
Space Opera
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Heath Miller
About this listen
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision in an over-the-top galactic science fiction spectacle from best-selling author Catherynne Valente where sentient races compete for glory in a universe-wide musical contest - where 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 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. Instead of competing in orbital combat, the powerful species that survived face off in a competition of song, dance, or whatever can be physically performed in an intergalactic talent show. The stakes are high for this new game, and everyone is forced to compete.
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.
A band of human musicians, dancers, and roadies have been chosen to represent Earth on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of their species lies in their ability to rock.
©2018 Catherynne M. Valente (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
The Refrigerator Monologues
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Karis A. Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lives of six female superheroes and the girlfriends of superheroes. A ferocious riff on women in superhero comics. From the New York Times best-selling author Catherynne Valente comes a series of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who's ever been "refrigerated": comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero's storyline will progress.
-
-
Perfectly Brilliant
- By Umar on 10-16-18
-
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
- Fairyland, Book 1
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Catherynne M. Valente
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September is a girl who longs for adventure. When she is invited to Fairyland by a Green Wind and a Leopard, well, of course she accepts. (Mightn’t you?) But Fairyland is in turmoil, and it will take one 12-year-old girl, a book-loving dragon, and a strange and almost human boy named Saturday to vanquish an evil Marquess and restore order.
-
-
The most charming book I have read since childhood
- By David on 09-15-11
-
The Past Is Red
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The future is blue - endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown. Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
-
-
The most perfectly perfect book a F**kwit could ever want.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-22
-
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- A Novel
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Rachel Dulude
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.
-
-
The narrator completely ruined it.
- By rosenh on 09-13-21
By: Becky Chambers
-
The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
-
-
I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
The Refrigerator Monologues
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Karis A. Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The lives of six female superheroes and the girlfriends of superheroes. A ferocious riff on women in superhero comics. From the New York Times best-selling author Catherynne Valente comes a series of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who's ever been "refrigerated": comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero's storyline will progress.
-
-
Perfectly Brilliant
- By Umar on 10-16-18
-
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
- Fairyland, Book 1
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Catherynne M. Valente
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
September is a girl who longs for adventure. When she is invited to Fairyland by a Green Wind and a Leopard, well, of course she accepts. (Mightn’t you?) But Fairyland is in turmoil, and it will take one 12-year-old girl, a book-loving dragon, and a strange and almost human boy named Saturday to vanquish an evil Marquess and restore order.
-
-
The most charming book I have read since childhood
- By David on 09-15-11
-
The Past Is Red
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Penelope Rawlins
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The future is blue - endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown. Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she’s the only one who knows it. She’s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it’s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time.
-
-
The most perfectly perfect book a F**kwit could ever want.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-22
-
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
- A Novel
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Rachel Dulude
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.
-
-
The narrator completely ruined it.
- By rosenh on 09-13-21
By: Becky Chambers
-
Light from Uncommon Stars
- By: Ryka Aoki
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: To escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four.
-
-
Awesome with a few hitches.
- By Levi Fay on 10-01-21
By: Ryka Aoki
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Roadkill
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jack Kernigan is having a bad day...a bad year...a bad life. After being booted out of MIT, he’s back in his Ohio hometown, working for the family business, facing a life of mediocrity. Then one day, out on a delivery, his truck hits...something. Something big...something furry...something invisible. And, it turns out, something not of this Earth. Fate can play funny tricks. Which is why Jack suddenly finds himself the planet’s best hope to unravel a conspiracy of galactic proportions that could spell the end of the human race.
-
-
The least helpful review of Roadkill
- By Joshua Kring on 08-05-22
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- Monk & Robot, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Em Grosland
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.
-
-
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 07-15-21
By: Becky Chambers
-
The Spare Man
- By: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tesla Crane, one of the richest women in the world, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between Earth and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and her husband is named as the prime suspect. To save him from the frame-up, Tesla will risk exposure and face demons from her past. Even though doing so might make her the next victim.
-
-
Classic mystery, forward worldbuilding
- By Deana on 10-16-22
-
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- By: Douglas Adams
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
-
-
HHTGH - Lightly Fried
- By J. Medany on 05-08-05
By: Douglas Adams
-
The Collapsing Empire
- The Interdependency, Book 1
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Our universe is ruled by physics, and faster-than-light travel is not possible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transports us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war - and a system of control for the rulers of the empire.
