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Sign up todaySome Desperate Glory
Narrator
Sena Bryer
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Length
15 hours 56 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“2024 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel!”
— Rachel • Capricorn Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Where to begin on this astounding work. Great writing read by a narrator who can convincingly be a young woman, her brother, her commander, a whiney geek or an alien. The characters are well developed and believable. There are space battles, time contortions, nearly omnipotent AI, aliens, humans seeking revenge against their conquerers, and in between, thoughtful ruminations on the consequences of retribution, the impact of what was and what could be, and whether the protagonist wants to embrace who she was raised to be or who she could become. The plot is complex and full of surprising twists. I couldn't put it down (maybe hit the pause is more accurate?). This is the best science fiction book I've enjoyed this year.”
— Mark • Poor Richard's Books
"Sena Bryer delivers a cinematic performance of Tesh's exhilarating space opera. Bryer's full-bodied characterizations--gruff Mags, Kyr's quietly rage-filled squadmates, and a sweetly naïve but powerful alien named Yiso--are so skilled that listeners may wonder if this is a full-cast production. Complete with time slips, a reality-warping artificial intelligence, and epic world-building, this is a gripping, can't-miss listen."- AudioFile
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 and Crawford Award Finalist Emily Tesh’s highly anticipated debut novel.
"Masterful, audacious storytelling. Relentless, unsentimental, a completely wild ride."—Tamsyn Muir
With three starred reviews!
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.
EMILY TESH is a UK-based author of science fiction and fantasy. Her debut novel, Some Desperate Glory, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Tesh is also a winner of the Astounding Award, and the author of the World Fantasy Award-winning Greenhollow duology.
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Reviews
From World Fantasy and Astounding Award Winner Emily Tesh
With three starred reviews!
Praise for Some Desperate Glory
"Raw and action-packed. . . . This riveting adventure deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A monumental journey. . . . An intriguing space opera and study of radicalization, indoctrination, and what happens when one breaks free in the most absolute way.”–Library Journal, starred review
"Some Desperate Glory is honest, unflinchingly so. 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 with an ‘unlikable’ and wholly irresistible lead. Reading this feels like bearing witness to something revolutionary... It will change you for the better."—Olivie Blake, New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six
"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."—Tamsyn Muir, New York Times bestselling author of The Locked Tomb series
"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, this book is for everyone who loved Ender’s Game, but Ender’s Game didn’t love them back."—Shelley Parker-Chan, Sunday Times bestselling author of She Who Became the Sun
"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 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."—Everina Maxwell, author of Winter's Orbit
"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."—A. K. Larkwood, author of The Unspoken Name
“Engage hyperdrive, readers . . . . You’ll fly through this queer dark space opera—about a warrior raised to avenge the destruction of planet Earth—at the speed of light!”--WeAreBookish
Praise for the World Fantasy Award-winning Silver in the Wood
"A true story of the woods, of the fae, and of the heart. Deep and green and wonderful."—Naomi Novik
"A wildly evocative and enchanting story of old forests, forgotten gods, and new love."—Jenn Lyons
"Find a quiet place in a nearby wood, listen to the trees whisper, and thank the old gods and new for this beautiful little book, of which I intend to get lost in again and again."—Book Riot
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