I loved 'All the Birds in the Sky' and 'The City in the Middle of the Night', and was overjoyed to see that Charlie Jane Anders was taking her first stab at YA. I was even more excited to be able to get it as an ARC! (This honest review is in exchange for the free digital access)

A quick blurb: Tina has known since she was thirteen that she had a higher calling-- literally. Some day, someone would be coming from the stars to whisk her away to resume her post as one of the most celebrated heroes of the Royal Fleet. See, Tina is a clone of the fallen Captain Argentian, who gave her life to save her crew. When the Fleet comes calling, Tina/Argentian is their greatest hope in their fight against the insidious Compassion, but Tina struggles with this expectation. With Tina and a ragtag band of other Earthlings along for the ride, the crew of HMSS Indomitable strike out across the stars to find the means to stop the Compassion's scourge.

This is a fast-moving sci-fi adventure. The pacing is slightly jerky, in my opinion, but it definitely doesn't drag. For reference, it reads a lot like Becky Chambers' "A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet' in terms of the skipping between events (I do kind of wonder if this is actually pretty apt for space travel, with so many long down times). While this was slightly disorienting at times, it kept the book trimmer than sci-fi epics like this usually are, which was nice. The writing was strong, although I do think that (as other reviewers suggested) there is a little bit of dumbing down from Anders' adult narration that didn't need to happen.

Content-wise, there was a lot of awesome stuff here on two fronts. From a sci-fi front, I loved a lot of the questions the book posed about things like humanoid bias and the interactions of cultures. It's definitely not hard sci-fi, but encompasses enough plausible specifics to explore interesting questions. Anders has definitely played Mass Effect :)

From a queer/social justice perspective, this book has a lot to offer. First, the normalization of pronouns other than he/she was great, especially the default inclusion of pronouns in introductions. One great moment was someone says what her pronouns are before threatening to kick someone's ass. Amazing. It seems as if homophobia doesn't exist in the Royal Fleet, and why should it? The characters also, without fail, ask for consent before touching, sexual or platonic. Though this read as awkward to me (because We Live In A Society), the characters didn't treat it as such-- if science fiction can imagine aliens and space travel, why not societies in which people take consent seriously? I think the behavior in the book is an amazing model for teens talking about touching that I wish I had had.

Ultimately this isn't quite a 5/5 for me. The narrative definitely stutters a bit, and like many other first sci-fi novels in a series a little bit too much is packed in. As much as I loved all of the ideas presented, the book felt slightly packed-to-the-seams with exposition. It's a super strong 4/5, though, and in my experience the book being overstuffed likely allows the rest of the series to ease up on the exposition and really blossom. Really really looking forward to the next one, and will definitely be recommending this to kids in search of exciting sci-fi or great queer characters.

Every character development lover’s dream!!
Not a single character in this book felt flat, they all felt real and fleshed out and unique. It reminded me of Star Trek TNG in all the best ways. The beginning half was paced so well and gave us a great introduction to each character. The only reason this isn’t a five star read for me is because from about 50%-75% I found some parts to be very confusing and I wasn’t sure where the characters were at times or what was actually happening. One chapter I thought was just a dream but eventually realized it actually happened. That chapter was my least favourite.

But I love space operas. All the character development, all the adventure, not too much science. The characters are loveable and I look forward to reading more about them in the future. This is the first of a series, right? It may or may not have ended on a cliff hanger! This had everything I look for in a sci fi.

I really enjoyed the casual, fun, fast paced nature of the writing style. I adored All the Birds in the Sky, by the same author, but it took me over a month of slogging through the pacing to get through her second book. All three are so vastly different.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book so I could read it early. I don’t plan to shut up about how great it is any time soon.

