I wanted to like this. I wanted to like this so much. I thought Space Opera did something new and fresh and exciting, and I was so eager to see what could be done with the sequel. The problem, though, is that the narrative voice that made Space Opera so fresh and new was the same voice here, given such free rein that it overpowered all the other things we need in a novel. Every character had a tendency to monologue in the identical matching narrative voice; and the side-quests into, say, overly stalled board meetings, or the incompetent team activities of the Metagalactic Grand Prix Semi-finals, felt self-indulgent and slow. The last 10-15% or so were constructed to build off certain events and clues that were dropped earlier, but the wildly wide-ranging narrative approach from the first 85% of the book felt so slow and incoherent that the eventual emotional pay-off just didn't land. The building blocks were in place for something really terrific; but unlike the first block, the coherence of the rest of the book was too tenuous to actually tie together the key things effectively.

I probably shouldn't have read Space Oddity back to back with its predecessor Space Opera. Dealing with this much dense metatextual humour buried deep into multiple claused, run-on sentence full paragraphs, requires a bit of break to enjoy. Space Oddity is also 100 pages longer than the first one. This kind of (author admitted) Douglas Adams style humour needs space (pun intended), which is ironically the one thing Valente rarely gives it. It's interesting to consider that Adams' procrastination and hatred of actual writing may have been one of his greatest assets; the books are short and not over-burdened with that comedic "Guide" density in the narrative sections.

Valente follows on from Space Opera where the band Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros have saved Earth by not losing the Metagalactic Song Contest, and now they are thrust into a contractually obligated tour. This is a minor problem in particular for Mira Wonderful Star, their drummer, who was previously dead and is now only alive due to being pulled out of her time-stream on a loop (creating a paradox that powers their starship). Actually the existential problem is largely ignored for more intergalactic gazetteering of more deadly aliens, and a hastily cobbled together actual plot which sort of re-runs the previous book for an alien civilization the band discover. As ever the imagination here is top-notch, if often centred upon how bizarre and dangerous she can make these alien civilizations. However, the band and song name parodies get ever more specific and tenuous in a way that I fear will date terribly.

Space Oddity has most of the flaws of its predecessor, amplified by length and the realisation that the first book didn't really need a sequel, not least because its characters were barely fleshed out there to care enough about them. Its main excuse is that Mira Wonderful Star only actually turns up in Space Opera at the end fails because very little is done with her psychological state. There is a lovely bit where the book examines how Earth copes with finally being part of an intergalactic community and is surprised (but doesn't delve into) Earth then just shrugging and getting on with it. The complex, gag-heavy paragraphs are a little more restrained here, but only a little. Space Opera had (secondhand) novelty, but my feeling is she burns through too many ideas here without ever working out what the story for the band is. If you are going to pastiche Douglas Adams, you need to take it all, and I think that should include what comes with being short and a little bit lazy.

<i>Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.</i>

I dfned around page 100. I struggled with the first installment but was still enjoyed because of the alien species and the story. But in this second installment I was not finding anything that I truly liked.

I really wanted to enjoy this but it was a drag to get through! The writing style just did not gel well with me, we do not need three adjectives per sentence. While I thought it was fun to start with it got very frustrating very quickly. In an attempt to be numerous and witty we lost the point being made. I had to constantly reread things to understand what was going on and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters because of this.
The premise is fun and interesting but the execution wasn’t it

Catherynne M Valente's Space Opera was a rollicking Hitchihikers Guide to the Galaxy-inspired take on the Eurovision Song Contest. It was wilde, it was flashy, it was irreverant while also being reverential. In that story, singer Decibel Jones and his band are plucked from obscurity to represent humanity on the Galactic stage with the fate of the human race at stake. With a bit of help they come a creditable tenth, ensuring the survival of the human race. In the follow up Valente asks the very pertinent question - what happens next.
Unfortunately, she takes way too long to give the answer. As with Space Opera, possibly moreso, Space Oddity is full of lenghty digressions and sidebars. And while these are amusing, in a fast talking, almost brow-beating, lengthy adjecttive-filled sentence way. They also drain the story of any forward momentum and allow for very little character development. Whether it be the five page digression on why matter transporters are a bad idea or the even longer guide to how to deal with first contact or an explanation of what the term Black Swan means. They are great pieces on their own, But strung together in this way in lengthy sentences that seem to go on until they run out of steam, they are just exhausting,
Just a couple of examples:

Writers are an invasive species. If you don't believe it, decorate a small corner of your house with small tables, chairs, ferns, cafe lighting, pastries, and a pleasantly burbling stimulant/depressant dispenser, and within a week you will be overrun with bespectacled vermin nervously asking where they can find the powerpoint and not paying for anything.

Or this:

The first rule of teleportation is: No
In fact, it may be the single worst and most destructive technology ever imagined by otherwise sentient beings, apart from social media.

And that is before keen eyed readers start mining these digressions for the very obvious continuing Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy homages/rip offs. From the spaceship that takes the form of a 1990s burger bar, to the sentient algae that translates languages, to a digression on the largeness of space. At every turn there seems to be a reference or allusion to something that Douglas Adams did first and more concisely.

Taken not as a narrative but as a series of science fiction sketches, Space Oddity can be digested in small doses. But running all of these ideas together is not only exhausting but narratively stagnant. Every time the book looks like it is going to go somewhere it takes a break to make some satirical observations using a heretofore unmentioned, and likely not mentioned again galactic species or planet. And Decibel Jones as a main character is not engaging or interesting enough to carry the small elements of plot when Valente gets back to them.

Catherynne Valente is clearly having fun with this and getting a bunch of things of her chest. Unfortunately, she is likely to leave many of her readers scratching their heads and wondering what the number of the literary bus was that just hit them.