Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Space Opera
    Space Opera
    Space Opera
    Audiobook9 hours

    Space Opera

    Written by Catherynne M. Valente

    Narrated by Heath Miller

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top galactic science fiction spectacle from bestselling author Catherynne Valente where sentient races compete for glory in a universe-wide musical contest-where the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.

    A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented-something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.

    Once every cycle, the civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix-part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.

    This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny-they must sing.

    A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 10, 2018
    ISBN9781681689173
    Author

    Catherynne M. Valente

    Catherynne M. Valente began September’s adventures in installments on the Web; the project won legions of fans and also the CultureGeek Best Web Fiction of the Decade award. She lives with her husband on an island off the coast of Maine. She has written many novels for adults, but this is her children’s book debut.

    More audiobooks from Catherynne M. Valente

    Related to Space Opera

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Why We’re Drawn Into Darkness

      Oct 10, 2019

      Robert Macfarlane grew up obsessed twith climbing mountains and nearly died on several occasions as he scaled some of the world’s high peaks. He found a safer way to indulge his alpine passions, writing about the mystique of mountains. As someone dra

      6 min read

    • Article

      Extraterrestrial

      Dec 1, 2019

      Extraterrestrial
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mary Shelley And Mourning As An Essential Act Of Apocalypse

      Feb 28, 2018

      1. Little cloud-white lambs wobble over the leas and paddocks, nibbling clover under a wooly sky. Ladies and lords and mustachioed manservants converse through the halls of castles. The subjects and soldiers in the hay fields out past the battlements

      5 min read

    • Article

      Good Vibrations

      Mar 4, 2024

      Good Vibrations
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Age of Noise

      May 27, 2022

      The Age of Noise
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Oct 10, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Wowing The Crowd

      Sep 6, 2021

      Wowing The Crowd
      5 min read

    • Article

      Truly, A Whole World Of Wonder

      Mar 11, 2023

      So you think you have troubles? We humans have it easy. We are surviving and thriving as a species to the point that we are destroying the only home we have. Our impact on Earth is becoming better understood and documented. The number of people who r

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Most Beautiful Science of the Year

      Dec 22, 2023

      As editors our eyes are glued to the page all day, focused on one story, sometimes one tricky passage, and often, when it comes to writing headlines, one word! It’s amazing to look up at the end of the year and see what we’ve produced. We are so happ

      7 min read

    • Article

      Growing Up

      Mar 24, 2022

      Growing Up
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tongue Stones

      May 27, 2022

      Tongue Stones
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Space Opera

    3.5/5

    419 ratings43 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Seriously, just brilliant. The world needs this book!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Funnier than a screen door on a spaceship. As zany as Hitch-hiker’s Guide, as irreverent as Monty Python. The author never met a metaphor that she couldn’t crank to 11. Filled with cultural references that don’t pander, techno-mentions that are informed—and its just plain fun. Put your own sound track to the finale and-Bob’s your uncle-humankind gets an A for effort.
    • 3/5
      So this was something that I listened to...Life is beautiful, and life is stupid. Pretty much sums up this book. It definitely had those Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibes, it was silly, almost to the point of annoying, and it was also entertaining. I found that the tangents and crazy metaphors that happened in the first half of the book got out of hand, and I was having trouble actually following the plot...and then I realized, barely anything had actually happened. I did like the chapters explaining the other chapters and sentient beings, they were entertaining and creative. The actual plot probably could have been just a novella, but overall I did enjoy listening too it. Mostly because it was silly, although, I'm not sure this author is for me.
    • 5/5
      If Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Eurovision had a drunken one night stand, this book would be the resulting oops baby. This books is wild, and weird, and I fucking loved it. There are some hard truths about humans and humanity in this book that slap you in face and there are funny wtf moments in it as well. Honestly, I don’t know what the fuck I just read but I enjoyed every minute of it.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this, it was so real. And so important for our time. Insanity, the beautiful kind.
    • 2/5
      A hot, wordy mess. Not much of a story here, more like a platform for the author to spout ideas. I felt like it just tried so hard to be funny and philosophical and just couldn't ever really arrive. Every time the actual story would get going again, it would get decimated with yet another speech of bombastic hyperpunk rhetoric.
    • 5/5
      This is queer and weird as fuck and felt like home.
    • 4/5
      The population of Earth is shocked when one day an alien shows up in the living room of each person on the planet and informs them that in order to prove their sentience and worthiness of continuing to exist in the galaxy, they must send a band to compete in an intergalactic version of Eurovision. The aliens have scanned recent music history and come up with a list of candidates the only one of whom is still living is Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, a decidedly has-been one-hit wonder band.Combining the weirdness of Eurovision with a decidedly Douglas Adams-esque vibe, this science fiction tale is both deeply weird and pretty dang funny. It is decidedly not for everyone and Valente's intense prose in the first couple chapters will definitely weed out those for whom this book will not be enjoyable. But once you make it through those initial chapters the tale of Dess and Oort as they grapple with who they used to be and the insanely ridiculous task of singing to save the planet is a great time.
    • 5/5
      Love. This. Book.

