This book promised to rip my heart out, and it delivered! Some Desperate Glory is not only the queer space opera you've been looking for, but also a fantastically character driven story. It's smart, unrelenting, surprising, emotionally-gutting, and glorious.

I think the last time I devoured a book with this much intensity was A Memory Called Empire - and that was much more tailored to my specific interests. Some Desperate Glory is a stunning achievement that unflinchingly takes on tough topics and questions. It's a narrative especially suited to our current world and the worrying rise of fascism and gender essentialism. I laughed, I cried, I would have shouted at some of the twists if it hadn't been the middle of the night (because I could not stop reading)!

I reviewed this book for Asimov's -- the review will appear in May 2023. Here's an excerpt: This is a thoroughly satisfying book. I read it all in one gulp, staying up until two in the morning to do so, and found myself still thinking about it days later. Highly recommended.

At the halfway mark, I still wasn't sure about this book. My spoiler-free advice is to fight through that ambivalence and trust that Emily Tesh knows what she's doing--because she does.

Some Desperate Glory is immersive and surprising; it has a lot to say about injustice, war, and family, all lofty topics that would be significant to tackle on their own, let alone together in one twisty, layered narrative. Kyr is a tricky protagonist, someone easy to scorn and hard to root for. The world of Gaea Station lacks any real warmth. In a lot of ways, the odds are stacked against the audience--we're working through a narrative that feels devoid of hope and devoid of heroes.

But because Emily Tesh is so masterful, the story works--really, really works--anyway. And then the first big twist hits, and every expectation goes to hell. It's SO incredibly fun.

Thank you to MacMillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Every single thing in this book was an absolute gut-punch, and I absolutely LOVED it.

All Kyr has ever known is Gaia Station, the 'last' of humanity, essentially a militia group aiming to exact revenge on the majo (aliens) who destroyed Earth and killed everyone on it during the war. This book starts off fast, and is really easy to immerse yourself in. I honestly found Kyr not to be super likeable during the first part of the book (but that's kind of the point!) and even though I found her to be a questionable person, I really enjoyed her character. She's written in a way that makes it so easy to understand her motivations and why she is the way she is, even if you don't necessarily agree with her actions. Her character, and the cast of supporting characters, are so intricately constructed, and they feel like real people that you can relate to. I'm emotionally attached to Kyr and the rest of her squad at this point.

I found the world-building to be very fascinating, and enjoyed learning more about the world as the story progressed and the world expanded.

I will say that while reading this, I did experience a bit of a stall in the middle portion where I was confused about what was happening, and thought that I wasn't enjoying the direction that the story was going (that quickly changed, however, as I'm sure you can tell by the rating I ended up with).

This book does deal with some pretty heavy topics (in a well executed way, I will note), but definitely heed the content warning that the author includes at the start of the book.

I think this has become a new favourite sci-fi of mine, so I'll definitely be checking out anything else that the author writes.

I devoured this book over the space of about eight hours. Blurbed by Tamsyn Muir with a Mass Effect inspired setting? It was like this was written just for me. I would advise any reader to very closely attend to the content warnings at the front of the book because things do get pretty heavy.

Our heroine, Valkyr, has only known life on Gaea Station. It is here that what little is left of humanity plots to destroy a dangerous, reality-shifting/time travel device called the Wisdom that allowed their enemies, the majoda, to destroy Earth. Valkyr is a model soldier, completely loyal to the cause, and an absolute ass. When she's sent to the nursery to pop out babies instead of going to the front, she decides to take a more active role in her own glory and humanity's salvation. Most of the novel follows her long and painful redemption arc. I absolutely loved her.

This book is high-stakes and action packed while still remaining introspective and probing deeper into the nature of humanity. I'd recommend it to any fan of science fiction, and to all women who are tired of being asked when they're having children.