Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

"Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny. They must 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 by the remnants of civilization. Something to cheer up everyone who was left. Something to celebrate having escaped total annihilation by the skin of one's teeth, if indeed one has skin. Or teeth. Something to bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, understanding, and the most powerful of all social bonds: excluding others. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for Galactivision--part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part, a very large, but very subtle part, continuation of the wars of the past. Thus, a fragile peace has held. This year, a bizarre and unsightly species has looked up from its muddy planet-bound cradle and noticed the enormous universe blaring on around it: humanity. Where they expected to one day reach out into space and discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of grave aliens, they have found glitter. And lipstick. And pyrotechnics. And electric guitars. A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies 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"--

Valente's oh-so-clever prose styling is for a particular kind of reader, and that is not me. There were elements that were charming, but mostly it just gave me a headache.

Essentially a short story stretched over an entire book. It was kinda hard to read because every sentence went on forever and ever. I enjoy irreverent humor, but this was trying too hard. I almost gave up several times in the book.

Rock musicians (glam rock!), science fiction, and humor are three of my favorite things. I was looking forward to the book and thought for sure it would be a winner. Valente has a solid imagination, a way with words, and a unique, quirky sense of humor.

The majority of Space Opera was whimsical wordplay and fantastic descriptions and not a lot of plot or interesting/believable characters. I see all the comparisons to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I get it, especially when she imitates or creates homage to Adams with lines like this:

“Life is beautiful and life is stupid. This is, in fact, widely regarded as a universal rule not less inviolable than the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Uncertainty Principle, and No Post on Sundays.”

That bring to mind this:

“The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Hitchhiker's Guide was also not so strong on plot, I will admit, but Trillion, Zaphod, Marvin, etc., were all vivid characters and Arthur was the “ordinary” guy that served as our guide through Adam's absurd galaxy.

I can't say I'm going to remember Space Opera's lead characters Oort or Decibel Jones (except maybe their weird names) for much of anything. The “superior” alien beings are even less memorable. Other than appearances, it's hard to tell one from the other. They all have a kooky-yet-condescending vibe when dealing with the earthling protagonists. (That was another thing about Hitchhiker's, the aliens looked down on Arthur but the readers knew he had something to offer.)

Instead of letting the reader experience the fantastic new galaxy through the eyes of say, Oort, and seeing the changes it makes on the character, we get countless ways of saying a planet is dark. The first chapter, instead of setting up a story, is nine pages on the notion of who is and who isn't sentient, and just who are we to decide that anyway. The sentience question is a major theme of the book, but I got the point after a paragraph or two. The humans in this story are objects of an agenda and not the focus of compelling storytelling.

This is very similar to the way I felt about Valente's Radiance. It seems with this author, no matter how appealing her concept is, there will be a lot of time spent on zany wordplay for its own sake. What amused me at the start wore me out by the end, and I was glad to see the last page.

This book may make sense for people who enjoy music, but without that context, it dragged so very much. Valente is a whimsical font of imagination and world building, but even that couldn't save it for me.