Thank you to Tor Teen for giving me a free digital galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a YA SciFi novel. A teenage girl, named Tina, is waiting for her destiny to begin. She knows she is the clone of an important commander from and alien planet and she is waiting to rejoin her mission. Once she has rejoined her spaceship, she finds herself in the middle of a rollicking space adventure that is full of friends, surprises and danger. Before leaving the area around Earth the spaceship recruits a diverse group of teenagers from Earth to complete the crew. Tina and the other Earthlings become a supportive friend group with a little love mixed in. Through Tina’s eyes, readers get to meet an array of fascinating species of aliens each with their own quirks. It doesn’t take long before Tina and her friends are training for life aboard the spaceship and volunteering for dangerous missions. There was a lot of great writing in this book and I especially loved the formal greetings that were always just right for every situation!

I will warn readers that this book does take a while to pick up pace. Things don’t really get exciting until Tina leaves Earth. It is worth getting through the first few chapters because the rest of the story is a seriously fun read.

I have read books by Charlie Jane Anders before. I love her work because of the originality of her stories, so I was excited to read this book. Victories Greater Than Death lived up to my expectations - it both surprised and entertained me. I look forward to the second book in this duology.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, although I almost didn't want to finish it. For me the author provided too little background story and world building as she basically bombards you with seemingly useless facts. Also, I feel it lacks character development and emotional depth. On the other hand the story does get exciting towards the end and I appreciate the female protagonist in a space action story and the LGBTQ elements. Thanks for this free ARC!

While I don't typically love sci-fi, and this book definitely suffered because of that for me personally, there were a lot of wonderful things happening in this story. I found that some of the writing choices were a little disruptive, such as the introduction of pronouns for each character (an important thing to do, but I think the way it was done was a little odd), the overall writing was enjoyable. It was a solid story for fans of sci-fi books for sure.

Tina has known since she was very young that she was different – after all, she has a rescue beacon that, once activated, will allow the aliens who left her on Earth sixteen years ago to find her again, bring her to space on an adventure of her wildest dreams. The only question: is she ready? With her best friend by her side, a faction of fellow Earthlings, and a crew of a Royal Fleet spaceship, Tina may find that all her preparation may not have been enough.

I’ll say that I overall enjoyed this book, and the ending captured enough of my attention that I’ll consider picking up the sequel (even though I’ll have to wait about two years for it at this point). There were several things I loved about this book (and some stuff I didn’t but we’ll start with the positives). First, almost every time a character is introduced, their pronouns are stated. If they are from a new alien species, our narrator, Tina, will also give us some random factoids, which I also thought were fascinating and really helped with world building. And there is so much diversity, not only with the plethora of alien species but among the six Earthlings as well. I found the storyline surrounding the history of the Shapers to be extremely fascinating – beings that needed humanoid creatures to excel so they did their best to wipe out as many outliers as possible. What for? What were they planning? It certainly got me curious. And I really liked how the characters of Keziah and Elza, who both had issues in the past regarding parental figures, were able to strive everyday to prove that they are capable of receiving love and using forces other than violence to achieve their goals. I hope there is more character development for them, and the remaining group of Earthlings, in future installments.

I did have a few issues, but most of them were due to personal taste. I felt the pacing was a bit off, which might have been due to shorter chapters (there were about 55 chapters in, what I’m thinking is, a 300-page book). While I loved a lot of the elements it had to offer, sometimes I felt it was trying to do too much. The ending battle sequence confused me (I was able to retain a bit more of the info during a second read-through, but I’m still not entirely sure I understand what happened). And the topic of grief is handled in a very interesting way, due to the way people die in this novel (that I can’t mention due to spoilers), and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. That probably doesn’t make much sense, but I don’t want to say too much.

Overall, I think people who are looking for a fun YA space adventure sci-fi novel are going to like Victories Greater Than Death. I’m very interested to see what people think when it’s released next spring. **Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Tor Teen, for the e-copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own.**

This is a solid YA novel that is also in tune with the times: every character introduces themselves with their chosen pronoun. It’s sci-fi because it takes place in outer space but it mostly skips past the “science” part while singing tra-la-la. But that’s okay because it’s lots of fun and entertaining to read.
The plot centers on a character who is basically an alien disguised as a human. She’s been hiding on Earth and now is going back to face the threat posed by the bad guy alien.
With the help of some new Earth recruits, the Royal Fleet will take on the genocidal bad guys who have a grudge against all non-human shaped species.

