I've been meaning to write more book reviews this Pride, because they were pretty popular last year, and I like writing them. But I've been tired. Busy with the new novel (last year, I'd just released one, so I had more time; this year I am trying to get one out the door to my editor). Busy sleeping and having feelings about stuff. Anyway, let's correct that.
Space Opera is a book that a friend of mine saw someone reading in a doctor's waiting room and mentioned on our group chat. I then requested the audiobook based on the title and tagline alone (the tagline is, "In space everyone can hear you sing"). Aaaaaand I was not disappointed. The lovechild of David Bowie and Douglas Adams, it was incredibly amusing and glittery, and at times kind of poignant as well. The variety of aliens was amazing. And it turned out to be really queer, too.
Like...what do you do when the main character defines himself as "gender splat"? Or one of the characters is a kind of hollow blue space flamingo that happens to be one of three genders of her species, and another character is a time-traveling red panda? At one point, someone has sex with a sentient beam of hypermasculine moonlight. If you always wished for a universe that feels huge, beautiful, and totally ungovernable, this is it.
After I finished the audiobook, I checked out the hard copy for my husband, who loved it so much he would read passages aloud to me. Then he ordered a copy for our household. I feel like that is the most ringing endorsement I can muster.
“The only wall we could ever build against What’s Going On was the glitter and the shine and the synth and the knowing grin that never stops knowing. The show. Because the opposite of fascism isn’t anarchy, it’s theater. When the world is fucked, you go to the theater, you go to the shine, and when the bad men come, all there is left to do is sing them down.”
Anyway, 10/10 for style. I do heartily recommend the audiobook, just because the narrator does so many different voices, and it's very fun.