Some Desperate Glory is...well, its a lot. It's a story about the way society shapes those inside it. The way those people can ne harmed, or healed, or wounded by the environment and the people who surround them. It's about letting ourselves think for ourselves. It's about the world being stranger than our philosophy. Its about the journey that people make after everything they know of ends, about the way that societies shape themselves. And if that all sounds a bit highbrow...it's the story of Kyr. Of a young woman on the edge of space, in a militarised station on the edge of disaster, certain she's one of those who will fight back for humanity, willing to be a hero, and die in the process. And all of that is true, and there's more than enough war and death on the table here for anyone - but it's also not entirely accurate. Kyr's journey, uncovering who she is and whether that's who she wants to be...well, it's compelling, disturbing, enthralling stuff.
So yeah. Kyr. Kyr is young. And smart. And driven to succeed. And probably demanding too much of those around her, and herself. And Kyr sees herself as one of the last free humans alive. Because this is a universe after a war that humanity lost. A world where people were considered just too damn dangerous to leave lying around by the relevant polity. A universe where Earth was cracked like an egg, and the survivors scattered into a contained diaspora. Or, in the case of Kyr's relations, took the last remains of human military might and hid out on a space station on the edge of nowhere. Kyr is living in the traumatised remains of the death of our world, and it has...done something if a number on her. But, to be fair, on everyone else as well. The station she lives on is slowly slipping into obsolescence. There are patches holding walls and airlocks together. The systems are failing, the equipment is one short step from disaster. The sense of gender equality is slipping away, as the desire for a new generation outstrips the choices of those who would have to mother it. Kyr's station is a place filled with a claustrophobia, a paranoia, a sense of striving to justify oneself in the greater Purpose. Of being willing to accept the unacceptable in the service of someone elses goal. It's...not a nice place to live. And the people it has inside it are, well, people. But the younger ones, Kyr and her squad, see their choices limited, have their horizons foreshortened for them, and fighting against that is difficult, for them, perhaps not even wanted. It's an achingly familiar portrait of a closed society spiralling out into dark places, wrapped in a flag waving patriotism that feels ominous and familiar all at once.
Emily Tesh puts us behind Kyr's eyes, and draws us very quickly into her world. Ky's expectations are, in a sense, ours, and we accept them at face value as much as she does, at least initially. But Kyr is fierce and driven and smart, and if she's abrasive, competitive and prone to indulging the authority of those above her, that's at least somewhat understandable. She's a sympathetic protagonist, but it's clear that she's also one who has been hurt by the world she lives in, circumscribed by the feeling of few choices, and swimming in a worldview which may or may not be entirely accurate.
It's...really hard to talk about Some Desperate Glory without spoilers. I think, if I'm honest, that it's really, really good. Its a searing indictment of cults of patriotism and personality and the rise of proto-fascism. And it is very willing to take reader expectations of what the story is about, who our heroes are, and flip them on their head. But its also a story about a found family, and a character study of a young woman reaching out, finding the confines she's embedded in, and breaking free. And it's also a high-concept science fiction story that explores some interesting technological and social changes after the end of the world, and the way that affects society and the people in it.
This is a smart book, an angry book, and, much like its protagonist, a fierce book. It demands a lot from the reader, but pays it back with interest. In short, it's a bloody excellent read, and thoroughly recommended.
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