Reviews with content warning for War - Victories Greater Than Death

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Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

14 reviews

bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny medium-paced

2.5

“There are victories greater than death. I can see justice coming.”

➽ I had high hopes for Victories Greater Than Death as it sounded like a fun space opera! The story follows Tina, the clone of a powerful alien commander, who has been hiding out on Earth until it's time for her to return. When the beacon inside her activates, she's suddenly on the run from dangerous aliens who want to finish what they started. I really liked the idea of Tina being a clone who is supposed to take the place of her predecessor and original who died at the hands of the villain. Tina herself was immediately lovable, she's loyal and fierce, but also insecure about the expectations she was burdened with. Everyone looks to her to save the galaxy from the evil Marrant. Reviving her memories and skills doesn't quite go according to plan, so Tina is scrambling for another plan to fulfil her destiny.

➽ I liked the beginning of the story, as it was a fast-paced chase to escape Earth. I also enjoyed Tina's dynamic with Racheal, her socially anxious best friend who stands by her and ends up going to space with her. In general, the story had potential as it covers a vast, expansive world with multiple different species and their cultures. I liked the discussions about Marrant's xenophobia, as he believes only humanoid species should exist and rejects anyone who looks too 'alien'. His secret power is especially sinister and actually poses a threat to the crew!

➽ Unfortunately, the story was all over the place. After an interesting start, things quickly stagnated and I didn't feel invested at all. The author made many abrupt scene changes (like we'd suddenly be in the middle of a random mission/training) and sometimes we'd just be told something had happened instead of seeing it first-hand. The book both felt too short and too long at the same time. There was so much room for a better-developed plot, but at the same time, the story was full of info dumps that made it dense. Tina becoming a space Wikipedia was so annoying as she'd randomly give us all the information on an alien race/planet/ship etc. like she'd read an actual Wikipedia article out loud. It was such a clumsy way to explain the world and led to me not remembering anything about the alien races we met. The lore wasn't incorporated into the plot and I feel like the expansive world was wasted.

➽ I also wasn't charmed by the characters or relationships. Apart from Tina and Rachael, everyone else was so forgettable. I think it was a mistake to have Tina recruit promising teenagers from Earth to join them. Why not focus on the alien crew of the ship? That way we could have actually learned about the different species in an organic way and it would have been more interesting than reading about a bunch of human teens. Tina and Elza's romance came out of nowhere and they went from disliking each other to being in love way too quickly. The rest of the human teenagers had one or two characteristics but then weren't further developed. It was disappointing to have the spotlight on them and not the actual aliens, who had much more experience and different backgrounds.

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hendrixpants's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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

3.75

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ethuiliel's review

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adventurous inspiring reflective tense 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? No

5.0

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.5

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evelynyle_88's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.0

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tigger89's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.0

This was good YA. It is, however, very firmly YA, and not likely to appeal to someone who reads only adult sci-fi with the occasional borderline older-YA title. I'm bringing that up to be clear about what kind of book this is, not to say it's bad. In fact, I think it benefits from being so profoundly YA; if this same story had been written outside of the YA perspective, without the refusal to accept limitations that defines that category of literature, the themes likely would have been suffocating.

This book has a lot of aliens in it. Something I would've liked to see more of(hopefully we will, in future books) is a deeper dive into their cultures, not just a quirky rundown of how they are but why they're that way. I wish I'd known when I picked the book up that there was a glossary in the back, because it would have saved me a fair bit of confusion and flipping back and forth. More authors should put the glossary in the front, so we have it when we need it instead of being surprised by it at the end!

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was how the story jumped from scene to scene, suddenly being jerked along to the next thing(in media res, even) as soon as the prior thing resolved, and often with retroactive narration to fill the gap. This can be an excellent technique to use once or twice, but it felt overused here. The book wasn't very long, so I feel like we could have afforded a few more lengthy transitions.

What I feel like the story did very well was the cast of characters, specifically the recruits from Earth. There's four of them for a total of five Earthlings, plus Tina. They're all of varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds, bringing different strengths to the team. It's a strong cast to carry the plot through the rest of the trilogy, and I look forward to seeing what the other parts have in store.

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