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_zara's review against another edition
I am glad I did not purchase this book, but rather borrowed it from the library. I enjoy a good experimental novel, but this ... the sentence structure drove me bananas. Why use 1 metaphor, when you can use 14.
Not for me.
Not for me.
elubow's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
macthekat's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I can see why I didn't finish Space Opera the first time around. In many ways. It is like eating a very large birthday cake decorated by a glam rock glitter princess. It is just a lot! It is also wonderful and funny and delightful.
Among the mang wild asides is actully quite a thinky story about whether the human race as a whole is worth saving, which feels very topical right now.
I kept coming back for another spoonful of the funny, hopeful and delisious book.
"Life is beautiful and life is stupid"
Among the mang wild asides is actully quite a thinky story about whether the human race as a whole is worth saving, which feels very topical right now.
I kept coming back for another spoonful of the funny, hopeful and delisious book.
"Life is beautiful and life is stupid"
beltsquid's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Perhaps one of the most tedious reads I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing. This book is a pack of run-on sentences in a marathon that leads nowhere. There is nothing that is not overburdened with a mountain of increasingly tangential descriptions that are desperately trying to squeeze a joke out of absurdity, yet none of them land. An entire chapter is dedicated to a Microsoft Clippy joke--you know, something that would have been tired and overdone twenty years ago. That's what you're dealing with here.
The author claims "oblique" thanks to Douglas Adams in the afterward, which is frankly disingenuous. This book is essentially "what if Zaphod Beeblebrox was human, and the protagonist of Hitchhiker's Guide instead of Arthur Dent?" Honestly that in itself is perfectly fine, but the sheer intensity of the author trying to outdo Adams' dry absurdist style with a maximalist one is unbearably annoying and I cannot emphasize this enough: it is not funny.
Furthermore the "Eurovision, but in space" concept isn't utilized all that much--the competition takes up precious little of the book, just a few pages at the very end, and it doesn't capitalize on the things that make the Eurovision Song Contest fascinating. We don't get a sense of regional politics broiling under the veneer of a lighthearted singing competition where the contestants are forbidden from utilizing political topics in their songs. In its stead is a cocktail party with a series of attempted assassinations, and I promise you that's not as interesting as it sounds in summary.
The real travesty of this is that the drama behind Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes is compelling. There's an idea for a story there, one that could have possibly had air to breathe if the author wasn't busy choking her book with unfunny, uncompelling attempts at doing Douglas Adams But Only The Silliest Parts But Even Sillier.
If you're eying this and thinking "oh I like Hitchhiker's Guide, oh I like Eurovision, oh this is just shy of 300 pages, I could knock it out in an afternoon" stop. To steal from Monty Python, this is not a book for reading: it is a book for laying down and avoiding.
The author claims "oblique" thanks to Douglas Adams in the afterward, which is frankly disingenuous. This book is essentially "what if Zaphod Beeblebrox was human, and the protagonist of Hitchhiker's Guide instead of Arthur Dent?" Honestly that in itself is perfectly fine, but the sheer intensity of the author trying to outdo Adams' dry absurdist style with a maximalist one is unbearably annoying and I cannot emphasize this enough: it is not funny.
Furthermore the "Eurovision, but in space" concept isn't utilized all that much--the competition takes up precious little of the book, just a few pages at the very end, and it doesn't capitalize on the things that make the Eurovision Song Contest fascinating. We don't get a sense of regional politics broiling under the veneer of a lighthearted singing competition where the contestants are forbidden from utilizing political topics in their songs. In its stead is a cocktail party with a series of attempted assassinations, and I promise you that's not as interesting as it sounds in summary.
The real travesty of this is that the drama behind Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes is compelling. There's an idea for a story there, one that could have possibly had air to breathe if the author wasn't busy choking her book with unfunny, uncompelling attempts at doing Douglas Adams But Only The Silliest Parts But Even Sillier.