This book is a fun romp in science fiction. Tina is waiting for her life to begin when it comes on like a hurricane. Her and her close friend along with several interesting youngsters from across the world get taken aboard an alien spaceship to become part of a war among the different worlds in the galaxy. Each alien is different although bipedal (this is addressed) and Anders has each knew character introduce their gender pronouns because translation system needs to clarify it when your are dealing with aliens.

This book cements Charlie Jane Anders on my list of "Must Read" authors. The story is so fun, and the characters really well developed and enjoyable to spend a bunch of pages with.

Here's a quick summary for myself when I look this book up right before I go to read the sequel: Tina has known since she was a kid that she was a being from another planet placed in a human's body for safekeeping. Tina and her friend Rachael have been spending time trying to stimulate the changeover that will cause her to get her otherworldly powers. Until, it works and she attracts her previous life's arch enemy. After actions and adventures they wind up on a space ship where they create a puzzle to get the smartest humans to join them to help figure things out. (Just like FutureMan!) This brings a whole bunch of really cool and fun characters onto the ship (musical robots!) This makes up Tina's human crew, and at the same time we are meeting all manner of squishy interesting alien characters that make up the rest of the crew of the ship. These characters knew, or knew of, Tina in her previous existence, and look forward to working with their old friend. The crew works together to save the day.

This book flew by as I read it, even thought it had, as you can tell from my mangled description, tremendous amount of back story to cover before we got to the meat of the current story. Each of Tina's crew had enough space to live and breathe and become real people that you end up caring about by the end of the story. (And in the case of the musical robot, from the very start.)

The dialog in this book is rich and delightful to read! You can't go wrong with greetings like "Happy reunions and short absences". Also, having the universal translator describe each person's pronoun at first felt like a way to include positive inclusivity (of course it was also that) but, as I read I realized it is actually a good point when you are meeting beings from across the galaxy for the first time you would like to know their pronoun, so you could address them properly.

Even though there is all of this action adventure going on, there was plenty of time to slow down and deal with anxiety disorders, romance, depression, generic teen angst, and finding comfort in your own skin. All of these issues were dealt with in respectful ways, that actually worked flawlessly inside of the story that was told.

This was a fantastic book, and I really look forward to (hopefully!) sequels that sketch out this world even more, and we can get into all of the further adventures of this crew.

Charlie Jane Anders hits it out of the park with another fantastic piece of fiction. I'm not generally a fan of science fiction or fantasy, but Charlie Jane Anders is one of the few authors whose sci-fi works I truly enjoy.

OK, so let me start by saying that this was adorable. YA is definitely not my thing and I have a ton of criticism ready to go after this paragraph, but first and foremost, if I was a young teen reading Scifi, I would be so happy to have this. I love Charlie Jane Anders and I think she's set up something lovely here.

Unfortunately, Anders has dumbed down her charming prose in favor of something that feels at times like a parody of tumblrspeak. Maybe this tested well and it's what teens like! However, I was hoping for something more akin to The City In the Middle of the Night, which could've been accessible to teens as it was, without any compromise. I don't know who is failing her here, but I felt that she made her world/prose/book lesser in pursuit of a younger audience, when that didn't need to happen. That aside, there were some issues with pacing and exposition dumps that weren't my favorite.
The cast is super inclusive and I loved that our heroes had relatable mental health issues, and that they spent an appropriate amount of time grappling with adjusting to suddenly being humans in space. The world building was fun and I liked the repeated interrogation of the Royal Army's motives and behaviors.

I'll continue to check out everything that Anders writes, I'll pick up a copy of this for my niece when its released for sure.

DNF at 40%.

It's not like the book is bad - I'm just not in the right headspace for this kind of thing. There are so many different aliens/characters that it's hard to keep track of who came from where and what they look like. It was a little exhausting and, frankly, most of it went above my head.

I didn't really care for the humans they brought on in addition to Tina and Rachael. They all sort of blurred together. And they glossed over the fact that they were likely to never return quickly.

I wish the characters had a little more depth to them. I think if they had been more compelling, I would've been more likely to push through the info dumping sections and track the characters.

