---
product_id: 130687685
title: "Space Opera (Space Opera, The)"
price: "Bs.295"
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reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.bo/products/130687685-space-opera-space-opera
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region: Bolivia
---

# Space Opera (Space Opera, The)

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desertcart.com: Space Opera (Space Opera, The): 9781481497503: Valente, Catherynne M.: Books

Review: "Life is beautiful and life is stupid." - “Life is beautiful and life is stupid.“ Space Opera is a very particular kind of book. And by saying that, I don’t mean it’s a bad book, by any means. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing work of science fiction that instantly catapults the author into the upper echelons of sci-fi writer-dom. But you have to come at it in the right way. This is not a book for those who are primarily hard sci-fi fans. The rules of physics are regularly taken out by the narrative behind the woodshed, ridiculed, spit upon, and then smashed into near-non-existence with a jewel-encrusted ball-peen hammer in this book. Genetics takes a beating too, as does pretty much everything in the cannon of supposed human knowledge about what might or might not be out there, waiting for us around other stars. Although the Dark Forest hypothesis does pretty well in this book. Because apparently, according to Valente’s shrewd observations, what awaits humanity in the great unknown is a sprawling, murderous, way over-the-top galactic version of Eurovision. Since the title of this madcap opus is Space Opera, you can’t say you weren’t duly warned. Instead, as preparatory reading, I recommend a little Prachett or Addams, preferably with a side viewing of the entire Doctor Who series, which functions admirably as a warm-up act for this glorious thicket of insanity and obscure yet hilarious references. The novel opens in the midst of a dream—or rather, some 7 billion of them–as an alien who resembles a tricked-out flamingo visits every human being on Earth at the same time, via some really cool alien technology. Earth has been discovered by the galactic commonwealth, which is trying to determine if humans are sentient… or meat. If the new species – in this case humanity – can’t do better than last place, their world will be obliterated. And they do this by – you guessed it – holding a music contest. The bird-alien has a list of possible singers and groups that Earth might want to send, but unfortunately most of them are dead. So it falls to a washed-up band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes to travel to Litost, a manically hapy place that would make Disneyland look like a morgue, save the world. Dess Jones is hungover after a bender, one of a series of bad life choices that has landed him all alone after the break-up of his band. His bandmate Mira Star Wonderful died in a car crash years earlier, and the other member, Oort St. James, is now writing vacuous TV commercial jingles. After riding the fame train to startling success a decade earlier, both men are lost, in their own ways. And yet somehow they are chosen to represent all of mankind in the greatest singing contest the world has ever seen, a mash-up of Eurovision and The Hunger Games and the Cantina in the first Star Wars Film, times infinity. This is not a fast-moving book. It’s a gloriously wordy book, full of sentences that span entire phone-screen pages. If you’re a fan of fast-paced fiction, this is not the book for you. But if you love gloriously-crafted sentences with hilarious sidetracks that twist and turn through the byzantine pathways of galactic culture in ways that often have you howling, this is exactly the book for you. As Valente says several times during the story, life is beautiful and life is stupid. Space Opera is a top-notch example of the kind of parody sci-fi that Addams and Prachett pioneered, and that Valente has perfected. Five stars.
Review: highly recommended - "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 the 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." When the end of the world arrives, no one expects it to be announced by a giant blue half-flamingo, half-anglerfish creature with the voice of an angel, or the person you love most in the world, or a non-threatening American waitress in Cleveland depending on who you ask. Humanity is even less prepared to learn that Earth's very last hope is the washed out, broken up, and decidedly no-longer-good former glam rock sensation Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes. But that's jumping ahead. Really, it all started a hundred years ago when the Sentience Wars almost destroyed the galaxy. While everyone is always pretty clear on if they, themselves, are sentient it turns out that's a harder decision to make about your neighbors--especially neighbors who may or may not be parasitic zombie maggots, clouds of intelligence known collectively as Lola, or a race of beings who spend all of their time participating in a planetary Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game while building up their corner of the universe. In the peace following the Sentience Wars, everyone involved felt like it was time to celebrate while also expressing their sentience. And, you know, also imposing a non-negotiable hierarchy on civilization while distributing galactic resources. Also there's the matter of seeing if the continued existence of newcomers is a sure thing. Or . . . not. Thus began the Metagalactic Grand Prix, a combination talent show, beauty pageant. fight for supremacy where all participating species can demonstrate their sentience along with as many special effects and as much stagecraft as they can manage. Now all we have to do is put all of our faith in two thirds of what used to be the greatest glam rock band ever and hope that they can sing their hearts out to prove our entire species' sentience, our ability to rock, and how very much we should not be summarily vaporized in Space Opera (2018) by Catherynne M. Valente. Have you ever asked yourself what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would have been like with ninety-nine percent more singing? If the answer is yes, then Space Opera is the Douglas Adams inspired homage to Eurovision that you've been waiting for. Space Opera is so much better and funnier and crazier than I ever could have imagined. This is a story about friendship, hope, and what makes us human. But with singing, glitter, and time paradoxes aplenty. Highly recommended for readers in need of funny, escapist sci-fi, fans of training montages, and anyone who is always ready to root for the underdog. Possible Pairings: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, Sci-Fu by Yuhi Mercado, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess, Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #799,413 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #846 in First Contact Science Fiction (Books) #1,626 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction #5,379 in Space Operas |
| Book 1 of 2  | The Space Opera |
| Customer Reviews | 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars (2,091) |
| Dimensions  | 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.25 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 1481497502 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1481497503 |
| Item Weight  | 8.6 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 304 pages |
| Publication date  | December 18, 2018 |
| Publisher  | S&S/Saga Press |

## Images

![Space Opera (Space Opera, The) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Y9g7ohbRL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Life is beautiful and life is stupid."
*by J***C on December 2, 2024*

“Life is beautiful and life is stupid.“ Space Opera is a very particular kind of book. And by saying that, I don’t mean it’s a bad book, by any means. Quite the contrary. It’s an amazing work of science fiction that instantly catapults the author into the upper echelons of sci-fi writer-dom. But you have to come at it in the right way. This is not a book for those who are primarily hard sci-fi fans. The rules of physics are regularly taken out by the narrative behind the woodshed, ridiculed, spit upon, and then smashed into near-non-existence with a jewel-encrusted ball-peen hammer in this book. Genetics takes a beating too, as does pretty much everything in the cannon of supposed human knowledge about what might or might not be out there, waiting for us around other stars. Although the Dark Forest hypothesis does pretty well in this book. Because apparently, according to Valente’s shrewd observations, what awaits humanity in the great unknown is a sprawling, murderous, way over-the-top galactic version of Eurovision. Since the title of this madcap opus is Space Opera, you can’t say you weren’t duly warned. Instead, as preparatory reading, I recommend a little Prachett or Addams, preferably with a side viewing of the entire Doctor Who series, which functions admirably as a warm-up act for this glorious thicket of insanity and obscure yet hilarious references. The novel opens in the midst of a dream—or rather, some 7 billion of them–as an alien who resembles a tricked-out flamingo visits every human being on Earth at the same time, via some really cool alien technology. Earth has been discovered by the galactic commonwealth, which is trying to determine if humans are sentient… or meat. If the new species – in this case humanity – can’t do better than last place, their world will be obliterated. And they do this by – you guessed it – holding a music contest. The bird-alien has a list of possible singers and groups that Earth might want to send, but unfortunately most of them are dead. So it falls to a washed-up band called Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes to travel to Litost, a manically hapy place that would make Disneyland look like a morgue, save the world. Dess Jones is hungover after a bender, one of a series of bad life choices that has landed him all alone after the break-up of his band. His bandmate Mira Star Wonderful died in a car crash years earlier, and the other member, Oort St. James, is now writing vacuous TV commercial jingles. After riding the fame train to startling success a decade earlier, both men are lost, in their own ways. And yet somehow they are chosen to represent all of mankind in the greatest singing contest the world has ever seen, a mash-up of Eurovision and The Hunger Games and the Cantina in the first Star Wars Film, times infinity. This is not a fast-moving book. It’s a gloriously wordy book, full of sentences that span entire phone-screen pages. If you’re a fan of fast-paced fiction, this is not the book for you. But if you love gloriously-crafted sentences with hilarious sidetracks that twist and turn through the byzantine pathways of galactic culture in ways that often have you howling, this is exactly the book for you. As Valente says several times during the story, life is beautiful and life is stupid. Space Opera is a top-notch example of the kind of parody sci-fi that Addams and Prachett pioneered, and that Valente has perfected. Five stars.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ highly recommended
*by M***T on August 26, 2019*

"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 the 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." When the end of the world arrives, no one expects it to be announced by a giant blue half-flamingo, half-anglerfish creature with the voice of an angel, or the person you love most in the world, or a non-threatening American waitress in Cleveland depending on who you ask. Humanity is even less prepared to learn that Earth's very last hope is the washed out, broken up, and decidedly no-longer-good former glam rock sensation Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes. But that's jumping ahead. Really, it all started a hundred years ago when the Sentience Wars almost destroyed the galaxy. While everyone is always pretty clear on if they, themselves, are sentient it turns out that's a harder decision to make about your neighbors--especially neighbors who may or may not be parasitic zombie maggots, clouds of intelligence known collectively as Lola, or a race of beings who spend all of their time participating in a planetary Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game while building up their corner of the universe. In the peace following the Sentience Wars, everyone involved felt like it was time to celebrate while also expressing their sentience. And, you know, also imposing a non-negotiable hierarchy on civilization while distributing galactic resources. Also there's the matter of seeing if the continued existence of newcomers is a sure thing. Or . . . not. Thus began the Metagalactic Grand Prix, a combination talent show, beauty pageant. fight for supremacy where all participating species can demonstrate their sentience along with as many special effects and as much stagecraft as they can manage. Now all we have to do is put all of our faith in two thirds of what used to be the greatest glam rock band ever and hope that they can sing their hearts out to prove our entire species' sentience, our ability to rock, and how very much we should not be summarily vaporized in Space Opera (2018) by Catherynne M. Valente. Have you ever asked yourself what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would have been like with ninety-nine percent more singing? If the answer is yes, then Space Opera is the Douglas Adams inspired homage to Eurovision that you've been waiting for. Space Opera is so much better and funnier and crazier than I ever could have imagined. This is a story about friendship, hope, and what makes us human. But with singing, glitter, and time paradoxes aplenty. Highly recommended for readers in need of funny, escapist sci-fi, fans of training montages, and anyone who is always ready to root for the underdog. Possible Pairings: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, Sci-Fu by Yuhi Mercado, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess, Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

### ⭐⭐ Review
*by F***A on June 10, 2020*

Please download an extract before buying the book. Fun and unique story but impossible to read. It’s more about they way the story it’s written than what it intends to tell. Long and overly complicated grammar constructions that difficult the understanding of simple situations. The author seems to be more interested in displaying their writing skills than telling us a story. True, english is not my first language but I couldn’t tell the characters apart, the storyline from the references and the linear events from the complicated explanation of thoughts, feelings and parallelisms. To this point i’m even unsure if I understood how it ends (??)

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*Last updated: 2026-01-22*