to truly experience it. 

The novel then ends up just sort of... ending once whatever it shows from the competition is over, leaving a bizarre feeling of unfulfilment. There is something about it that feels somewhat unfinished and rushed. 

That being said, the book can still be a lot of fun, though it would not be everyone's cup of tea.

Ryan LaFerney

I originally tried reading this but found it so aggravating. Valente seemed to ramble in her prose. I couldn't handle it. Well, I'm here to say that the audiobook is an enjoyable listen even if this Hugo nominated novel ends up just being an impressive impersonation of Douglas Adams (another author whose writings work better as audiobooks). This is literally what it sounds like: a Eurovision in space/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mashup. This is isn't a bad thing, per se. It's entertaining. It's amusing (at times). But it's light plot, light characterizations (things I critique Douglas Adams for) as well as lack of originality (something I don't critique Adams for), wears this story down, which is sad because if Valente wasn't trying so hard to mimic Adams (which here the pastiche is spot on) this could of been a bit more memorable of a story. Many plot elements, the prose style, and the occasionally violent but determined whimsy of it all practically reach peak Adams saturation It features a lot of things I enjoy in a story: silly humor, references to rock history/pop culture, etc. but it honestly doesn't have much of a heart. I couldn't really connect with the has-been, burned-out, Bowie-wannabe rock star called Decibel Jones who is inexplicably chosen to sing in an intergalactic competition for humanity’s right to exist, and nor did I care if humanity survived or not but I think I was suppose to. 

This occasionally charming and humorous story is ultimately disappointing. But if you want a little absurdity in your life and read all of Douglas Adams, try this out. Maybe you'll like more than me.

Sally Salinas

3.5* What the heck did I just listen too......I can say I enjoyed it, esp. the ending. Very wordy & descriptive but I think that's what I liked about. At first didn't think I would finish but stuck with it and glad I did.

Izza

3 stars | I was expecting a lot more. The writing is freaking gorgeous and amazing. The world-building and characters were great, but where was the actual plot? I would've liked to actually see the competition. I feel like nothing actually happened :/ Maybe the whole point of this just went over my head, but yeah. Kinda disappointed.

Kelsey Lynn

This is a tough one for me to rate, 2.5 feels fair, but I may up it to 3 later upon more introspection.
 
Space Opera seems to be a book, that based on other reviews, you either love or hate. The love reviewers can't seem to tell me why they love it, most attempting to replicate the style of the author and relying on a menagerie of adjectives to express themselves. "A glitter punk, Eurovision romp!" "Technicolor whirlwind!" but not actually saying WHY they liked it, or just saying "well you didn't get the humor". The ones who disliked it are pretty clear, and as I struggled with this book I found I agreed with their complaints. However, I have to thank the sheer number of DNFs from the disliked group for causing me to, ironically, finish it. I hate DNFing books, to begin with, but when I saw just how many bad reviews didn't make it through, it felt as bad as the good reviews not actually reviewing anything. So I powered through, and honestly, it was worth finishing. The author really got back on track and it was a great ending. 