      I'll admit if you don't love the humour of Douglas Adams, this book isn't for you. Space Opera pulls a lot of obvious inspiration from the Hitchhiker's Guide series, but the story comes together into a much more satisfying whole than any of Adams' works do. I am a life long Adams fan but I have to say *dodges flying tomatoes* I love what Valente does with comedic sci-fi even more than Adams. I love everything Adams but even I have to admit he's pretty lacking on the plot and/or theme front.

      Catherynne Valente brings that beautiful sense of humour into a plot that makes sense and coheres into a sensible whole. When I realised what the part titles were referring to I actually squeeled with joy.

      This novel brings together tropes and philosophy in a way I didn't think possible. I am so in love. If Freddie Mercury, glam rock, aliens, genderqueering, Eurovision, Douglas Adams, epic sci-fi, David Bowie, and/or psychadelic dance ballads are your jam, this book is for you.
    • 4/5
      I hemmed and hawed over whether to give this 4 or 4.5 stars. While generally, 4 stars is sort of my default for 'this was good', in this case, several pertinent facts should be kept in mind: - I don't like space related books. - I don't like fantasy books that involve names I can't pronounce without physically hurting myself. - I am not a fan of Eurovision. Given all this, my 4 stars is a downright declaration of adoration. (For the record, I didn't go with 4.5 stars because the story sagged a bit mid-way and I thought the deus ex machina at the end was both predictable and disappointing because she went there.) Valente wrote a truly exceptional book. I loved the writing, though the run-on sentences took a while to get used to; MT got his fair share of dark looks whenever he spoke to me while I was reading this, as it often meant I had to go back to the beginning of the paragraph/sentence and start over again. But her biting satire, her anger tinged humor and her way of calling humanity out while holding it up was almost miraculous for the balancing act involved. I'd recommend this to almost anybody, though some might find Valente's refreshing honesty and brutal truth confronting. Speaking of brutal truths, I'll leave you with Goguenar Gorecannon's 11th General Unkillable Fact (you were right BT, it is sadly too long to put on a t-shirt): You can't stop people being assholes. They do love it so. The best you can hope for is that some people, sometimes, will turn out to be somewhat less than the absolute worst. When they manage to trip and fall over that incredibly low bar, they'll make you want to end it all. But when they leap over it, they'll make you believe this whole mess really was created for a reason...
    • 3/5
      It's OK the end is the best part, the rest just drags on it for too long. It's OK, I don't hate it.
    • 4/5
      Humanity's first contact, unexpectedly, comes in the form of fish-flamingo creatures (or, more accurately, lots of projections of the same fish-flamingo creature) who have come to invite Earth to participate in the intergalactic version of Eurovision. They've also picked out our contestants: the remaining two-thirds of has-been glam rock group Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, who are no longer even speaking to each other. And they'd really better not come in last, or our species will be deemed to have failed to prove its sentience and be exterminated. This was a lot of fun. The plot's pretty thin, with a somewhat rushed-feeling ending and probably as much time spent on describing the various weird aliens and their history as on advancing the story. But I honestly don't think I care very much. The various weird aliens and their history are interesting, in a way that's half genuinely creative SF worldbuilding and half utter ridiculousness, blended together surprisingly seamlessly. There's a lot of laughs, some sardonic philosophy, and a bit of real heart, and ultimately it does a decent job of scratching that itch left behind by Douglas Adams.
    • 5/5
      So, Stephen Hawking, Simon Cowell, and Douglas Adams walk into a bar (okay, well, Hawking rolls in), drink too many Pangalactic Gargleblasters, and decide to write a story...

      This novel would be the result.

      Gotta say, while the story itself is ridiculously simple, it's the side-trips that make it worth the journey. I was constantly laughing out loud (which gets you some stares when you're listening while walking the dog, let me tell you) at the ridiculously inventive stuff the author just kept flinging at the reader.

