Since the release of her novella Silver in the Wind in 2019, I've been a fan of Emily Tesh, so her debut novel, Some Desperate Glory, was high on my anticipation list for 2023. In this science fiction thriller, contact with aliens has happened, and it ends with the destruction of Earth. Now Valkyr is one of the few humans living in Gaea Station. The remaining human refugees have formed a militarized society revolving around surviving and getting revenge on the aliens who destroyed their world. Now Kyr, the girls of her mess she has trained and grown up with, and her brother are about to graduate and be given their mission assignments. Unfortunately for Kyr, this is when everything goes wrong.
It should be noted, as far as trigger warnings are concerned, this book has many, and Tesh presents those warnings before the novel begins. This review will discuss some of those subjects. There will also be spoilers.

The truth is, Part I of the post, set on Gaea Station, is difficult to enjoy as its setting is utterly depressing. Kyr, likewise, is wholly unlikable. She is cruel, homophobic, xenophobic, glory hungry, ignorant, self-centered, closed off, selfish, obsessed with being the best, and as her closest rival, Cleo, puts it early on, a "horrible bitch” that "everyone hates." The only value Kyr sees in herself, and others is how useful they are to the cause. Unfortunately, the cause doesn't help. As far as Kyr knows, all that remains of humanity is military training, eugenics, and hatred, and where women's lives are reduced to whether they'd be better as soldiers or breeding stock. The combination of the two made sticking to the book, in the beginning, challenging, but as someone who advocates for stopping a book if you don't like it, I'm glad I stuck with it. Once Kyr has her assignment, everything begins to change. Once the setting moves on from Gaea Station, the book hits the ground running.

It's in Part Two and Three on Chrysothemis, the human colony planet first to surrender to the Majoda, the aliens humanity lost their war to, that my opinion of Valkyr began to change. Kyr's utter enthusiasm for the cause is a defense mechanism to ignore everything wrong about Gaea she doesn't want to see. Emily Tesh doesn't change Kyr to quite likable yet. Still, through her change in environment and interactions, it's easier to sympathize with Kyr and how brainwashed she is. She can rationalize her homophobia towards fellow Gaean, Avi, a technical genius, because she sees him as weak but has to come up with new rationales when her brother comes out to her that it's simply "sex stuff," not what is truly important; the mission. From Avi to her reunion with her so-called traitor sister, to the nephew whose age has implications Kyr doesn't want to think about, to the alien Yiso Kyr doesn't want to admit is a person, let alone accept their non-binary pronouns, red flags are littered about Gaea that make it harder and harder for Kyr to ignore. Kyr is not just a zealot but a sad teenager who has shied away from the truth her entire life because it would hurt too much.

Kyr feels like a lost cause in the beginning. It felt as if she'd never entirely break out of Gaea's brainwashing. By part three, Kyr is standing on the threshold of understanding the truth about her precious Uncle Joel and all the adults who have turned her into an extremist for the human race. In part three, there was a growing emotional tension, a desperation for her to make that final push. There is a likable character in Valkyr, but everyone's patience with her will vary, and I can't argue with them if it drives them away from the book. At this point, it's heartbreaking to see Kyr being on the verge of a revelation several times only for her to retreat into the safety of the mission, one given to her brother, not her, and one that'll result in her death. By the time Kyr finally has her breakthrough about what Gaea has done to her, her sister, Avi, her brother, and all of those other girls from her mess, it's too late. Everything goes completely wrong, and the book drastically changes the setting.

At the halfway mark, Emily Tesh takes the book in a bold direction. The Wisdom, the artificial intelligence that leads the Majo to what they see as the greater good, plays a pivotal role in this part. The civilization created by The Wisdom is reminiscent of Iain M. Bank's The Culture books, a mix of sentient races and technology living together. However, the Wisdom itself plays a much more significant role in Kyr's journey in the second half of Some Desperate Glory. Kyr gets to see the other side of humanity, the side that gave the Majo a reason to destroy the Earth. She also gets to see the other side of herself, which isn't so different from Avi or her brother Magnus. She learns what it's like to live where her sexuality, her training, her usefulness, or what her being a woman can do for the survival of humanity.

The book often feels at a point between a Young Adult and an Adult science fiction book. It has more nuance than is often seen in a YA book. Still, it is not quite as nuanced as science fiction can be, perhaps because the main character is a teenager, and it's mostly told from her perspective. Rather than being black and white like most YA books, it feels dark grey and light grey but not much more complex than that. Still, its climax is a satisfying conclusion that brings redemption and a new lease on life to Kyr and many of the young people of Gaea Station.

