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SPACE OPERA: It will ROCK YOU IN THE FACE


Kalbear

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I understand why people didn't like Valente's refusal to completely condemn the person in question but I've seen a couple people now who were really put off her by it and I don't really understand why. Unless there was more to it but I've never seen or heard it. It's also pretty apparent reading her posts from around it that Valente herself was going through a bad time at the moment shit went down and that's gotta factor in how she reacted. 

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14 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

An author was harassed to the point where she tried to kill herself ON VALENETE'S OWN BLOG. And you should look up what this person she refused to complete condemn actually did, cause it's fucking horrible.



I know what she did, but it's pretty clear Valente didn't know the extent of it. You can say that was wilful ignorance but again, she had her own issues going on. I don't know if she's spoken on it since, but she obviously isn't some RoH fangirl even from the stuff she posted then.

In fact at the moment the only thing I can find from her on the subject and (somewhat) defending RoH happens long before 'on damage done' and a month before the suicide attempt, has stuff been deleted that she's said since?

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I honestly don't know and this is really not the place to discuss it, I mean, I'm not a huge fan of her work to begin with and there are other small things she's done to rub me the wrong way over the years, but it's not to the point where I would, eh, actively boycott her cause she funds groups that execute homosexuals(ORSON SCOTT CARD) or anything.

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20 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I find your ideas intriguing and what like to subscribe to your newsletter.

(I do not like Valente much as a writer or a person, but I digress)

 

Fandom norms have changed a lot since those LJ days, but Valente was one of the first fandom people I can think of who actively monetized access to her non-professionally published fiction (through Omikuji Project) as well as generally selling access to her online self as the authentic author at work, engaged with her public, "anchorite of the internet".  Patreon didn't exist at the time, and asking for money within fandom was a lot more fraught than it's come to be now, for a variety of reasons.  And Omikuji was messy as all get out--things didn't come out on time, people never got things, and much of the time the unique fiction readers were signed up for was stuff she'd already sold professionally and would be coming out that way.  So you generate a cult of personality fandom, you get judged in part by how you act, and if you mobilize your fandom to abuse a travel agency because you didn't get the right visa?  It's the kind of thing people remember.

 

If this is OT/against forum rules, I'll delete.

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Perhaps the discussion of the author's media strategy and the like should get its own thread?

I'm a little over halfway through Space Opera (it's not that long) and here are a few brief thoughts: I agree with Kalbear in that the book is funny, absurdist and weird. It is written in a style that, to the best of my knowledge, is fairly unique -- you might love it or you might hate it (I'm pretty neutral), but I've never read anything quite like it. I'll withhold my thoughts on the overall quality until I finish reading.

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I finished reading this a couple of days ago. It's definitely a good book and easily worth the price even if it wasn't on Amazon's strange sale. I wouldn't go as far as Kalbear in saying that it's one of the best science fiction books I've ever read, but it is one of the best comedy science fiction books (or even just comedy books in general) that I've read. It has a massive number of both jokes and references (there are at least a few on every page) and quite a few of them are funny and/or clever.

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

This. It's a slog. Is it supposed to be a slog...?

It gets going and it's pretty fun.  I just started letting the words wash over me and it was easier, because....ULTRAPONCE.  LOLOLOL

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12 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

It was the same with Saladin Ahmed's debut and look what happened. . . :/

I'm with Calibandar on this one.

What the hell ever happened to book 2 of that anyway?

Just went to his website and it's gone. Seems to be happening a lot lately.

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On 4/14/2018 at 7:11 PM, Kalbear said:

For @Iskaral Pust, and anyone else who wants to be awesomed.

This is one of the best science fiction books I've ever read. Not "this year" or 'comedy' or any other qualifier - it is one of the best science fiction books I've ever read. It is funny, first and foremost - virtually every paragraph has something that is worth quoting or saying out loud, each page is filled with absurdist weirdness that also is sarcastic and wounding and clever, each chapter jumps for joy. It is a spiritual successor to HGTG in many ways - an often incomprehensibly weird universe, man's reaction to it, odd explanations of things on the side - but it is so much more. As Dan Abraham said on twitter, where HGTG is often depressed and sarcastic and somewhat nihilistic, Space Opera is full of joy and optimism while recognizing how life is often quite shitty. 

The other part that is far better than HGTG is the characters. The characters are not just jokes, they're not just caricatures, and they're not just coolness in a cool costume; they are as deep and wounded and asshole as anyone out there, and this book somehow manages to pack in a massive, very human gut punch when you're least expecting it due to the depth they have. In a lot of ways it is not just a spiritual successor to HGTG, it's one for Buffy and for Veronica Mars and for David Bowie.

The ending is brilliant, tying together threads launched on the first page that seemed to be infodumps into a wild cathartic session of pyrotechnics and paradox. It's one of the most satisfying endings I've read in a long time.

The aliens are incredibly weird and varied and are given pretty awesome small backstories that flesh them out quite nicely. The level of detail in this story is absurdly dense and rich, and explanations go on for paragraph-length sentences. 

It's not as sweet and emotionally brave as Fairyland is, and it's not as cutting as Refrigerator Monologues is. It's far funnier than both, has better balance than either, and is far more imaginative than anything I've seen in a long time. 

@Werthead, if you want a copy let me know and I'll send you one to review, because this is amazing stuff.

 

You just sold one copy of this book. Great review.

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What the hell ever happened to book 2 of that anyway?

Just went to his website and it's gone. Seems to be happening a lot lately.

I know he was writing it, but then suffered from acute depression. Probably still working on it, I guess. . .

Personally, for all that's been said on this thread, I don't think I'll ever try to read anything by Valente ever again.

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