Some Desperate Glory

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Emily Tesh: Some Desperate Glory (2022, Little, Brown Book Group Limited)

English language

Published Jan. 14, 2022 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited.

ISBN:
978-0-356-51718-6
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5 stars (4 reviews)

3 editions

A Space Opera with Lots to Unpack

5 stars

Some Desperate Glory is a space opera set after Earth's destruction. Gaea Station, home to a radical group of warbreed humans, has pitted itself against the majo race, the ones who annihilated their homeland. Without spoiling anything, the novel is a whirlwind of moral turmoil, intergalactic politics, and the Wisdom's immense power over all of existence.

Valkyr, our ornery and entitled protagonist, is tough to love but easy to understand. While there were times I wanted to throttle her for being so short-sighted and petty, I often felt she desperately needed a hug. Mags and Avi were fun characters, and I believe their presence really rounded out Valkyr's dominating personality. However, Yiso (the majo prisoner), was my absolute favorite of them all.

It took me about 100 pages to really get into the story, but after that I was hooked. The novel is formatted into five parts, and by the …

A gripping modern space opera

5 stars

What happens if you take the classic space opera format -- soldiers! weapons! aliens! humanity fighting for its very survival! -- and give it a queer, feminist, 21st century twist? You get Some Desperate Glory, that's what.

The book manages to walk the tightrope of combining hard sci-fi themes with social science fiction, and manages to pull it off in style.

(Minor spoilers ahead)

The primary character, Kyr, is a teenage soldier in the vein of Starship Troopers or Ender's Game, brought up from birth to be one of humanity's last living soldiers on a secret base where the few remaining humans have their resistance movement. So far, so expected.

But as the book progresses we see Kyr's black-and-white view of the world gradually peeled back and altered as she gains access to other, hidden and banned points of view.

Without going into too much spoilery detail, over the course …

Most excellent book

4 stars

This has a whole bunch of elements that i loved, but mostly a great plot and clear character arc. At the start of the book, Kyr is an about-to-graduate cadet on a asteroid bound space station that houses the last few thousands of humanity after an alien civilization has destroyed Earth.

Things are not as they seem, which Kyr finds out by getting assigned to Nursery to bear children for humanity, despite her top scores, and her brother refusing assignment and deserting.

A word of warning that there's some intense cult-like abuse in the pages.

I read this on the recommendation of @charliejane@wandering.shop in her Washington Post column on SF. You should read her columns too.

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/05/08/nick-harkaway-bina-shah-moniquill-blackgoose/