Tina is an alien raised on Earth. There’s a beacon inside her that when she’s ready will alert both allies and enemies to her location. With her best friend Rachael she goes to space to fulfil her destiny.
An interesting premise, fun fleshed out characters. A little confused on what time period it was supposed to be at the beginning but it. Gets started really quickly and then slows down the further you get.

If you're looking for an epic young adult sci-fi novel you should check out Victories Greater Than Death. This is one of the most exciting new sci-fi novels of 2021 and it has a great queer love story, cloning, epic battle scenes, and a wide range of aliens.

The story follows Tina a humanoid girl with the cloned body of a past leader. She knows that once her beacon will turn on she'll have to take on the responsibility of saving the whole universe. Thankfully the book is fast-paced and Tina's journey starts right away.

The Royal Fleet tries to get their old leaders' memories back into Tina's body so they can find the Talgan stone before Marrant who wants to conquer and rule over the galaxy.

Victories Greater Than Death is perfect for Sci-fi lovers who enjoy fast-paced, thrilling stories stunning world-building, unique Alien species, and a bit of romance.

https://asianacircus.com/best-sci-fi-space-travel-books-novels-books-set-in-space/

*Thank you for the ARC! =)

Space adventure! Charlie Jane Anders' YA debut contains peril, adventure, and friendship. It starts off really strongly, with an earthbound action sequence that had me flipping pages quickly.

Tina looks human, has grown up human, but she's a clone of the Fleet's greatest commander and someday the Fleet will summon her home. No one knows but her mother and her best friend Rachel. When she finds herself on a Fleet craft with a skeleton crew, they recruit some genius earth kids to join - and the adventure begins!

The cast of characters is diverse (both the humans and not humans). In fact, there are so many characters, I sometimes had trouble recalling who was who. I think this would have been less of an issue if I'd been reading a physical book and was able to easily flip back and forth. I appreciate how pronouns are integrated into space society (or even just the translator software) - it makes sense! We're accustomed to making a snap judgement on pronouns based on physical appearance, but when there are loads of different species about, that snap judgement will be even less accurate than it is on earth.

I really enjoyed this book. Particularly in the last third, which was action packed. The main baddie in this book has an evil power which is one of the most upsetting I've ever read - seriously.

I look forward to seeing where this series goes!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Charlie Jane Anders’s Victories Greater than Death is the first book in a YA sci fi series that focuses on Tina, who seems on the surface to be an average teenager making her way through the drudgery that is high school on Earth. Actually, though, she’s the reincarnated embodiment of Captain Thaoh Argentian, an alien spaceship captain who was a hero of the Royal Fleet until she was murdered. Tina has no memory of her past life, but she does carry a beacon designed to signal her location at the appropriate time so that she can rejoin the Fleet and have her memories restored in her new body.

Quite a premise, yes?

Victories Greater than Death is an ambitious novel from an author who achieved great heights with earlier books I loved, All the Birds in the Sky and The City in the Middle of the Night. And this book does so much right.

Through a series of twists, Tina ends up rejoining the Fleet but also bringing along (accidentally) her human best friend, Rachael. Rachael, who has been so bullied that she ultimately left school, is an extreme introvert and experiences social anxiety. I appreciated the way that Rachael advocates for what she needs to stay mentally healthy, including asking for space to be alone in the midst of this alien spaceship. Rachael is also, however, instrumental in supporting Tina in her mission: to build on her past heroism and make a difference in the universe.

Another thing I loved: When Tina and Rachael meet the first non-human entities, they can all understand each other because of devices on their spacesuits that instantly translate between all languages. Included in every introduction is the individual’s pronoun—and there’s no gender binary here; indeed, some species include new genders with pronouns never heard on Earth.

The representation is fantastic. More Earth teenagers end up joining their efforts, and they represent multiple races, sexualities, and genders. As the ship moves through the universe, they’re on a mission (both to fight the villains, the Compassion, and to help the victims of the Compassion). Their goal is to upend the power structure that brings suffering to so many. They find, of course, that the Fleet often commits violence in the name of peace, a quandary that Tina tries to navigate throughout the novel.

