3.75

Thank you so much to netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advanced reader's copy of this book!

Can I just say before we get started, this is one of the most gorgeous book covers I have ever seen?

Tina has known for most her life that her destiny is out there in the stars--she can feel a beacon inside her, waiting to ignite when she is old enough to be picked up and taken away to her fate. She is anxiously awaiting that day, when she can stop being just Tina and remember who she was before she was cloned into this body. But when she finally does get picked up be a spaceship with her best friend Rachael, nothing is the way she expected it to be, and she is thrown in the middle of an epic space adventure that require all of her skills and knowledge if she wants to survive--but she can't even remember who she used to be.

The concept for this book is so exciting and fun! I knew I was going to love it! A space battle of good vs. evil, reclaimed identities, and old friends and new! I also really loved reading about the diversity of alien life-forms that Anders created in this book. There was no shortage of imagination for the non-human beings in this galaxy. I loved the central message of the Shapers and the Royal Fleet fighting back, and I was so interested to find out what happened to Tina.

I did wish that this book focused less on all the new concepts and vocabulary and a little more on character development. I wasn't as attached to these characters as I would like to be, and though they were all awesome in concept, I felt that they were mostly a little one-note and could have used more development. I also thought the new slang was hit a little too hard. It felt too much like new colloquialisms being forced on me and not enough like my naturally learning them in the new environment.

One of the coolest parts of this book for me was the normalization of introducing yourself with pronouns! Every single character in this book gave out their pronoun the first time they were introduced to someone---no matter what species they were! I loved that! It even included neo-pronouns.

All in all, I really enjoyed this read! It was fun and had great queer representation and diversity. I definitely recommend picking this up when it comes out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Torture, Kidnapping, and Gun violence

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Vomit

This was such a fun read! Even as a character driven reader, I found the plot and world building so enthralling! As a lover of space operas and more space themed ideas, I knew this book was going to be one I enjoyed just based off the cover and blurb, and I'm so happy I had the experience of reading it!

Actual Rating: 3.5

This book is all about the world building, and it does a great job with that. If you're into cool aliens, definitely give this one a read! Where I felt it struggled was in the characters. I liked the characters, don't get me wrong, but they all felt a little bit like caricatures of themselves. They had their one "thing" and that was it. Tina and Rachel are more developed, but the other "Earthlings" don't show a lot of growth and a lot of their struggles are kind of just glossed over. I was SO excited for this one, and it just sort of fell flat. I think the plot would have done better with fewer characters in order to allow each of them to grow and flourish and get the attention they deserved.

I wanted to love this. Really. That description! The purple hair! But the plot just wasn't there, nor were the characters. DNF after 30%.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Firstly, Victories Greater Than Death has a stunning cover.

I enjoyed reading through Tina. I really felt as though I connected with her character, and I could sympathise with her struggles throughout the story. The worldbuilding aspect was great, I could literally see the magnificent world Charlie Jane Anders created though Tina’s eyes.

My favourite part of this story was meeting the diverse characters. I found their engagements unique and fascinating.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to joining up with Tina and her friends again when book two is out.

This book consistently surprised me. I was well seated within the protagonist's POV, and as events unfolded in ways she didn't expect or couldn't have predicted, I was caught off guard, too. This was great.

I also like very much that this book tells a complete story. It ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, but the problems this book centers on are satisfactorily resolved.

For a book about returning to an alien space fleet, the part of the book I wanted more of and didn't receive was personal relationships between Tina and the aliens. This is not to say that the characters were interchangeable or not well drawn, I just wanted more of them (and possibly a little less Tina introspection.)

*Trigger Warnings: Bully, mentions of abuse, mentions of transphobia, racism

The story follows a girl who has an interplanetary rescue beacon, which ativates one day and suddenly shes thrust into an intergalatic adventure. Turns out, Tina, our protagonist, is a cloen of a famous alien hero who was left on Earth and disguised as a human in order to give the universe another chance to defeat the evil. The worldbuilding was interesting but the plot itself fell flat for me. I loved how LGBTQ friendly this book was, but the characters just couldn’t hook me. Somehow I just couldn’t get invested in the story no matter how hard I tried. Hopefully this will be a better read for someone else, but it just didn’t work out for me.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tom Doherty Associates for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

4/5 stars
I'm a sucker for space operas and found family, so it was obvious that I would enjoy this from the beginning. And I did enjoy it very much until the battle sequences started. To me, they felt somewhat confusing and it was hard to get a clear picture in my head of what was going on. About the relationships, it was clear that from the number of pages and the genre of the book, that they would not have space to develop properly, but even with that in mind, the main sapphic relationship (yay for the sapphic rep!) felt way too rushed. Especially when we know this book is supposed to be part of a trilogy, to me, insta love should not have been the choice here.