-
-
THE STUPIDITIES OF COURT
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-01-17
By: John Scalzi
-
Columbus Day
- Expeditionary Force, Book 1
- By: Craig Alanson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We were fighting on the wrong side of a war we couldn't win. And that was the good news. The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits. When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved.
-
-
WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-04-17
By: Craig Alanson
-
Red Rising
- By: Pierce Brown
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.
-
-
HUMANS ARE ALWAY NEGOTIATING,
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-30-15
By: Pierce Brown
-
To Be Taught, If Fortunate
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the turn of the 22nd century, scientists make a breakthrough in human spaceflight. Through a revolutionary method known as somaforming, astronauts can survive in hostile environments off Earth using synthetic biological supplementations. With the fragility of the body no longer a limiting factor, human beings are at last able to journey to neighboring exoplanets long known to harbor life. A team of these explorers, Ariadne O’Neill and her three crewmates, are hard at work in a planetary system 15 light-years from Sol, on a mission to ecologically survey four habitable worlds.
-
-
"Gay & Lesbian"?!? This is solid Sci-Fi
- By Jennifer on 09-16-19
By: Becky Chambers
-
Drive
- An Expanse Short Story
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. This story will be available in the complete Expanse story collection, Memory’s Legion.
-
-
Fun little short story
- By Carson on 12-28-21
-
Gravity's Rainbow
- By: Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller - cover design
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 1973 National Book Award, Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern epic, a work as exhaustively significant to the second half of the 20th century as Joyce's Ulysses was to the first. Its sprawling, encyclopedic narrative and penetrating analysis of the impact of technology on society make it an intellectual tour de force.
-
-
"Time to touch the person next to you"
- By Jefferson on 07-04-16
By: Thomas Pynchon, and others
Critic reviews
"Heath Miller narrates a story that is equal parts scathing social commentary and hilarious send-up of music competitions.... Miller shines as the sarcastic and sardonic narrator who guides listeners through the byzantine galactic history that led to this confusing state of affairs. He also does an outstanding job creating a range of convincing alien personas, as well as bringing the human characters to life.... Those who enjoy intelligent satire will be richly rewarded." (AudioFile)
Featured Article: The Best Sci-Fi Audiobooks to Blast You into Another Galaxy
There’s a certain magic in losing yourself in the imaginative world of science fiction. But when new landscapes and realities are paired with brilliant audio performances, the experience is more immersive than ever. We’ve curated some of the best science fiction audiobooks, ranked not only for their vividly constructed narratives, but also for the compelling, stellar narration that brings them to life. So grab your headphones and settle in as reality fades away.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Palimpsest
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Aasne Vigesaa
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse - a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers.
-
-
Excellent Prose, but lacks maturity
- By Michael on 08-09-15
-
Bleeding Edge
- EDGE Force, Book 1
- By: Matthew J. Barbeler
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
JD Rideout is a washed-up writer with the best years of his career behind him. Nursing the wounds of a marriage breakdown, his kids are the only thing keeping him going. When JD wakes up on a tropical island in the middle of the Whitsundays on Queensland's Central Coast, chained to the ceiling, he knows something is very wrong. He feels like a character in one of his novels. JD is given a pistol and an axe, along with a new callsign: Hatchet. Uprooted from his life and forced to fight for the fate of the world, Hatchet may just be planet Earth’s last line of defence.
-
-
Entertaining
- By Gilbert M. Stack on 09-28-24
-
Shakedowners
- Shakedowers Series, Book 1
- By: Justin Woolley
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some starship captains explore strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations. Some lead missions of discovery through wormholes to the other side of the galaxy. Then there's Captain Iridius B. Franklin, someone who spent too long seeking out strange new bars and new alien cocktails.
-
-
Romping good fun
- By Andrea on 02-10-22
By: Justin Woolley
-
Radiance
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars.
-
-
Unexpected and tons of fun
- By Kate on 11-17-15
-
The System Apocalypse: Australia Books 1-3
- By: Tao Wong, KT Hanna
- Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau
- Length: 37 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No more cute koala bears, bouncy kangaroos, or fuzzy wallabies. Now, everything is mutated and aggressive? Who made the spiders so big? The world's most dangerous continent just got a lot more dangerous, and no one, not even the alien Galactics who arrive, are ready for it.