When the Fleet tried to restore Tina’s memories from Captain Argentian, they didn’t fully take—Tina can remember information but has regained no personal memories. (So, she knows how to operate all of the tools and devices on the ship and how to get around the universe, but she doesn’t recognize any of the Captain’s friends.) I enjoyed the way that Anders shows Tina working through the difficulty of recognizing the right thing to do, that situations are rarely as simple as right and wrong, and that swooping in to rescue people and then immediately leaving isn’t always the best way to go about saving the universe.

I did, unfortunately, think the book dragged a bit: it’s only 288 pages, but I felt as if the pace was quite slow. I also felt that the discussions of representation were extremely explicit. This is a novel that’s definitely written for a YA audience, but I felt as if some of the conversations about important issues could have been incorporated more gracefully and less obviously into the plot.

It’s an episodic novel, and Tina’s vision of what’s happening often jumps from scene to scene without much exposition, which actually worked well for me. What was less successful were the scenes where there was too much exposition, where Anders didn’t trust her readers to pick up on some themes or lessons.

The book does a great job addressing the nuances of romantic relationships and friendships, and we see characters working through complications from their past—in other words, there’s plenty of drama and personal intrigue layered into the “save the universe” arc that provides the forward motion for the book.

I’m so thrilled that Anders is moving into the realm of YA literature, and while I don’t think Victories Greater than Death reaches the heights of her earlier books, I do think that teens who are fans of sci fi may have a new series to look forward to reading.

I received an advanced copy of Victories Greater than Death from the publisher so I could share my review with you!

Content Warning: Victories Greater than Death contains scenes and discussions of death, genocide, violence, torture, and gun violence.

If Tina was created with a purpose, why does she feel so useless? Cloned from the legendary Captain Thoah Argentinian after her untimely death, Tina is an alien sent to grow up among humans, so that she can remain hidden from those forces that want her dead. But Tina is ready for more than pretending to be a normal high schooler. She is ready for greatness, ready to understand her destiny, ready to save the universe. Tina’s wishes finally come true the day her rescue beacon activates, signaling to all the cosmos her location. Before she can so much as blink, Tina is thrust into an intergalactic war over the fate of countless lives. Along with several other earthlings, and Captain Argentinian’s former crew, Tina will have to learn what it means to be a hero and if there are truly victories greater than death!

You can get your copy of Victories Greater than Death on April 13th from Tor Teen!

Victories Greater than Death is the first book in an exciting new trilogy that you won’t want to miss! Jam-packed with a complex plot, character development, and explorations of challenging privilege at a galactic level, this story is truly unlike anything I’ve read before. In Victories Greater than Death, Charlie Jane Anders skillfully integrated lots of LGBTQ+ representation, along with an extremely effective system of character introduction with directly stated pronouns. I hope that this inclusion of normalized pronoun introductions becomes more common in all fields of fiction! My favorite element of Victories Greater than Death was the wide variety of outer-space creatures Charlie Jane Anders managed to incorporate into the story. It made the entire narrative feel more grounded in its setting, and gave me a lot of fun imagining to do!

My Recommendation-
This thrilling space-romp would be the perfect read for fans of Star Wars and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power! If you love stories focused on found family and disaster-prone characters, you absolutely need to pick up a copy of Victories Greater than Death!

This book has such a good premise, and an amazing variety of diverse groups. You have not only a group of Earth characters from various ethnicities and parts of the world, but you also have representation of so many LGBTQ+ identities. It's a very queer and diverse space opera featuring a Tina, human clone of a very prestigious and beloved alien commander, who unfortunately met her demise, and now the pressure to be her exact clone is placed on Tina, to help save the world. It's an amazing premise. Along with the diversity is so much of the language that is completely normalized like stating pronouns during an introduction.

That's where I felt like the praise ended. There is so much info-dump and so many side character introductions, I had to pause and reread several times to figure out exactly who is who and how they or the info relates to the plotline (unfortunately, I felt most of it does not relate at all). There's very little showing and much more telling, and the pacing and events felt too clunky. I became uninterested in the overall plotline very quickly but I still attempted to power through it until it felt more like a chore and I had to DNF a little more than halfway through. I think there is so much potential in a premise like this but I was felt disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tina Mains is a clone of an alien, sent to Earth to grow up until she was old enough to activate her memories and become who she was supposed to be: a famous alien hero. It’s a lot to live up to but Tina is willing to try. Her best friend, Rachael, is along for the ride through a series of circumstances and choices. Together, they’re going to fight against a force that is hell bent on destroying the galaxy.