Keeping all of that in mind, this book is a joy to read. I was in a reading slump before I picked it up and managed to finish it in a couple of days. Charlie managed to build a whole universe that felt easy to understand yet intricately detailed and fun to get lost into. I honestly can't wait to read the next one.

I had such high hopes for this one, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I loved the first 10 or so chapters, but after that the writing felt incredibly distant, and plot points happened so quickly that there was no time for them to develop. This made it feel like there were no consequences to anything that occurred, which made it hard to feel invested in the story. Ultimately, I think the premise was strong, just not executed the best. I liked watching Tina grow into herself, and liked the Earthlings friend group, but it wasn’t enough to make me love it.
Trigger warnings for mentions of bullying, mentions of abuse, mentions of transphobia, racism, violence.

<b>2.5 stars</b>

I wanted to love this book so badly! A YA Sci-fi Space Opera with a Queer romance in it? I couldn't ask for more. But unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book very much and it was a little bit of a chore to be honest. The only thing that managed to grab my attention was the relationship between Elza and Tina but that's it. It took me a while to get through it and it's probably because I didn't really care about the plot... so yeah. I'm disappointed but I'm sure you can enjoy it a lot more than me!

Victories Greater Than Death follows Tina, a young alien on Earth raised by a woman after being left to her care. Tina is actually the clone of a really important/famous heroine that died to save her people. The 'good' aliens are hoping to be able to put her memories back into Tina but things aren't going to go down like planned. There's also an evil alien called "Marrant" which means Funny in french... probably because he likes to laugh while killing people.


<i>(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

I liked this book a lot! I thought the world building was a bit difficult to understand and took issue with some of the pacing. Otherwise, I really enjoyed it and connected a lot with the characters.

I haven't read all that many science fiction novels (at least not compared to fantasy), but I'm liking the genre more and more, especially if it is queer! Victories Greater Than Death seemed like the perfect fit for me - thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC!

The story is about Tina, who was raised on earth as a human. But she knows that she is actually the clone of a famous general from an intergalactic fleet and that she will one day step into her legacy. When that happens, though, things do not work out as they were planned and Tina is suddenly in the middle of a war that threatens not only her life and the ones of those she loves, but also the peace of the entire galaxy.

I really liked the writing style! Tina is a funny teenager and doesn't even come off as arrogant (even though I think she's supposed to be entitled). I liked that even though the plot references the chosen one-trope, it has the twist that Tina knew about her destiny from the start. That's very refreshing and made the transition into space a lot easier.

This book offers awesome friendships and relationships and action packed scenes full of heroism (that Tina desperately strives to replicate) and suspense. I just sometimes had problems with the pacing, because a lot of the build-up for intense scenes is skipped for the favor of throwing the reader in-medias-res multiple times. This threw me off while I was reading, even though I appreciate that there are no parts that were boring to read as a consequence.

The story looks at deeper themes of belonging and choosing a future for yourself, while also considering the intricate systems of good and evil, right and wrong. I loved how Tina defends her side, which is supposed to be the good one, but is then confronted with knowledge that they are not in fact perfect.

The resolution is great, even if the last chapter opens up a new threat as preparation for a sequel, which is technically a cliffhanger. I don't mind, though, and am very curious to see what else is in store for the characters.

I would recommend this novel to any science fiction fans (especially those of Becky Chambers and the Aurora Rising trilogy) and anyone who likes to read about found family and epic space battles!

Delightfully strange and lovely. Anders is great. I enjoyed this book immensely. Their other books are great too.

Really astonishing work, revitalising the genre. I dislike the phrase ‘unputdownable’, but I found myself entirely unable to put it down.

Tina is the reincarnation of one of the greatest military commanders ever, she’s been cloned and left of Earth because no one would think to check on the world of such a backwards civilisation. From a young age she has been told that she is destined for great things, being raised to be aware of those around her but also be ready to leave at short notice. When she is finally summoned to fulfill her destiny, she knows things are going to change for her drastically. If only she could remember her past.

