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Space Opera - November 2024 Book Club Reading

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Space Opera is a science fiction novel by Catherynne Valente, about a galactic version of the Eurovision Song Contest published in 2018. The premise is that in order for humanity to join galactic civilization they must participate in a galactic singing competition. Humans don't have to win but in order to avoid extermination they can't come in last. The only problem being that the only musicians the GalCiv seems willing to accept into the competition is a washed up has-been glam rock trio...

Catherynne Valente is an American fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. For her speculative fiction novels she has won the annual James Tiptree, Jr. Award, Andre Norton Award, and Mythopoeic Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, and numerous "Year's Best" volumes. Her critical work has appeared in the International Journal of the Humanities as well as other essay collections.
 

Olli

(he/him)
I also have this on hold from the library. It's checked out, but there's no one in the queue before me, so I should get my hands on it before the end of the month.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I'm looking forward to this, but it's gonna have to wait until later in the month for me -- I've got a few high-demand library holds that just came in all at once, so those have to take priority.
 
I have a copy of this sitting on my bedside table. Under another book. With 3 more sitting on the floor leaning against the table. I should read it.
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
Finished it. I enjoyed it. It's a breezy read. The prose is great. Some lovely sentences and paragraphs in here. I was expecting about half the ending.

The part where the dead band member came back. Not the part where the protag gives birth to a alien/human/bird/angler fish hybrid in the middle of the song to save humanity.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I just started this and someone is channeling Douglas Adams HARD (positive). I haven't gotten very far yet but the wit and the prose have been very nice so far.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Finally catching up on my other books enough to put a hold on this one. I might be a little late, but if there's no book club book for December I feel okay about that.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Just saw this thread and I'm currently between books, so maybe I'll pick this up and see how far I can get before the end of the month. Channeling Douglas Adams, you say?
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Channeling Douglas Adams, you say?
Without doubt. And also just, really fun sparkly prose, kind of breathlessly-quick sentences that last entire pages. The kind of fun writing that makes me want to narrate an audiobook. But I'm only 6%ish of the way in so far!
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Finally got this from the library. I'm likely not going to start until December at this point sadly but looking forward to it.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
Oh yeah, she's wearing her inspiration on her sleeve if not paying homage outright, but also not just copying Adams; she absolutely makes it her own.
 

Olli

(he/him)
I finished this book today. It was cute and fun, but I have to admit the run-on sentences felt a bit tiring to read after a while.
 

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Yeah, in the little bit that I’ve read so far I have not been enjoying how rambly the prose is. Kind of wish I’d read a sample before buying it, honestly. I’m going to push on and see if I can get invested in the story despite that.
 

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I started this last night and gave it through my commute home today -- about 75 pages in all -- but holy crap, these run-on sentences are just way too much. This book is written like the author was getting paid by the comma and having every period taken out of her royalties. One run-on every once in a while is okay, but when it's every single sentence, I can't hang. That's a DNF from me. Which is too bad, because I feel like there's some real heart buried in there somewhere. I wanted to like this one, it just didn't make it easy.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Started it today, I'm liking it although definitely skipping a lot of the longer paragraphs since I get the idea quick. Perfect plane/vacation read although I haven't finished it yet. Really liked Omar's monologue on blending in:

Faster than a well-ordered queue, more powerful than a muttered tut, able to walk right by police officers without being harassed. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the fragile illusion of invulnerability inherent in being just like everyone else. No - it's Englishblokeman.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Finished it, quickly shifted to being overwhelmed by the amount of rambling, the amount of characters/species, all their details, changing to different contests/locations which just confused me, etc.

Also the pop culture stuff just got too tiresome for me. Clippy is a perfect example. I did laugh at the reveal of what the creature was, but then it continued? Why? It was just grating.

Ultimately it reads like the novelization of a movie to me. Too many characters with too many descriptors, in a movie the camera would briefly pan past a lot of these creatures for colour and it'd be fine, but here they all get a couple pages of description and generally don't matter it's just too much to keep track of. It stopped being a light and fun read for me and became exhausting, I felt like I had to take notes.

There's some very fun and unique ideas here but I want to see this as a comic book or a movie, it doesn't work for me as a book to read.
 
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