 Valente has in fact given us a Eurovision, glitter punk, electric baby with Douglas Adams, her writing fantastical and humorous, her characters vapid but in a washed-out musician kind of way. She really thought about this book, creating droves of aliens and probably destroying a number of thesauri to bring them to life. We follow Decibel Jones of the "oh you haven't heard of it, well we used to be a thing" Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. A washed-up, no longer active glitter punk band who is an amalgam of every band you probably are thinking of when trying to grasp what that description means. 
 The book opens with a wonderfully witty description of how there is in fact other life out there in the universe, life is easy to come by, they've just been off doing a galactic war and while they were gone we kind of popped up. Life is stupid. This part is the best part of the book. The humor is on point, the prose magnificant. She is spot on and very pointed in her argument for why war happens. It's people vs meat, and how does one determine something isn't meat, but in fact sentient? Well, no one really figured that out, hence the galactic war, but NOW post-war they think they've figured it out. Intergalactic Music competition. Makes sense, only something sentient could create music right? 
 Well, this year is a special year because Earth is invited, we've been deemed may be sentient, but questionable enough that they'd rather not let us just hang out and become annoying someday. So we have to present a band and performance for consideration. We just have to not place last. If we don't place last, we're part of the club and we'll be a-ok. If we place last, we'll be destroyed, because they already think we're annoying and that will mean we're meat. People vs meat remember?
 So, one day everyone on the planet earth, everyone, awake or sleeping is visited by the blue birdlike projection of our assigned guides, the Esca, and alien species that are new to the whole being accepted as a sentient thing, and will guide us through the competition. Which it is now telling us about, Suprise! They've chosen a list of musicians they think will do well, however it's outdated and only one band is really able to do it, the has-beens, who are they, Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Time was rough on our glam-punk friends as it tends to be on musicians, they lost the third member about a decade ago, the two remainings no longer talk. Decibel is a trainwreck, and Oort St Ultraviolet is now just a dad who very much wants to be a regular dude. But now they're being whisked off into space to sing for the world's salvation. 
 Sounds pretty fun right? This plus Douglas Adams type prose and humor? A real knock out. Unfortunately, that story I just described takes up... maybe a quarter of the book, MAYBE. YOu can pull the main story out and put it into a book that might be too small to be a novella. Because of this, the backstory, development, and exploration of these characters are slim to nothing. There is some mind you, but very little. It isn't until the 180pg mark or so that Valente actually decides to focus on the plot, giving very little time to do the entire Grand Prix, the actual competition takes up a page. A 288-page book about a singing competition and only 1-2 pages is actually the singing competition. Tack on another 10 maybe for the weird cocktail death party right before, that didn't have enough attempted death to make any real point of it, plus maybe another 5-10 scattered throughout the book in the back story and leading up to leaving the story, and we've got MAYBE 25 pages of the actual plot. My math is wrong, I know, but it sure FEELS like this.
 So, in a 288-page book, with 25 pages being the actual story, what are the other 263 pages? It was the author being somewhat... I don't mean to sound mean, but full of herself? She tried WAY too hard on this style she was going for. It felt like an "oh, you liked that opening chapter, didn't you? You totally read it out loud to your boyfriend, well here let me give it to you again, and again, and ... again". This book suffers from a severe case of needing to be edited. Of someone saying "that's enough now dear, but what about the story". Every few pages of the backstory of the plot we got were met with full chapters, sometimes multiple of Valente describing yet another alien species she's created, in yet another chain of witty simile and metaphor. To the point where sometimes I no longer knew what was happening, they were all interchangeable, which alien are we talking about now? It went on and on and on, and I never knew how such humorous writing could be just so soul suckingly boring. When she ran out of aliens it was describing previous grand prix's and how the aliens sang. In the exact same, formulaic, witty simile, witty simile, witty simile. Don't get me wrong, there were some absolute gems in here. Some that made me laugh out loud. But it's all about the ratio. I would trade in a heartbeat the ratio's in this book. 263 pages of plot, and 25 pages of aliens described in witty simile. It took everything in my power after the third alien chapter to not skim. But she fit so much into a sentence that I was scared somewhere hiding would be a plot point (spoiler alert, there wasn't, skim away). 
 Then around the 180 page mark, a flip was switched, it was almost as if she went "crap, a story!" the adjective use was slimmed down dramatically and we actually got more than one chapter in a row with a plot point. But at this point, it was too late, the end of the book was hurdling at us and very little had happened and the book pretty much fizzled out with an "oh yeah, the Grand Prix happened". Mind you, the finale was very heartwarming and I liked it a lot. I just wish I hadn't had to read a full chapter about hairbrush interspecies sex to get there, and instead had more of it. But ironically, the hairbrush sex had more plot advancement that the majority of the book. 
 The ending did, however, for one moment, make me forget that I had just read an encyclopedia of descriptors and was happy for a few minutes. So good on her for that. That proves to me that she can write more than glittery descriptions, which then made me sad I didn't have more of that writing. With just a spattering of the gold of her opening chapters. I am glad I finished the book, the story, what little there was, was worth the read. However, I have no desire to read any other of Valente's writing now, and if there was a sequel, I just don't think I have it in me to read another 263 pages of description. Cool idea, good ability, just terribly executed. She could easily have released a separate book, expanding on a handful of species she established in the book, like an alien compendium, and I would have read it, and laughed, and been okay because I went into it expecting it. But I went into this wanting a story, not a neon throwup encyclopedia of just how "oh so creative" Valente is. That came off harsh, I know, but they blew past the fine line of interesting and well into the self-serving, look what I can do, territory. What suffered for it wasn't just a large number of DNFs, and my sanity for a few days, but an actually interesting, fun, Eurovision, glitter punk, heartwarming story about loss, life, how stupid it is, how beautiful it is, and why we should fight for it. It's in there, hiding beneath the layers and layers of word vomit. I want that story. Please release a second edition that is just that, the opening, and say... 3-5 of your favorite aliens Valente, I promise I'll give it another try if you do.

Kaya

Ich habe es als Hörbuch genossen.
Klare Empfehlung für Track 171.

