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westvaleabby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia
poisonenvy's review against another edition
- 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
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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.
Graphic: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Genocide, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Suicide
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Rape, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship
sissix_'s review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Genocide, Suicide, Violence, and War
Moderate: Racism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, and Ableism
analenegrace's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.5
The feminism of this book is so important as it takes a character who is a staunch believer in her bio-essentialist community and learns to see the amazingness of the women around her and the women who came before her; especially those who beared children for their community.
Often we not only forget the women who came before us, but forget the women around us, forced to live a bio-essentialist life. This book is an important reminder, especially in a post-Roe world, the importance of who we consider when we discuss feminism, intersectionality, and bio-essentialism.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, War, Body shaming, Classism, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Confinement, Murder, and Outing
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Abortion
kylek's review against another edition
Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia
adancewithbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The thing about Some Desperate Glory is that you aren't going to like the characters, especially our main character Kyr. She was raised to be a facist, radicalized. It was the only view she knew and she never questioned it. There was no room. It isn't until her brother dissapears and she doesn't get the assignment she wants (breeding factory instead of soldier) that there is slight room for critique.
Kyr spends this book trying to unlearn everything she has been raised to believe and it takes quite a few different realities for her to be able to discard some of that. The saving of the universe is just a backdrop to that. It shows an interesting look at how internalized some of those teachings can be and how hard it can be to realize, analyze and then actually do something about it. The mind is a funny thing. It also deals with all kinds of abuse and suicide. In that way it can be a hard book to read.
'The wisdom was a transtemporal and pandimensional intelligence capable of shaping the fates of trillions. I am a pleasure yacht.
"Seriously?"
I intend to experiment with unseriousness. I am finally of a size appropiate for levity.'
That doesn't mean it is all seriously. There is a whole lot of bonding between the characters and room for some humor as well. And that created a whole book that I ended up loving for a variety of reasons.
Graphic: Violence, Suicide, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Genocide
Moderate: Sexism, Transphobia, Racism, Ableism, and Homophobia
Minor: Rape
jrbenson95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Suicide, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Sexism, and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual assault
kira_apple's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Rape, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Homophobia
piratenami's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: War, Suicide, Violence, Genocide, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Transphobia, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, and Pregnancy
azrah786's review against another edition
3.5
**I received a proof copy from Orbit Books UK in exchange for an honest review**
CW: violence, gun violence, blood, injury, murder, death, death of parent (off page), suicidal ideation, suicide, war, genocide, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, ableism, sexual assault, rape (off page), pregnancy, child abuse, radicalisation, gaslighting, confinement
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Some Desperate Glory is a fast paced, action packed sci-fi that will keep you on your toes.
The story revolves around Kyr, a young super soldier who has been brought up on Gaea Station as part of a militarised fascist cult, a group determined to avenge humanity from the Majoda - aliens who obliterated Earth with the help of a reality bending technology known as the Wisdom. However, when it comes to being assigned a division to serve in Kyr is allocated to Nursery, where she is expected to bear children, and her brother is sent on a mission to certain death. Less than pleased with her fate Kyr sets off to save her brother instead and to claim her higher purpose in the war against the Majoda. What she doesn’t expect is the reality check she gets along the way.
One of the big selling points about this book is that it is labelled as a queer space opera. Some things you should know going in is that yes the MC (and a few of the supporting cast) identify as queer but there is not much in terms of romance in this book. There is very little. In fact with characters who are so rigorously indoctrinated as part of a patriarchal community there are a lot of disparaging attitudes towards anyone who identifies as queer in the story and the MC’s journey has a lot to do with unlearning her brainwashing and coming to terms with her own identity. On that note there are A LOT of heavy topics so please take care when picking this one up and definitely check the content warnings before doing so.
The various characters in the book are all pretty morally ambiguous but the single POV narrative means we mainly get accustomed with Kyr and she is not a likable protagonist at all. Her age and mannerisms make the book have a YA feel to it which again is not what you would expect going in so this might be off putting for some people. Her journey and development over the course of the book are in some way inspiring and make you warm towards her a little but I’m not sure I totally liked her by the end either. Her saving grace in a sense and what allowed me to put up with her was how much she actually cared for her brother. I'd definitely give Tesh credit for character relationships throughout this book because they were an interesting mix and written and developed quite well.
What I also really like were the little snippets from text/books that we got at the beginning of each part fleshing out the history and philosophy surrounding everything occurring in the book. Plus I always love seeing different interpretations on reality bending / subrealities / alternate timelines and Tesh’s take on it was pretty cool. Otherwise I have to say the worldbuilding does come across as a little simplistic.
This is an edge of your seat type of read where a lot is happening. The plot itself is simple but it’s the type of sci-fi where everything is storming on ahead and by the time you register what they mean some new twist gets thrown in. Sometimes this makes for the best sci-fi, other times this can be quite frustrating. I’d say for the most part this book falls into the former however, I did get lost by some parts when it came to the reality changing / Shadowspace technology. It is never fully explained so didn’t feel even slightly credible.
The last thing that I do want to point out is a very questionable moment which occurs towards the end of the book which I really don’t think was necessary - Rebecca Roanhorse’s review touches on it here – and this made me knock off another half star.
But all in all this was an extremely engaging story about indoctrination and survival that despite not being particularly ground-breaking was an entertaining read all the same.
Final Rating – 3.5/5 Stars
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, Death, Suicide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Sexism, Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Ableism, War, and Child abuse
Moderate: Gaslighting, Confinement, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Rape, and Pregnancy