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Arrives
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At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Dimensions
- 5.5 x 1.7 x 8.38 in
- Weight
- 1 lb
- Publisher
- S&S/Saga Press
- Publication date
- September 24, 2024
- Language
- English
- Print length
- 384 pages
Description
Return to the greatest contest in the galaxy in the sequel to the hilarious USA TODAY bestseller Space Opera from New York Times bestselling author and finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Ursula K. Le Guin awards. The Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past returns and the fate of the Earth is once again threatened. The civilizations opposed to humanity have been plotting and want to take down the upstarts. Can humanity rise again in this sequel to the beloved Hugo Award–nominated national bestselling Space Opera by New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente? Read more
Specs 9
| Publisher | S&S/Saga Press |
|---|---|
| Publication date | September 24, 2024 |
| Language | English |
| Print length | 384 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1534454527 |
| ISBN-13 | 21 |
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Dimensions | 5.5 x 1.7 x 8.38 inches |
| Book 2 of 2 | The Space Opera |
No specs match.
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Top Amazon Reviews
Follow up to Space Opera
Format: Hardcover
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this review of SPACE ODDITY, the follow-up to Catherynne M. Valente's Hugo-nominated novel, 2018's SPACE OPERA. Before I go any further, I need to say that it's fitting that a funny thing happened on the way to this review, given the subject material at hand. But I digress. Actually, depending on how you look at it, two or three funny things happened on the way to the review. Look, I can't even count, because I've just realized that it's probably only two. One them is that I ended up spending way more time than I wanted to looking at the list of books I've reviewed since February 17th, 1999. That's as far back as I go on my current laptop. Not that I've had this laptop for more than 25 years, it's that I've managed to keep them around from computer to computer just in case I needed to refer to one of them one day. Which is what I was actually trying to do when I was preparing for this review. You see, somewhere in one of my reviews in the deep dark past, I wrote one that contained a statement something along the lines of "I'm not sure whether this book is a masterpiece, one of the worst books I've ever read, or something in between". I never did find that review - I have been writing these things going back to at least the mid-1990s (and to be honest, much further back than that, since I was writing for The Log of the SS Voyager back in the late 1970s/early 1980s, but stopped for several years after that) - but I think that if I saw the book on my shelf (which I can't because it's buried behind a bunch of books laying on their sides because I haven't read them yet) I'd recognize it immediately. Anyway, I wanted to pull that quote directly and use it here because, well, I think it's relevant. Right about now, gentle reader, you're probably yelling at me in your head, "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?" Now go back and read that first paragraph. Rambling, sprawling, seeming silliness. Looking like it's going nowhere. That's SPACE ODDITY. Now look at it another way (which, by the way, you really shouldn't do because I'm going to compare that to what Valente has done in SPACE ODDITY and that comparison is downright criminal and ridiculous), in which that paragraphs contains some of the most wonderfully written comedic prose in the history of science fiction (see, like I said, mine is not that - I told you so). That is also SPACE ODDITY. Let's summarize for the class. In SPACE OPERA, humanity's first contact with aliens involved taking part in a contest called The Metagalactic Grand Prix, an event styled after Eurovision (yes, THAT Eurovision) which pits alien races against each other in a contest meant to take the place of the nasty wars that previously threatened to ravage the galaxy. Our planet's heroic representatives, Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, participate in the 100th iteration of the MGP. If they had finished dead last, all humanity on Earth would have been obliterated, the planet cleansed, and the next inhabitants of Earth would be allowed to evolve and participate again at a later date, if they were found worthy. I know. "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?" In SPACE OPERA, someone had to shepherd Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros through the process of getting ready for and actually participating in the MGP. In SPACE ODDITY, Decibel (Dess) and crew are making a galactic victory tour when they discover a species in a hostile (to life) planetary system that heretofore was unknown to the rest of the galaxy. According to the rules, they must shepherd the new aliens through that same process. The issue is that the MGP has literally just been held, and there were no plans to hold the 101st so soon. But through the various machinations of the aliens ostensibly in charge, a new version of the MGP must be held, even though the new species has no desire to participate. Hilarity ensues. I think. So, for a large portion of the at least the first half of the book, nothing happens. Valente spends most of that time writing what is mostly, but not always, hilarious prose in an attempt to be funny. And some of it is very very funny, and some of it falls flat. She sprinkles in all sorts of pop culture references, from Monty Python to Pink Floyd to Douglas Adams (there's actually a badger named Douglas in the book, and the book itself has 41 chapters, because as Valente herself says in the Liner Notes, "Because you simply can never equal the greatest, you can only hope to come close. Occasionally.", to, well, whatever reference fit at the time. Or, it may not have fit, but it was funny, so it's there, and after all, isn't that the point (I wish I'd made notes of all the pop cultural references so I could share them here, but I'd be there forever, and this review is 6 weeks late anyway) of the whole thing? But we don't actually meet the new aliens until halfway through the book, long after I yelled "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?". But oh my goodness, does the last part of the book make up for all the rest of the meandering, sometimes funny, sometimes not, prose. The strength of the ending is that the language and storytelling (maybe what came before wasn't meant to be storytelling, which is why it fell flat for me) became much more linear and straightforward. Maybe Valente was trying too hard to be funny, and when she stopped trying so hard it got better. And the ending did stick the landing. I wanted very much to like, even love this book, and at times I did. Laughing out loud at the gym on the elliptica machine caused many heads to turn my way, but after a while those occurrences were few and far between. I don't know. Maybe this is one of these books that I'm just not meant to understand. But I did *like* it. And that's what counts, right?