I enjoyed the characters immensely, though we’re told more about who they are, than actually figuring it out for ourselves. From the aliens, who use all manner of pronouns, gender neutral and otherwise, to the other Earthlings, who are from different countries and cultures, they’re all lovable and interesting. I appreciate the diversity of genders and sexualities, and the various different aliens. Many of the aliens are bipeds, like humans, and there was actually an explanation for the lack of diversity, which was super neat. The little greetings and responses were really fun, though every single one was different. There isn’t much of an explanation for these little greetings, or what they mean or what they were based on. But they were fun all the same.

The beginning was intriguing, but I found the interactions between the characters to be odd. Their conversations, their way of speaking to one another, felt off, forced. Tina’s internal thoughts were aged down, using teen-speak that was just plain awkward and slightly annoying. The conversations with the Captain and the other aliens aboard the ship were the same kind of awkward, though that could be contributed to the ship’s translator, translating it into Tina’s mental voice to make it easier for her to understand. The science was not well explained and I found myself confused at times as to what was going on in space battles. The battles themselves were frequent, a chapter starting in the middle of a mission that quickly turned south. There were at least three such chapters, where Tina and the others were on a planet when the villain, Marrant, came and interrupted, followed by a narrow escape. The flow of the writing was interrupted by these abrupt changes in scenery and I felt like I was constantly behind and trying to keep up. Where were they now? What were they doing? Did this mission have anything to do with the plot?

Tina was constantly wondering if she was good enough to be Captain Argentian, if she had the strength and knowledge to take her place as she was meant to. She had the knowledge and some of the muscle memory, but her memories of the Captain herself are gone, completely inaccessible, and remained so throughout the novel. Of course Tina would wonder if she was good enough, but she never really made an effort to be better. To transform into her true alien form, or work out so she could match Captain Argentian’s strength. Facts and information just presented themselves to Tina, whenever she needed them. It felt too convenient, too easy. The instant information felt like a substitute for world building, of which there could have been so much more. More video logs from Captain Argentian, more chats between the Earthlings, more information about the Royal Fleet.

Her friendship with Rachael was similar, in that Rachael was there when Tina needed her. She disappeared for several pages, apparently hiding in her room. And Tina didn’t try to talk to her for a long time, basically tossing her aside. I did not like that at all, since Rachael was easily my favorite character.

Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the alien civilizations. The respect shown towards personal space and consent for even the most basic of touches was wonderful, as was the fact that each introduction included name and pronoun automatically. But the writing and plot were boring and disjointed most of the time. I had a difficult time getting through the book, particularly the last half, where there were a lot of battles that were just a complete let down, anticlimactic and confusing. I loved the inclusion of a queer romance, which was technically an interspecies romance since Tina is an alien clone. I would have liked more between Tina and Elza, to see their relationship really grow.

Thank you to TorTeen and NetGalley for providing an eARC!

This book is 288 pages, but it feels much longer.

This is the author's first YA book. I have enjoyed this author's other novels, but while there were aspects of this book I loved, overall it felt like reading an encyclopedia.

Things I loved: the diversity, the openness of how the characters embrace all genders, species, races, etc., and the hopeful feeling of the Royal Fleet.

Things I did not enjoy that much: I love YA, and although I am no longer a teenager I still remember what it was like and the tone/voices in this book are very, very young although they are high school-aged. The book also feels very dense because things are explained in great detail about every single species, but then there are other moments when things aren't explained as well (what's an impeller?) so it feels somewhat jumbled.

I would still recommend this book for the diversity and characterization alone.

