This is a fun bit of sci-fi. A bit tropey in places, but an excellent sense of world-building and a vicious cast of double-crossers.
The protagonist is best described by one of the character's off-hand remarks about her being “The very best space fascist girl scout of them all.”
Can you feel sympathy for someone who has been manipulated into being evil? What about if given every chance to change, they turn back to their abusers? Is it OK to use sexism to your own advantage? If you had the chance to rewrite your history, would you?
The pacing is perfect - with a big reveal at exactly halfway through. It is fairly imaginative but I found it a bit too hand-wavey and, dare I say, a little generic. The prose is spectacular, though, and some of the difficult subjects are handled with appropriate sensitivity.
Ethical Book Search
Read on Amazon Kindle
Audiobook and ePub from Kobo
Used from Alibris
Listen on Audible
Buy from an independent bookshop
Borrow from your local library
ISBN: 9780356517179
5 thoughts on “Book Review: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh”
@Edent Oh I loved that book so much. And yeah, she really is the very best space fascist girl scout, isn't she? 😅
| Reply to original comment on dataare.cool
Bill C
Listened to the Audiobook over Christmas. Like the book and the characters. and yes she is “The very best space fascist girl scout of them all.”
@Edent Liked the book. Been on a bit of an audiobook binge over the last few months, i can recommend the "Murderbot Diaries " series of books by Martha Wells
| Reply to original comment on mstdn.social
@Edent I liked that one a lot, it was complex in some weird ways. Like... sort of eugenics and child soldiers and some inklings of fascism. I appreciated how she was able to weave it all together without it just being grim and desperate at all times
| Reply to original comment on glammr.us
Rob
I just read this, having picked it up after reading this post. A good fun read, and very enjoyable. It fit well into the sort of military science fiction stuff I've been reading a lot of recently, along with the alternate timeline genre I like generally. I'd perhaps have liked to see more development of some subjects, or at least a sequel/prequel, but I wasn't left feeling disappointed, so that's good.
More comments on Mastodon.