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Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2024 by Joe Karpierz
Pyrotechnic … but requires patience
Format: Kindle
In Space Oddity, Catherynne M. Valentine continues the kaleidoscopic, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on radioactive steroids world riffing prose she brilliantly mastered in Space Opera and cranks it up to eleven - both for better and for worse. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so conflicted about reading a ~~novel~~ book - I alternated between wanting to hug it and chuck it across the room. There is just so much of that, though, that it left little room for things like characters and plot, which I missed. The only thing which kept me going through the book was re-setting my own expectations that this was not a novel, per se, as much as a creative tour de force. Once I did that, I made it though enjoyed the ride, and was glad I did so … Ms. Valente really stuck the landing … but I did miss what it could have been.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2026 by S. Howes
A tiresome read
Format: Hardcover
I liked the first book and was excited for this but I am thoroughly disappointed. The run-on sentences are an entire paragraph each. And they are back to back. I found myself hoping for a short sentence just to catch a break, but they are few and far between. Its a labor to read. I found myself getting bored and zoning out trying to get through each one. Whats worse is the author often repeats the same “line” more than once in these paragraph sentences, which makes me wonder if they also lost their train of thought trying to write them. It’s one thing to write in Douglas Addams style, but this book tries way too hard at it, and falls desperately flat. I could hardly get through the first few chapters, because it’s not funny, clever or enjoyable.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2024 by jennifer
Sci-fi that knows how to laugh
Format: Hardcover
Follow the bouncing disco ball on another out of this world adventure with washed up rocker, and recent savior to humanity, Decibel Jones as he travels around the universe on a galaxy wide PR tour. This is a book two so please make note you might not want to jump in if you haven’t at least gotten your toes wet first. The story picks up in the immediate aftermath of the first book. Humanity has lost all the awe that is supposed to follow the knowledge of other life forms existing in their galaxy and are now caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare, when all they really want is to get along with their lives. Meanwhile in space, Decibel Jones should be living on cloud nine. He sang his heart out, saved the human race, he got his old friend back (even if it’s in a weird time loop type fashion) and he has his very own customizable spaceship that has been whisking him off to every corner of all universes. So naturally, he is bored. Thinking to spice things up for himself, he asks his incredibly weird space ship to show him something cool and inadvertently discovers a new planet with sentient life, which will start the whole process over again… it’s time to dust off the rhinestones and follow that bouncing disco ball on a new high stakes adventure, that may or may not involve more singing and self-pity. This book is for fans of humous sci-fi that like their universe’s equal parts hilarious and frightening. Each of the alien species in this book are incredibly well thought out and absolutely perfect in their originality. I laughed a ton while reading this book (series) and found myself giddy with happiness more than once. Decibel Jones is the perfect omni-sexual British Indian man who must come to grips with everything the universe throws at him as well as the past that he created for himself. There is so much heart wrapped up in a fun spacey bow. If you like science fiction like Douglas Adams and Jason Pargin then…well, you have probably already read this book… but if you like musical comedy set in space then give these books a whirl.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2025 by Maddogish
Strong writing, but not for me
Format: Kindle
I was super into this in the beginning: it was like reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the first time, but a little more modern and less British. But then nothing happened. And nothing kept happening. And then I was 30% of the way through and still nothing had happened. And it just wasn’t for me. Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2024 by Kara
Exhausting
Format: Hardcover
The first book in this series, Space Opera, was good. A book of two extremes, solid storytelling that moved the plot forward, which I enjoyed, and tiring universe building, which I didn’t. Space Oddity unfortunately (well the first 20% of it before I gave up) was just like the worst parts of book one. As a few have commented in their reviews, this book was exhausting to read.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2024 by Stewart F. Hoffman
Even more unreadable than the first book
Format: Kindle
I'm only a few chapters it. It is basically unreadable. She is trying to have a breezy style like the late Douglas Adams. She has failed. It is disjointed, confusing & quirky-in-a-bad-way. The first book was hard to finish. I'd hoped for better here. It's worse! I'm beyond my return window, but I permanently deleted it anyway. It is that terrible.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2024 by T. Mears
for fans of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
Format: Kindle
If you enjoyed Space Opera, I think you'll also have a good time with Space Oddity. I found it to be both MORE than Space Opera but also less. To me, it was even more of the zany, "here's how aliens and societies work in this world," complete with all of the biting commentary of Space Opera. If that was the part you loved the most about the first book, you'll love this. However, it was also less of the overarching plot tying together the whole book. For me, that actually was my favorite part of the first--going into the backgrounds of the three band mates, the ways in which things failed for them, set against this absurdist background. I felt like the background to plot ratio here was more like 90:10. In that sense, this almost would have worked better as a companion novel filled with short stories. I think if you go into it with that as an expectation, you'll really enjoy it. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2024 by Cas