# Space Opera

By Catherynne M. Valente · The Space Opera, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/space-opera-41d227b3/

Humanity's first meeting with the wider galaxy comes with an audition. To count as sentient and avoid extermination, Earth must send musicians to a galactic song contest and finish anywhere above last place. The job falls to Decibel Jones and Oort St. Ultraviolet, surviving members of a glam-rock band whose brief fame is long behind them.

## What makes it funny?

The aliens' shortlist of suitable musicians is mostly dead, leaving humanity with a reunion act. The narrator is just as extravagant as the contest: the opening's discussion of life in the universe finds room for telekinetic mushroom people and a civilization of sentient gases all called Ursula. Book-group readers report smiling from the first line and recommend it for funny fiction outside romance.

### The comedy at work

Valente treats a song contest as a test of a species' right to exist. Under the glitter is a quarrel about who gets recognized as a person. The narrator makes that grand dispute petty and familiar, describing galactic war like a household argument.

### Try this if…

Glam rock, Eurovision-like excess and fanciful aliens give this its appeal. Readers who enjoy a talkative narrator with room for strange side trips have more to follow than the band's progress toward its performance.

### Good to know

The prose takes frequent detours; Publishers Weekly found those tangents could make the reading chaotic, while Kirkus considered the plot slight. Extinction threats and grief over a dead bandmate sit alongside the spectacle. This begins The Space Opera series.

## What to expect

- Genre: Science fiction
- On the shelf: First contact & aliens · Space opera
- Kind of humor: Absurdism · Satire
- The atmosphere: Irreverent · Whimsical
- Format: Novel
- Length: 304 pages
- Audiobook: Available
- Published: 2018

## A few distinguishing details

- A song contest with extinction for last place
- Washed-up glam rockers representing Earth

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [Space Opera — Simon & Schuster](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Space-Opera/Catherynne-M-Valente/Space-Opera-The/9781481497503)
- Library catalog: [Space Opera — San Francisco Public Library](https://sfpl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S93C3570186)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/catherynne-m-valente/space-opera)
- Review: [Publishers Weekly review](https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781481497497)
- Publisher: [Publisher and excerpt](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Space-Opera/Catherynne-M-Valente/Space-Opera-The/9781481497503)
- Reader discussion: [Reader discussion](https://facebook.com/groups/bookrecommendations/permalink/5793521927389239)