I got this.” In the end, the best compliment I think I can give this audiobook was that good fun was had by all. It’s like each time Valente tries to outdo him with some crazy alien character, Miller was all “Yeah. He has an endless array of character voices. Miller is obviously having a good time with the material but never lets it become whatever the British version of Daffy Duck is.

It easy, when reading novels it a comedic element to veer off into the cartoonish. If the value if an audiobook narrator was based in the number of times you chortled, snickered, or guffawed in inappropriate public forums than Heath Miller would be raking in the lols like a teenage girl with her first snapchat account. Space Opera tackles some important topics, examining the ridiculous nature of some of our human hangups and prejudices, but does it in a style that less preaching but more drunken conversation with your crazy friends at the local pub, It’s a testament to a novel when the author seemed to have just as much fun writing it as the reader does consuming it and Space Opera is a prime example of this symbiotic literary experience. At times it feels like it can be plummet into saccharine triteness, but then Valente suddenly veers off in another direction, causing the reader to want to throw their appendages up in the air and ululate in glee. It’s a roller coaster ride of exobiology where the twist come in not what a character does, but in what a character is. Space Opera manages to be all this is one delicious gooey package. One thing I love about science fiction, is that it can be timely and poignant, examining cultural, political and scientific changes and their potential impact on modern existence.

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