But over all, I enjoyed the beginning and the intrigue. Maybe on another day, I'll pick it up and be able to track all the aliens/characters. I'm still rating this book 3/5 stars because it wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't for me.

Honestly, I thought this was boring. I don't know how a book about aliens and saving the universe could be boring, but it was. None of the characters were interesting - they all had one quirky characteristic to make them seem relatable, like a character in a bad romcom. I love world building but the world building was a lot of detail but nothing that felt special or yes, interesting.

This was a science fiction young adult book that reminded me a little of Star Trek/ Doctor Who/Star Wars/Raiders of the Lost Ark. It had uniquely descriptive aliens and humanoids working with and against each other as they used the best brain power available to secure the mysterious and seemingly dangerous Talgan stone before the Compassion Fleet found it. The Compassion was the antithesis of what the name implied. They were led by the ruthless Marrant who was once a part of the peacekeeping force of the Royal Fleet and close friend of its commander, the very popular and heroic Captain Thaoh Argentian. Unfortunately, she died, but her DNA was used to clone her. This clone, Tina, took on the form of a human, hidden within the people of earth and away from Marrant’s sights, until she came of age, or in her case, her inner beacon summoned the Royal Fleet to her known location. The Royal Fleet needed their skillful leader back to locate the Talgan stone and deal with the ever evil Marrant, who wanted to see her die again.

I loved the diversity of the characters who were from many different parts of this planet and outer space.They always introduced themselves by their name followed by their preferred pronoun. Their genders, forms, and languages were all different, but there was a language translator to help communicate easily.

There were many battle scenes including one that involved the total obliteration of an entire planet. Death followed Marrant in his quest to find that stone. One simple touch by him liquified his enemy, but also placed hateful thoughts into the minds of the friends that witnessed this death. So instead of mourning the loss of a friend/colleague their thoughts were filled with degrading memories of them.

The one aspect I always looked forward to throughout the story was the creative greeting and response to each other in different situations. One such example was when Tina and the brightest teenage recruits from Earth boarded the ship and the captain greeted them with, “Welcome aboard the Indomitable. Happy memories and bearable regrets.” Tina responded with, “Clever guesses and educational mistakes.” Another greeting example was when the possibility of death was imminent, “Raised glasses and last dances.” Replied with, “Bright memories and warmth in the dark.” This added to the uniqueness of their communication and interaction with each other.

The story was creatively written and engaging. Even though it’s a YA story, and written accordingly, I think most science fiction readers will find it interesting.

An ARC was given for an honest review.

I really loved Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky, so I was really hopeful for her first YA book. Alas, it was not nearly as good. It started with a really interesting premise: The memories of a famous commander in an intergalatic war who just died are put into a new child, Tina, who is then sent to hide on Earth while she regrows into an adult. She's spent a large chunk of her life waiting to be picked up by her fellow space comrades while dealing with the indignities of high school life. But when she finally is picked up, it's not at all what she expected, including a spaceship on its last legs. The pacing of the book needed some work - it was so fast that I felt we skipped past a lot of really important things. Like, Tina might have been happy to leave Earth, but she did love her Earth mother. And yet she never really thinks about her mother again once she leaves. Tina also isn't the only human to get picked up, and while the book touches lightly on these characters dealing with the possibility they might never see Earth again, it just seems to get REALLY pushed to the side. And while I appreciated some of the world building in the book (especially the ridiculous number of possible greetings that these fighters use), it seemed kinda skin deep and never really went beneath the surface. There was also so much of it that it just became overwhelming and hard to really care about many of the characters (although I did connect at some level with Tina and her best friend).

I also found myself saying "well that's awfully convenient" A LOT. Like, humans taking to a completely foreign environment like a fish to water. Just, kinda hard to believe.

With that said, it does a great job of normalizing LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, offering a number of characters and circumstances that are just a regular part of the world. There's also lots of action, so if you're in the mood for just a romp, this could be a good book for you. And the story telling did get more interesting in the final third, with a very interesting ending that seems to promise a sequel with potential - but only if Charlie Jane Anders works out some issues.

