Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
2stars
I almost dnf this book but pushed through. I was so bored I would lose interest and I'd have to back track to remember what I read.
I almost dnf this book but pushed through. I was so bored I would lose interest and I'd have to back track to remember what I read.
I think this might be a new favorite book?
I've read a little Valente before, and she's great, but she was never this... Adams-esque.
This feels like a weird extension of the Hitchhiker's Guide, at least parts of it.
There's plenty that isn't, but basically all the aliens are very, very Adams-esque.
There's intelligent moonbeams, there are "murder hippos", there's artificial intelligence that codes entirely the wrong form.
It's all very silly, and it's all very touching, and it's all a little too earnest to be a proper Hitchhiker's Guide thing, but that's also why it works.
Also, this is a book about music, and almost none of the aliens use their vocal chords to sing.
The spectacle of these performances it's so well done.
I think Valente has proven she can basically write anything. And really well.
Murder Hippos, and their faces are basically made of knives.
I've read a little Valente before, and she's great, but she was never this... Adams-esque.
This feels like a weird extension of the Hitchhiker's Guide, at least parts of it.
There's plenty that isn't, but basically all the aliens are very, very Adams-esque.
There's intelligent moonbeams, there are "murder hippos", there's artificial intelligence that codes entirely the wrong form.
It's all very silly, and it's all very touching, and it's all a little too earnest to be a proper Hitchhiker's Guide thing, but that's also why it works.
Also, this is a book about music, and almost none of the aliens use their vocal chords to sing.
The spectacle of these performances it's so well done.
I think Valente has proven she can basically write anything. And really well.
Murder Hippos, and their faces are basically made of knives.
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Truly one of the campiest, strangest, most hilarious first contact stories of all time. And while it’s very over the top— how could space Eurovision be anything else? —it has a strong emotional heart that always surprises me.
Valente is at her best again with immaculate world building and clever description. The ending is wild but well earned. Oh, and the real villain is obviously Clippy.
Queer, off-the-wall, and dazzling, this space adventure is for those who thought Hitchhiker’s was a bit too cishet and could’ve used a bucket of glitter.
Valente is at her best again with immaculate world building and clever description. The ending is wild but well earned. Oh, and the real villain is obviously Clippy.
Queer, off-the-wall, and dazzling, this space adventure is for those who thought Hitchhiker’s was a bit too cishet and could’ve used a bucket of glitter.
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
3.5 stars
"Life is beautiful. And life is stupid." Indeed.
This was a fun, rollicking, "Eurovision in space" story. Read it, then give it to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
"Life is beautiful. And life is stupid." Indeed.
This was a fun, rollicking, "Eurovision in space" story. Read it, then give it to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
Up for a Hugo this year, here is the center of that Venn diagram between Hitchhiker's Guide, Dave Clark's Time, and Yoss' Condomnauts that you didn't know existed, and it's a pure delight. Laugh out loud from start to finish, there's a mind-on-fire exuberance to Valente's patter-song universe building that never feels random-weird for random-weirdness' sake (unlike, say, in the less successful installments of the Thursday Next saga).
DNF@37%
The writing is wonderful as usual, but there are more language gimmicks than story and that's very hard to follow in audio form. I'll come back to it when I can read it physically.
The writing is wonderful as usual, but there are more language gimmicks than story and that's very hard to follow in audio form. I'll come back to it when I can read it physically.
When every single sentence has to be so clever and so smart and so funny, the whole becomes goddang work to read and ends up being a slog. There is so much brilliance and hilarity in here--this book would have been everything with some ruthless editing.