Release Date: April 11th 2023
Publisher: Orbit Books
Pages: 448
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Waterstones.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4.25/5 stars

Synopsis

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

Alongside her brother’s brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, she escapes from everything she’s ever known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.

A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, Some Desperate Glory is award-winning author Emily Tesh’s highly anticipated debut novel.

Review

Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory is an epic space adventure that follows Kyr, a young woman living on Gaea Station – one of the last holdouts of humanity after planet Earth was destroyed. Kyr has trained all her life to be the most skilled warrior and she knows she will be assigned a combat job to help get revenge for her planet. When Kyr is unexpectedly assigned to the nursery to bear sons and her brother Mags is sent on a suicide mission, Kyr teams up with her brother’s friend and a captive alien to rescue Mags and take matters into her own hands. However, once Kyr and her team escape the station, they find there might be far more out there than she realised.

I’ve always wanted to read Emily Tesh’s Greenhollow Duology, so I absolutely jumped at the chance to read Some Desperate Glory. This is a fast paced and addictive read – one I positively raced through. The world building is well developed and this well executed tale had plenty of surprise moments that I absolutely did not expect. Even when I was sure what was going to happen next, Tesh took the story in a completely different direction. Some Desperate Glory is a compelling read, and one science fiction fans are not going to be able to put down.

Some Desperate Glory has a really fascinating protagonist. Kyr really believes in the idea of vengeance for humanity. In the beginning, she’s so unlikeable and it was so intriguing to see how she changes as the story progressed. You eventually get to the point where you can’t help but root for her. Tesh does a brilliant job creating a complex protagonist and combining that with a really compelling story, which meant I was glued to this book for hours on end.

The story has plenty of action packed moments that will have the reader on the edge of their seat. Some Desperate Glory is an unforgettable science fiction adventure and will definitely be amongst my favourite sci-fi reads of the year. Some Desperate Glory is a book that should not be missed and I cannot wait to read more from Emily Tesh.