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stardust_heidi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
5.0
This book is SO GOOD. It took me a while to read, only because I’m reading a gazillion other things at the same time. But I think reading this in smaller bites was the best way to do it. The themes in this book are so relevant to the current times and political shit show.
Kyr isn’t necessarily the most likable character, a fact she is confronted with many times throughout the book, but I found her character arc super compelling. I think the roller coaster of an arc she experiences is very relatable to someone stepping outside of this regimented, propaganda-filled upbringing; to find that the universe is nothing like she’d been taught it is…it’s a hard pill to swallow. To see her xenophobia morph into acknowledgment of personhood; to see the injustices endured by her fellow women, to learn what it is to love and care about individuals outside her circle — honestly, I found it such a fantastic journey.
It’s not pretty. It’s painful, ugly, and dark along the way to destroying this patriarchal shitshow. But I think the author did a great job and inserting these slivers of optimism and drive in order to make the world better for others.
I was engaged the whole book. It took me on some twists I wasn’t expecting, though I admit I’m usually easy to please lol.
Kyr isn’t necessarily the most likable character, a fact she is confronted with many times throughout the book, but I found her character arc super compelling. I think the roller coaster of an arc she experiences is very relatable to someone stepping outside of this regimented, propaganda-filled upbringing; to find that the universe is nothing like she’d been taught it is…it’s a hard pill to swallow. To see her xenophobia morph into acknowledgment of personhood; to see the injustices endured by her fellow women, to learn what it is to love and care about individuals outside her circle — honestly, I found it such a fantastic journey.
It’s not pretty. It’s painful, ugly, and dark along the way to destroying this patriarchal shitshow. But I think the author did a great job and inserting these slivers of optimism and drive in order to make the world better for others.
I was engaged the whole book. It took me on some twists I wasn’t expecting, though I admit I’m usually easy to please lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism
Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship
azurahh's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Holy fucking SHIT.
This is the best book I've read so far this year (it's only March to be fair) (supplanting Dauntless as #1 book club read sorry Elisa).
Some Desperate Glory is a space opera centring around Kyr, a loyal soldier who has just come of age on a space station run like a cult. She is literally the worst person alive (affectionate) with bucketloads of internalized misogyny and homophobia and just generally brainwashed cult brain. When she's assigned to have babies until she dies she escapes and learns that there's more to life than her white supremacist death cult and actually they kind of suck! 5/5 no notes.
If you liked Gideon in GTN and Nona in NTN and even some of the mind-fuckery in HTN, this is the book for you. *Bestie says: Ender's Game (minus the homophobic author) meets Locked Tomb (unverified opinion because she says I wouldn't like Ender's Game in the year 2024 lmfao).
Our MC, Kyr, is deeply, deeply unlikeable at the start but I encourage you to push past that until she starts on her ~cult deprogramming journey because it's a really good arc. Overall I would say give it a good crack until you get at least halfway through part two. She's a truly flawed and kind of awful MC but she does in fact come out okay! We love to see it. Other than that the cast includes: a computer nerd twink, a sad little alien, a haunted brother the size of a house (Ortus-coded), and a nasty little dictator with a god complex (Jod-coded).
This is by far the closest a book has come to the feeling I got reading Gideon and I made some memes on the topic.
Kyr 🤝 Gideon
- Obsessed with being soldiers for their colonizing/ethnonationalist government
- Forced into critical thinking about society (😭)
- Live with their closest friend/worst enemy/biggest rival
- Dumb as shit about their crushes on girls
- Sort of weirdly obsessed with a fragile person with big eyes
Aside from that. I thought this was one of the best social science fiction books I've read recently--it's a lot more challenging (or at least deals with broader societal questions) than e.g., Becky Chambers (who I love), but it has a similar feel to some of their books.
It's oddly funny in places--not overtly meme-atic like TLT, but a lot of that unexpected juxtaposition style of humor similar to Tamsyn Muir comes through.
Unfortunately almost everything good and interesting about this book is a major spoiler so it's very hard to rec it without spoiling the best parts! After a certain point you just start sending your best friend the word "scream" over and over again until you finish the book and die and if that isn't a recommendation I don't know what is.
Recommended for fans of: The Locked Tomb/Tamsyn Muir (obviously lol), Juno of Taris by Fleur Beale, and A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.
Content warnings are listed before the book begins and you'll want to pay attention to them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia
Forced pregnancy is a theme.rheagoveas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, and Homophobia
lelcopter's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Racism
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Transphobia, and Child abuse
bex_knighthunterbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A sci-fi adventure, potentially with good YA/Adult crossover appeal or as an entry to sci-fi, but it is quite dark (check triggers, but the assault side it is generally threats or off-screen). Set on a space station, a small group of humans have formed a militaristic dystopian society after Earth was destroyed by aliens.
The main character is completely indoctrinated, and so is pretty infuriating to follow, but this does give big scope for character development as she gets her eyes opened. The other main character (arguably - though there is only one POV) is also a douche with questionable morals, and then the other side characters are more one dimensional, which means I found it hard to get invested from a character perspective in this book.
I think the plot was quite clever, with a few twists or reveals that I really didn't see coming and I thought added an interesting element to the story. The setting does have a few interesting elements (e.g. the agoge/wisdom, the planet crysalthamus - excuse the spelling, I listened to this on audio), but the ones that intrigued me weren't very deeply explored (the impact of the wisdom on society would be huge and fascinating!), and instead most of the focus was on the space station, which felt like your standard space fascism with elements of handmaid's tale.
There are lots of themes, which I did find interesting: bodily autonomy, fascism, cycles of revenge driving war, are humans inherently dangerous, impact of propaganda and indoctrination, being queer in a heteronormative world - but I don't think these were any of them explored in much depth, and were dealt with in quite a heavy-handed way. On this aspect, I think this fits better with YA where I wouldn't expect as much nuance. I'd say this book is more focussed on the plot and action, over the world or themes, which will work well for some, but didn't especially for me.
A fun fast-paced romp, with a lot of ambitious interesting elements I'd have liked to see explored more.
The main character is completely indoctrinated, and so is pretty infuriating to follow, but this does give big scope for character development as she gets her eyes opened. The other main character (arguably - though there is only one POV) is also a douche with questionable morals, and then the other side characters are more one dimensional, which means I found it hard to get invested from a character perspective in this book.
I think the plot was quite clever, with a few twists or reveals that I really didn't see coming and I thought added an interesting element to the story. The setting does have a few interesting elements (e.g. the agoge/wisdom, the planet crysalthamus - excuse the spelling, I listened to this on audio), but the ones that intrigued me weren't very deeply explored (the impact of the wisdom on society would be huge and fascinating!), and instead most of the focus was on the space station, which felt like your standard space fascism with elements of handmaid's tale.
There are lots of themes, which I did find interesting: bodily autonomy, fascism, cycles of revenge driving war, are humans inherently dangerous, impact of propaganda and indoctrination, being queer in a heteronormative world - but I don't think these were any of them explored in much depth, and were dealt with in quite a heavy-handed way. On this aspect, I think this fits better with YA where I wouldn't expect as much nuance. I'd say this book is more focussed on the plot and action, over the world or themes, which will work well for some, but didn't especially for me.
A fun fast-paced romp, with a lot of ambitious interesting elements I'd have liked to see explored more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Suicide, Child abuse, and Genocide
Moderate: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Incest
Minor: Rape and Transphobia
charleyyyyy's review against another edition
5.0
🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵
💫🌟✨️This book made me forget that I was reading✨️🌟💫
👽This book is soooo good and sooo enjoyable!! I never wanted to put it down and was always excited to pick it back up.
The plot is fast, twisty and action packed. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. At some points I was even yelling at the book because of all the emotions it made me feel.
🚀The themes were written and explored so well!! Especially those of radicalisation, reproductive rights, colonialism, and queerness. And how the society you are apart of can effect your view on all of the above, and your own place in the world.
🗡And the charicters were incredibly well developed and written!! I love Kyr, she's so flawed and unlikeable and well writen. She is such a great and interesting main charicter. Yiso and Clio are my other favourite charicters, of course. Yiso's friendship with Kyr was so sweet!
🌍The worldbuilding was interesting, I'm new to sci-fi but I didn't struggle at all with it. This world is the perfect setting to explore these themes in.
🪐The writing sometimes got on my nerves, some times there was too much telling instead of showing, such as :"'with the old one gone, that technology is-' he closed his fist, like crushing something out of existence." Or: "'wow, how deep.' Avi said with heavy sarcasm." The telling is unnecessary in these sentences, we can figure it out on our own.
Or sentences like this: "Ursa would have told her to be less judgmental, but Ursa's opinion had stopped mattering when Ursa left." How many times do you need to say Ursa?????
💫But overall, the writing didn't take away too much enjoyment for me. So while this book has flaws, I still gave it 5 stars because of how much it emotionally impacted me, and how good the story telling was.
🌌I would definitely recommend this book if you like action packed sci-fi with a focus on important, heavy themes, and flawed main charicters.
🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵
💫🌟✨️This book made me forget that I was reading✨️🌟💫
👽This book is soooo good and sooo enjoyable!! I never wanted to put it down and was always excited to pick it back up.