Yes, Some Desperate Glory is about the aftermath of a war humanity lost that cost them the Earth and led to the rise of a fascist terrorist cell hellbent on revenge. However, it's also about that what indoctrination can do to a person and the lengths to which one can lie to themselves to keep the protection that indoctrination provides for them: safety, a purpose, a meaning to their life, to feel useful, to feel needed, wanted, a place to belong, a mission that is bigger than oneself. Emily Tesh's debut novel delivers complicated characters and fascinating science fiction technology with maybe a less nuanced plot than the subject matter deserves. Still, I have no regrets about sticking with it or with Valkyr.

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The murder of planet Earth must be avenged and Kyr has trained for days to do so. Kyr has been raised in Grea Station that encompasses the last pieces of humanity. She has been preparing herself for a while to face the Wisdom, which just happens to be an all-powerful and a reality-shaping weapon that allowed the Mejoda to win against humanity. Kyr's brother becomes assigned by the The Command to certain death and on top of that, The Command assigns her to the nursery so she can bear sons. The only thing Kyr can do is plan to avenge humanity and will escape into a universe that she does not know and does not understand.

When I first heard about this book, I knew I just needed to read it. I do not read much sci-fi and want to get more into it and I had a feeling this would be one to add to my tbr so I can explore more of this generation.

I really, really wanted to like Some Desperate Glory, but I neither hate it or love it.

Some Desperate Glory has a lot of potential, but I feel like it did not go into full depth into what it really wanted to be and to take some risks to elevate the plot, world, and characters.

I really love this premise about Kyr wanting to avenge humanity and to become a warrior. I felt like the first quarter of the book does engage you and feels fast paced. Then, the queer representation was great as well.

For Kyr, I feel like she was an unlikeable character, but her development was good and made her feel real based off of the circumstances she was going through.

However, as I kept reading, I kept feeling like I was being transported out of the book and not really liking the characters or really caring what was going on.

I enjoyed this book. Marketed as a Queer Space Opera i found that tag accurate. The main character isn't very likeable but the story is. I was totally caught up in this fast quick read. I was engaged thorough.

Wasn’t able to get through this one, unfortunately. Ended up having to DNF around the 20%.

Hopefully I can come back to it in the future.

This is a an absolute thrilling science fiction story with an amazing world. It was really interesting to read and to follow the main character, Kyr, how she unlearns everything she has ever been thaught.
I needed some time to really get into the story and understand how everything worked, but onve I did I was hooked and couldn't wait to find out how everything was going to be resolved.

DNF at 175 pages. I tried to come back to this a few times throughout the course of a month but just could not get into it. It had a hard time keeping my interest and lacked characters that I really connected with or even liked.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023, and it did NOT disappoint. I saw Shelley Parker-Chan describe this book as being for "people who loved Ender's Game, but Ender's Game didn't love them back." That is totally true.

This book is very unique in that it focuses on humanity not as the conquerers or the builders of a utopian space empire, as so many other sci-fi books do - it has Earth be wiped out by an alien force and the surviving members of humanity scattered around the galaxy as refugees. The inner workings and worldbuilding of Gaea station were fascinating and well-developed. I loved the politics that Emily Tesh built into the worldbuilding as well.

Kyr was a fascinating protagonist to follow - she starts out very difficult to love (although I love books with unlikeable female main characters) but her character development was so satisfying to see, and you end up really rooting for and feeling for her at the end.

The twist in the plot around halfway through the book was completely unexpected and SO fun and cool, I actually gasped. No spoilers, but I wish every sci-fi book could manage to shock me like that. It added another layer to the story that really made it feel meaty and unique.

This isn't a perfect book. I've seen other reviewers say that its "social justice agenda" could have been done more subtly and with more finesse, which I do agree with, but I know this is Emily Tesh's first full-length novel, and these kind of hiccups are understandable. I also wish that it were MORE queer, although I appreciate that Kyr was specifically stated to be on page. All in all, this was incredibly enjoyable and a wonderful space adventure story with real stakes, wonderful characters, suspenseful plot, and a unique premise that I will remember for a long time.

Are we the baddies? is one of my favourite tropes in fiction. Emily Tesh plays this trope straight to great effect in Some Desperate Glory. This is a story of deradicalization, and it’s one that in this day and age needs to be told. If we as a society are going to continue making progress on issues of social justice in an age where misinformation online abounds and assists in radicalizing our friends and family, we need to learn how to have difficult, nuanced conversations with people who have succumbed to such causes. This book explores that while also delivering action and no small amount of tears. Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the eARC.

