Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is a sci fi book that startles into a beginning. At first I was like “what? What is happening? What is that?” but soon the confusion was (mostly) swept away by the secrets that are revealed & the magnetic plot that keeps serving twists & jolts & somersaults. The book opens with Kyr, a soldier on a station called Gaea Station. Kry & the other people living there are descendants of Earth, a planet that was deliberately destroyed in a war against the majo. Throughout her life Kyr has been taught to wage war & to nurse the vengeance & hope that she’s been told is her due. But she’s only 17 & we can see—& gradually, slowly, Kyr too—that things aren’t quite as they seem. This book is complex—immediately after reading I felt a bit awed & very aware that it would take a while to wrestle with what happened & what the implications are. It’s one of those books that has the shine of brilliance to me—you know those wildly inventive books that go places you aren’t expecting? This book definitely did that. & did it again. 4.5⭐️. Out 04/11.CWs: please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
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Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary hardcopy ARC and the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.#OneWordThreeTitles challenge + review I saw this challenge on @bookbruin’s gorgeous feed recently & thought it would be a good chance to use “stars/star” and feature a recent thick sci fi read: Emery Robin’s THE STARS UNDYING. #multitasking ;) . The blurb calls this “a sweeping, spectacular space opera inspired by the lives & loves of Cleopatra & Julius Caesar” & I feel like that’s most of what you need to know . At the beginning of the book Gracia is trying to take control of her planet & wrest the title of Oracle from her sister. She uses a visiting Commander of the Empire to help her do it. But let’s not forget the Commander’s lieutenant, religious tensions in the Empire, & questions of sovereignty, all of which add more drama to the provocative & compelling story. As previously mentioned this book is thick & I loved that for us all. The storytelling is great & the author tells a story that both had me thinking & absorbed in the plot twists, particularly the big revelation & the secrets of our unreliable narrator. The engagement between sisters always had me on the edge of my seat. But I will admit to occasionally being confused. The book kind of jumps in & then there are moments when the other characters allude to something without spelling it out. I guess that really helps ramp up the mystery of it all but I wanted to find my footing a bit more . THE STARS UNDYING is a dense, often magnetic read but there are moments when I plodded through a bit. Still, a great read that I don’t think I’ll forget. 4.5⭐️. Out 11/08.[ID: three books & a red prayer plant are arranged on a table. At the top left is The Brightest Star in Paris, top right is the plant, bottom left is The Stars Undying, & bottom right is Written in the Stars.]
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