If you're eying this and thinking "oh I like Hitchhiker's Guide, oh I like Eurovision, oh this is just shy of 300 pages, I could knock it out in an afternoon" stop. To steal from Monty Python, this is not a book for reading: it is a book for laying down and avoiding.
sohva's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
This book just had too many interludes about different types of aliens and not enough plot or even characterisation. Also, the prose was too gimmicky to my tastes. I'm not against an occasional smart workplay or a metaphor, but this book was just one after another and then yet another. There were interesting bits of commentery on how humans treat other species and what does it mean to be sentient, however. The humour wasn't exactly bad either, there was just too much of it.
tolstoyan_literary_odyssey's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I love the concept of this more than the actual book. Like I literally heard Eurovision in space and I was immediately sold and desperate to read this book. I I would say it was A+ concept, but a B minus execution. I think some of the parts were too long and others were too short. But I loved how it ended. Definitely worthy read if you’re a Douglas Addams fan or you just love the idea of Eurovision in space like I do.
whax's review against another edition
Much too silly to care about the characters.
strategineer's review against another edition
4.0
Which of us are people and which of us are meat?
Let's set the stage (you can read all of this on the front cover so no spoilers):
In Space Opera, an intergalactic World War 2-stand-in breaks out, causing much destruction and suffering (while humans remain woefully unaware of this).
As a result of this confrontation, the remaining alien civilizations unite and organize a Eurovision-esque contest (the Metagalactic Grand Prix) to determine how the resources of the galaxy will be shared amongst the participants for the following year (based on their relative ranking in contest).
Importantly, if a civilization is participating in the competition for the first time then coming in last place leads to them being exterminated.
Of course, eventually, humans find themselves participating for their first time and send an oddball duo of has-been musicians who've either settled down (and "sold out") or wasted the rest of their lives away trying to recapture the success of their youth.
Hijinks ensue.
The novel executes on this wacky premise in a comedic way reminiscent of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I actually laughed out loud quite a few times and that's something i cherish because writing comedic novels is anything but easy.
The novel has a unique voice that might rub some people the wrong way. The way that the many run-on sentences were written gave the text an almost lyrical vibe that felt like a good fit given the premise of the book.
I would have given Space Opera a 5/5 but unfortunately I feel as though the book would have benefited greatly from more of a focus on the main character Danesh and his partner in crime Oort. Spending more time with them, experiencing their newly expanded world (filled with many alien aliens) from their perspective would have been great. Instead, many chapters are spent describing in detail the events/winners of past Metagalactic Grand Prix(s).
These chapters are fine in isolation but, within the context of the rest of the novel, they clash with the more personal chapters preceding and following them leading to a less fulfilling read (at least for me).
Overall, I recommend Space Opera if you're looking for something light, that might make you smile and chuckle more than you would expect.
Let's set the stage (you can read all of this on the front cover so no spoilers):
In Space Opera, an intergalactic World War 2-stand-in breaks out, causing much destruction and suffering (while humans remain woefully unaware of this).
As a result of this confrontation, the remaining alien civilizations unite and organize a Eurovision-esque contest (the Metagalactic Grand Prix) to determine how the resources of the galaxy will be shared amongst the participants for the following year (based on their relative ranking in contest).
Importantly, if a civilization is participating in the competition for the first time then coming in last place leads to them being exterminated.
Of course, eventually, humans find themselves participating for their first time and send an oddball duo of has-been musicians who've either settled down (and "sold out") or wasted the rest of their lives away trying to recapture the success of their youth.
Hijinks ensue.
The novel executes on this wacky premise in a comedic way reminiscent of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I actually laughed out loud quite a few times and that's something i cherish because writing comedic novels is anything but easy.
The novel has a unique voice that might rub some people the wrong way. The way that the many run-on sentences were written gave the text an almost lyrical vibe that felt like a good fit given the premise of the book.
I would have given Space Opera a 5/5 but unfortunately I feel as though the book would have benefited greatly from more of a focus on the main character Danesh and his partner in crime Oort. Spending more time with them, experiencing their newly expanded world (filled with many alien aliens) from their perspective would have been great. Instead, many chapters are spent describing in detail the events/winners of past Metagalactic Grand Prix(s).
These chapters are fine in isolation but, within the context of the rest of the novel, they clash with the more personal chapters preceding and following them leading to a less fulfilling read (at least for me).
Overall, I recommend Space Opera if you're looking for something light, that might make you smile and chuckle more than you would expect.
foxwish's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Racism, Car accident, Cancer, and War
cassandrayoo's review against another edition
3.0
this is one of the strangest books i’ve ever read and i still don’t really know what happened but it was a fantastic hilarious ride???