Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Some Desperate Glory

A friend told me that I needed to read this book. That I would absolutely love it. So I immediately went and got the book (a trip that was over 2 hours round trip). AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY SECOND OF RUNNING TO BEAT WATERSTONES CLOSING. Yes, it took me months to finish, grad school does that... But outside of that, it's so good.

First, let me say, I started reading the physical book but I switched to the audiobook because again grad school. Before I get into the book, let me just say Sena Byer has become one of my favorite narrators and I cannot wait to listen to more work from her. She voices each character so well (to the point I thought there had to be new narrators for the different voices. Literally a vocal chameleon).

Now the book. I will preface with I am a sucker for books with characters whose world is shattered by getting an understanding of how messed up their perception is (such as with nationalism for this book). This book then brings in elements of trying to understand your world when dimension changes are possible. It was set for me to be a book I absolutely love.

It's so easy to get into the world. Yes, there is a lot of world-building (it's sci-fi), but it's not something I found extremely difficult. I would recommend it actually for someone who isn't super familiar with sci-fi but wants to start reading it. There are "excerpts from other books" (that are from the Some Desperate Glory universe) that help give context to the story itself.

The mc can be insufferable (and rightfully so. The mc is a teen who was raised in a military base as a "war breed child". She was literally made to serve her station.), but you watch them as they grow and change. There are characters that you'll either hate or hate to love. There are characters that I personally want to put in bubble wrap and protect their sweet souls. And all of these feelings are established early in the book. So when the multiple dimensions become a factor, it can really influence one's opinions on a character.

TL;DR: Yes read it. Read it if you love sci-fi or love stories that are about the breaking of one's nationalistic perspective. And read it in either a physical/ebook or an audiobook option. Emily Tesh (and if you chose the audiobook, Sena Byer), will not do you wrong.

Content Warnings

flameoflareon's review against another edition

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

4.5

This book is brilliant and mind bending. It grapples with the big questions of humanity (are we inherently violent? is there a chance for peace? does life have purpose?) and comes to an incisive but not prescriptive, hopeful but not sugar-coated answer. I loved the line about

While we live, we're alive.

Content Warnings

fjalar's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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callmekt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

[EDIT] THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. The spoiler tags aren't working for me on mobile. Please read this review at your own risk.

Spoilering my review because I want to talk about later plot developments.

<Spoiler> Overall, I liked the first half over the second. Kyr's slow realizations were much more interesting than the timey-whimey shenanigans of the second half.

<Spoiler>I am not big into stories where time travel is a major plot development. I think things start to go off the rails in Part 3 when Kyr gets to the Wisdom node on Chrysothemis and both Magnus and Avi conveniently show up. Without prior understanding of a Wisdom node's security measures, it felt a little farcicle.

<Spoiler>If Part 4 had been a longer segment, I would have DNF'd right there, but Tesh seemed to understand that would have been a stopping point for a lot of readers and brought back the main timeline to keep us going. I was worried that the last part would be another jump away from the original timeline of the first half, but it didn't. Thankfully.

<Spoiler>Part 5 had the most adventure and action. That made it fun and engaging, though I would have liked another moment between Kyr and Lisabel. I think they make a cute couple.

This book talks about sexual subjugation of women, and I was a little worried we would see a graphic rape scene. We did not. I am grateful that this is a book where sexual assault is a central talking point without being graphically depicted.

For readers like me who want to know exactly how a book handles/talks about sexual assault, here is a spoiled list of the mentions:

<Spoiler>

Serious talk of Ursula, Kyr's sister, getting raped by Aulus Jole. This includes Kyr's thoughts going from "Jole hurt my sister" to "Jole raped my sister." This is brought up a lot.
Allusions to the women assigned to Nursery at Gaea Station being raped regularly, and this rape bears children. Not mentioned as often as the first point but still often.
One of Kyr's friends, newly assigned to Nursery, is led away by a superior officer in front of Kyr, who does not try to stop it.
Jole kisses Kyr without consent. He also touches her hand and arm and shoulder. Clothes are on throughout the exchange and Kyr gets herself out of it.
A single mention of Kyr realizing female fetuses are aborted so the majority of births on the station are male. This is only ever mentioned explicitly once.

Content Warnings

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.75

Not quite 5 stars but sooooooo close. This book was an absolute ride and I adored every moment. There was a bit of a lull in the middle and I got whiplash a few times with all the changes, but ultimately this was a fantastic examination of cult mentality, facism, radicalisation and deconstruction of dangerously right-wing views. Absolutely brilliant. Will be reading more of Emily Tesh's books for sure.

Content Warnings

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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scifi_rat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/4.5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 4★

Content Warnings

poisonenvy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-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? Yes

4.75

Where to start with this review? I loved this book a lot. There are a number of content warnings so if you have triggers you should make sure to check them out.

Following the destruction of Earth, the last scraps of humanity have gone to live on Gaea, a space station that is barely self-sustaining. Kyr has grown up on this station, trained since birth to be an obedient solider, bent on fighting for humanity against the aliens who have destroyed the planet. Gaea is a radicalized, fascist society, and the novel follows Kyr as she slowly becomes deradicalized.

This book was great. The characters were all fantastic. It's really easy to hate Kyr. It's really easy to hate a lot of the characters. The process of unlearning all the things they've been taught is long and it's not easy.

I found that the ending got a little overambitious with some of the things that it wanted to tackle; it lost some of the nuance that makes up the first 3/4ths of the book. Regardless of that though, I still found this to be nearly a five star read. The characters were fantastic, with lots of depth and nuance and so, so many flaws. The prose was great, and I found a lot of the descriptions to be very cinematic. The plot kept me hooked; I didn't want to put down this book the times that I had to.

There are definitely flaws with this story, but none of them really took away my enjoyment for the novel as a whole.

Content Warnings

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