A Space Opera review

The disco ball on the cover looks like it's leaping out

I made some time to put up my feet and get into Catherynne M. Valente’s latest book, Space Opera. Like a maelstrom, the story sucked me in and I finished the book in about two days. It was a fun, weird, wacky read.

The premise is simple: out among the stars, a consortium of sentient beings hold singing contests (Eurovision style) every year to ensure ongoing peace. When new sentient beings are discovered, they need to compete and not place last to prove their sentience--if they place last their species is eradicated.

Through radio transmissions, Earth is discovered. Flamingo-like aliens arrive with a short list of musicians they consider worthy of competing--unfortunately most on the list are dead, leaving a couple of washed up rock stars having to compete for the future of humanity.

I look forward to Catherynne’s books, mostly because of the unexpected details she adds in. Such as: fantastical aliens (ranging from flamingo-like to zombies to plants (but no plants vs zombies)), weird worlds, and little pieces of ridiculousness like sentient plagues and talking cats.

Her writing is a delicious word soup with spice morsels I don’t normally trip across. The sentences are so long they potentially make the book heavier. Plus, her writing amuses me.

I love her style, although I need to save her words for times I can fully focus. And I need physical copy as I tend to have to flip back and forth (doing this electronically is much harder).

And what’s not to love about a talking cat.