While the story is set in space, it still touches on many current issues current on Earth. The book deals a lot with inclusivity, bullying, LGBTQ+, neuroatypicality and figuring out where one really belongs but in a way that isn’t preachy. While the aliens are better at some of these things than the humans, they have their issues too. Their still going to war over dumb stuff, which leaves them unable to help the people who need it most. I’m looking forward to the inevitable sequel that was set up at the end of the book.

This book is about a young woman named Tina who always knew she was meant for bigger things. She just happens to be the clone of the most brilliant alien commander in the whole universe. She’s tired of waiting to be swept up by the alien fleet, but when her wish comes true she may just find she’s in over her head. But with her best friend by her side as well as a group of brilliant earthlings, she may find a way to save the day.

I got this as an advanced reading copy thanks to Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. So let me be perfectly honest and say that this was a good book just begging to be great.

There was quite a bit I liked about this book so let me start with that before I get critical. I liked the main story. The idea behind a larger alien fleet (akin to Starfleet) in a battle against a group whose main goal is the genocide of anyone not like them. The huge universe Charlie Jane Anders built had more potential than almost anything I’ve ever read before.

The main issue with this book was that it felt cluttered. It felt like Anders was trying to do too much. It felt like this should have been a 500+ page book that had to be cut down to under 300 pages. Because of this, the two main parts of the story felt disjointed. We had the character driven elements, how the earthlings got along and became friends, and we had the bigger story of good vs. evil. But the main focus of the story was so heavy on the character elements that the battle against The Compassion (the bad guys) felt like it was tacked on as an afterthought. This should have been a book like The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet which was more character driven. Also, it was weird that the bad guys kept on showing up but the good guys couldn't get back up to save their lives. In fact, the good side seemed like a group of inept idiots the whole time.

More good stuff. The aliens had a world where saying your pronouns when you introduce yourself to someone is commonplace. I liked that as it helped normalize the giving of pronouns AND it makes perfect sense because there are so many alien species that were this real, it’d be impossible to memorize every alien species genders. I believe anything that normalizes that in our modern culture is a positive. If it matters to you, you should give your pronouns to those you meet and it should be a normal thing.

Back to what needed work. Parts of the book were too “infodumpy.” There are so many different alien species and characters that it became hard to remember anything without going back to the beginning of the book to remember it all. Even the earthlings were hard to follow and there were only a handful of them. There was a list of things at the end of the book but it killed the pace of the book having to go back and check stuff. I've read tome sized epic fantasy books that were less confusing.

Also, we have this group battling against bad guys who want to commit genocide on a level never seen before. But Tina starts having second thoughts about killing. What a great idea! You're fighting against actual evil, a group who would kill billions if they got the chance, and you decide you no longer want to kill. It's stupid and unreasonable.

Also, there were times when the earthlings were all a bit extra. Rachel could have been a great example of mental health issues but her mental problems were never properly explored so she just came across as the weird kid.

Normally when I have this much negative to say about a book, it would lead to either a low score or a DNF. But something kept me coming back to find out how everything ends and that’s what kept my score from dipping lower. I kept picking it up over and over again even though I was frustrated.

This book needs better editing. It needed to be passed by a writing group first. It needed some help because there’s a great story in here somewhere, but one too many issues kept this story from shinning.

This book could have been great. But it's just mediocre.

Tina is anxiously waiting for her destiny to begin. Unlike other teens, Tina is a space alien hidden on Earth (a clone of a noted commander) who will eventually be called to help save the universe. When the moment arrives, it's not like she expects; but at least her best friend Rachael is there by her side. Rachael and Tina, along with an alien crew and diverse set of four additional teen Earthlings, will form a new family on a mission to save the universe from an enemy that seeks to destroy anything/anyone who is not like them.

With strong parallels to issues involving racial and class disparities, as well as an enemy that essentially engages in eugenics, this book addresses heavy topics throughout an outer space adventure. Fluid genders and sexuality are also well-represented in this book, and I loved that the norm in this universe was to introduce yourself with name and pronouns, always.

