Some Desperate Glory

Excellent book, certainly understood why it won the award. A joy to read such a well written novel. The characters are great, as is the characterization. So is the plot structure. There's a really interesting 5 act design here that's unusual in its pacing and organization and it works really well.

The plot even got me to like a time travel story. I have a usual rule never to read those because they are dumb. But this avoids the dumb, there's no paradoxes or anything. Just second chances but with more knowledge. Very much a video game narrative in that structure and some specifics really reminded me of the game Deathloop. That's not a complaint! Also the "let's try again knowing more" ...

structure dovetails nicely with another part of the story, the feminist part Specifically the handling of sexual assault and of predators. From the slow reveal in the first act where it's like "hold on, this is awful isn't it?" to the full-throated condemnation to the squalid, grubby denouement in the end. And Kyr's shifting perspectives through it all, finding her power. Loved it! Made everything seem much more meaningful, the personal stakes and development.

I didn't love this as a queer book. That's OK, it's a whole lot of other things. I did like Mags and Avi and their awkward thing. I particularly liked how their being closeted had their characters act differently, it read very true to me. Poor Mags on loop 1. But it's a tragic gays story and I wouldn't have minded some more happiness. Maybe that would have come from Val / Lisa but that plot is a very small sideline. I'm glad it's there but it didn't really make a big impact.

The final thing I liked, the framing of humans vs aliens. The way the humans are violent powerful brutes all the way through, an inversion of sci-fi troops. And Yiso is a terrific character, particularly young Yiso. The Wisdom is appropriately alien and kind of creepy, the Majo are not a well fleshed out space opera faction but certainly written enough to serve their role in the story. It's a good setup.

I loved the ending, the way our characters find their way to a place of love and grace. And power, when needed. It felt very true to me.