Some Desperate Glory

Paperback, 448 pages

en-Latn-GB language

Published Jan. 1, 2023 by Orbit.

ISBN:
978-0-356-52182-4
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4 stars (21 reviews)

All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet.

Then Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons, and she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr must escape from everything she’s ever known. If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined.

Some Desperate Glory is a thrillingly told space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find and the path you must forge when every choice is stripped from you. This stand‐alone …

8 editions

Good, but not great

4 stars

The first half of this book reads like a very predictable standard space opera, then it takes a turn for the wild. There are a lot of great ideas here, and my only criticism is that the pacing in the second half was awkward. Tesh rushed through some segments that could have used more detail, yet lingered on other parts way too long.

1/2 of an incredible book, 1/2 of a very good book

5 stars

navigates complexity in a propulsive and heartwrenching manner. the first half asks important questions that don't have answers, and then the second decides there are in fact earnest and hopeful answers after all. felt a little twee, but i adored these characters and felt so strongly for them, and i read this whole thing in one explosive rush. i may not completely vibe with the resolutions given, but i'm engaged and pensive and grateful over the questions being asked. edit: ok its been 24 hours and i bumped it from 4 stars to 5 stars because i'm still chewing this book over and i think i will be for months

Review of 'Some Desperate Glory' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

You’re almost certainly familiar with Kahneman’s and Fredrickson’s wonderful ice-water experiment (“When More Pain is Preferred to Less”, also called the peak-end rule), the one where victisubjects opted for a longer (90s vs 60s) painful experience if the last few seconds were less painful. I love that result. I’ve found it invaluable for reframing life situations.

This is a 436-page book, of which the first 220 or so pages are excruciating. Oh, how I wanted to toss it away! But I was encouraged to stick with it. I did. And I’m glad.

Halfway through, it took an interesting twist, and yes it was foreshadowed but no, not the directions it took after the midpoint. That was thoughtful, creative, nuanced, suspenseful, engaging, and even sweet; and it just kept getting better. A whole lot of Did Not See That Coming, even when you think you see what’s coming, and damn, I …

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/

Dark but not heavy

5 stars

This book really stuck with me after reading it. I had to stop reading it before bed because I would stay up too late reading it, which is a trait I cherish in a book and is also hard to pull off in a book with such heavy themes -- brainwashing, abuse, reproductive coercion, war,.... And the characters were so well articulated. I really live for books where characters seem like actual humans who are capable of being really truly horrible to each other and also capable of kindness and growth.

substantial themes to discuss

5 stars

This will probably be my book of the year choice. I loved the themes and potential discussions in this one, and there's not a whole lot I can say in a review without either spoiling it or setting up a new reader to see things a certain way. I don't want my own biases to influence someone coming to this fresh. I think who you are and what you believe will drastically change how you perceive this book, and that's kind of fantastic to me. I will say, I borrowed this from the library but will be buying a permanent copy to own. I think I'll see and feel different things on subsequent re-reads. I will also say this is a completely different flavor from her fantasy duology.

reviewed Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Some Desperate Glory

3 stars

I really enjoyed Emily Tesh's Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country novellas, and so was excited to read this (very different) novel. In some ways this novel emits YA sf child warrior action dystopian vibes, but it's a lot heavier than I'd expect a YA book to be.

This is a book where aliens have destroyed earth, and there's a small space enclave of humans set on vengeance at all costs. But, the thrust of the story is that when the protagonist Kyr leaves this community, she discovers that these humans are largely a fascist cult, and this is extremely hard to swallow information for cult poster child Kyr, still set on vengeance for humanity.

It's a book about deprogramming from propaganda and the narratives you've grown up with. It's a book about burying queer feelings in unsafe environments even from yourself. Unsurprisingly, it's also a book with (at …

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