Thank you to netgalley and Tor teen for the e-arc

I will admit I only got 26 pages into this novel, but since I received it for review, I will explain here why I put this book down so early.

Writing

My complete disengagement for this book is because of the writing style. As I was reading this, I was editing it, seeing all the simple points that would've really cleaned up this writing. For an author 3 novels in, I would've thought she'd rely less on filter words (like seems, felt, hear, saw). I prevented me from sinking into the narrative.

The scenes (which are told in a linear fashion), feel non-sequitur. Jumping from one moment to the next without flowing into each other at all.

This isn't helped along by the dialogue, which didn't read naturally at all, and could only imagine them speaking with robot voices in my head. The characters would occasionally throw in an odd pop culture reference which always stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the writing.


Characters

We are told who the characters are, and their personalities, not shown.


Plot

The plot reads like a bad comic film, and because of the clunky writing, it's hard to get behind the premise of the plot. It felt very much like "and then this happened, then this happened, then this".

When the inciting incident does happen, I was completely uninterested, because despite the bash-it-over-your-head foreshadowing, it felt random and jarring.

Just finished Charlie Jane Anders' "Victories Greater Than Death," her debut into the young adult market. This book is so very easy for me to recommend — it's the kind of novel I would have loved to read when I was a teen, and it's still a delight for me to read now.

Let's start with the basics. The heroine of the story, Tina, knows that although she looks human, she's actually of alien descent, and the clone of a legendary commander to boot. She also knows it's only a matter of time before she has to fulfill her destiny in space, although she fears the alien killers she sees in visions. It's a refreshing take on the entire fated-hero trope — she knows what lies ahead and is girding for it, as opposed to so many others whom no one bothered to warn.

After starting on Earth, the story really begins when Tina makes it to space. The story's crackerjack, full of a menagerie of intriguing aliens, a rich history going back millennia, clever technologies, a mysterious conspiracy, thrilling action, tragic losses, and gallivanting across the galaxy. Also, crushes!

The heroine is likable and written with care and affection. Quirky, awkward, scrappy and poor, worried about tests and bullies and a fraught but loving relationship with her mom, partying with street dance protests as best as she and her best friend can, I could imagine wanting to hang out with and protect them in equal measure. The plot and setting are exciting and fascinating, but the characters do not in any way get short-shrift, growing and changing in meaningful ways before our eyes.

Looking back, my only quibble with the book is the amount of time spent on Earth. The starting section is well-written, and accomplishes a stellar job of establishing Tina as a real person, as well as the ominous nature of what might lie ahead of her. And the shift to space is handled well, reminiscent in the best way of "Galaxy Quest" and "The Last Starfighter," where fans are glad to step into dream roles, despite the dangers involved. It's just that I really love all the stuff in space, and in retrospect I would've liked for the novel to get there sooner. But when I was reading the front section, I didn't regret reading it at all — it felt kind of like a John Hughes prequel to Star Trek or Star Wars.

All in all, "Victories Greater Than Death" is basically what you'd want YA SF to be, or just SF in general. It also has a thriller ending to pique interest in Anders' next book in the series. I can't wait.

I gave this book three stars, but I’m reality it’s more like 3.5. I really enjoyed this book, honestly. I loved how adventurous it felt, and the premise was phenomenal. The idea of Tina having to live up to the memory of herself, essentially, was really good, and I think a lot of YA readers will really be able to connect and relate to that. I also liked how it just sorta plopped you in the middle of everything, and didn’t seem to worry too much about having to set up the universe. You learned about things AS everyone else in the story learned about them, and that was great for me.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find myself really connecting to a lot of the characters I felt that I wasn’t supposed to care about. The other Earthlings (save for Elza) didn’t really do it for me, and the plot felt sorta slow at first and then really super rushed up at the end. On top of that, I really feel like Anders’ normally gorgeous writing style was sort of toned down for this book. I love the way she writes, and I wish that more of that had come through with this.
Over all, I enjoyed reading this book and I will be recommending it to the right people I’m the future. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read this ARC, and I’m looking forward to the idea of reading more of this story.

This enjoyable read had elements of humor that reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide and the more recent Space Opera. A bit tongue in cheek, but filled with genuine feeling and earnestness. The premise that a famous and accomplished galactic force commander is cloned and hid on earth and then retrieved when they have matured was fresh and interesting. I'll definitely purchase this title for my library and recommend to scifi readers.

I wish I could say that I liked this book. I have loved Charlie Jane Anders other works, so I was very excited for this book. It was a young adult sci-fi book set in space. Right up my alley.