-
-
Mary Sue in the apocalypse
- By Paul on 04-27-25
By: Tao Wong, and others
-
The New Space Opera
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Jonathan Strahan - editor
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie, Caroline Shaffer, Richard Powers, and others
- Length: 23 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dazzling anthology includes epic interstellar adventures, tales of space and wonder, from some of the brightest names in science fiction.
-
-
Not all great, but all good
- By Michael R. Blanche on 05-07-14
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
-
Palimpsest
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Aasne Vigesaa
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse - a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers.
-
-
Excellent Prose, but lacks maturity
- By Michael on 08-09-15
-
Bleeding Edge
- EDGE Force, Book 1
- By: Matthew J. Barbeler
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
JD Rideout is a washed-up writer with the best years of his career behind him. Nursing the wounds of a marriage breakdown, his kids are the only thing keeping him going. When JD wakes up on a tropical island in the middle of the Whitsundays on Queensland's Central Coast, chained to the ceiling, he knows something is very wrong. He feels like a character in one of his novels. JD is given a pistol and an axe, along with a new callsign: Hatchet. Uprooted from his life and forced to fight for the fate of the world, Hatchet may just be planet Earth’s last line of defence.
-
-
Entertaining
- By Gilbert M. Stack on 09-28-24
-
Shakedowners
- Shakedowers Series, Book 1
- By: Justin Woolley
- Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some starship captains explore strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations. Some lead missions of discovery through wormholes to the other side of the galaxy. Then there's Captain Iridius B. Franklin, someone who spent too long seeking out strange new bars and new alien cocktails.
-
-
Romping good fun
- By Andrea on 02-10-22
By: Justin Woolley
-
Radiance
- By: Catherynne M. Valente
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars.
-
-
Unexpected and tons of fun
- By Kate on 11-17-15
-
The System Apocalypse: Australia Books 1-3
- By: Tao Wong, KT Hanna
- Narrated by: Andrea Parsneau
- Length: 37 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No more cute koala bears, bouncy kangaroos, or fuzzy wallabies. Now, everything is mutated and aggressive? Who made the spiders so big? The world's most dangerous continent just got a lot more dangerous, and no one, not even the alien Galactics who arrive, are ready for it.
-
-
Mary Sue in the apocalypse
- By Paul on 04-27-25
By: Tao Wong, and others
-
The New Space Opera
- By: Gardner Dozois - editor, Jonathan Strahan - editor
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie, Caroline Shaffer, Richard Powers, and others
- Length: 23 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This dazzling anthology includes epic interstellar adventures, tales of space and wonder, from some of the brightest names in science fiction.
-
-
Not all great, but all good
- By Michael R. Blanche on 05-07-14
By: Gardner Dozois - editor, and others
-
Earth Unknown
- Forgotten Earth, Book 1
- By: M.R. Forbes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two hundred years ago, a fleet of colony ships left Earth and started a settlement on Proxima Centauri. Centurion Space Force pilot Nathan Stacker didn't expect to return home to find his wife dead. He didn't expect the murderer to look just like him, and he definitely didn't expect to be the one to take the blame. But his wife had control of a powerful secret. A secret that stretches across the light years between two worlds and could lead to the end of both. Now that secret is in Nathan's hands, and he's about to make the most desperate evasive maneuver of his life.
-
-
Half a story.
- By RBD 2 on 03-29-21
By: M.R. Forbes
-
Terminal Alliance
- Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse Series, Book 1
- By: Jim C. Hines
- Narrated by: Rebecca Mitchell
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Krakau came to Earth to invite humanity into a growing alliance of sentient species. However, they happened to arrive after a mutated plague wiped out half the planet, turned the rest into shambling, near-unstoppable animals, and basically destroyed human civilization. You know - your standard apocalypse. The Krakau's first impulse was to turn around and go home. Their second impulse was to try to fix us. Now, a century later, human beings might not be what they once were, but at least they're no longer trying to eat everyone. Mostly.
-
-
Terrible Performance!
- By Ron on 01-24-18
By: Jim C. Hines
-
Adiamante
- By: L. E. Modesitt Jr.
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth, the peaceful capital of a long-fallen interstellar empire, is confronted by deadly violence when the warships of a former colony attack, and it is up to planetary coordinator Ecktor deJanes to eliminate the menace without violating Earth's non-aggression principles.
-
-
Adiamante is a very fascinating story.