Thank you to Tor Teen and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Anders’ books have been hit or miss for me, so when I heard she was coming out with a YA science fiction novel, I was very excited. Let me tell you, I was not at all disappointed.
This story follows Tina, who is raised on Earth. She is a clone of a famous space captain that died facing an enemy to the galaxy. Tina has known her whole life that she’s an alien disguised to look like a human. She also knows that one day she will be called back to space to help save the galaxy. When that day comes, she realizes that she isn’t as prepared as she thought she was. Her best friend gets sucked up in the spaceship alongside her and they managed to add a few more humans to their crew.
This is a wonderful and diverse story about found family and all the different ways to be a hero. It’s a story about right versus wrong. I really enjoyed it. It’s filled with great themes and important conversations. One of my favorite things about this book was how it normalized people’s pronouns. Anytime anyone new was introduced they shared their name followed by their pronoun (Hi, I’m Amanda and my pronoun is she). There were the common pronouns, but the more alien species we met the more unique pronouns we learned. I really liked this aspect of the story. There’s also diversity within the main characters. They humans that join Tina and Rachel in space are from all over the world. One of the humans that has been brought up from Earth, Elza, is trans. So, when I say this book is diverse as heck. I mean it and in all the best ways.
Overall, I cannot wait for this series to continue. I didn’t realize it was a series until I was getting close to the ending. I think the ending was good. It gave a solid conclusion for all of the things that were happening during the book, but also left little bits for what to expect in future books. I think this story was well written and filled with characters that you just can’t help but love. I think this book will be a huge hit with many science fiction lovers.

"When they take everything away from you, when all the people you counted on are gone, you hold on to who you are."

To put it blank: this book was amazing.

Tina's always felt she was meant for more. After she learned the truth, that she's the clone of an alien commander, she's waited years for her rescue beacon to go off. When it does, her life will never be the same.

She's forced to confront enemies from her previous life, The Compassion. They're the first to arrive when her beacon goes off. Soon, her and her best friend Rachael are saved by an alien and arrive at a very diverse alien ship, The Indomitable. With the help of kids from Earth, Tina can begin to fill in the role she's always meant to be.

Victories Greater Than Death is marketed as a Star Wars meets Doctor Who, and I completely agree. There's high action in the book, and stuff moves fast. I take notes when reading, and was easily able to keep up. (I may or may not have an entire entry to all the alien races as well.) There's an extremely diverse set of characters: we meet people of all different races, different genders, different sexualities, and different religions. Charlie Jane Anders gives us a little glimpse at all of their lives, allowing them to become more than just background characters.

Tina herself is extremely relatable. I'm 28 years old, way past the targeted age for this book (although young adult can and should be read by all), and I was easily able to relate to Tina. She's strong, but she still has insecurities. She's prepared, but she still has anxiety. She's real.

The best part about this entire book is the found family. I absolutely love found family stories. All of the kids from Earth have abruptly left their less-than-ideal homes for absolute chaos, but they can all rely on each other for safety. And, no spoilers, but I ship it.

Victories Greater Than Death will be released April 13th. Thank you to Tor Teen, Net Galley, and Charlie Jane Anders for this advanced review copy!

Victories Greater Than Death is a young adult sci-fi novel by Charlie Jane Anders. I read it as a stand-alone, but it turned out to be the first book in Universal Expansion trilogy.

The sole point of view character is Tina. She’s an American teenager who knows she’s a clone of an alien spaceship captain, genetically modified to look like a human and with all her memories. She’s accepted that one day she’ll leave the earth and become a new person. But it happens more abruptly than she would’ve wished when Marrat, the enemy who killed the original captain, finds her first.

During the daring escape, she takes her best friend Rachel with her on the rescuing spaceship. When it turns out that the spaceship is short on qualified staff, they pick up four other teenagers from all over the earth too, all geniuses in their own field. Together they set out on a quest across the universe to find a stone Marrat wants before him. Clues to what it is and where to find it are in the memories of the original captain.

But the medical procedure that’s supposed to make Tina the original captain again doesn’t quite work. She’s left with encyclopaedic knowledge of space and great new skills, but with her own memories and personality, and with no traces of the original captain. It triggers an identity crisis in her, which is the driving theme of the book.

The book starts with a lot of action and then slows down for a very long middle part. There are episodic scenes of Tina and the earthlings, as they call themselves, learning new skills and studying the new world they find themselves in. There’s also a great deal of teenage angst about who they are or want to be, and who they want to be with.

Teenage drama is what YA books are about, and it’s done fairly well here; the characters behave like teenagers and not like adults in teenagers’ bodies. But since it doesn’t really interest me, it made the already slow middle of the book drag far too long.

Action returns in the last third with the final confrontation with Marrat. An ancient alien race has gone through the universe millions of years ago to help humanoids to thrive over creatures that aren’t based on two legs, arms and eyes. Marrat wants to bring this back, and the earthlings and their spaceship crew rise to oppose his humanoid supremacy.