Kyr is a warrior dedicated to a cause. She is one of a handful of true humans—Gaians—left in a galaxy where aliens have destroyed Earth and dominated the remainder of humanity. Or at least, that’s the story she was told. As she approaches graduation into the ranks of Gaia’s elite warriors, the facade built around Kyr for her entire life begins to crumble, and she begins to question everything she knows. The resulting doubt will catapult her on a journey across space and time in search of what justice actually means.

I didn’t like Kyr at first. We aren’t supposed to—she is a product of a world that this bio-essentialist, rigidly gendered, homophobic, and racist. Tesh warns us of this up front with an author’s note, and I get it after reading the book. In order to truly show us the experience of deradicalizing and leaving a cult or hate group, Tesh has to show us where Kyr starts from: as someone who has internalized all these ideas because that is how she was raised, and even when she starts to question these ideas, often she still falls back on them. That, in my mind, is what makes her a sympathetic character—it’s the struggle against what she “knows” to be true because that was what she was told her whole life.

For me, the book’s brilliance is a slow burn indeed. The first part feels like a traditional tale of insurrection: Kyr wakes up, realizes she is one of the baddies, and takes it upon herself to fight back the only way she knows how. It’s the second part of the book, after a cataclysmic event and Tesh’s introduction of time/dimensional travel, that really causes Some Desperate Glory to take off. I love when a story that I think is one thing ends up hopping subgenres to become something else entirely—sure, it doesn’t always work, but when such a leap of faith lands so gracefully, as it does here, it is sublime.

From deradicalization we go to bigger philosophical questions of what it means to be human, to be sentient, and who should have the power to decide what course is “best” for the greater good. Though Kyr was definitely on “the wrong side” before, Tesh asks us if she is now on “the right side,” if there is a right side.

I’ve been watching a lot of The Flash for the first time alongside my rewatch of Supergirl, and I have to say, it’s making a strong case that time travel—at least, time travel to the past—is straight up unethical. No exceptions. Time travel is an act of hubris that asserts that you, as the traveller, have some kind of right to rewrite the experiences of countless other lives simply because you want to take a jaunt into the past. On the other hand, I wonder if my perspective is biased—no, scratch that, I know it’s biased, but I guess I wonder if that bias actually matters—because I experience time linearly. Maybe entities who see the entirety of time simultaneously do actually know better. I don’t know.

I just know that I like stories that make me think about this stuff while also giving me fight scenes and explosions. It’s why I like The Flash and Doctor Who, and it’s why I like Some Desperate Glory.

In addition to Kyr, there’s a truly interesting cast of characters, all of whom are flawed and fabulous. I love how, much like Kyr, most of them are hard to fully like—a lot of them are kind of assholes or rude—yet they are all so interesting. I really appreciate the way that Tesh sympathetically portrays how difficult it is to overcome prejudice—even in little ways, like how Kyr has to get used to using they/them pronouns for Yiso, etc. Without making excuses for people who are prejudiced, I also think we need to make space for the fact that it takes people time to work through prejudice and fear—another good example of this is Captain Shaw from season 3 of Star Trek: Picard. Tesh expertly depicts the complexity of the human experience, the ways in which we are all messy and contradictory, whether we are trying to do better or simply obsessed with power and revenge.

Then there’s the ending. Some Desperate Glory stands on its own as a novel, which I appreciate. I love me a good standalone science-fiction novel. Yet there is also room for sequels, and honestly the way it ends between Kyr and the Wisdom, that cute little conversation (and who doesn’t love a sentient spaceship with a sense of humour?) … gosh, I would read more. I’m just saying.

Some Desperate Glory is some of the most original, delightfully incisive science fiction that I have read in the past few years. I went into it expecting it to be good, to be a fun read—I walked out blown away by the storytelling, the characterization, and the themes. What a great experience.

I enjoyed this book and overall thought it was an engaging read. I will say that I agree with the reviewers who think this was more YA than adult but overall loved the intro and the last half was fast paced and engaging. Some of the world building was lighter than expected but again, overall a book I enjoyed.

I have the audiobook on hold from the library but from the first couple chapters that I’ve read (about 20%), I definitely am going to finish this amazing sci-fi. I love sci-fi and this is exactly what I want in a sci-fi !!!

What if aliens succeeded in their oh-so-noble quest to destroy planet Earth and all its inhabitants? Kyr is one of the last humans, bred for war and trained to avenge her people. But when she’s relegated to bearing children for humanity’s revitalization, Kyr leaves Gaea Station to undertake a suicide mission. In encountering the outside universe and its many inhabitants, she’ll question everything Gaea told her.

