Preview
  • Some Desperate Glory

  • By: Emily Tesh
  • Narrated by: Sena Bryer
  • Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (316 ratings)

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Some Desperate Glory

By: Emily Tesh
Narrated by: Sena Bryer
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Publisher's summary

Long-listed, Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year 2023

Hugo Award Nominee

Long-listed, Goodreads Choice Awards, 2023

Long-listed, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2023

"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.

©2023 Emily Tesh (P)2023 Macmillan Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+
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Interview: A Radicalized Heroine Finds Redemption in "Some Desperate Glory"

'It was difficult to write a character who sucks that much...'
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  • Some Desperate Glory
  • 'It was difficult to write a character who sucks that much...'

Editorial Review

Another smash hit
I first fell in love with Emily Tesh’s writing in an MFA class on sci-fi & fantasy novellas. We were assigned her novella Silver in the Wood, and I was spellbound by not only the lovely prose but her achingly beautiful depiction of queer love and longing. To hear she is publishing her first full-length novel—a queer space opera no less—practically made me swoon. Some Desperate Glory delivers a rich vision of post-Earth humanity and a misguided hero whose redemption you can’t help but root for. I can’t wait to hear this performance from Sena Bryer—who is not a debut narrator, but a newer voice talent I hope we hear much, much more from in the future. —Sam D., Audible Editor

What listeners say about Some Desperate Glory

Average customer ratings
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow!

Sooo many emotions! loved it. the first few chapters were slow but it pays off!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Main character

I’ve never had a main character piss me off as much as the one in this book… gawddaamn she’s hard headed

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Epic!

I was captivated from the start. The narration was perfect. I wanted to be in the world Tesh magically created

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Great listen

Thought it seemed like a YA coming of age where the first protagonist’s lesson was too obvious and likely to follow the same old path but ended up going deeper and all the characters had nice arches. Great narration.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad, not great

As mentioned in other reviews the narrator was excellent. Story, not so much. It kept my attention and I don’t regret spending the credit. Is it anywhere near the top 10 of my sci-fi reads? Hardly

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Annoying narration, story wasn't really for me

The biggest problem for me was the narrator, who often pauses between each clause, drawing things out way too long. On the other hand, I've rarely heard a narrator who is as good at differentiating voices so it's easy to tell who is talking.

The story wasn't really for me, kind of a Handmaid's Tale meets gay romance parallel universes drama. It seemed to me that the protagonist seemed too negative and surly to actually like.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding!

Great, novel story with a really relatable main character. I loved that I couldn’t predict what would happen, and there was a subtle morality that also I appreciated.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Riveting Masterpiece. Brava, Emily Tesh

A Riveting Masterpiece: ‘Some Desperate Glory’ by Emily Tesh

“Some Desperate Glory” by Emily Tesh is, by far, one of the most original, insightful, and engaging books I have read in a long time. It ranks right up there with the works of Ann Leckie and Tamsyn Muir. Tesh has crafted a narrative that holds up a mirror to our own mindsets, revealing the flaws in our unexamined beliefs.

Throughout the story, I experienced profound cognitive dissonance alongside the main character. Each section of the book surpassed the last in depth and intrigue. The portrayal of a woman so disconnected from her feelings due to lifelong indoctrination is both powerful and poignant. Confronted with reality—or rather, realities—she is forced to question everything she has been taught.

I am eager for all my friends to read this book so that we can unpack and discuss the numerous nuances together. It has been a long time since a book has engaged and intrigued me to this extent. Well done, Emily Tesh!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Exciting and thought provoking

Complicated characters in difficult situations. Believable science fiction with real relationships. I will listen to this audiobook a few times to catch everything it has to offer.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Complex and engaging.

Incredibly compelling voice acting of a main character who truly changes over the course of the novel. The story is viscerally real even when it makes you question the nature of reality and humanity.

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