The plot is fast, twisty and action packed. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. At some points I was even yelling at the book because of all the emotions it made me feel.
🚀The themes were written and explored so well!! Especially those of radicalisation, reproductive rights, colonialism, and queerness. And how the society you are apart of can effect your view on all of the above, and your own place in the world.
🗡And the charicters were incredibly well developed and written!! I love Kyr, she's so flawed and unlikeable and well writen. She is such a great and interesting main charicter. Yiso and Clio are my other favourite charicters, of course. Yiso's friendship with Kyr was so sweet!
🌍The worldbuilding was interesting, I'm new to sci-fi but I didn't struggle at all with it. This world is the perfect setting to explore these themes in.
🪐The writing sometimes got on my nerves, some times there was too much telling instead of showing, such as :"'with the old one gone, that technology is-' he closed his fist, like crushing something out of existence." Or: "'wow, how deep.' Avi said with heavy sarcasm." The telling is unnecessary in these sentences, we can figure it out on our own.
Or sentences like this: "Ursa would have told her to be less judgmental, but Ursa's opinion had stopped mattering when Ursa left." How many times do you need to say Ursa?????
💫But overall, the writing didn't take away too much enjoyment for me. So while this book has flaws, I still gave it 5 stars because of how much it emotionally impacted me, and how good the story telling was.
🌌I would definitely recommend this book if you like action packed sci-fi with a focus on important, heavy themes, and flawed main charicters.
🩷💛💜🩵🩷💛💜🩵
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Homophobia, Misogyny, Gun violence, Racism, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, War, Xenophobia, and Pedophilia
cahypa's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read this book bc I saw a review on tumblr (accurately) saying that this is a book about a gay bitch who finally gets it together by the end of the book. Very satisfying to see her realize the truth about her militaristic space station cult and go through a big transformation. The author said in the afterword that she did a lot of research on fundamentalism and North Korea.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Sexual violence and Homophobia
thecriticalreader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
slow-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
3.75
Context:
I borrowed Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh from my library through the Libby App.
Review:
Just to get it out of the way: Some Desperate Glory is billed as a “queer space opera,” but that’s not really what this book is. So, if that’s why you picked up the book, you might want to adjust your expectations. In fact, I would recommend letting go of a lot of expectations even as you start the book because the plot takes a giant left turn at around the 30% mark.
That being said, there is a lot about this book that impressed me. Tesh writes the main character, Kyr, as despicable and deeply unlikable at the beginning, but manages to give her a convincing character arc throughout the story. The side characters, too, are well-written and fascinating. The overall plot hooked me, and I found the ending section to be riveting.
One of the biggest issues I have with Some Desperate Glory is the worldbuilding technological mechanism that allows the plot and character development to occur: it’s baffling—nonsensical, even. The more I try to think about how and why such technology might work, the more my brain hurts. The author even admits that it’s nonsensical in the book’s acknowledgments! Furthermore, Tesh uses this fantastical “technology” to create an unnecessary deus ex machina ending. If I didn’t like the core storyline and the characters so much, this flaw would have ruined the book for me.
In terms of the thematic elements of the book, I liked that the book used its (quite dark and disturbing) dystopian elements to condemn fascism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. There are a few missteps here and there—for example, I found it impossible to root for a character, who, in a slightly different timeline, casually committed mass genocide of trillions of people —and some lack of nuance as Tesh focuses on developing the story and characters. However, I couldn’t help but cheer on Kyr as she grows as a person and fights to save the world and the people she cares about.
The Run-Down:
You will probably like Some Desperate Glory if . . .
· You want to read a story with flawed, complex characters
· You like time travel/multiverse fiction
· You want a gripping sci-fi story that keeps you on the edge of your seat
You might not like Some Desperate Glory if . . .
· You are sensitive to the triggers listed at the beginning of the book—seriously, things get dark!
· You don’t want to read from the perspective of someone who is truly a garbage human being (at least to start)
· You want to read about a lesbian romance (there is little to no romance in this book)
· You hate when science fiction worldbuilding makes no sense
A Similar Book:
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Similarities include:
· A young, genetically engineered protagonist who is trained and groomed to fight in a war between humans and aliens
· Discussions surrounding genetic engineering/eugenics, military propaganda, and genocide
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Ableism, War, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Xenophobia, Genocide, Misogyny, and Suicide
Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Pregnancy, and Rape
forthe_girlwhowaited's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Genocide, and Suicide
milliemudd's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, War, Child abuse, and Genocide
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Bullying, Racism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Outing
Minor: Abortion and Misogyny