Since the Wars, the various surviving races have determined that once a species has become space-faring, they must be evaluated for a level of sentience that suggests that they might not be irredeemably awful. All space-faring species must participate.

The set up for the plot, such as it is, is that after the conclusion of a terrible series of wars, intergalactic species agreed to come together periodically for a musical contest: the Metagalactic Grand Prix. At least, not if you are planning to operate heavy machinery. But I would no sooner advise you to read it in one go than I’d advise you to chug an entire bottle of straight absinthe. If it can punctuate the last week I had with moments of glitter, light, and delight, then this book can do anything. I have a chronic illness that causes me to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, so when I say that this was a perfect, incandescent, practically glowing bathroom book, I mean it, unironically, as the highest praise.

You should read one chapter at a time and bask in the afterglow. (Nov.Space Opera is not a book to read all at once. Though there are some moments of excessive exposition, Valente packs in enough charm, curiosity, and foreboding to make this worthwhile. A masterful late reveal proves this to be a clever reworking of a famous story, reframing all that came before. This turns out to be the case when Sophia discovers a mysterious silver hairbrush and a dark tangle of hair in a locked drawer of their home and her fairy tale perception begins to dissolve. But even as the reader takes in the frothy, enchanted atmosphere, there are hints that Sophia is teetering in an illusion that will soon launch her into darkness. Sophia’s life is basically a fairy tale, complete with a beloved husband at her side. The rules in Arcadia are strange and specific, forbidding, among other things, dancing and the building of structures for beekeeping, but all are said to be in favor of purity and harmony. Sophia lives in the upscale gated community of Arcadia Gardens, a supposed utopian oasis under the management of the Arcadia Gardens Homeowners Association.

This gem of a novella from Valente ( The Past Is Red) packs a lot of intrigue into a brief page count.

Space opera by catherynne m valente