Kwan Ann Tan

everything cat valente writes is utterly breathtaking and always makes me cry a little. god this book was amazing & how i desperately wish i could give dess & oort & mira all a hug

Liz Carpenter

I am not entirely sure how I feel about this book. Its point was made in fairly unique and inventive ways, and the last chapters did it justice, but my goodness - So. Many. Words.

Sheila

I'm actually really torn about this book! It wasn't technically a long book, but it felt onerous to read anyway. The quotes of lyrics from Eurovision winners past (well, 2010's anyway) made me giggle, but I feel like Valente and I consume Eurovision differently. She seems to want to obsessively watch the build-up; she follows all of the characters and side-characters and expounds on their drama and thoughts and practice before even thinking about coming up for air, but the main stage in the Final seems to have little impact. Me? I treat Eurovision build-up like spoilers, carefully avoiding a lot of media and hints of what the songs are going to be until the Final, at which point I go ape drinking in every single flaming piano and humping sax. 

Ultimately, I feel like my biggest issue with this book is precisely that difference. Valente spends 99% of the book on the build-up, when I was just here for the finale - which was only a scant few pages. It's a shame, but nothing a few repeats of "This Is Our Life" on YouTube won't iron out!

Amy Maddess

Elizabeth Raines

PROS
- I love all the references to pop culture.
- Good premise and plot but it needed to be executed better.
CONS
-OVERWRITTEN. Sentences as long as paragraphs and paragraphs as long as pages. That just makes me want to skim and that I did.
- Everything just went over my head. I can't really tell you what happened in this book.

Might be best to the audiobook for this one!

Ben Nathan

This made me think of H2G2 in all the best ways. Great writing, brilliant story, and just a funny lovely universe. SO GREAT!

Jessica 

Blog | Twitter | Instagram | Review also found here at Booked J. 

"Life is beautiful and life is stupid. As long as you keep that in mind, and never give more weight to one than the other, the history of the galaxy, the history of a planet, the history of a person is a simple tune with lyrics flashed on-screen and a helpful, friendly bouncing disco ball of glittering, occasionally peaceful light to help you follow along. Cue the music. Cue the dancers. Cue tomorrow."

For many years, I'd heard nothing but rave reviews when it came down to Valente's prior releases. Immediately, I saw in it just what everyone had been saying all along--she's got a beautiful prose. In truth, Catherynne M. Valente could probably write about an orange being set on fire and thrown into space and it would still sound so much more stunning than most of her peers. For me, Space Opera was gorgeously executed with a highly captivating premise--it just wasn't entirely my cup of tea and, at times, hit some slower points.

This isn't to say that I didn't enjoy Space Opera. I really did like a good chunk of it! The start pulled me in, but somewhere about 25-75% of the way through I felt myself losing interest. Then, right around that 75% mark, it picked itself up again. Still, Valente's writing is what made me keep up and continue on--it was much less about her skills as an author and much more about my inability to connect with the story for one reason or another.

I definitely appreciated a lot of elements to Space Opera. The humor is outstanding. A lot of readers have compared the humor--and science fiction fused plotline--to one of the most iconic novels of all time: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That, sprinkled with various singing competitions and reality shows. If you were to ask me how to explain Space Opera, I don't think I could fully do so without comparing it to that yet stressing on the uniqueness to Valente's story.

After finishing it, I had to soak in the aftermath for a while. I knew two things: there would be a lot of readers who positively adore this book, one of them being my father who devoured it in a mere week, and there would be the group of people who are downright vicious about it. 

I am of two minds when it comes to my opinion of Space Opera. I finished it. At times I really liked it. At times I was bored. Mostly, I was left laughing at the sheer absurdity of the story which is, I'd guess, exactly how you were supposed to feel. Because, in spite of the general silliness to it, there was a lot to be held on the truth front, too.

Ultimately, Valente's writing glows in the dark and stands out to me as Space Opera's best trait. While the story had its weaker points for me, there was still a universe of wonder to be found in it and I feel that it's a book you'll either love or hate but that, either way, it's something you'll definitely want to check out.

I'll gladly be picking up another book by Valente in the future but I don't see this book as a reread.

Jack Baty

I imagine Catherynne Valente thought to herself...

I think I'll write something sort of like Douglas Adams, but with MORE!

If you throw a lot of words at me, all trying to be super funny, a few of them will land. But when you do it in every single sentence with no guidance at all from an actual plot or characters, it becomes exhausting. So exhausting, in fact, that I stopped reading about 2/3rds of the way through.

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Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

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