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.