First things first. This novel normalises introduction with pronouns! As in ‘my name is Tash. My pronoun is she/her’ and I am ALL FOR THIS MOVEMENT. In a word where gender is being more fluid and people are becoming more aware, this would be a massive step forward. Do you identify as the gender you were assigned at birth? Yes? Well then this wouldn’t be a thing for you. For those who don’t, this book is part of the revolution and even if you hate fantasy novels, you should love this one. But I digress. It normalises the discussion of gender and I love it.

Next up, there are aliens. Some are nice, some are not. Some are what I can only interpret as a speaking 3 legged spider thing that can’t comprehend binary choices. Also, there’s some dude with weird tubes coming off him and while I was confused, I am also intrigued. For the most part everyone kind of gets along because what’s the point of fighting about nothing, am I right? What I’m getting at is that’s it super imaginative but also has that basis in that aliens aren’t necessary evil, its about choices and politics.

Now I mentioned politics. And this is a very political book. But also, not at the same time. It kind of depends on if you are the type of reader to ‘read into things’ or if you are a ‘oooh aliens and strange things happening. Wow something exploded!’ type person. At its heart, it discusses racism, the debate around gender identity and stigmatisation that occurs within our society. But it also has explosions, strange creatures, and some epic space fantasy elements – it will float most people’s boats.

I will say here though that at places it was hard to follow. I found myself phasing out because it didn’t catch my attention like it should have. I also had issues following the actual plot; I don’t know if I missed things in my read through, if there is actually plot holes or if stuff has changed since the advance copy, I received was sent but it felt super slow in parts.

I also really wish that the ‘big conflict’ scenes had have been drawn out rather than only taking a few pages to happen. This book has a lot of floating through space learning things and not as much action as one would expect from this sort of publication. To be fair though, I am reading so many books lately, that a super high amount of action has become my norm (this is a me problem, not necessarily a book problem.

So ill wind up here. It’s a punchy, relatively fast paced novel about teens and all the trouble they can get into in space when they are ‘the chosen one’. The villain in this was a little full of himself and honestly, I just wanted to shove a sock in his mouth so he would stop talking. Character development was fairly steady with the novel finishing up as Tina becomes more herself. There’s a cute romance that comes in near the end that I am all here for. Also, many many political discussions that you will notice if you are paying attention, if not its just a kind of kickarse fantasy.

I love Charlie Jane Anders work generally, so I was really happy to get a chance to read this. However, it ended up being not so much for me. I think it's a good story and very fun, but everything felt very easy as it is. Like, nothing was worked for. A lot of the transitions were jarring and I just didn't quite vibe with style. I'm really glad that kids get something like this to read, but it wasn't quite the right fit for me.

DNF at 48%
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the e-ARC

Unfortunately I went into this book with high expectations because I've heard how great the author's other work is and how beautiful prose is but this ain't it. I feel like the writing was extremely dumbed down. And honestly I've been reading YA for YEARS and for something with a 17 year old main character I felt like I was reading a book written for middle grade even.

I also just feel like everything was too convenient and kind of lazy writing. The main character conveniently has all the knowledge of a super awesome captain and knows how to work a spaceship and etc because she was cloned from her just "unlocked".

I'm in the minority so far it feels and with science fiction as my favorite genre I'm apparently a bit hard on it. But try it for yourself maybe you'll like it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tom Doherty Associates for the ebook ARC of Victories Greater than Death

When I first started this book I was so excited and I even thought that it would be a 5 star read for me. At about the halfway point I think is when I started feeling meh about it. Maybe if the plot moved faster or if there were more real-life encounters with the villain, it would have punched it up a bit more. There were so many side characters to be honest that it was hard to keep track of everyone and everything about each one. I would have liked less side characters and more information about them and their alien race. Towards the end, it got better again and it ended with a cliffhanger so of course, I'll read the next one to find out what happens. Just hoping the next one is more exciting or explains more about the various alien races.

4/5 Stars. Thank you to Macmillan and netgalley for sending me this arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I quite enjoyed this book the aliens and humanoids working against each other was a very interesting concept I don’t see much in books. I loved the diversity of the characters and how lots of them were from different worlds and planets. The battle scenes were well written and made this book very interesting and engaging for the audience. I think most sci fi readers would enjoy.

DNF @ 52%. This was one of my most anticipated YA releases of 2021 and perhaps those expectations contributed, but I just couldn’t gel with this novel. I did appreciate the diversity and I sincerely think this might still be a great read for a younger teen audience (13-15ish). However, between a disbelief in the initial premise and setup, a lack of characterization in favor of myriad descriptions of random alien races, and taking away the action and space oriented parts of sci-fi I typically enjoy, this wasn’t the novel for me.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.