Some Desperate Glory
On sale
13th April 2023
Price: £18.99
Hugo Award Best Novel category, 2024
Genre
‘Masterful, audacious storytelling’
Tamsyn Muir, New York Times-bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth
‘An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year’ Locus
‘Deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler’
Publishers Weekly
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. Some Desperate Glory is the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh.
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
‘A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It’s perfect’ Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches
‘This book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn’t stop reading and will never forget’ Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit
Reader reviews:
‘Worth every page, every tear, every late night staying up to finish it. I hope you love this book as much as I do’
‘For the life of me I could. not. put. it. down’
‘As brilliantly plotted as Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, with characters as vivid as Martha Wells’ Murderbot’
‘I am legitimately not exaggerating when I say this may be my favourite book I’ve read in the last ten years’
‘HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I WAS NOT AT ALL PREPARED AND I AM ETERNALLY OBSESSED’
Tamsyn Muir, New York Times-bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth
‘An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year’ Locus
‘Deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler’
Publishers Weekly
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. Some Desperate Glory is the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh.
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
‘A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It’s perfect’ Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches
‘This book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn’t stop reading and will never forget’ Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit
Reader reviews:
‘Worth every page, every tear, every late night staying up to finish it. I hope you love this book as much as I do’
‘For the life of me I could. not. put. it. down’
‘As brilliantly plotted as Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, with characters as vivid as Martha Wells’ Murderbot’
‘I am legitimately not exaggerating when I say this may be my favourite book I’ve read in the last ten years’
‘HOLY MOTHER OF GOD I WAS NOT AT ALL PREPARED AND I AM ETERNALLY OBSESSED’
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Reviews
Surprised me at every turn . . . This book has earned a permanent place on my favorites shelf
Masterful, audacious storytelling. Relentless, unsentimental, a completely wild ride. I had a time. Talk about Mass Effect beating up Brave New World in a dark alley
Devastatingly entertaining, horribly funny, Some Desperate Glory swoops through space and time with effortless precision, never pulling a punch or settling for an easy answer. There's nothing else like it
This brilliant, queer space opera combines smart worldbuilding with nuanced explorations of gender, fascism, racism, and more
It blew me away. Tesh unpeels the known world from around her young militants with flawless control, revealing the lies and atrocities beneath-but also the possibility of choice, and compassion. Kyr is a revelatory hero-never have I so fervently wished the worst for someone, only to end up cheering for them. . . . Fierce and heartbreakingly humane
A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It's perfect
Some Desperate Glory has become one of my early favourites of the year. . . . [Kyr's] emotional journey . . . had me ugly-sobbing on the train
This sparky debut is a blend of space opera and military SF that refreshes both modes. Some Desperate Glory moves briskly, page-turningly, and provides all the satisfactions of widescreen galactic worldbuilding and adventure as it goes; but it never sacrifices complexity or trades in easy answers . . . An instant classic
It's a wonderful, gripping ride with great hardware, brilliantly drawn characters - both human and alien
Tesh crams in enough wild inventiveness for an entire trilogy, wrapped around an emotional core that's powerful and urgent and unmistakeably real
An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year
The novel . . . traces the awakening of Kyr's conscience and her efforts to shake off the chains of a martial, heteronormative upbringing and embrace otherness. If that makes it sound dry and worthy, it is anything but. This is vigorous, action-packed space opera with a progressive slant
Bound to make waves as one of the best SF novels of 2023 . . . [an] expansive story with an action-packed pace full of exciting battles and gut-wrenching twists
This book hit me like a lightning bolt. From the destruction of Earth on the first page, to the human cult on a forgotten space station, to the indoctrinated teen soldier whose narrow worldview Tesh cracks open with pliers, this book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn't stop reading and will never forget
This book will turn you inside out and then casually remake you while you wheeze in gratitude. Unflinchingly intense, gloriously queer, and with one of the most finely-crafted and fascinating character journeys I've ever read, Some Desperate Glory is space opera at its absolute best
A monumental journey. . . . An intriguing space opera and study of radicalization, indoctrination, and what happens when one breaks free in the most absolute way
This is the sort of debut novel every novelist hopes to write. Spectacular from page one
Raw and action packed . . . This riveting adventure deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler
This book will hurt you and you will say thank you. It has everything you'd want in a queer space opera - wit and imagination and adventure, all within a brilliantly constructed world . . . Reading this feels like bearing witness to something revolutionary . . . It will change you for the better
Tesh writes compellingly...[blending] thrilling action with a mind-bending course in cosmic metaphysics, which keep shifting your sense of what this book is about. If you're looking for a page-turner with fascinating ideas, then Some Desperate Glory absolutely qualifies