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Some Desperate Glory

by Emily Tesh

War, loyalty, and a wider universe

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AlbakiReads Editorial

War, loyalty, and a wider universe

Raised on Gaea Station among the remnants of humanity, Kyr has been trained to fight the species blamed for Earth’s destruction. When Command assigns her brother to a deadly mission and confines her to a future she rejects, she sets out with two unlikely companions. Their escape takes the conflict beyond the station’s assumptions, connecting a space-opera premise of human survival and revenge with questions of indoctrination, identity, and who gets to choose a future. The story’s central tension lies in the gap between the worldview Kyr was taught and the more complicated universe she encounters.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in queer space opera and science-fiction settings shaped by interspecies conflict.
  • For readers drawn to stories about resistance, identity, and challenging inherited beliefs.
  • For readers interested in survival stories centered on found family and personal agency.

Themes

War and its aftermathIndoctrination and resistanceIdentity and agencySurvival and found family

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Instant National Bestseller and International Bestseller!

Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel!

Arthur C. Clarke Award Finalist!
Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction Finalist!

A thrillingly told queer space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and who you must become when every choice is stripped from you, Some Desperate Glory is Astounding Award Winner Emily Tesh's explosive debut novel.


"Some Desperate Glory surprised me at every turn. At once a space thriller, a tale of deprogramming, and a missive on identity and meaning, the result is a vitally refreshing addition to the SFF genre. This book has earned a permanent place on my favorites shelf."--V. E. Schwab

"Masterful, audacious storytelling. Relentless, unsentimental, a completely wild ride."--Tamsyn Muir

"This is the sort of debut novel every novelist hopes to write."--John Scalzi

"Deserves a space on shelves alongside Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

National Bestseller Sunday Times Bestseller An Indie Next Pick A LibraryReads Pick a Goodreads Choice Finalist With three starred reviews!

A Best Of Pick for The Guardian GoodReads Publishers Weekly Powell's Amazon Barnes & Noble Audible Gizmodo Book RiotLitHubFinancial TimesDiscover Sci-Fi LocusNPRLibrary Journal

While we live, the enemy shall fear us.

Since she was born, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the majoda their victory over humanity.

They are what's left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. When Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to Nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, 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 escapes from everything she's known into a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could have imagined.

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