Some Desperate Glory, Emily Tesh’s first full novel and winner of the 2024 Hugo Awards, is set a few decades after aliens blew up earth, killing over 10 billion people at the culmination of their war with humanity and leaving the remaining human worlds (of which there are many) no choice but to enter into peace treaties with their former enemies. It is only one renegade space station, Gaea Station, that is still seeking revenge, occasionally striking alien ships and hoping to rebuild the strength to fight back against the perceived domination of humans by “The Wisdom”, the sentient supercomputer governing the main alien race, the Majo.
On Gaea, we follow Valkyr, the main character of the book throughout its three main sections, grow up in a highly militarized and autocratic society. Dead set on getting revenge on the Majo, Valkyr and her fellow teenage section mates have trained all their lives to be assigned a role on the ship or in Gaea’s fighting force after graduation. It is only at the last minute - when she first encounters a Mayo prisoner, receives an unexpected role assignment and as her brother seems to have deserted the ship - that Valkyr begins to question her assigned future. And it is only then that readers might also begin to understand that not everything may be as it seems. When Valkyr leaves the ship for the first time, her loyalties are still with Gaea Station, but her convictions are being severely tested when she reconnects with her brother and experiences humans living at peace with the Mayo.
Like Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, “Some Desparate Glory” jumps through multiple versions of a (somewhat) similar scenario to explore characters, their actions, and the consequences of these actions. Through these iterations, we come to understand the history of the Majo wars and humanity’s role in it, the true nature of the Wisdom, and see Valkyr having to make drastic decisions as she begins to understand her role in a world of possibilities
All of these iterations of the main storyline are fascinating in and of itself, although the exploration of the multiverse of possible realities and the way the Wisdom steers reality acts very much like a literal deus ex machina. The real story, however, is Valkyr’s path from being a brainwashed killing machine to discovering doubt, complexity, empathy, and ultimately her own responsibility for the future. While it is clear from the beginning that Gaea is a highly oppressive society and Valkyr is not initially portrayed as a very likable character, you nonetheless empathize with her as all her convictions are gradually falling apart around her and as she has to make decisions affecting not only herself but everybody she has ever known and everything she has ever worked for.
Throughout the book and the multiple iterations of Gaea, Emily Tesh leaves no doubt about how much she abhors the homophobic, xenophobic and nationalistic nature of Gaea station, but fortunately her book is not a story hastily constructed around a list of core beliefs or a box ticking exercise of causes laid over an otherwise insteresting story. Instead, her views come through subtly woven into the process of Valky’r emancipationg and are part of a fascinating story with quite a few surprising plot twists.
Worth a read!