Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Some Desperate Glory

I don't rate this lowly because it is a bad book, but because I did not enjoy it. This does not mean you will not! Especially if you enjoy books with huge political/social commentary as part of the messaging. I personally do not look for messaging when picking books to read. I get enough from social media and friends/family. This becomes a detractor for me when what i am looking for is an escape.

I also dont enjoy most sci-fi. This is absolutely that.

The rest of my review I feel should be in spoiler tags. Read at your own risk.

The book did not go where I thought it would, and ulimately that is the only thing that kept me from DNFing at 40ish percent. However, it didnt lean into the redo over and over scheme enough for me to have enjoyed it. I really should have quit at 20 percent in when I was just uncomfortable listening to the brainwashed Kyr. She never does become entirely likable.
The book covers a lot of massively disturbing concepts- and it covers them from the mind of a blindly accepting cult. Its VASTLY unnerving and uncomfortable. Eugenics, Child/adult relationships and assault of minors, forced childbearing, militant control and brainwashing. Truly heinous.

I do not reccomend this book to people who read for enjoyment only. This book is meant to be critiqued, not pleasantly enjoyed in an evening or two. You will walk away disturbed chapter after chapter.

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sadhbh2525's review

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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

5.0

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m_petranoff's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense 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

5.0

A phenomenal futuristic dystopian science-fiction novel that looks at how someone can be a part of, perpetuate, and glorify fascism, and how one can disentangle oneself from it. With breakneck pacing and concise, clear character development, this book gives you an unlikable protagonist who is shocked to discover how unlikable she is and does something about it. Without any spoilers, it's an incredibly well-built world that tells a compelling story, then, about halfway through, changes all the rules. My only complaint was that I wanted more.

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indy_go_go22's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful 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

3.75

The pacing was a little odd. I think this book might have tried to tackle too much in too few pages.

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ceruleanseas's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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valjeanval's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I ended up pretty mixed on this one. At first, I was really bored. The lawful neutral protagonist who can't get a clue in a dystopia that just didn't make any sense.

You want the human race to survive by both training women for war and also relegating them to a breeding harem? And you are controlled breeding people but also have sex as much as you want with the concubines but being gay is not ok? I see the inspiration in other controlled societies, but this one seemed like it shouldn't have lasted 2 years, especially with a leader as lacking in charisma or skills as Jole.

It feels like the message of the book is a good one, but for me that message superseded the actual writing, and made the story as a whole fall a bit flat for me. It still won the Hugo, and while it wouldn't have been my pick, I see why it got the nomination. The aliens are good, the plot once you're off of Gaea station is intriuging, and the pace is sharp. As a rule though, I just kept coming back to the fact that I didn't really enjoy spending time with any of the characters, and that this was one of the dumber dystopias out there, built more to highlight reality's flaws than because it makes sense for the world-building.

So yeah, I'm going with 4 stars because it was better than a lot of things I give three stars, but overall kind of meh.

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ablanket42's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

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talonsontypewriters's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Excluding a few awkward bits each, the worldbuilding and plot are both fairly strong -- one twist especially spiked my enjoyment -- but I don't honestly feel like the themes, heavy-handed as they are, delved quite as deep as they could have. In particular, certain tenets of the criticized ideological systems go unchallenged and even almost tacitly confirmed as true. I guess you could argue that they were meant to be more subtly folded into the rest of the overarching criticism, but since other things are directly addressed just fine, I find it a bit odd.

Also, maybe I'm just oversensitive about F/F relationships rarely being afforded the same complexity as M/M or F/M ones, but the distinct handling of Kyr and Mags's identities and relationships does rub me the wrong way. Mags and Avi's relationship is consistently one of the more plot-relevant (and a bit fucked up for various reasons), and despite not being perspective characters, they each get in some brief thoughtful dialogue on their identities and realizations thereof. Kyr, on the other hand, gets some repressed subtext and

a single date with a relatively minor, extremely underdeveloped character in a different timeline

, and her introspection about her sexuality is pretty much limited to that aforementioned repression/dismissal and fleeting surprise, which comes across as especially odd given the worldview she starts out with.

Kyr's bigotry in general felt a bit... diluted, as if the author wanted to write a deradicalization arc but didn't want to start her off as so obscenely awful that many wouldn't be interested in reading -- the point gets through, just judging from how many reviews are complaining about how unlikable she was (that is the point!), but to me it felt like a pulled punch. It's not helped by how quickly her development occurs, either, with some token resistance and lingering vestiges afterward not quite enough to make it feel truly realistic or cathartic.

Fine as a story, but falls short in its scaffolding social commentary, which is neither especially unique in concept nor exceptionally powerful in execution. Might have been better marketed as YA, though I feel some further nuance than is provided would still be expected there.

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