Tamsyn Muir has a blurb on the cover, in which she very accurately calls this book “a completely wild ride.” Similar to The Locked Tomb’s tagline (“lesbian necromancers in space”), SDG is described as a “queer space opera.” Initially, I took this to mean that there was going to be sapphic romance at the center of the action, and this is not the case. There are a number of queer characters, but romance is very irrelevant. Shockingly, I didn’t mind! Against my better judgement, the story kept me up until 2 am with just the plot alone.

I think this is one of the smartest books I’ve ever read. Emily Tesh must be a genius. (This is supported by a google search… she went to Cambridge for undergrad and UChicago for her master’s—not that the name of a school means much, but still.) I cannot explain WHY I am so freaking impressed (and also jealous!! I wish I wrote this book!!) because spoilers, but I’ll just say this: she skillfully includes a sci-fi element that is VERY difficult to do well.

If you’re interested, definitely look up trigger warnings. Kyr and her brother endure a lot, including homophobia and depression. A lot of people may be annoyed with Kyr’s character at first, but she never bothered me; in fact, I think she’s overly criticized for her reaction to trauma. Nevertheless, there’s amazing character growth, so even if you’re driven more by characters than plot, I still think this book is for you.

It's an easy 5 stars.

This title grew on me. For once, I can say the twists and turns that the story took actually kept me guessing, gasping, and coming back for more. By the end, I was applauding, and eagerly telling my fellow sff-loving librarians about this book.

Some Desperate Glory will definitely end up on my Top Reads of 2023! The protagonist was amazing, the storyline was gripping and exciting and the world-building was phenomenal. Honestly, I can’t wait to see what else Emily Tesh has in stock for us.

“She had been born into a universe gone wrong. She had waited her whole life to come face-to-face with something she could blame.”

I’ve been loving the “space opera” sub-genre lately, so this book was right in that sweet spot for me. I will say that I almost put it down toward the beginning, because the main character has some extremely authoritarian and bigoted views that she doesn’t exactly hide. I continued, hoping for some intense character growth, and I’m glad I kept going to see how the MC grows both individually and in her relationships with others.

There are some hard concepts tackled in the book that include bigotry, racism, classism, sexism, authoritarianism, war, assault, societal expectations, and who gets to decide what is right and wrong.

There is also humor, tension, action, and a variety of sci-fi tropes that I don’t want to spoil for anyone who hasn’t yet read the book. While there were a few sections that dragged a bit (for me), the premise was unique and interesting, and I really enjoyed the book overall!

Thanks so much to Tor for the advanced readers copy!

4.5 stars

"Some Desperate Glory" took me on a space romp. And oh, did I have fun.

Emily Tesh’s queer space opera is all about Kyr, a young warrior who has trained her entire life on Gaea Station to fight an alien faction that destroyed planet Earth, called the majoda. Kyr is firm in her hatred of the majoda and patiently awaits her turn to come of age and enter combat. But when she is instead assigned to Gaea Station’s nursery to bear and raise children, Kyr gives herself a different mission, one that will fulfill what she considers to be her true purpose.

"Some Desperate Glory" is relentless in its storytelling and thrilling in its execution. Tesh sucks the reader into Kyr’s world on the very first page and, moving forward, dishes out nothing but non-stop action and excitement.

But it isn’t easy to like Kyr. She’s cold, unsympathetic, and prejudiced, her inner nature and belief system having been molded by Gaea Station.

What left me somewhat wanting, though, isn’t so much the character of Kyr as the depth of which Tesh addresses the heavy themes of the story. The novel is marketed as adult sci-fi and tackles racism, homophobia, sexism, suicide, and eugenics, but all with a simple, heavy-handed touch more suitable to a younger audience. As an adult reader, I would’ve appreciated a deeper dive.

Still, it’s a minor complaint about what is otherwise a fantastic read. I’m a huge fan of "Some Desperate Glory" and will sing its praises to all who will listen.


My sincerest appreciation to Emily Tesh, Tordotcom, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

<b><blockquote>Her family was her station. Her family was her cause. Her family was fourteen billion dead, and her mother was a murdered world.</blockquote></b>
I've been in such a reading slump, it's awful. I've been inching my way through SOME DESPERATE GLORY for over three months - but it was worth the effort.

Valkyr - Kyr - is a teenage warrior woman living on Gaea, a militaristic station and the final refuge of free humanity after the universe-spanning conglomerate the Wisdom destroyed Earth and most of humanity. Rigid in her belief that Mother Earth must be avenged, her faith is rocked consistently and constantly as her entire life's purpose unwinds around her.

