Scan barcode
nettleviolet's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-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? Yes
5.0
Some Desperate Glory is what I think sci-fi is supposed to be -- an exploration of complex human issues like war, genocide, choice, family and radicalization through the lens of a world that doesn't have our rules.
This book is fast paced and intense with lots of action and lots to think about. It doesn't pull punches. It looks at the horrors and effects of genocide and war and the ways that individuals, as much as systems, as responsible. There were times when I had to put the book down just to integrate the immensity of what just happened and that, to me, is a sign of a good book -- how it gets into your bones.
The characters are unlikeable but very sympathetic and the main character's growth and development was very well done.
The sci fi aspects of shadow space, the aliens, the Wisdom and multiple realities were all very well done and, though the shadow space was not based on actual science, it was well enough explained that this imaginary spacial force was believable.
Overall, this is the best scifi I've read in a LONG time and is what attracted me to scifi in the first place, and what keeps bringing me back over and over again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Genocide, War, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, and Sexual violence
paukinra's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, War, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Outing, Gun violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Sexual violence, Incest, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, and Death
Moderate: Xenophobia and Pregnancy
tigger89's review against another edition
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.
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?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Bullying, Animal death, Death, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and War
the_lesbrarian's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Murder
Minor: Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, War, Death of parent, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Torture
fjalar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Homophobia, Genocide, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny
callmekt's review against another edition
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>
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Genocide, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, War, and Rape
Moderate: Torture, Suicide, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Gun violence
tinytrashqueen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Genocide, Transphobia, Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape
wheemsicott's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.25
Okay, so. The pacing of this was trash. A real case of timeloop syndrome and the mental exhaustion that goes with it. The POV character didn't help matters either. She was written with great care, don't get me wrong; I have nothing but respect for the way Tesh intelligently and thoroughly put her through the pear wiggler. The thing is, she did it so slowly. And Kyr starts off so damn insufferable. You won't enjoy a single second inside her head if you're not the sort of person who's willing to give characters (by which i mean female ones) the space to grow and learn.
Fortunately, I am that sort of person. And I'm truly happy I kept reading despite my sense of fatigue, because I was rewarded with such a unique story. I adored the thoughtful worldbuilding, the socio-political commentary, the main cast being so full of weirdo freaks (Mags, Lisabel and Yiso non-withstanding). Sure, sometimes illogical things just seemed to happen because they "should", but those weaker moments were few and far between.
Some Desperate Glory is, overall, a fresh space opera with a lot of to say--most of it scathing. And many people would benefit from listening.
Fortunately, I am that sort of person. And I'm truly happy I kept reading despite my sense of fatigue, because I was rewarded with such a unique story. I adored the thoughtful worldbuilding, the socio-political commentary, the main cast being so full of weirdo freaks (Mags, Lisabel and Yiso non-withstanding). Sure, sometimes illogical things just seemed to happen because they "should", but those weaker moments were few and far between.
Some Desperate Glory is, overall, a fresh space opera with a lot of to say--most of it scathing. And many people would benefit from listening.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence
rsb12's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Genocide, Murder, Alcohol, Death of parent, and War
literaryintersections's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
5.0
My brain ➡️ “idk what tf is going on but I LOVE IT”
Y’all get this book. It’s queer. It’s a SPACE OPERA. It’s violent. Some of the best sci fi I’ve read recently. What are you waiting for????
A few things - I think this book does an amazing job of worldbuilding. You are immediately dropped into an Earth type world but have no clue what is going on. And then you are just along for the ride as Tesh slowly feeds you bit after bit about what happened to Earth, who the aliens are, who the villains are. The twists and turns took me by complete surprise. I can't say more without spoiling but that first shift in the story I literally just put the book down and stared into space.
Now I loved Kyr. She is truly a horrible character in the beginning because she is brainwashed. BUT, as she learns, as she explores other people and experiences, as she starts to break away from being a cold robot, she becomes so much more. And she gets challenged in her shitty ways. I think Tesh did a great job of giving us a rough character who we ultimately know is terrible and has other characters tell her that she is terrible. It's not just shitty for the sake of shitty. And I loved Cleo. She was prob my favorite character in the entire book besides Yiso.
There's been a lot of talk about the whole hair part at the end. As a Black person, it didn't bother me. Does it make sense? No. But it didn't take away from the story for me.
It is also important to note that this is sometimes billed as a "sapphic space opera" and imo that is not correct. Queer? 100%. Sapphic? Not 100% clear. There is an inkling of sapphic romance. There is very much queer relationships. But it is not a romance book. Nor does it even have strong romantic elements.
Overall I fucking loved this.
Y’all get this book. It’s queer. It’s a SPACE OPERA. It’s violent. Some of the best sci fi I’ve read recently. What are you waiting for????
A few things - I think this book does an amazing job of worldbuilding. You are immediately dropped into an Earth type world but have no clue what is going on. And then you are just along for the ride as Tesh slowly feeds you bit after bit about what happened to Earth, who the aliens are, who the villains are. The twists and turns took me by complete surprise. I can't say more without spoiling but that first shift in the story I literally just put the book down and stared into space.
Now I loved Kyr. She is truly a horrible character in the beginning because she is brainwashed. BUT, as she learns, as she explores other people and experiences, as she starts to break away from being a cold robot, she becomes so much more. And she gets challenged in her shitty ways. I think Tesh did a great job of giving us a rough character who we ultimately know is terrible and has other characters tell her that she is terrible. It's not just shitty for the sake of shitty. And I loved Cleo. She was prob my favorite character in the entire book besides Yiso.
There's been a lot of talk about the whole hair part at the end. As a Black person, it didn't bother me. Does it make sense? No. But it didn't take away from the story for me.
It is also important to note that this is sometimes billed as a "sapphic space opera" and imo that is not correct. Queer? 100%. Sapphic? Not 100% clear. There is an inkling of sapphic romance. There is very much queer relationships. But it is not a romance book. Nor does it even have strong romantic elements.
Overall I fucking loved this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Death of parent, and Death
Moderate: Violence and Sexual violence
Minor: Sexual harassment