Who Would Sing for Us?

Space Opera

By: Catherynne M. Valente

Grade: B+

Guess what? There is life out there and we are eligible to join it. Only we must first compete in Metagalactic Grand Prix a Eurovision like singing competition only the loser will have their entire world wiped from existence.

So yeah, high stakes.

The aliens have chosen our representatives has been rockers Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes.

So good luck to us all.

Seriously the whole while I was reading this book I couldn’t help think who would I want competing for us in a battle for life space singing competition. I mean space the first person that comes to my mind is Bowie (and he’s mentioned in the book.) However I am not a concert performance kind of person so I’m even less able to judge.

They do go into some of the past competitions and from the sounds of the winners I couldn’t help think of the old stories I heard about Ozzy Osbourne biting the heads of creatures.

He’d fit in.

Mostly I thought it we ever had to come to some actual consensus the aliens just might as well blow up the planet cause we’d argue about it into eternity.

As to Space Opera?

It was a fun read. I pretty much always enjoy Valente. I can’t say I really cared about any of the characters it definitely seems more of a cool idea book and I would suggest reading it with a dictionary handy or on a device where you can look up a lot of definitions.

And in the morning. Which may seem strange to say but I definitely needed time to pay attention to this one. Catherynne Valente is a fantastic wordsmith but she does tend to run on here. I wouldn’t call it stream of consciousness but close… I admit there were a couple of times where I just rolled my eyes like, “I get it! You know words!”

But oh my gosh! There was a cameo appearance by an old computer assistant that was just the cutest thing. I don’t want to ruin it though it’s hard to describe otherwise 🙂

Recommend: Yes. It’s a fun idea and good for making small talk if you’re ever in a bind. Who would you want to sing for our lives?