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Summary
Summary
2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision in bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente's science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest...and the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth.
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--something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding.
Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix--part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Species far and wide compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes, or faces. And if a new species should wish to be counted among the high and the mighty, if a new planet has produced some savage group of animals, machines, or algae that claim to be, against all odds, sentient? Well, then they will have to compete. And if they fail? Sudden extermination for their entire species.
This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny--they must sing.
Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes 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.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Miller shines in his reading of Valente's outrageous sci-fi adventure. The book opens as washed up glam-rocker Danesh Jalo of the band Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros learns that his band has been chosen to represent the planet Earth in an intergalactic music festival. The hitch is that the festival is quite literally a battle of the bands in which each group must compete for the future of their planet and species. Danesh and his band don't have to win the competition necessarily, but if they place last, it will be the final riff for planet Earth. For the audio edition, Miller delivers a high-energy performance reminiscent of the radio work of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated as a BBC radio series in the 1970s. Whether he's providing the voice of a seven-foot-tall ultramarine half-flamingo, half-anglerfish alien in a Southern accent or describing the potential perils of intergalactic sex, where an uncovered cough can lead to unexpected parenthood, Miller handles each outlandish character and situation with a fittingly over-the-top delivery. There is never a dull moment in the audio edition of this wacky novel. A Saga paperback. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Billed as Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision, Valente's latest novel for adults (after Radiance, 2015) delivers perfectly. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes is a blip in glam-rock history, until aliens come to Earth to gather contestants for a galactic musical competition, with nothing but the survival of our species at stake. The other surviving member of the band, Oort St. Ultraviolet, has tried to move on, but when the fate of humanity depends on getting the band back together, you get the band back together. Decibel and Oort get a crash course in galactic civilization and try to come up with a new work of species-saving genius on the 11-day trip to the contest, while coming to terms with their history. Valente has pulled off another spectacular feat of world building (it's worth reading just for the descriptions of previous performances) and a story which is uproariously funny, sweet, and hopeful.--Schroeder, Regina Copyright 2018 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Decibel Jones is shocked to wake up from his hangover and look into the big, beautiful eyes of a very large, blue, flamingolike creature (an Esca) and to realize he is not hallucinating. Instead, Jones learns that he and his defunct band, the Absolute Zeros, have been selected to represent Earth and perform in the Metagalactic Grand Prix music contest. They will either save Earth, enabling humanity's membership as a sentient species in the galaxy, or doom the planet to annihilation. It's a lot to take in, but Jones does his best. He locates his estranged, former instrumentalist, Oort St. Ultraviolet, and the two unwillingly sally forth with the Esca to save the world. On the way, readers are treated to a fascinating and hilarious galaxywide tour of prior Grand Prix winners, losers, and runner-up civilizations. Teens will eat up this hysterically funny, clever wordfest, written in the vein of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, complete with ultra snarky narrator and galactic-weary ennui, with a bit of the fatalistic vibe of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. Alert readers will catch amusing and appropriate classic and contemporary sci-fi and pop culture references. VERDICT Get this tale of intergalactic musical derring-do for your space and snark fanatics.-Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
Its not hard to work out why Peter F Hamiltons books are bestsellers: he writes long, complex, absorbing novels crammed with cutting-edge ideas and multiple storylines and utilises a number of popular sub-genres to great effect. What we have in Salvation (Macmillan, £20), the first in a new series, is an investigation into a crashed alien starship, corporate and political intrigue, espionage, murder mystery and a far-future war story. When the ship is discovered at the edge of human space, the authorities send an undercover team to investigate the vessel and its mysterious contents. What follows is the revelation of what they find, the complicated backstories of the principal investigators and their tangled personal and political motivations, and a superbly atmospheric series of flash-forwards to a war between an army of genetically modified humans and an implacable alien race bent on the annihilation of humankind. Salvation Lost is due out next year. Tamora Pierces Immortals quartet introduced readers to the world of Tortall, torn by rebellion, war and murderous scheming, and to the trio of Numair Salmalín, a black robe mage and the empires leading expert on wild magic; intellectually gifted culinary artiste Varice Kingsford; and Ozorne Tasikhe, the charismatic and mercurial Emperor Mage of Carthak. Book one of the Numair Chronicles, Tempests and Slaughter (HarperVoyager, £12.99), is a prequel to