Marrat is an evil creature who isn’t easily won, but in a true YA fashion, the teenagers succeed where the adults fail. The final battle felt a little off, however. In a first person narrative, I would’ve expected Tina to be the one who pulls off the impossible, but while it was a team effort, she was basically left to observe the outcome from the side-lines.

It’s nice, in principle, to give each character equal time to shine. But from a narrative point of view, it doesn’t work. Especially since it was done ‘the wrong way round’. It would’ve made a greater dramatic impact, if Tina had been allowed to act on her original plan, and the last minute solution had come only after it was almost too late to save her. Now, there was no drama, and the final battle fell flat.

The ending wasn’t conclusive, which also lessened its impact, as I believed I was reading a stand-alone. Even knowing there are more books to come, it doesn’t feel satisfying enough. The last sentence of the book positively threw me.

But the book isn’t so much about action as it is about representation. There are gay, bi and transgender characters, black and Asian ones, and the alien races add their own uniqueness to the mix. Everyone introduces themselves with their name and preferred pronouns. It was a bit jarring at first; education for education’s sake. However, most characters are odd and alien to each other, even on a spaceship, so it was merely practical to tell these things upfront.

Everyone accepts everyone else just the way they are. Gender and sexuality issues that would’ve been the main themes in most YA books are given normalcy and not addressed. The identity issues that Tina and her friends grapple with aren’t based on who they fall in love with or what they look like underneath their clothes. It’s about finding their place in the universe as they are, based on their skills and what they like to do. Tina especially has to figure out a lot, since she wasn’t miraculously altered to someone else after all. On the flip-side, the characters—the minor ones especially—became the sum of their skills, not living, breathing persons.

The book tries to include everyone, respect everyone’s choices and personal space (consent was asked for every hug), understand everyone and not to be mean to or dismissive of anyone. It was nice, but it didn’t offer much character conflict or chance for personal growth for any of the characters, which are the building blocks of any narrative. The reader wasn’t given a reason to read beyond the action plot.

I also found it odd that on a spaceship full of aliens the earthlings only hung around amongst themselves. Without proper interaction with the aliens on an equal level (mostly they were teachers and commanding officers who weren’t given backstories), they didn’t really have to question their humanity. They could’ve been anywhere on earth, and the book would’ve been pretty much the same.

In the end, I didn’t like the book quite as much as I hoped I would—or as much as I enjoyed the first few chapters. The odd, dispirited ending doesn’t really make me want to read the next book either. But I’ll probably continue with the series anyway, if only to see whether the earthlings end up where they want to go.

Victories Greater Than Death is a bright, sparkly, jubilant joyride of a space opera. Tina and her friends, Earthlings and aliens alike, are richly drawn, with emotionally authentic and vulnerable relationships, jumping from one adventure to another across a galaxy full of fascinatingly imaginative new cultures, species, technologies, and ways of thinking about the universe.

I particularly loved the justification for why so many alien species have similar 'humanoid' bodies, which feels like a direct response to Star Trek and similar media, not to mention a response to, well, all of history. No spoilers here, but it's simultaneously amusing and profound. Also of note is the bad guy's biggest weapon, which, again without spoilers, was both deeply imaginative and really, genuinely, unsettling. That honestly sums up the rest of the book - it's so creative, clever, and absolutely jam-packed with ideas...and yet never loses its heart, that sense of being rooted in the lives of real people with real emotions. Even if sometimes those people have three wings and a giant eyeball.

Tina's quest to become the hero she was born to be, and her realization of what heroism really means, accompanied by her found family of brilliant fellow Earth teens, provide a glittery space adventure that will surely appeal to any young Earthling who's ever gazed at the stars and wondered what else was out there...

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for the advance review copy!

3 stars. I think this book may have oversold itself a little bit by comparing itself to Doctor Who and Star Wars. Brief synopsis: an alien clone raised as a human girl for her own protection from enemies awaits the day her beacon will go off to signal her return to the stars as well as when she can begin being tracked/located by alien enemies. At the start of the action of the book, the beacon goes off.

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.

