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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I liked the idea but the writing style is really a struggle for my brain to wrap around. I kept hoping that some normal, average writing would come between the long run on sentences that were a jumble of insane descriptions but no such luck. Maybe I’ll come back to this at some point.
Modern science has established that Cat Valente has a gift with me as a reader -- a gift to take a premise comprised of things you’d throw into a pentagram to summon and bind my soul, and then execute it in the way casts the said soul into purgatory of teeth-grating frustration.
In other words, Space Opera mashes together Eurovision and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a televised explosion of intergalactic glitter and petty nationalism (love love peace peace!! and a russian man on skates!) -- a concept that delights me on a molecular level -- and then drowns, chokes, suffocates, pulls under and asphyxiates it in tides of catvalente verbal hemorrhage. Homage intended.
And that makes me so mad! If someone with a more restrained writing style re-wrote the entire book without changing any events, or just, took Cat Valente to the side and explained the concept of self-control to her and made her cut out 75% of words she used to write Space Opera, it would have been such a snappy read. But evidently, no one has done it.
And that just kills the book for me. Because yeah, I actually do like the jokes the first time she makes them, but then she’s like, oh okay, why don’t I TELL IT AGAIN, why not say it IN MORE WORDS, why not HAMMER THE POINT AD NAUSEAM and RUN THE JOKE INTO THE GROUND until it's helplessly frothing at the mouth like a fucking horse wheezing and collapsing on all fours? Oh my god, please stop.
Case in point -- and I’m going to refer to one instance only, because I don’t want to relive through more memories and grind my poor teeth to dust. When our protagonist and his bandmate are spirited to an intergalatic Eurovision to defend the humanity’s right to exist as a sentient species, one of the alien people they meet is an AI. In an attempt to look helpful and harmless these AI guys have searched the humanity’s database for an avatar that would be familiar to humans and put them at ease, and came up with Microsoft Clippy of all things. Funny, right? I thought it was brilliant. Was I allowed to retain this good feelings for this twist? See for yourself: in the pages that follow, the human characters froth at the mouth and have hysterics that are obscenely rude to anyone, let alone a foreign species trying its best to establish contact, yelling -- and I’m quoting here -- “Clippy is a cunt”, and do so several times over. Just in case one good feeling remained about the funniness of poor fucking Clippy making an appearance. Stamp it out, every spark of it.
Anyway. Long story short: awesome idea, great messages, unapologetically sparkly characters -- but all of it absolutely killed by being executed by Cat Valente. If you like her writing style, hope you can enjoy the book for me.
In other words, Space Opera mashes together Eurovision and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in a televised explosion of intergalactic glitter and petty nationalism (love love peace peace!! and a russian man on skates!) -- a concept that delights me on a molecular level -- and then drowns, chokes, suffocates, pulls under and asphyxiates it in tides of catvalente verbal hemorrhage. Homage intended.
And that makes me so mad! If someone with a more restrained writing style re-wrote the entire book without changing any events, or just, took Cat Valente to the side and explained the concept of self-control to her and made her cut out 75% of words she used to write Space Opera, it would have been such a snappy read. But evidently, no one has done it.
And that just kills the book for me. Because yeah, I actually do like the jokes the first time she makes them, but then she’s like, oh okay, why don’t I TELL IT AGAIN, why not say it IN MORE WORDS, why not HAMMER THE POINT AD NAUSEAM and RUN THE JOKE INTO THE GROUND until it's helplessly frothing at the mouth like a fucking horse wheezing and collapsing on all fours? Oh my god, please stop.
Case in point -- and I’m going to refer to one instance only, because I don’t want to relive through more memories and grind my poor teeth to dust. When our protagonist and his bandmate are spirited to an intergalatic Eurovision to defend the humanity’s right to exist as a sentient species, one of the alien people they meet is an AI. In an attempt to look helpful and harmless these AI guys have searched the humanity’s database for an avatar that would be familiar to humans and put them at ease, and came up with Microsoft Clippy of all things. Funny, right? I thought it was brilliant. Was I allowed to retain this good feelings for this twist? See for yourself: in the pages that follow, the human characters froth at the mouth and have hysterics that are obscenely rude to anyone, let alone a foreign species trying its best to establish contact, yelling -- and I’m quoting here -- “Clippy is a cunt”, and do so several times over. Just in case one good feeling remained about the funniness of poor fucking Clippy making an appearance. Stamp it out, every spark of it.
Anyway. Long story short: awesome idea, great messages, unapologetically sparkly characters -- but all of it absolutely killed by being executed by Cat Valente. If you like her writing style, hope you can enjoy the book for me.
it took 2+ years but.. book of the year? book of the year
(leo’s books of the year are queer sci-fi that makes them cry but they are still very different)
(leo’s books of the year are queer sci-fi that makes them cry but they are still very different)
funny
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
man. listen. okay.
this book is incredibly dense and a bit annoying. it was funny in parts, but i wish it had tried a lil less hard to be so funny all the time without break. i didnt really care for the characters, and it feels like the only character that would be interesting to follow died way before the book even started, which usually is my favorite thing in the world but in this case they just dont do anything with it. they evenbring the character back towards the end but i dont think she even has a single line of dialogue?? why even do all that then. she literally just acts as essentially a musical instrument which hm. not into it.
ultimately i think the concept of "eurovision but in space" is nice and all, just not nice enough for something that goes beyond a short story. this didn't need to be a novel!
this book is incredibly dense and a bit annoying. it was funny in parts, but i wish it had tried a lil less hard to be so funny all the time without break. i didnt really care for the characters, and it feels like the only character that would be interesting to follow died way before the book even started, which usually is my favorite thing in the world but in this case they just dont do anything with it. they even
ultimately i think the concept of "eurovision but in space" is nice and all, just not nice enough for something that goes beyond a short story. this didn't need to be a novel!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This one took me a while, but it was worth it.
I must admit I was a bit put off by Valente's long descriptive sentences, comparing something surreal to something else even more surreal for comedic effect, despite them being actually super clever and fun. Especially in the first half of the book, there were A LOT of them, and I spent so much time taking them in that I ended up getting tired and putting the book aside.
BUT.
I loved all the characters presented, and I got exactly what I expected from this book: a wild, hilarious, unhinged story about how humanity is shit but it can also be pretty damn alright.
Also, it's been since Becky Chambers' novels that I've seen so wonderful, absolutely batshit descriptions of alien civilisations. I absolutely adored the cultural differences, and lost my everything at the 321 stunt. All in all, recommended.
I must admit I was a bit put off by Valente's long descriptive sentences, comparing something surreal to something else even more surreal for comedic effect, despite them being actually super clever and fun. Especially in the first half of the book, there were A LOT of them, and I spent so much time taking them in that I ended up getting tired and putting the book aside.
BUT.
I loved all the characters presented, and I got exactly what I expected from this book: a wild, hilarious, unhinged story about how humanity is shit but it can also be pretty damn alright.
Also, it's been since Becky Chambers' novels that I've seen so wonderful, absolutely batshit descriptions of alien civilisations. I absolutely adored the cultural differences, and lost my everything at the 321 stunt. All in all, recommended.
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Chaotic, beautiful, unpredictable
Very entertaining! If you need a break from serious mental landscape, give this one a try. It's imaginative, easy to visualize, and sprinkled with Glam Rock.
3.5 stars. A little pretentious and overdone, but the creativity and imagination kept me going. Definitely not an easy read (pretty sure I only made it through because I listened to the audiobook) but still a refreshing change from my usual that scratched an itch somewhere in the back of my brain.