Reviews with content warning for Rape - Some Desperate Glory

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

123 reviews

oldwindways's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.25

Content Warnings

pinkprincesse2's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

3.75

Content Warnings

nikshelby's review against another edition

Go to review page

DNF — I only made it to the Content Warning. Some other day I may be in the mood for rape, suicide, abuse, forced pregnancy (and I don’t know what else)…but today is not that day.

It’s highly rated, and came from recommenders I listen to.

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? It's complicated

5.0

Look, I have been delaying writing this review - it's been over a week since I finished it - because I am so unconfident in my ability to do it, and my feelings about it, justice. Immediately after finishing, I waxed poetic about it enough that my partner now has it on his bedside table, planning to read it (which rarely happens...this novel is an example of a perfectly placed slice of our overlapping interests). And I wish someone had recorded what I said in that monologue, becasue I am struggling to (re)find the right words (or even those long-winded, but at least remotely representative, words) now. But, as I'm me, I'm going to try anyways.

Calling on Goodreads for the assist with this blurb: "All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity. They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, 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, she escapes from everything she’s ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined."

This novel is one of the most absolutely fantastic things I've ever read. It is so unique and creative and nuanced, not in a general sense (this story of Earth and its people entering into a larger “space” community/governmental system has been told many times, it captures all imaginations), but in the details. The details, the path the story takes (and takes again, and then takes one more time), is completely its own. It took so many unexpected turns! Like, every time-bending jump involved both the obvious *and* twists that caught me unawares. There were so many subversions of what I expect from sci-fi (Tesh never shied away from making the hardest/ugliest calls) and yet it was also so clearly and recognizably what makes the genre a classic. I purposefully slowed down my reading of this to savor every moment.

And through it all there were a few themes that just hit, over and over and over. The cycle of violence is strong and present. And, of course and as always (because it's too unrealistic to not have a dystopian-tyle situation that doesn't highlight this), no matter what the situation and setting and time period, a woman's worth is always brought down to her ability to reproduce which is then (of course) never taken as seriously as other societal contributions, *despite( all supposed argument to the contrary. My god it’s depressing. Is a people/future worth the full loss of reproductive self/determination? Is anything worth that? Also, the trauma is...a lot. But I enjoyed the exploration of the way that everyone responds differently to it, made manifest on a scale so grand it’s honestly unimaginable (the destruction of Earth).

I loved Tesh's choice to make our MC, Kyr, mostly deeply unlikable...without excuse. And yes, as the story goes, she develops and learns and gets angry and decides to make herself different...and yet she never does dwell much in regret for who she was or the place that made her. It was pragmatic and unapologetic AF. That POV is not a popular one - not quite a hero, not quite a villian, just a product of an environment and a harsh coming of age - and the nuances with which Tesh wrote it were spectacular. By the end, I was both cheering for Kyr and still hesitant to trust her new presentation. What literary finesse. Many of the side characters get their own complex journeys and growth. I particularly loved-to-dislike, similar to Kyr herself, Ari and Cleo. And I appreciated what Max and Yisa brought to the development of the plot and Kyr herself, though they were less compelling to me, individually. This was definitely a novel carried by the less likable characters - the space they took up was large and loud - and I have always loved reading that style of character. And I really liked the way that, in every possible iteration of a life, Tesh made the core of a person that shines through - perseverance and evil/power-hungry will find their ways, no matter the individual circumstances or difference. A nice touch.

Let's see... I took a lot of random notes while reading and want to way all the things, but some don't really fit with anything else. So, I'm going to lump a bunch here. First, I had some real Ender's Game vibes, from the militaristic society of Gaea and the VR game-style training (and then the ways it's used later/beyond that). Though the brainwashing/cultishness in this book definitely takes the cake for "worse." Ooff. Gaea is what I imagine the world would be like if all the “math/science are all that matter” people won and there was no more space/funding for arts and literature - cold and heartless and uninspired. The world needs a bit of it all, to be full and meaningful. I am always here for sci-fi that is quality but not based on “real” science - that’s my sweet spot, I can just sink in and it’s not trying to hard to be believable, it just is (like great fantasy, which is my original comfort genre). The world-building was solid, even without Tesh burying the readers in all the specs on how the science worked, thankfully. (And actually, as she writes in the Acknowledgements/Afterwards, the shadowspace "science" is pretty much made-up, so no specs even exist. Lovely.) The way that the meaning of “we’re Earth’s children and while we live, the enemy will fear us” evolves over the course of the novel is super well done.

This felt, to me like the in-between of Martine's A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace (which have similar intensity/seriousness vibes, with higher levels of technicality and world-building, but possibly less creative twists and more distant character development) and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (which is softer/homier, and less intense on storyline, but similar space opera and science/world vibes). Oh, with a splash of the different world iterations from The Space Between Worlds and some similar vibes, though I can't quite put my finger on how, to The Vanished Birds. Along with Ender's Game, I would say they are not necessarily readalikes, but I'd recommend each to others who have enjoyed one of them already. Does that make any sense? Anyways...

I appreciate a view of humanity from the external like this, distilling things we think make us unique and special into elements that are hard to be proud of, heartbreaking truths that you don’t want to believe and would be easier to turn away from and ignore cognitive dissonance from, but are necessary to face head on, in order to recognize where we can/should work to be better. I’m always impressed with authors who can step outside and be observational like that and Tesh is exemplary on that front here. Overall, this was just an epic in three parts, spectacular and mind-bending and absolutely stellar (pun intended). I highly recommend this one.

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

“Proving you were capable of saving the world didn’t mean you could, or that anyone would let you.”

“It is perhaps best to understand honor as operating optionally and on the individual level, while the authoritative driving forces of human military design work perpetually on the most ruthless calculus of cost and benefit.”

“A peace brought about with the threat of violence is only a war in waiting.”

“Kyr felt suddenly and forcefully the weight of legacy. [...] she owed her duty not to some abstract unknown planet but to the women who'd come before her.”

“What a waste it was, what a terrible waste, to take a person who dreamed cities and gardens and enormous shining skies and teach him that the only answer to an unanswerable suffering was slaughter.”

Content Warnings

abarnakwn_ourcolourfulpages's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.75

Content Warnings

pdxpagemaster's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

How do I even begin ?!

This is now the standard for all space operas. The richness of relationships, the varied flaws in characters, the need to overcome self to be able to save who you love, the pain of leaving spaces that indoctrinated you and the relief of finding your true self on the other side.

And looking back to watch exactly how your sister’s rapist and your abuser dies FUCK yes

Genuinely, every space opera slated book now pales in comparison for me. These rich characters and dynamic setting bending fabrics of time and space was so clever and new. Absolutely brilliant.

Content Warnings

cdomonoske's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark fast-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? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

miavrml's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.5

The book was written really well and it was so exiting to read. In the beginning it was hard to like Kyr, but now i love her deeply. The story is really awesome and i like all the twists and plots… Also really loved how humans greed and disgusting sides were portrayed in this.
Over all a 4,5/5 because it was a bit too slow in some parts of the book where i was a bit bored.

Content Warnings

kylosten's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous tense 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? Yes

4.5

This was initially hard for me to get into.
It throws you right into the story with very little explanation of the world or how it works (the worldbuilding does happen after the initial few chapters and I do think it's solidly done once it starts happening) and Kyr is initially very difficult to like or root for. She's been brainwashed from living in a militaristic space station. She starts to question small things fairly early on but continues to cling to the ideas she's learned until probably 60% into the story.
She does grow and eventually I found myself truly hoping she would succeed. The character growth is actually some of the best I've seen recently and I'm glad I stuck through the initial frustration with her as a character.
I found some of the descriptions of shadowspace and how the distortions around the shadow engines worked to be a little confusing but overall it didn't really stop me from enjoying the wibbly wobbly timey wimey butterfly effect story once that aspect of it really started. I think the science is not meant to be really fully understood or grounded in reality but I could see that being an issue for some readers.
It dealt with themes of propaganda and the prejudice and biases we have from where we live and grow up vs what our conscience and gut tells us and I think it did that well. It also dealt with the downfalls of hyperindividualism and the importance of community, us vs them mentality, and more.
This is overall a very solid space opera sci fi that dealt with important themes from our real lives and I already want to read it again with the benefit of hindsight.

Content Warnings

especiallysarah's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Content Warnings

More...