      I will say this...if you enjoyed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there's a solid chance you'll enjoy this too. If you've read this, but not HHG2G, then go look up some Douglas Adams.
    • 4/5

      "The world had gotten gritty enough. The only thing left to do in all that dirt was to shine."
      Some time ago, I found the website everynoise.com, which collects all genres listed on a well-known music streaming service. It had genres like 'Italian Occult Psychedelia'. I shared it to my friends with the comment 'pseudo music hipsters like this page'. After reading this book, 'darkwave prog-grunge power ballads' are my new jam.

      As soon as I realized 'Space Opera' was basically 'Eurovision in Space' I just HAD to read it, because Eurovision is one of my not-even-slightly-guilty pleasures.

      "Life is beautiful and life is stupid."
      This book is non-US-centric Science Fiction with two loveable and flawed main characters who just try their best every day, but don't always succeed, and who can't relate to that? Also, there's a great cat and some aliens.
      It's also packed with observations about the society we live in, delivered in a humorous, sometimes ironic, sometimes witty, sometimes creative way that reminded me a lot of Douglas Adams' 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', which I love dearly. It's very real, can be dark, but in the end there's always some kind of hope in it, and I needed that.
      There's a lot of telling and explaining going on, which I usually don't like, but delivered in this style, I don't mind. It was the same with Hitchhiker for me.

      But be aware that the writing in this is unconventional, and I suggest you read a reading sample or listen to the sample for the audiobook before you buy this. I totally get why this book isn't for everyone.

      Sadly, I had to take a star off, because the plot was very predictable and didn't hold many surprises for me. Even in a book like this, plot matters.

      ...and a universally hated, pseudo-helpful fictional 'character' might have a guest appearance as well.

      “You can't stop people being assholes. They do love it so. The best you can hope for is that some people, sometimes, will turn out to be somewhat less than the absolute worst. When they manage to trip and fall over that incredibly low bar, they'll make you want to end it all. But when they leap over it, they'll make you believe this whole mess really was created for a reason.”
    • 4/5
      This is a wild trip of a book through the galaxy and glam-punk-rock-music. Valente has some absolutely beautiful metaphors and a plethora of unique and bizarre alien races. It's a dense read though and all those alien races start to blur together in the mind. The syntax is complex with high level vocabulary which at times made it difficult to track in the audio book version. (I switched back and forth between audio and traditional text.) (Or I've been reading too much YA and my reading comprehension has decreased.) I also read/listened to it in bits and chunks over a long time period so it felt a bit disjointed and slow. Still, overall, the book was hilarious with some brilliant observations and comparisons and some zingers that are totally worth the read.
    • 1/5
      This was nominated for the Hugo Award in 2019. Its genesis is simple, and explained by the author in an afterword. A US genre author discovered the Eurovision Song Contest and was much taken with it. A fellow author persuaded them to use it in a science fiction novel. There are many reasons why this is a bad idea. The US does not compete in Eurovision. People in the US have no idea what Eurovision means… and it means different things to different countries. In the UK, it is considered somewhat risible, with a side-order of resentment. In Sweden, there is a month-long televised Melodifest merely to pick the song to represent the country. Valente decided to appropriate Eurovision for a US audience and base it all on The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. She failed. Not only are the references a weird mishmash of UK and US that make no sense, embedding UK cultural elements in US cultural movements, but the whole thing is a litany of megaviolence and genocide from start to finish… While Eurovision was indeed created to help rebuild links between the war-torn nations of Europe after WWII, it does not celebrate the death and destruction which occurred between 1939 and 1945. Nor does it boast of the weaponry, tactics or bodycounts of the various competing nations. Valente also chose to model her prose on The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I am not, I admit, a great fan of Adams’s novels, although I’ve read them and, when I was young, enjoyed them. But Adam’s books at least contained ideas and riffed off them. Valente’s does not. Adams’s jokes were carefully set up, and then left quickly behind, to crop up again when least expected. Valente belabours her jokes, sometimes with almost Fanthorpe levels of repetition. You end up skipping pages, trying to find the narrative. To be fair, I tried reading a Valente novel once before, Palimpsest, and ended up throwing it against the wall because it was so overwritten. And I admire Lawrence Durrell’s prose! I managed to finish Space Opera, but it was a slog. I can only recommend people avoid it. Especially if they’re fans of Eurovision.
    • 3/5
      I loved the world and the aliens and the writing style and the humor. It had some good commentary on the world too. I found the story structure and ending rather unsatisfying however.
    • 1/5
      Holy heck, Ms. Valente! If I must read another convoluted sentence, it would be like I was reading something that threw up purple prose salad all over my kindle. This is a case where less is more. I’m being truthful- it hurt my brain. Try this on:

      “an incomprehensible and humiliating radioactive bukkake show (book) of genres, styles, and vocals akin to a peacock vomiting forever into the howling void without one single note of merit, true innovation, or even a nodding acquaintance with the concept of depth in art- but you can dance to it. If you hate yourself.” pg. 13

      Apt indeed.
    • 4/5
      Catherynne Valente is an absolute treasure. READALLHERSTUFFFF
    • 3/5
      It was hard to get through this. Complex sentence structures and metaphors that stretched on for paragraphs abound.
    • 3/5
      Subtitle: How Brexit Nearly Led to the Destruction of the Human Race
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for Space Opera. The early part of the book was a wonderful smash-up of Hitchhiker's Guide and Eurovision or American Idol. Decibel Jones sounded like the perfect character to interact with the new aliens and try to save the Earth. And really, I enjoyed many parts of the book. The first encounter Earth has with an alien is wonderfully done, and I really enjoyed how "The Roadrunner" (as Decibel Jones calls the strange alien) handled the interactions and inevitable questions from the ordinary to the powerful. That was one of the highlights of the story. And the strange and quiet "alien" aliens are all wonderfully done and break many a Hollywood mold for what an alien is thought to be. But in the end a couple of things brought down my enjoyment. While Catherynne Valente has some wonderful word-play and can spin off humorous metaphors and some good satire, some of her metaphors and similes just went on longer than they should have. I also did not enjoy the ending. I mean, it ends as one might expect when a band from Earth must fight in an inter-galactic singing competition, but the action of how this was accomplished was too Deus Ex Machina for my liking. Catherynne had painted our hero into a corner, and the way they were freed was a cheat. (I mean, even the characters in the story knew it was a cheat - and maybe that's the point Catherynne was going for?) But I am not a fan of the fictional equivalent of a "Get Out of Jail Free" card when it comes to story resolution. I want to see the main character grow, overcome a challenge, or do something witty to win the day. Overall Space Opera was enjoyable, and has enough good bits, humor, and satire to make it worth while to pick up and read, but don't expect a lot of character growth.
    • 2/5
      The concept of this book is good. I was hoping for something similar to Hitchhiker's Galaxy, and initially it seemed that hope would be fulfilled. However, the story soon became bogged down by the effort to be weird and irreverent. It seemed like the author kept trying to see is she could set a new record for combining disparate concepts into a single phrase on each page. Unfortunately, she pretty much succeeded to the point where the story itself was lost, at least until the last 30 pages or so.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic and funny science fiction book about alien species proving their sentience with music. It is a fun take on science fiction that reminds me of Douglas Adams. I really enjoyed this book.
    • 4/5
      So exactly what it says, the Eurovision in Space only the first time you enter you have to not place last so your species survives. It's a bit twisted and idea driven but very interesting.It's not a bad read but I'm not sure it's a Hugo worthy read. It's trying very hard to be Douglas Adams and sometimes what's going on gets lost under the wheee.Part of the Hugo read, received free as part of the ballot. I now have read half of the nominees. Two require I read others first and are part of the series nominees and the other is The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal.
    • 3/5
      Some fun parts, but the style is definitely more Robert Rankin than Douglas Adams and not really to my taste.
    • 5/5
      That was a wild ride. Starting with a very Douglas Adams style introduction to aliens, and then roaming over rather a lot of space and time as ever more far-fetched aliens (and their music) were introduced to the reader, there was not a dull moment. Thoroughly enjoyable
    • 4/5
      This is a fun, weird story in the tradition of [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]. I liked the over-the-top worldbuilding and characters, and the gradual reveal of what had happened to the band. The writing style took some getting used to, with the early pages featuring page-long sentences, but it stopped being distracting by midway through.
    • 4/5
      A fun read overall. I found some of the parts about different aliens a bit overly long and rambly. Also I find it unbelievable that a British band would be recommended to compete. Everyone knows the British are always terrible at Eurovision. :P
    • 3/5
      Well... that was... interesting. I liked it. I'm glad I read it. But... it's A LOT of narration. I wanted to love it. It tickled my brain enough to make me push forward, but it never made me laugh out loud... or even giggle. I feel like it would be a great audio book, and I'd probably watch it if it were a show/movie. It's just a lot to read in a relatively short book.