- By Steve Nicholas on 07-10-18
-
Another World
- Galena Chronicles, Book 1
- By: Samuel Best
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry. Earth's first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land. Anyone can start a new life…if they can get there. For Merritt, the journey is only the beginning. Obstacles arise every step of the way, forcing compromise and sacrifice. And not everyone on his ship is pure of heart. The bonds he forges on the journey will be the key to surviving on another world—a world anyone has yet to fully explore.
-
-
Save your credit
- By Scott on 11-08-22
By: Samuel Best
-
Space Academy Dropouts
- Space Academy, Book 1
- By: C.T. Phipps, Michael Suttkus
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The newly renamed Vance Turbo has sabotaged his own career at Space Fleet Academy due to a desire to atone for a training accident. Unfortunately, his actions result in him getting press-ganged into an expendable crew of misfits recruited by a legendary starship captain. Their mission? To recover a collection of lost sun-destroying missiles that could restart a galactic war. Unfortunately, Vance is smart enough to know something is wrong with this picture. After all, no sane person would recruit this crew to save the universe.
-
-
Fun, entertaining, adventurous!
- By Montzalee Wittmann on 04-15-22
By: C.T. Phipps, and others
-
Mechanical Failure
- Epic Failure, Book 1
- By: Joe Zieja
- Narrated by: Joe Zieja
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 200 years' (and counting) peace was a time of tranquility that hasn't been seen since...well, ever. Mankind in the Galactic Age had finally conquered war, so what was left for the military to do but drink and barbecue? That's the kind of military that Sergeant R. Wilson Rogers lived in before he left the fleet to become a smuggler. But it turns out that smuggling is hard. Like getting-arrested-for-dealing-with-pirates-and-forced-back-into-service kind of hard.
-
-
This book helped save my job!
- By John David Akers on 07-19-16
By: Joe Zieja
-
Stardust Runner 1
- Stardust Runner, Book 1
- By: Dante King, Ryan Vermont
- Narrated by: Gabriel Michael, Katana Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My name is Simon Jackson: former soldier in the Elynese Special Forces and current fixer for mob boss Krahmin the voidtouched. Myan Station is my home. Dwarves, goblins, gnomes, grays, fey, even humans make up the melting pot that is Myan Station. When Malak the half-ork and I stole an ancient starship, we set off a chain of events that could spell the end of Myan Station.
-
-
Predictable
- By Rjw on 10-21-22
By: Dante King, and others
-
Space Clown
- A Humorous Sci-Fi Adventure
- By: John Triptych
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galactic Empire is missing its most precious resource: a sense of humor. Dax Bidet is just another unemployed, thirty-something slacker still living with his parents. Along with his best friend Buck, he spends his days making pranks and uploading them to social media. But things are about to take a drastic turn. When Dax and Buck are mistakenly abducted by aliens, they soon find themselves in a teeming galaxy sliding towards war. The only way to keep the peace is to regale the rebellious planets with… comedy. Dax has just been given the unenviable title of space clown. He has to ...
-
-
nothing
- By Kim G. on 07-28-24
By: John Triptych
-
Starship Repo
- By: Patrick S. Tomlinson
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Firstname Lastname is a no one with nowhere to go, with a name that is the result of an unfortunate clerical error and destined to be one of the only humans on an alien space station. That is, until she sneaks aboard a ship and joins up with a crew of repo men (they are definitely not pirates). Now she's traveling the galaxy "recovering" ships. What could go wrong?
-
-
DNF - struggling to care about characters
- By Diana on 01-23-21
-
Forgotten
- The Forgotten Series, Book 1
- By: M.R. Forbes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sheriff Hayden Duke was born on the Pilgrim, and he expects to die on the Pilgrim, like his father, and his father before him. That's the way things are on a generation starship centuries from home. He's never questioned it. Never thought about it. And why bother? Access points to the ship's controls are sealed, the systems that guide her automated and out of reach. It isn't perfect, but he has all he needs to be content. Until a malfunction forces his engineer wife to the edge of the habitable zone to inspect the damage.
-
-
Surprised
- By Tm on 07-28-18
By: M.R. Forbes
-
Captain Quasar: The Complete Series
- By: Milo James Fowler
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 27 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Captain Quasar is out of time. Pursued by vengeful Goobalob toll collectors, savage Arachnoid bounty hunters, and formidable Amazonians, Captain Bartholomew Quasar must do whatever he can to keep the crew of the Effervescent Magnitude out of harm's way. All in a day's work - except time is not on his side. Torn from the present to relive his past, he vows to keep mistakes from occurring the second time around. But is he doomed to repeat history? Or can he erase his regrets?