the quartet; it relates the trios childhoods, their burgeoning friendship, and how they assumed their future positions of influence. At the Imperial University of Carthak, a school for mages, 10-year-old Numair here known as Arram Draper is a talented pupil prone to mishaps, whose powerful magic marks him out as special. Together with fellow pupils Varice and Ozorne, he undergoes an enlightening rite of passage, engages with wrathful masters and powerful gods, and comes to understand that something is rotten at the core of Carthak. Rich in world-building detail, Tempests and Slaughter is a slow-burner that illuminates the personal and political intrigues at the heart of the Immortals quartet. Catherynne M Valentes latest novel is the over-the-top, absurdist extravaganza Space Opera (Corsair, £16.99). In the aftermath of the Sentience Wars, which almost annihilated intelligent life in the galaxy, the Metagalactic Grand Prix was instituted with a double-pronged motive: to bring together alien races in a spirit of cooperation, and to continue the war in a more manageable fashion (think the Eurovision Song Contest writ very large). When Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, a jaded British glamrock outfit, are selected to represent Earth, they learn that their homeworld will be destroyed if they finish last. Its a conceit that allows Valente to spin a frantic narrative think The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Monty Python with in-jokes, pop-culture references and some pertinent observations about diversity and gender politics. Fans of Jasper Ffordes unique blend of comic dystopia and quirky British cosiness will not be disappointed with his first novel in six years, Early Riser (Hodder & Stoughton, £20). The setting is an alternative-reality Wales beset by terrible winters that force the population to hibernate in vast Dormitoriums. Charlie Worthing, a likable lad but something of a ninny, has landed himself a job as a novice Winter Consul, working to ensure the safety of the sleepers, who are prey to dangers such as ice-hermits, nightwalkers and flesh-eating slime. Charlie finds himself in Sector Twelve, where dreams are going viral and killing sleepers, and sleepers who take the drug Morphenox run the risk of waking up as zombies. Early Riser is a zany send-up of all things British and an often hilarious account of Charlies stumbling, hare-brained attempts to work out the secret of the authoritarian HiberTech company. In Martin Millars Supercute Futures (Piatkus, £8.99), the world has been devastated by nuclear war and much of the planet is a radioactive wasteland. Precocious teens Mox and Mitsu launched Supercute Futures as a YouTube channel beamed from their London bedroom, peddling a Japanese-inspired pabulum of soft toys and all things cute and pink. It has since grown into a vast business incorporating armaments firms and desalination plants, but when the business is taken over by a ruthless competitor, they find themselves out on the mean streets and running for their lives. With the help of a 13-year-old Nigerian superfan, a gin-sodden former detective and a mad Japanese scientist, Mox and Mitsu travel the radioactive sewers of London in a bid to wrest back their empire. This satire aimed at the obvious targets of capitalistic excess and crass materialism is even more silly than it sounds, though Millar does propel the narrative with some verve. - Eric Brown.
Kirkus Review
This nearly literal title about an intergalactic battle of the bands is perhaps operatic in scope (in a comic vein, at least) but is more rock than opera.After a devastating interstellar war in which various alien species fought for the right to be considered sentient by all the other species, peace was declared, and everyone agreed on the best way to determine sentience: a song contest. Only if a species was judged capable of baring its inner soul musicallythat is, if a jury ranked it second-to-last or higher in the Megalactic Grand Prixwould it be permitted to continue existing. Now it's Earth's turn to prove its sentience, with a band personally selected by the galactic alliance known as the Great Octave. Unfortunately, just about everyone on their shortlist is deadexcept for the two surviving members of washed-up glam rock band Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros. Can Decibel Jones and Oort St. Ultraviolet reconcile their differences, survive the plots of their murderously competitive rivals, and manage to sufficiently wow their judges to ensure the survival of humanity? Tune in for your life! Valente's (The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, 2016, etc.) acknowledgements admit she was inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest, David Bowie, and Douglas Adams (many plot elements, the prose style, and the occasionally violent but determined whimsy of it all practically reach peak Adams saturation). The storyline is also strongly reminiscent of an episode from the bleakly comic Adult Swim cartoon Rick and Morty, which featured a similar contest and stakesperhaps infused with a dash of Daniel Pinkwater's Slaves of Spiegel, about an intergalactic cooking competition.Light on plot and originality but a charming amusement all the same. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Valente's (Radiance) latest is a tale about an intergalactic singing competition with the fate of humanity at stake. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, a defunct rock band, is chosen to compete to prove that humans are a sentient race. The pace is fast moving, but a little rushed at the end. The writing is dense, somewhat reminiscent of Douglas Adams's style, although at times overwhelming in the audio format, with long run-on sentences. Australian actor Heath Miller's crisp voice highlights the quirky nature of this sf story that tries a little too hard to be funny. VERDICT Of interest to fans of sf and Douglas Adams. ["Valente's action-packed saga brings life to the backstage drama of the best concert you ever attended, in outer space": LJ 4/15/17 starred review of the Saga: S. & S. hc.]-Denise Garofalo, Mount Saint Mary Coll. Lib., Newburgh, NY © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.