Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

6 reviews

ceruleanseas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Slavery, Trafficking, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I ended up pretty mixed on this one. At first, I was really bored. The lawful neutral protagonist who can't get a clue in a dystopia that just didn't make any sense.

You want the human race to survive by both training women for war and also relegating them to a breeding harem? And you are controlled breeding people but also have sex as much as you want with the concubines but being gay is not ok? I see the inspiration in other controlled societies, but this one seemed like it shouldn't have lasted 2 years, especially with a leader as lacking in charisma or skills as Jole.

It feels like the message of the book is a good one, but for me that message superseded the actual writing, and made the story as a whole fall a bit flat for me. It still won the Hugo, and while it wouldn't have been my pick, I see why it got the nomination. The aliens are good, the plot once you're off of Gaea station is intriuging, and the pace is sharp. As a rule though, I just kept coming back to the fact that I didn't really enjoy spending time with any of the characters, and that this was one of the dumber dystopias out there, built more to highlight reality's flaws than because it makes sense for the world-building.

So yeah, I'm going with 4 stars because it was better than a lot of things I give three stars, but overall kind of meh.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lady_sharp's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was fun as hell. Mind the trigger warnings, but this is what science fiction should be, using the premise to dig at the flaws of society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Acephobia/Arophobia, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Abandonment

Contains an on-page suicide, women being forced into the roles of breeding stock, in-depth look at cults, attempted grooming of a minor and a successful past attempt that resulted in the birth of a child, genocide, a forced kiss, and an attempted rape

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Plot: 4★
Prose: 4★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 5★/4.5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.5★
Ending: 4★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Bullying, Blood, Abortion, and Alcohol

miraclesnow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape and Outing

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thanks to TorDotCom Books for the free advance copy of this book.

 - Whew, this book! SOME DESPERATE GLORY has fantastic world building, morally gray characters, "are we the baddies?," a dash of queerness, and a freaking fantastic couple of twists that I will try not to give away here. You need to go in fresh on this one, just trust me.
- Kyr is going to be a hard character for a lot of people (as will several others in this book), and I loved that Tesh just did it. Yeah, she's mean and self-centered and has a limited worldview. Deal with it, alongside Kyr herself dealing with it.
- SOME DESPERATE GLORY is truly the best of what sci-fi can do. It pushes on big questions of morality while also delivering edge of your seat action. I absolutely cannot wait to see what Tesh does next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Rape, and Sexual violence