"Some Desperate Glory" by Emily Tesh (2023)

 **A very well-done YA-ish space opera set in a fascist State.  Unfortunately, sadly, shamefully relevant these days**

Honestly, I don't know why I have to write a review, when Shelly Parker-Chan (the author of "She Who Became the Sun", which will probably get a post on this blog at some point!) summed up the book already in a single sentence:

"This book is for everyone who loved Ender’s Game, but Ender’s Game didn’t love them back."

. . . I don't really know how to get much better than that.  But I can try to add on at least, here we go

Let me back up a little bit and give the setup.  In the far far future (this is very much not "hard" scifi, Tesh didn't bother to work out the technology.  She admits in the Afterword that "the technology of shadowspace runs on purest narrativium."), humanity has lost a war to an interstellar empire.  However, hidden in the far reaches of space, the last survivors of humanity live on Gaea Station and plot their revenge.  Our main character, Valkyr "Kyr" has trained since birth for this fight:  "While Earth's Children Live, the Enemy Shall Fear Us"

Kyr is one of the very best of the best, scores off the charts, commander of her squadron of schoolmates set to graduate and receive their placement in the adult workforce.  No one doubts Kyr will be assigned to the military, where she will begin taking real steps to achieve vengeance on behalf of all of Earth's children.  And that is where, you know, plot happens . . .

I included this book on my annual "best of" list in 2024, meaning to write a review.  Finally, the time has come, only procrastinated roughly 15 months--for me, that's not so bad.  Here's what I wrote then:

What a fascinating journey this novel was. I had an idea of what this book would be based solely on the title (a reference to the Wilfred Owens poem, naturally), and as I started reading, it looked like I was right. And then I abruptly wasn't, as the novel took a massive right turn and turned into something completely different. And then it changed again. And in the end, it really did end up . . . back about where it started, a novel about the horrors of war and the young people that end up paying the consequences of terrible, amoral leaders

This book could have been just a fun space opera about the remnants of humanity fighting a war of resistance. But Tesh went so deep, added so much heart and humanity to this novel. There's so much here, and it's incredibly diverse. There's a lot here about how when times are tough, the sacrifices and difficulties almost always fall disproportionately on women. There's a lot here about how just in general society often fails queer youth (with real shitty consequences). There's a lot here about how trauma affects us not just on an individual level, but can seep into the bones of an entire society

And yes, there's a a whole lot here about how fascism is bad. Fascism is bad, but what this book (exhaustively researched, with a wonderful bibliography in the back) does so well is talk about all the different ways fascism is bad, and all the heartbreakingly real consequences it has for the people living under it. Oh and also there are cool space combat shenanigans so like, I'm never mad about that. Also also it has the line, "'Wake us when it’s time for whatever alien terrorist crimes we’re committing.'"

Huh.  Honestly, that's a pretty good review.  Good job, 2024 Me

This is the final post in this year's Women's Literature Month, and I felt this an appropriate novel because of the point mentioned above:  Whenever times are tough, almost without fail throughout human history, far more than half of that burden is placed on women.  And that's a particularly important message when seen through the eyes of our main character

Kyr is an interesting and somewhat unique character for this type of novel.  For one, she is a supremely unlikeable character.  Simply put, she's a bitch--not language I normally use, but it's a direct quote from one of her oldest acquaintances, with whom she trained and whom she later commanded in the final years of their schooling:

“I have something I’ve always wanted to say to you,” she said. “And I might not get another chance.”

“Go on, then,” said Kyr. 

The corner of Cleo’s mouth lifted. “All right. So,” she said. “You’re a horrible bitch, Valkyr, and everyone hates you. I hope they give you Strike and you die.” 

Kyr swallowed. Weirdly she wanted to cry. Strike: the vengeance of humanity. The wing that didn’t exist. 

Cleo breathed out. “That didn’t feel as good as I thought it would,” she said. “I meant every word, though. Promise.”

This passage is pretty early in the novel.  And yet, even in only a few dozen pages, we've seen enough of Kyr as readers to go, "honestly, yeah, that checks out"

But as Kyr learns, and grows, and sees that the universe is so much larger than she ever imagined . . . well.  We can't help but warm to her just a little.  Maybe

And in turn, we understand that some of that might be a result of her upbringing.  Might be the product of being a woman raised in such a militaristic, austere society.  Might be part of the pressures this world places on her.  And maybe we could come to understand that similar pressures are being placed on young women just like her around the world

As this book has bounced around my brain for the last two years, and as we look out on the events of the world, I do think those themes of living under a fascist State are shockingly well-done.  There's a lot to say, a lot to think about.  The title is quite apt

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

I'm tagging this Young Adult even though it wasn't officially marketed as such.  It's not perfect, and it certainly has a bit of a heavy-handed approach to some of these themes.  There's also the classic, "the adults are useless, so us young people have to save the day!" YA plotline, which is fine.  But while I find a lot of modern YA hit or miss, this is very much a hit, and at no point does it get bogged down in tropes.  This book moves at a fantastic clip, has multiple twists (many of which I didn't see coming), and brings it all to a close in a pretty badass fashion

That said, I will end this review where Tesh ends it.  The final page of the book is Acknowledgments and includes a bibliography.  These fascist States that we read about in science fiction, a staple of the genre really, are very very real.  And yes, as it's Women's History Month, I'll point out that almost always, women shoulder a disproportionate amount of the burden.  Emily Tesh wrote a truly excellent novel on just this subject

I loved this book

I would not normally end a work of fiction with a reading list. But if the ideas in this book interest you, you may wish to read about them in treatments which are fuller and more thoughtful than a novel can aspire to. In no particular order, here are a few of the books I read while writing this story: 

"The Anatomy of Fascism" by Robert O. Paxton, for a considered examination of the twentieth century’s most terrible political creation; 

"The Impossible State" by Victor Cha, which discusses the history, the logic, and the peculiar international position of North Korea; 

"Going Clear" by Lawrence Wright, particularly interesting on the personalities that drove the creation and lasting power of the modern cult of Scientology; 

"The Spartans" by Paul Cartledge, for an overview of the ancient militarized ethnostate that has cast such a remarkably long mythic shadow over the two thousand–odd years since its total failure. 

None of these has a direct correspondence with Valkyr’s story, which is pure fiction. I am not a knowledgeable enough historian to make a good allegorist.