Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Victories Greater Than Death

This was good YA. It is, however, very firmly YA, and not likely to appeal to someone who reads only adult sci-fi with the occasional borderline older-YA title. I'm bringing that up to be clear about what kind of book this is, not to say it's bad. In fact, I think it benefits from being so profoundly YA; if this same story had been written outside of the YA perspective, without the refusal to accept limitations that defines that category of literature, the themes likely would have been suffocating.

This book has a lot of aliens in it. Something I would've liked to see more of(hopefully we will, in future books) is a deeper dive into their cultures, not just a quirky rundown of how they are but why they're that way. I wish I'd known when I picked the book up that there was a glossary in the back, because it would have saved me a fair bit of confusion and flipping back and forth. More authors should put the glossary in the front, so we have it when we need it instead of being surprised by it at the end!

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was how the story jumped from scene to scene, suddenly being jerked along to the next thing(in media res, even) as soon as the prior thing resolved, and often with retroactive narration to fill the gap. This can be an excellent technique to use once or twice, but it felt overused here. The book wasn't very long, so I feel like we could have afforded a few more lengthy transitions.

What I feel like the story did very well was the cast of characters, specifically the recruits from Earth. There's four of them for a total of five Earthlings, plus Tina. They're all of varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds, bringing different strengths to the team. It's a strong cast to carry the plot through the rest of the trilogy, and I look forward to seeing what the other parts have in store.

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maryellen's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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indeedithappens's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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nisaak's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a fun space opera with queer, diverse characters, teenage crushes, and adventure! There are serious parts to it and some violence. I look forward to the next two books! Tip: I only found out at the end of the book that there's a glossary. So if you have trouble keeping track of all the aliens, you can look them up.

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thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional

3.5

I did enjoy this! The pacing was a little weird - I have no idea how much time actually passed in the story. I loved the characters and did not know what to expect half the time. XD Will definitely read the sequel.

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chippyreads's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Started off great, loved the intro and the MCs. Loving that the characters introduce themselves with their pronoun, and they also seek consent for any kind of touching. Nothing stood out to me as amazing or bad. I didn't really enjoy the romance, I'm not sure if it was because I couldn't get into the characters or it wasn't believable.

It was a solid 4 stars because who doesn't love a sapphic space book? But there was too much action/fighting for me. Also there were a lot of characters and I lost track as to who was who.

Will definitely pick up the next one.

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valpyre's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

[audiobook]
3.5 stars

it honestly took me a <i>really</i> long while to get into this book. i am glad i stuck with it -- it has a lot of heart and nuance. i personally found the plot fairly straight-forward (which is not a bad thing!) and for me, that gave it a more childish vibe than i was expecting. i did come to appreciate that as a balance to some of the heavier topics that were dealt with throughout, and i thought it was a fresh tone considering the protag and friends were teenagers. the dialogue throughout was kind of simplistic, in my opinion, and sort of broke immersion for me at times.

i enjoyed the inclusivity throughout the book, because anders showed that having such decency throughout didn't make for a utopia. the book actively confronted some of the more meta features of itself (like the types of alien species represented). i enjoyed and was touched by my listening experience, but i doubt that i'll be continuing the series.

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Thank you so much to netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advanced reader's copy of this book!

Can I just say before we get started, this is one of the most gorgeous book covers I have ever seen?

Tina has known for most her life that her destiny is out there in the stars--she can feel a beacon inside her, waiting to ignite when she is old enough to be picked up and taken away to her fate. She is anxiously awaiting that day, when she can stop being just Tina and remember who she was before she was cloned into this body. But when she finally does get picked up be a spaceship with her best friend Rachael, nothing is the way she expected it to be, and she is thrown in the middle of an epic space adventure that require all of her skills and knowledge if she wants to survive--but she can't even remember who she used to be.

The concept for this book is so exciting and fun! I knew I was going to love it! A space battle of good vs. evil, reclaimed identities, and old friends and new! I also really loved reading about the diversity of alien life-forms that Anders created in this book. There was no shortage of imagination for the non-human beings in this galaxy. I loved the central message of the Shapers and the Royal Fleet fighting back, and I was so interested to find out what happened to Tina.

I did wish that this book focused less on all the new concepts and vocabulary and a little more on character development. I wasn't as attached to these characters as I would like to be, and though they were all awesome in concept, I felt that they were mostly a little one-note and could have used more development. I also thought the new slang was hit a little too hard. It felt too much like new colloquialisms being forced on me and not enough like my naturally learning them in the new environment.

One of the coolest parts of this book for me was the normalization of introducing yourself with pronouns! Every single character in this book gave out their pronoun the first time they were introduced to someone---no matter what species they were! I loved that! It even included neo-pronouns.

All in all, I really enjoyed this read! It was fun and had great queer representation and diversity. I definitely recommend picking this up when it comes out!

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