-
-
Hunting for humour in this “humorous” space opera
- By Kindle Customer on 02-11-25
-
Armor
- A Progression Fantasy Epic
- By: C.B. Titus
- Narrated by: Heath Miller
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My master created me for his entertainment, leading adventurers to ruin. Betraying them at the last moment, just when their glorious victory was on hand. I have been found again by the newest member of a quartet of dungeon crawlers. Poor fool. This time will be no different. Or does it have to be? Maybe I don't need to spend eternity left in a deep, dark dungeon waiting to devour would-be heroes. Maybe, just maybe, I can take him over and use this new identity to leave and masquerade as an adventurer myself.
-
-
the best part about this book is that it's
- By Denard on 08-08-22
By: C.B. Titus
What listeners say about Space Opera
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jessica
- 05-01-18
loved it
You should not wait to listen to this book. Fun writing, great themes, and the imagery will make you re-read sections, then feel like you need to read faster to catch up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jordan
- 06-12-19
So much fun
This was quite the ride. The beginning felt but jumbled and exaggerated, like it was trying too hard, but once I got into the swing of the thing it was honestly quite good. There were some part as that felt too over the top but kept with the narrative energy so what can you do? Also the narrator was splendid.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marv A. Smith-LeBleu
- 06-09-18
witty, funny, but try too hard....
While the book is witty, funny and clever they try far too hard to pack it in every sentence, every spoken word. I found myself having to get through 3/4 the book before I could really enjoy it. I will admit it may be different if you're British since it is of English humor.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- anonymous
- 09-21-19
Glorious, glittering absurdity
"Life is beautiful, and life is stupid." If you loved Douglas Adams, don't miss this!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthew
- 05-29-20
Don't panic. Just enjoy.
Listening to this for the plot, which is diaphanous at best, is like going to Las Vegas because you enjoy a good game of blackjack. It's fine, you certainly CAN do it, and some may even find it fulfilling. But it sort of misses the point. Because the point of Vegas isn't finely-run blackjack tables, and the point of this isn't the main plot, it's the spectacle, the show, the bright lights, the improbable alien beings all around, and the ludicrously purpled prose.
If you enjoy the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but wish it featured more excerpts from the guide itself, more dry humorous vignettes of a truly weird and fantastic cosmic society, then you will probably love this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris T Dalessandri
- 04-18-24
meh
meh. Not hard sci-fi and not good comedy like hitchhikers guide or red dwarf
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SparklyShiny
- 04-17-18
Delightful clever, fun, and satisfying read
Witty psychedelic romp filled with humor and the hope of redeeming humanity. Really enjoyed the snark and surprises throughout the story. Catherynne’s elegant, complicated, colloquial, and delightfully descriptive writing is perfectly narrated by Heath Miller.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jessy Taylor
- 04-16-18
I loved this so much
I don't know where to start. I bought the Kindle version of this book this morning because a couple people in my Twitter feed were talking about it. By the second chapter I had bought the audible version too because I knew two things: first that I wasn't going to be able to stop when it was time to get in my car, and second that this book, this writing, these sentences were meant to be read aloud.
I proceeded to sneak headphones at my desk while it was still quiet enough to get away with it, then read the text version too the detriment of getting any work done aside from helping actual customers for the rest of the day. I listened as I drove to game night at a friend's, where, despite trying not to, I gave in to temptation and rudely read on my phone under the table between turns.
Throughout the day, with mixed success, I've stifled both laughter and tears and now that I've finished, I plan to start again for I'm sure there is some subtilty that I've missed.
Life is beautiful. Life is stupid. Space Opera balances the two perfectly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Charlie Chapple
- 07-24-18
Imaginative and sharp!
Space Opera manages to be hilarious while exploring the question of, should humans really be considered sentient? It uses jokes to capture that sense of cosmic wonder and insignificance. I was blown away.
Also, Heath Miller's performance is superb.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-09-18
A concert of amazingness.
Most characters were voiced differently enough, including the narrator, who was very reminiscient of the hitch hikers guide. I loved every minute of it, although it started to go quite quick at the end there. I guess one could call it the crescendo of the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!