"Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny. They must sing. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented by the remnants of civilization. Something to cheer up everyone who was left. Something to celebrate having escaped total annihilation by the skin of one's teeth, if indeed one has skin. Or teeth. Something to bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, understanding, and the most powerful of all social bonds: excluding others. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for Galactivision--part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part, a very large, but very subtle part, continuation of the wars of the past. Thus, a fragile peace has held. This year, a bizarre and unsightly species has looked up from its muddy planet-bound cradle and noticed the enormous universe blaring on around it: humanity. Where they expected to one day reach out into space and discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of grave aliens, they have found glitter. And lipstick. And pyrotechnics. And electric guitars. A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock"--
Catherynne Valente's book either really, really work for me, or really, really don't. The high points make me love her so much that I support her on Patreon and follow her on Twitter, and I will read anything she puts out. After fully expecting to fall in love with this one based on all the love it's gotten this year, I'm disappointed to place it in the "really, really doesn't" category. It is mostly massive sentences that breathlessly describe things at such length that I'd forgotten what was being discussed by the time I got to the end. She has such a distinctive writing style that I would recognize anywhere, but it's like she tried to out-Valente herself and got lost in it. The overwroughtness got in the way of making any of the various alien species' backstories memorable, so that I'd forgotten who was what and why almost immediately. And every now and then there was a reference to someone/something named Robert and I never had any idea who or what Robert was. I'm sad that I didn't find the joy in it that so many other readers did.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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31 December, 2018:
Finished reading
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31 December, 2018:
Reviewed