Recommended for fans of YA space opera. Although it did not quite work for me, that doesn't take away from the great, creative worldbuilding and unique characters. I fully expect this book to tick a lot of boxes for some readers, especially teens. I've read a lot of sci fi and fantasy, particularly YA, but this definitely brings something new.

Victories Greater Than Death was a really entertaining sci-fi adventure!

We follow Tina - a teenager who has a very interesting destiny! She is a human clone of an amazing alien commander. Tina is waiting for her "real" life to begin so she can head back to the stars.

There is a lot to like about this story:
- great characters ( + some really fun alien characters)
- a thrilling space adventure
- cool planets and places to explore
- action packed fighting
- a revenge hungry villain

However, this story did fall short for me. I felt that it read like a movie. You jump around scene to scene and sometimes it wasn't clear what happened or how it transitioned... so that was hard to follow at times. Also, the relationship aspect felt forced and weird to me. Didn't really like that.

I would say if you can get past the romance parts and just be ready for some jumping around scene to scene the story is actually really fun and addicting. I would absolutely recommend this book to people who like a YA sci-fi adventure!

Queer space opera? I'm in! I was so excited to read this when I was approved for the ARC. I loved how consent was given importance on this book. Apart from that it has a great set of characters and a plot with a lot of twists and turns. I am so excited to see how the story will expand in the next books, but for now please give this out of this world (pun intended) book a chance!

Victories Greater Than Death is the beginning of the debut YA science fiction series by award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders. 2021 is the year I wanted to read more science fiction and as a lover of the young adult genre, Victories Greater Than Death was a must read. It was presented to me very early on with a fantastic cover and interesting synopsis and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it, so there was a lot of hype on my end.

What is it all about you ask? Victories Greater Than Death tells the story of Tina, the human clone and reincarnation of the most brilliant and daring alien commander in all the galaxy. She has known from birth that her destiny is more than any of her human friends could ever imagine and has spent her life waiting for the rescue beacon within her to activate. When it does, it sets off a thrilling and whirlwind adventure that takes Tina, her best friend Rachael, and some of the smartest young people on Earth into an intergalactic war where they must save the world.

The premise of this book left me on the edge of my seat! It has everything a good science fiction novel should have: good and bad aliens, a space war, and a near impossible mission to save the world. Anders has added a diverse and gender fluid cast of heroes to tell this tale and it was a huge part of the plot that drew me to this book.

This is the first book I have personally read that normalises the use of pronouns. I adored this inclusion throughout the book and that each character is introduced by both name and pronouns. It makes this book so inclusive and a true shining beacon in our current society. We live in a society that is becoming more aware of gender fluidity every day and while there is still a long way to go, there is hope for acceptance for all. Victories Greater Than Death normalises the use of pronouns for all, both those that identify with the gender they were assigned at birth and those that don’t.

The main trope throughout the book is the classic Chosen One narrative with a great twist! Tina has spent her life living and knowing that she is the chosen one, the one that will save the galaxy and as such enters this adventure without the awkwardness that most chosen one narratives fall into. But Anders doesn’t stop there and throws in one more twist that gives Tina’s character a dangerous edge. Tina is the clone of a legendary space captain but when the memory retrieval process fails to reveal the required personal memories the heroes are left scrambling for a new plan.

The worldbuilding throughout the novel was troublesome for me as at times there was a lack of information that would have made the plot flow more seamlessly. This was very apparent in the descriptions of some of the alien races and in some of the motivations of certain characters. At times I got lost in the plot as it was a bit hard to follow and when this happened it was easy to get distracted and lose my place. The bits that I did pick up were interesting and I enjoyed that the “bad” aliens were not simply bad because they were scary or because they looked different, but because there is a complex society with differing political choices and stances.

The political opinions I picked up on throughout this book were ones that mirror our own society. There are discussions on racism, gender identity, and the associated stigmatism people face from society. I wish there was a bit more focus on these issues but they are intertwined with explosions and epic adventures, which while cool also shift peoples focus from them so they don’t feel “too serious”.

I am an adult who loves young adult fiction for its ease of reading. Victories Greater Than Death appeared to fall into the younger YA category and the language used felt intentionally simplified. Young adult is a unique genre where I feel that authors aren’t required to “dumb down” their worlds or characters to connect with their audiences. Anders took this tact in this book and it really distracted me from the overall finish of the novel.

