But the fact that one of the things I do in my academic day job is researching the politics of Eurovision made me all the more intrigued to read the story as soon as I could.įor old or new fans of Valente, Space Opera certainly wraps many of her past novels’ strengths up in glitter-the neo-pulp space travel of Radiance (2015), the unapologetic queerness of Palimpsest (2009), the extravagance of prose of the Prester John books or The Orphan’s Tales. Joked about, pitched and sold while Valente was still livetweeting Eurovision 2016, this is a cis white American’s gaze on European kitsch, multicultural Britain, and gender non-conforming glam rock-and most of its word of mouth so far has come from North America, since the UK print edition won’t drop until later this year. Space Opera is driven by the mythology as well as the mechanics and the magic of Eurovision-the vision of the contest as a continent-wide (or galaxy-wide) performance of reconciliation, where old enemies have looked back on their devastating history and promised to put war aside. 169) … otherwise known as the Zeros’ destination, Vlimeux, but almost as good a description of a little place called Waterloo.

They reached this agreement in a peace treaty signed at “what was once an unassuming market town of no particular strategic or cultural importance … where the final battle screamed itself mute and the war finally ended” (p. Harder still, on their way to the venue-in a starship piloted by a giant space flamingo and a disorganised time-travelling engineer that looks very like a red panda-Dess and his bandmate, to whom he hasn’t spoken since the Zeros fell apart one dreadful night in Edinburgh, are actually going to have to write the song.Įver since the spacefaring species of the galaxy almost annihilated each other in the Sentience Wars, they’ve instead taken out their resentments against each other in song. Like a Hitchhiker’s Guide that’s woken up on a strange couch after a Eurovision party, clutching its head and wondering what microstate that super-strong schnapps with all the gold leaf inside came from, Space Opera is the story of washed-up glam rocker Decibel Jones and his band the Absolute Zeros, who have to save the Earth from destruction by representing the planet at this year’s Metagalactic Grand Prix. The only comic sci-fi pitch that would sell faster than “Eurovision in Space” is probably “Catherynne Valente Writes Eurovision in Space.” And that’s exactly how Space Opera, originally suggested as a dare on Twitter, glimmered into the world.

Space opera catherynne m valente