A review by bookcheshirecat
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

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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