Unfortunately, the book read very slowly. I will admit, I struggle when there are too many characters, locations, and other various "things" I have to keep track of (e.g. space ships) introduced, and I spend so much time re-reading to figure it out, that the book then feels tedious. I think in this regard it felt more like classic sci-fi, very heavy on the science vs a lighter young adult book. I believe this also led to my unease with the book because I was never sure where it was going. Maybe Ander's point?

Maybe with some editing, the book will tighten up and feel more streamlined.

I also wish there was more relationship building with Tina's close friendship with Rachael.

What I loved: use of pronouns throughout the book, very seamlessly. Diversity of characters, via skin color, gender, gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, planet of origin. I am sure I am missing something, but it was beautiful cast of characters, and I loved the inclusiveness!

I rated it as a 2.5 stars, but that's just based on my personal preference, but I definitely think there are those that will love this book!

The style of writing is certainly unique -- for example, I appreciated Anders' naming conventions, which were all super memorable. As a non-binary person myself, I appreciated the representation of trans and nonbinary characters, but I found the pronoun introductions to be clunky.

I've enjoyed Charlie Jane Anders' adult titles so I had high hopes for her YA SF debut. Victories Greater Than Death did not disappoint, This takes the chosen one trope and gives it heart. Tina's known her entire life that she's really part of an alien race. She's been hidden away on Earth until it's time for her to lead the fight against The Compassion, who are anything but.

In the spirit of Ready Player One, Tina leads a group that includes her BFF from Earth as well as some of the smartest human teens along with a group of aliens determined to defeat The Compassion.

Tina discovers that being the chosen one doesn't mean you have all of the answers. And it doesn't make you immune to loss or heartache.

As with her adult novels, Charlie Jane Anders writes about self-discovery, self-acceptance, and finding the family of your heart. Very inclusive with nonbinary, LGBTQ+ characters.

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

Tina has always known she's destined to leave the planet. Her mother has told her about the day the aliens left her, a normal-looking baby, to be raised in anonymous safety until the day when she comes of age and her beacon glows to call the spaceship to come take her home - and also alerts the enemy to come and find her first. But that bit is only the start, and the real story involves Tina, her best friend Rachael (artist, introvert, homeschooler), and a team of the smartest teen nerds on earth as they try to save the galaxy from The Compassion, which is a lot less nice than the name would make it sound. This book is exciting and well written, but more than that, it has so much heart! It's about found family and mutual support and personal identity and misfit, awkward, and queer teenagers are going to love it. I've read Anders's adult fiction, which is rich and complex, and challenging and was worried her style wouldn't translate well to a YA book, but she really pulled off the transition to a different audience, neither talking down to hear readers nor over their heads.

Space operas are not usually my genre, but I will read anything that Charlie Jane Anders puts out there. Though some of the action got a little confusing closer to the end, I really enjoyed this coming-of-age scifi adventure about a culturally diverse group of human teens in space. The central character, Tina, who is not actually a real human teen (though don't most teens feel like maybe they are not actually human?), is funny, smart and enjoyable as narrator. I hope that later in this series, her best friend Rachael gets to narrate - I was excited to see a fat, introvert, visual arts genius totally in touch with her limitations and psychological needs, and I'd love to read more about her. There were some spots that felt weaker that others, and some characters who were less fully realized than I would have liked, but overall, this was an enjoyable book that I couldn't stop reading.

Charlie Jane Anders brings a refreshing writing style to a YA SciFi book. The pacing is fantastic and the characters (both human and nonhuman) are believable and enjoyable to read. This book will help open conversations about preferred gender and biases people may have. It is a joy to read and I can't wait to include it in my library!

I liked it - the author is a favourite of mine - but something failed to really hit home here. It was quite slow paced and while I liked the MC, I didn't get that sense of connection I've had from the author's other books. I suppose this just didn't feel quite finished, which was exacerbated by the cliffhanger ending. A good book but it just didn't quite work for me.

I am a big fan of Charlie Jane Anders, and I was excited to see that she had a new YA book, so I really expected to like this more than I did. I liked the concept and the overall story arc, but it seemed to drag at times and it felt longer than it needed to be. I think that Tina never really felt like a fully fleshed out main character to me. I liked the struggle over feeling like she's supposed to be Captain Argentian, but I felt like once she (sort of) lets that go, no real sense of self comes in to replace it. And there's a cliffhanger ending that clearly sets up the next book, but there's no real satisfying ending to the story arc in this one.