Anders' vivid, descriptive language really brought this book to life with beautiful imagery and relatable characters. I would highly recommend this book and would love to see this story continue.

Meet Tina, the clone of a warrior alien with an unfinished business. The galaxy has a villain hell-bent on genocide of anything not resembling humanoids and somebody gotta stop them. And that saviour needs to be Tina. Except for the fact that Tina is human (atleast looks and acts like one) and is hopelessly unequipped to fill her alien predecessor's (or her old self's) shoes.
This is Star Trek meets Guardian of the Galaxy meets Thanos. There is a gang of misfits, who are actually geniuses in their respective field. There are aliens with their unique greetings and they mention their own pronouns to the people they meet. Which is such a cool thing to do! I wish all of us Earthlings take up this habit. There is an Indian character too, which I am really happy to see. Diverse and non binary representation and exploration of topics of sexual identity. This is a YA that hits all the teaching points. You don't have to be fearless to be brave. Nor do you have to be violent to be a hero. It's a scifi that does more than just space and aliens.
I haven't read the author's other works yet so I do not know how this compares. As much as I enjoyed this book, I felt that something was missing. Something I can't quite place. The chapters often started with a new event occuring in the lives of our lovely characters after the cliffy endings of the previous chapters. Sometimes the slow pace of a few chapters felt disjointed because of the urgency of the plot. Or it is probably me, nitpicking as usual. But I will definitely be picking up more of the author's work in future.
I thank Netgalley and Tor Teen for giving me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Victories Greater Than Death is about a girl named Tina who is a clone of a six-foot-tall purple-skinned alien general who was, more or less, her society's Jean-Luc Picard. She was disguised as a human and raised by an adoptive mother. But as soon as she figures out how to trigger the rescue beacon full of stars hidden just under her heart, she will fulfill her destiny.

If you're an adult who loved She-Ra or Steven Universe or Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, then this book is for you. If you know a tween who has read Harry Potter all the way through Order of the Phoenix and you want to give them an adventure story about being special and different and fighting evil that ISN'T racist and painfully transphobic, this is the book you're looking for.

But did I like it? Well, that's complicated.

Victories Greater Than Death is for people who have been told that their feelings are too much, who need to hear that even though their emotions are big and awkward and unwieldy and weird, there are people out there who care, who will value all of that huge powerful messiness and help them channel it toward good. But some of us have been told instead that our feelings are not enough, that we are distant or unreadable or cold, or just too practical to (ever) make a fuss. When I read a story that is actively didactic about the idea that Big Emotions Matter, I don't feel warm and cared for. I brace for impact. Because it's so, so easy for the message to slip from Big Emotions Matter to Your Emotions Don't.

So does Victories Greater Than Death hurt? Actually, no. Part of the reason is that it's clear-eyed and realistic about the way teenage bullying works, both when it's serious and when it's just low-key isolation. I particularly appreciated Tina's reminiscences about not fitting in at improv camp.

But also, Anders writes autistic-coded characters in a way that feels genuinely sympathetic. I've read multiple books recently with big diverse casts of characters and messages about acceptance where one of the characters was autistic, and most of them failed this test. If you have to repeat that the person your characters are accepting is strange and difficult and obsessed with incomprehensible boring things and fey more than twice, then guess what, "acceptance" might not mean what you think it does!

In Victories Greater Than Death, on the other hand, we learn in passing that Rachel struggles with social anxiety, gets tense in crowds and new places, and doesn't always like being touched, but the facts that are repeated every time she appears are that she is the! most! amazing! artist! and Tina's bestest friend in the universe!!!1!1 We see Rachel working hard to make strangers feel welcome, and then coping with the stress of having been "on" for too long. She gets a romance with a future pop superstar who makes musical robots. And her artistic talent is the key to the end-of-book triumph over evil.

In Victories Greater Than Death, Charlie Jane Anders seems to be writing a book for her younger self--a person who was weird and brave and needed to hear that dressing up in a pink sequined dinosaur suit is a good first step toward saving the world. I wasn't quite that girl, and the book I would design for my own younger self would be sideways from this one. But when Anders preaches acceptance for everyone, I believe she means it.