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

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

21 reviews

deedireads's review

adventurous dark tense medium-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

All my reviews live at https://deedireads.com/.

Honestly, I can’t believe Some Desperate Glory wasn’t on my radar until it was nominated for the Hugo, especially with such blurb power (VE Schwab, Tamsyn Muir, Alix Harrow, Shelley Parker-Chan, John Scalzi, and more). But wow am I glad it showed up!!

The book is set in a future where Earth has been destroyed and the last colony of humans lives and trains to exact revenge. The main character, Kyr, is an unlikeable but highly skilled trainee about to receive her official placement — until that placement goes wrong and everything she thought she knew gets turned on its head.

This is one hell of a story. It especially picks up halfway — I think I literally said “whaaaaat!” out loud in a room all by myself. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book about what is essentially an awakening from brainwashing, but it does set up a lot of exploration of important themes like racism, homophobia, sexism, suicide, and eugenics. In fact I’d almost say it’s a little heavy handed on some of this stuff, but in a forgivable way.

The audiobook performance was also good, but because there’s a decent amount of worldbuilding, I’d recommend starting the book in print and switching to audio once you’ve got a handle on things (or listening as you read along).

I could definitely see this winning the Hugo!

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avacadosocks's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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emily_mh'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
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this book on a friend’s recommendation and honestly bless her, because it was phenomenal. It’s the kind of story where I had no idea what was going to happen next, and I mean that in the best possible way. Every time I would be like “ah, it’s this trope”, and then pages later Tesh would flip everything on its head. I was sooooo invested and truly hooked by this fresh, original approach.

The plot was not the only mind-blowing thing about the book. It was also packed with existentialism, posing questions such as: what choices in the past lead us to our current reality? Are there certain outcomes which are inevitable in every reality? Who gets to decide what is for the “greater good” - who gets to even DEFINE the “greater good”? I love when books pose these ethical and philosophical questions and then the whole narrative is an exploration of them. Some may be answered, some may be left open, ultimately beyond the scope of the story to answer. But in every case the reader is challenged to consider things they may never have before.

Tesh also tackles extremist indoctrination as a main theme, as MC Kyr (along with most of the SCs), experiences this having grown up on Gaea Station, a military post containing the humans who survived the destruction of Earth and seek revenge from the alien perpetrators. This was heavy to read about. Gaea’s society is founded on eugenics (specifically relating to race and ability), as well as misogyny, sexism, queerphobia, and bioessentialism, and the sexual violence these engender. And Kyr, at the beginning of the book, is the poster child for Gaea. Her character arc is inexplicably wrapped up in deprogramming her indoctrination as she is exposed to the world outside Gaea. It is truly astonishing how much Kyr changes over the course of the novel, and how much she discovers about herself when free from oppressive social constructs. Kyr is by no means perfect at the end of the book, but she also isn’t the same person she was in the first chapter. It is important to note that Tesh as the author always presents the above topics (eugenics, sexual violence) as abhorrent. Even when Kyr doesn’t understand their horrors, you as the reader know that Gaea is deeply, deeply wrong, that Kyr is deeply, deeply wrong, and Tesh does too.

I wouldn’t say this is “found family” like the synopsis proclaims. Every relationship in the book is too complicated and messy and often filled with both love AND hate, to fit neatly into a usually wholesome and straightforward trope. And that’s to this book’s credit. The characters all feel real because none of them can be perfectly squared away into an archetype, their understandably complicated reactions to one another birthed out of the complex situations they find themselves in.

I am so glad my friend recommended this to me and that I decided to give it a go. The only criticisms I can think of right now are that I wish the commentary on eugenics and disability had been made more explicit, and that the ending felt a touch deus ex machina (but maybe that was ironically intentional). Regardless, this book deserved its 5 stars.

Rep: queer MC, queer SCs, Afro-Latina SC

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rikagx's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

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

4.0

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exaal's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

"Some Desperate Glory" is an exciting tale with many twists and turns. Taking a page out of Ender's Game, this book explores the morality behind warfare, the conscription of child soldiers, xenophobia, and the fate of the human race. With LGBTQ+ undertones, the main character, Kyr, goes through drastic changes in character in this story that spans time and space.

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minervacerridwen'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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love that this book didn't treat brainwashing as something a character can just as easily shake off. The things Kyr had learned all her life kept returning to haunt her, and I think that's the strength of this book. Action-packed with some shocking turns and interesting worldbuilding, Some Desperate Glory was an impressive rollercoaster.

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tigger89's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-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

This book was fantastic. I can't even say too much about why I loved it, because most of the things that were so great are massive spoilers! I'll settle for saying that it takes several familiar sci-fi tropes — some of which you'll spot immediately, and others which take some time to reveal themselves — and remixes them into something that felt both fresh and timely.

The most impressive non-spoilery thing the book accomplished was managing to keep the reader just slightly more clued-in than the main character is. It's tricky to keep that balance with the reveals, between the reader knowing everything too early and the main character essentially narrating every logical step. I also enjoyed the setting, particularly the aliens and their sufficiently-advanced-technology, and the way the characters were developed as the plot went on.

I will warn you that you're not going to like the main character. She's a real piece of work when we first meet her. I promise, she gets better. Much better. Ordinarily such massive transformations over the course of one book ring hollow, but due to the spoilers I actually believed it this time. I also want to say that, if you're anything like me, you're probably going to be wondering around the 15-20% mark if you can trust the author with what this book seems to be taking on. The answer is yes. Again avoiding spoilers, but the things that are making you raise your eyebrows are intentional and serve the plot.

My biggest point of contention with the book was with the ending. It was foreshadowed pretty early on, so it wasn't deus ex machina. It's fair enough, I guess. It just felt a little too convenient for my tastes. Like, the bow shouldn't have tied up so neatly, if that makes sense? But I'm not really mad at it.

Does the tiger die?

There is, in one scene, a tiger. I'm not kidding. The tiger is presented from its introduction as an adversary, and is killed(in a somewhat graphic manner) in the course of a character defending themself.

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pineapple_queen's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-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

5.0

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the_lesbrarian's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

Who gets to decide what the greater good is? And what happens when we disagree over what that means?

Some Desperate Glory is a beautiful, unexpected story about what it means to be human in this universe. Following violence and love through interweaving threads of space and time, Some Desperate Glory asks the question “what’s worth fighting for” through the eyes of a 17 year old child soldier in a militant space colony set to avenge a murdered Earth. The world created in this novel is brutal, and the characters are, at times, shockingly cruel, though their capacity for gentleness and reflection often reveals itself at surprising moments. While reading this book, I laughed out loud in surprise, joy, and painful recognition. Tesh identifies her work as “social science fiction,” and I couldn’t agree more.

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callmekt's review

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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.

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