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Space Opera Catherynne M Valente author 9781472115072 Books

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Space Opera Catherynne M Valente author 9781472115072 Books

One of the most refreshingly original works of sci-fi I've read in a long time. Buckaroo Banzai meets Rick & Morty starring David Bowie (and his polyamorous triad of bandmates!) doing Jem & the Holograms in space, and saving the world through the power of glamtastic rock and roll.

The premise is wonderful. The characters are an absolute delight. The prose displays a level of masterful craftsmanship that would be outright stunning if Valente didn't make it all look so breezy and effortless. Almost every sentence sparks with some little joke. Every paragraph is its own shiny gem, and they just fire at you en masse, over and over, stacking up puns and clever asides into great big ideas about life, the universe, and everything. Reading this book is like chewing bubblegum that has pop rocks in it.

Do not miss this book. In the sepia-toned gritty gray wasteland of modern SFF, "Space Opera" is just plain FUN.


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Space Opera Catherynne M Valente author 9781472115072 Books Reviews

I struggled through the first 120 pages of this dross, but couldn’t take anymore. Writing humorous science-fiction is HARD this book is sadly a good example of this. Way too much winking at the camera, with every sentence full of irrelevant tangents, and the plot playing out at the speed of treacle.

The whole thing for me is epitomised by this description of a stage in a dingy club

“It was, to be perfectly honest, a depressingly bleak sight, far bleaker than a lifetime spent working in air-conditioned cubicles or watching a kebab slowly revolve in front of a space heater like a sweaty meat planet or ringing up an eternity of cough suppressants in your dad’s tiny one-location drugstore after he finally gives up the till, far bleaker than a mere total absence of anything to look forward to.”

Every single sentence is like this. Trying to stay interested quickly becomes a chore. Definitely not my cup of tea.
Space Opera is like Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy...except it touches my soul in ways HGTTG didn't. If HGTTG fed my brain and made me smile and was a childhood blanket.....Space Opera is the fully glammed out technicolor dreamcoat that feeds my soul in a way a book hasn't in a very long time. Unlike the pessimism underlying Hitchiker's Guide, Space Opera is a massively uplifting song of hope and glitter, and it is a massive exhortation that yes you DO matter, things can be screwed up and still get better, and that the arc of the universe bends towards hope and song.

It is one of the best books I have read in my entire lifetime, and it speaks to me in a way I still fully can't describe. But this book was an experience I will never forget, because it took me on such a wonderful ride. Also a point of awesomeness that the major human leads are most definitely not straight, nor are they all cis, and one character's relationship with their Pakistani grandmother is one of the major emotional cores of the story. This book is also a massive song of defiance against nationalism, mundanity, and people who thought Brexit was a good idea.

If you like Terry Pratchett, Dr. Who, Young Wizards, or just plain enjoy a good song, you will love this book. Also, Eurovision is one of the greatest things humanity has ever come up with, along with books and daifuku mochi.

Hard Rock Hallelujah indeed!
I love the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series and really wanted to enjoy this book... but finally gave up after enduring the first 100 pages. It is a barrage of fluff, trying too hard to be edgy by cumulating adjectives in endless sentences There are definitely some witty lines, but I just can't take it anymore, sorry. I will donate this book to our local little free library. Hopefully it will find a better home. Oh, who am I kidding, I just like to torment the local kids.
I've seen a lot of comparisons to Douglas Adams, which is fair and, honestly, inevitable. When you think of humans blundering out into a galaxy populated with vast arrays of smartass sentient beings who have lived many thousands and millions of years before we showed up, thank you very much, you think of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

But HHGTTG, as amazing as it was, doesn't age well. The first three books hold up, I think, but by now the jokes have passed into the collective unconscious and there have been enough attempts to copy it that the originals have been tainted somewhat by association.

What "Space Opera" -- the story of how humanity discovers it must compete in a galactic version of Eurovision to prove its sentience or be destroyed and the human team chosen is the remaining pathetic two people of a three-person, briefly-hot band -- gets right is that it doesn't try to be Adams.

Catherynne M. Valente has her own silly, frenetic, world-weary style that involves long, run-on sentences with at least two puns each so that you have to read slowly to get it all. (OK, not all of them have puns, but several of them got me to laugh out loud while I was reading and I don't do that.) Think of a drunken David Bowie explaining to you at 3 in the morning what music REALLY is, with aliens. It's fast and it's funny and twisted and oddly philosophical and touching.

Just like good -- and entertainingly bad -- music is.

If I have a complaint it's that I thought the ending, when we finally got to the big event, was rushed along a little bit. But that's a small thing compared to the sheer delight of the rest of it.
One of the most refreshingly original works of sci-fi I've read in a long time. Buckaroo Banzai meets Rick & Morty starring David Bowie (and his polyamorous triad of bandmates!) doing Jem & the Holograms in space, and saving the world through the power of glamtastic rock and roll.

The premise is wonderful. The characters are an absolute delight. The prose displays a level of masterful craftsmanship that would be outright stunning if Valente didn't make it all look so breezy and effortless. Almost every sentence sparks with some little joke. Every paragraph is its own shiny gem, and they just fire at you en masse, over and over, stacking up puns and clever asides into great big ideas about life, the universe, and everything. Reading this book is like chewing bubblegum that has pop rocks in it.

Do not miss this book. In the sepia-toned gritty gray wasteland of modern SFF, "Space Opera" is just plain FUN.