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A review by grogu_djarin
Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Overall Thoughts:
I hated the first quarter of it but once they're off Earth it picks up and ultimately is a lighthearted romp in the stars that is at least creative and entertaining. It really suffers from excessive adjective use and random tangents in the descriptions of things though. Early on there was literally 4 lines of adjectives describing something. To me, that was well beyond purple prose and took me out of the reading trying to remember what the author was even describing. It gets easier to read as you go because you get more used to it, but it makes for an odd pacing. I've heard the writing style is meant to evoke Douglas Adams, but where Adams wrote witty genius this feels like the author thought throwing random words on the page was close enough.
I hated the first quarter of it but once they're off Earth it picks up and ultimately is a lighthearted romp in the stars that is at least creative and entertaining. It really suffers from excessive adjective use and random tangents in the descriptions of things though. Early on there was literally 4 lines of adjectives describing something. To me, that was well beyond purple prose and took me out of the reading trying to remember what the author was even describing. It gets easier to read as you go because you get more used to it, but it makes for an odd pacing. I've heard the writing style is meant to evoke Douglas Adams, but where Adams wrote witty genius this feels like the author thought throwing random words on the page was close enough.
Likes:
- It was a charming, lighthearted read that didn't take itself too seriously and ultimately was entertaining.
- The descriptions of the aliens and their physiologies and cultures were very imaginative and creative. The aliens definitely feel alien in it and each species felt entirely unique and not at all human.
- As a Eurovision fan it was fun seeing some of the nods to the earthbound song contest.
- There's a few moments of reflection on human history and society that I felt were well written but they're infrequent and relatively short.
Dislikes:
- This book has so many excessive rambling going-on-forever never-stopping endless stream of conscience lists of ever-escalating verbose and equally pointless but flowery purple prose-y adjectives, literal lines of it vomited onto the page that you keep wondering when it will stop but half a page later it finally gets to the subject it's describing. Or TL;DR: this book rambles a lot!
- I felt it tried too hard to be funny but never actually was. I didn't laugh at all through it and only two parts made me chuckle. Maybe it's just not my sense of humor, but I get what it was going for, it just didn't land for me.
Other Notes:
- I found most of the characters insufferable; I'm not sure if that is a dislike or not because I think they were meant to be, but I don't think there's enough actual character study to say there was any deep growth. Similarly, they're from diverse backgrounds but it's mostly not relevant or mentioned outside of a few scenes. Granted, some of it might have been lost in the excessive descriptions.
- It feels like a quick read because there's actually not that many scenes in the story, but when you add in the excess words it does takes a bit longer to get through it and might drag in spots. It's still a fairly short book, but it probably wouldn't lose anything noteworthy if it was half as long.
Would Recommend To:
- Anyone that wants a lighthearted science fiction read that doesn't take itself seriously and who doesn't mind a lot of excessive word usage and tangents. Anyone that likes irreverent humor might also like it, but I personally didn't find it very funny.
Do Not Recommend To:
- Anyone turned off by purple prose, irreverent humor (that honestly wasn't very funny anyway), or anyone that is looking for a more serious science fiction.