I really loved this in the end. Starting slow, it builds to several crescendos, one after the other, and I genuinely had little clue where the story would twist next. I've not read any of Tesh's writing before but if this is a fair benchmark for her quality then I really have to seek out some.

Valkyr is a well done protagonist, and I really enjoyed living in her head as she struggled with her belief and faith. The supporting cast are on the whole excellent as well.

There's been quite a bit of hype I've seen about SOME DESPERATE GLORY being some new-age queer space opera which I'll be honest, I didn't really get. There are a couple of casually homosexual relationships in evidence, but I hardly found it to be a champion of gay science fiction. The first page opens with some trigger warnings which was a nice touch as there are some pretty dark themes throughout.

A really good, unique story. Well worth the read.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing me an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</a>

Some Desperate Glory makes a lot of exciting promises and yet fails to craft an interesting story. Though I can see people new to the genre enjoying this, experienced SciFi readers will likely find it boring and overly simplistic. This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it ended up being one of my most disappointing.

The main protagonist Kyr is clearly meant to be an unlikable character. At the beginning of the story, she is heavily indoctrinated and isolated from the world. She expresses a variety of opinions that you are meant to find offensive and off-putting. Though I understand that this was meant to be a story of growth, it is very difficult to care about a character who is so thoroughly hateable. Kyr's eventual growth—like any other major topic addressed in this book—lacked nuance and felt unrealistically rushed. She was an incredibly flat character with no depth or personality. I would have rather followed almost any other character other than Kyr. However, none of the other characters in the book were that much more interesting. There is one twist with a side character that could have been cool if there had been more of an explanation.

Tesh attempts to tackle various "isms" throughout the story. Though these topics are important the way they are discussed is almost insultingly simplistic. The discussion is limited to a "good/bad" binary that should be reserved for YA books. The lack of nuance and depth extends to almost every aspect of the book. There were many plot moments that simply happened with no explanation or obvious cause. With every new twist, I grew more and more exasperated with the story.

Some Desperate Glory felt like it was written to fit current publishing buzzwords and have as wide appeal as possible. Instead, the simplistic and one-dimensional story promises to alienate many experienced SciFi readers.

A queer space opera with differing timelines, plots to take over the world, sentient aliens, and our main character realizes she has been drinking the kool-aid her whole life?? This was quite fantastic. A little weird and info heavy at times but that is pretty standard for sci-fi. The social commentary was spot-on alongside the sort of moral dilemmas our main character faces when she leaves her rather totalitarian/extremist life behind and realizes the world is larger than anyone allowed her to know. Go into this one with an open mind and there is a good chance you will be swept away.

Kyr has trained her whole life to be a soldier in the war against the alien species who destroyed the Earth. When her brother is sentenced to die and she is sent to the Nursery to breed boy super soldiers, she begins to question everything she thought she knew.

This is a difficult book for me to review because for most of the book Kyr is a rather insufferable narrator but ultimately being on her journey with her is the most rewarding part of the book. Also, some of my favorite things this book does are probably spoilers but just know that if you stick with this book and enjoy mind-bending science fiction then you will be well rewarded.

There are so many things going on in this book both in terms of plot and character building but also just in terms of themes and real-world commentaries. I think sometimes the book feels like it is just waddling in the paddling pool of these themes and could have gone much deeper but I commend it for just having the audacity to try because I was very much invested while at the same time just as disgusted as Kyr as she discovers who her real friends are and how much trauma can shape a person.

I would honestly love an entire book from Avi's point of view as he was the most intriguing character to me.

The very end was interesting in that I thought there should have been more but at the same time we are left at a very intriguing point and Kyr's journey is at a point where she has changed dramatically and grown as a character and it is quite the experience as a reader to be along for that ride.

Thank you so much to Tor and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Taking "humans are space orcs" to its logical conclusion, Some Desperate Glory is a dark, desperate gasp searching for justice and hope. In a future where humans are faster and stronger than other aliens, their warlike nature and willingness to subjugate others has lead to the destruction of Earth and the creation of a military sect using the motto "while Earth's children live, our enemies shall fear us." Valkyr is a model member of her community, always willing to work harder, fight more, and push the other children farther in search of glory for her people. When her brother is sent on a suicide mission, Kyr abducts a prisoner and goes looking for him, only to find that nothing she was raised to believe is true. Heartbreaking and beautiful, Tesh continues her streak of impeccable writing and character development alongside groundbreaking genre work.