Overall, Victories Greater Than Death is a wonderful book and will appeal to readers new to the science fiction genre and readers with an appreciation for inclusivity and diversity. Readers that have experience within the science fiction genre may find this book clunky and unsophisticated, but that being said, the book has overwhelmingly endearing qualities. Tina is an intriguing main character and the action that ensues will take you on a wild ride. There is also a cute romance that I didn’t touch on in this review, but was an enjoyable addition that I hope to see more of in the following books.

I wanted to love this so badly. The premise sounded like everything I could ever want in a book, but the plot and characters just weren’t there and the writing style was very childlike and gave me a headache... Genuinely! DNF after 41%

Over 15 years ago, I submitted an essay to an anthology Charlie Jane and her partner worked on. I never received a response (my essay was truly horrid because it was too general) but at some point Charlie Jane followed me on twitter and I followed her back. She's undoubtedly one of the nicest and smartest people around. I mention our tenuous connection in case anyone happens to see our twitter exchanges even though I'm set to private. This is getting a lot of buzz as it approaches its April 13th publication date so you'll be able to check out readings, blog posts, and such for the book over the next month or two.

I came to Victories Greater Than Death knowing it would probably be pretty great. And it is! A friend's son is really into books with characters who have more than binary pronouns and I think in a year or two he will really enjoy this. (He's nine.) Some cranky people might say this novel is "politically correct" because people ask for consent before touching another person and each character introduces themselves with their preferred pronouns. I think this is respectful and helps give readers some guidelines on how to behave towards others. I mean, it's really timeless to ask someone if you can hug them, whether you're at school/work, in a global pandemic, or millions of miles away from home on a starship.

This has a LOT of world building thanks to so many species in the galaxy. The nuggets of information are sprinkled throughout the book without sounding like an infodump. Tina has encyclopedic knowledge without the corresponding memories of the legendary space hero. Because Tina is the main character and this book is told from her point of view, she has the most characterization. She thinks like a teen with the feelings of a teen and sometimes doesn't say what she wants. But she's learning how to speak up.

This is Tina's first foray into embracing her destiny and I'm sure this book does a fine job setting the tone for the remaining books in the planned trilogy. Tina may not do everything by the Royal Fleet handbook but that's part of finding out who you're meant to be!

There's a villain who is sure to make more appearances. Tina's best friend, Rachel, an introverted artist isn't going anywhere. I would love to see Rachel's artwork! A handful of earthlings, a non-earthling movie star, a second-in-command with predatory killer instincts, and a little bit of space ship hijacking come together to make a delightful space romp.
http://www.amberstults.com/?p=5101

Victories Greater Than Death is the queer space opera I didn't know I needed. Truly a delight to read, I can already tell this is going to be a sci-fi classic that I will gladly handsell to my customers. I've never read a book in which the characters so valued consent - none of them touch each other without asking permission first - and if this was a staple of every book, especially every book for teens and young adults, I think the world would be a much better place. This book is full of adventure, romance, and learning who you are and finding a way to accept yourself, flaws and all. It's about found family, finding your place in the universe and beyond, and always doing the right thing, even when it's hard. I loved this book, and I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

3.5 stars

It's not often that I pick up sci-fi books, but when I do, I (subconciously) make sure they feature a squad. I think I do that because 1) BOOKISH SQUADS ARE EVERYTHING and b) I'd cry 24/7 if I were alone in space (okay tbh I'd cry even if I had a squad with me, but at least I wouldn't be alone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) so it makes the most sense to me. Thus it's no wonder my favorite part of Victories Greater Than Death is its diverse squad of characters. Among other representations, we're blessed with an Own Voices trans rep. I also loved the fact they all introduced themselves by their pronouns and just how normalized that was. Furthermore, the characters struggle with mental health which I really appreciated seeing as that's something that's not that common in science fiction and fantasy.
As for the story itself, it was a fun and quirky short read that got me confused at times with its logic (keep in mind I'm a very confused person in general so take this with a grain of salt lmao) and it felt a bit rushed and crammed at times; I feel like the plot could easily be spread out in more books than just one. Nontheless, I found myself enjoying Victories Greater Than Death and would recommend it to those of you who are looking for some diverse YA space opera recs.