Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

 

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh.

Published 13th April 2023 by Orbit.

From the cover of the book:

Some Desperate Glory the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh; a thrillingly told space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and the path you must forge when every choice is stripped from you.

All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet.

Then Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons, and she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brother's brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr must escape from everything she's ever known. If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined.

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The only existence Kyr has ever known is that on Gaea station, the last bastion of humanity, following the destruction of Earth at the hands of the alien Majoda and their mysterious weapon The Wisdom. She and her fellow Gaeans have been raised for a single purpose - to wreak revenge on the enemy that destroyed their home.

Kyr is the finest warrior of her generation, which is unusual for a female on Gaea, and she hopes to be assigned to a combat role that allows her to use the skills she has honed to near perfection. However, when the time of assignment comes, she is shocked to discover that Command has relegated her to the nursery to give birth to sons - something she sees herself supremely ill-suited for.

This is not the only bad news to come her way - her beloved brother Magnus has been assigned to a combat unit, but is said to have refused his commission and chosen exile from Gaea as a traitor. Kyr knows in her bones that something is not right about this, and when she discovers from Magnus' rebellious friend Avi that he has actually been sent on the kind of secret suicide mission she has always dismissed as rumours, she is determined to embark on a rescue mission to save him.

With the help of Avi, and an alien Majoda called Yiso who has recently been captured, Kyr engineers a perilous escape from Gaea. Her plan is to simply to rescue Magnus from harm, but in the process she will learn that everything she has been raised to believe is a lie...

It is difficult to know where to even begin with a review for this glorious debut novel. It is one of the most exciting space operas I have read in recent years, and it kept me spellbound from start to finish. Emily Tesh does an incredible job of world-building, creating dystopia and utopia alongside each other, and cleverly flipping your perspective on reality to keep you unsure which is which. Space and time turn in unexpected ways, and just when you think you have a handle on where Tesh is heading she floors you with twist and twist again story-telling that keeps you on your toes - all the way to the incredible conclusion.

Kyr is so fixated on forging herself into a weapon for humanity, that she is blind to what is going on around her, and her epiphany forms the central core of the story. Tesh builds layer upon layer of complex, interconnecting plot-lines, as lies are stripped away and the story reforms in different iterations of reality for Kyr. She has been so fully indoctrinated in the cult-like ethos of Gaea that it takes time for her eyes to be opened to not only the true nature of the universe, but also to the kind of person really she is. The emotional depth in the story blossoms as Kyr allows herself to feel compassion for those she has been brought up to think of as her enemies, and to see the darkness in those she thought were her heroes. The relationships between the characters morph too as the story twists, especially between Kyr, Magnus, Avi, and Yiso (who is much more important a character that you realise at the beginning), and alternate versions of them arise in the course of the story. There is a lot going on, but everything comes together in a perfect storm.

I absolutely love the thought Tesh has put into the history of this universe, and the way she imparts knowledge about it through snippets from fictional reference books at the beginning of each part of the story. There is curious pathos and humour in these extracts as they show different interpretations of the past depending on the perspective of their authors. The sections reflecting on the nature of humankind from an alien perspective are especially insightful.

Tesh explores a wealth of themes in this page-tuner of an adventure, which is incredibly impressive. Power, control, propaganda and the subversion of the past are central to the story, but there are many more - connection; what it means to be 'human'; sexual abuse and coercion; gender roles and sexuality; blood and found family; eugenics; environmental issues; racism and xenophobia are all threaded through the novel to thought-provoking effect. It is especially interesting to see how Tesh uses Yiso to examine the xenophobia aspect with aching poignancy too. 

I consumed this book in huge, compelling bites. As a debut it is stunning, and I cannot wait to see where Emily Tesh's imagination leaps next. 

Some Desperate Glory is available to order now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Orbit for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review and to Compulsive Readers Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Emily Tesh is the author of the Greenhollow Duology, which begins with Silver in the Wood and concludes with Drowned Country. Tesh is a winner of the Astounding Award and of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella.