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Victories Greater Than Death
Tina never worries about being ‘ordinary’—she doesn’t have to, since she’s known practically forever that she’s not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She’s also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it’s going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible. Tina’s legacy, after all, is intergalactic—she is the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil.
But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina’s destiny isn’t quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachael, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.
Buckle up your seatbelt for this thrilling sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders.
But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina’s destiny isn’t quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachael, and she is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she’ll have to save herself.
Buckle up your seatbelt for this thrilling sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from international bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 13, 2021
About the author
Charlie Jane Anders
155 books3,931 followersMy latest book is Victories Greater Than Death. Coming in August: Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories.
Previously: All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and a short story collection, Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.
Coming soon: An adult novel, and a short story collection called Even Greater Mistakes.
I used to write for a site called io9.com, and now I write for various places here and there.
I won the Emperor Norton Award, for “extraordinary invention and creativity unhindered by the constraints of paltry reason.” I've also won a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a William H. Crawford Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
My stories, essays and journalism have appeared in Wired Magazine, the Boston Review, Conjunctions, Tin House, Slate, MIT Technology Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, ZYZZYVA, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, 3 AM Magazine, Flurb.net, Monkey Bicycle, Pindeldyboz, Instant City, Broken Pencil, and in tons and tons of anthologies.
I organize Writers With Drinks, which is a monthly reading series here in San Francisco that mashes up a ton of different genres. I co-host a Hugo Award-winning podcast, Our Opinions Are Correct, with Annalee Newitz.
Back in 2007, Annalee and I put out a book of first-person stories by female geeks called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. There was a lot of resistance to doing this book, because nobody believed there was a market for writing about female geeks. Also, Annalee and I put out a print magazine called other, which was about pop culture, politics and general weirdness, aimed at people who don’t fit into other categories. To raise money for other magazine, we put on events like a Ballerina Pie Fight – which is just what it sounds like – and a sexy show in a hair salon where people took off their clothes while getting their hair cut.
I used to live in a Buddhist nunnery, when I was a teenager. I love to do karaoke. I eat way too much spicy food. I hug trees and pat stone lions for luck. I talk to myself way too much when I’m working on a story.
Previously: All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and a short story collection, Six Months, Three Days, Five Others.
Coming soon: An adult novel, and a short story collection called Even Greater Mistakes.
I used to write for a site called io9.com, and now I write for various places here and there.
I won the Emperor Norton Award, for “extraordinary invention and creativity unhindered by the constraints of paltry reason.” I've also won a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, a William H. Crawford Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Award, a Locus Award and a Lambda Literary Award.
My stories, essays and journalism have appeared in Wired Magazine, the Boston Review, Conjunctions, Tin House, Slate, MIT Technology Review, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, Tor.com, Lightspeed Magazine, McSweeney’s, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, ZYZZYVA, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, 3 AM Magazine, Flurb.net, Monkey Bicycle, Pindeldyboz, Instant City, Broken Pencil, and in tons and tons of anthologies.
I organize Writers With Drinks, which is a monthly reading series here in San Francisco that mashes up a ton of different genres. I co-host a Hugo Award-winning podcast, Our Opinions Are Correct, with Annalee Newitz.
Back in 2007, Annalee and I put out a book of first-person stories by female geeks called She’s Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology and Other Nerdy Stuff. There was a lot of resistance to doing this book, because nobody believed there was a market for writing about female geeks. Also, Annalee and I put out a print magazine called other, which was about pop culture, politics and general weirdness, aimed at people who don’t fit into other categories. To raise money for other magazine, we put on events like a Ballerina Pie Fight – which is just what it sounds like – and a sexy show in a hair salon where people took off their clothes while getting their hair cut.
I used to live in a Buddhist nunnery, when I was a teenager. I love to do karaoke. I eat way too much spicy food. I hug trees and pat stone lions for luck. I talk to myself way too much when I’m working on a story.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 927 reviews
November 10, 2022
Victories Greater Than Death is my first young adult novel, and it's my tribute to Star Wars, Doctor Who, Steven Universe and all the other space epics I love. (And if you pre-order it and submit your receipt, you can get a free enamel pin and also some gorgeous art prints!)
VICTORIES is about Tina, a teenager who can't wait to leave home and grab her dreams with both hands, but meanwhile she's stuck... waiting. Until one day, destiny calls!
Tina's best friend is Rachael, an artist who just wants to hide away and draw cool cartoons. Their friendship is the heart of the book.
But there's a monster, who killed her once before, and he's the most beautiful man who ever lived--except he's a cold-hearted mass murderer.
The good news? Tina gets a posse. They ALL HAVE EACH OTHER'S BACKS and they travel through the cosmos righting wrongs and standing up to genocidal monsters.
And there's a teenage girl named Elza who annoys the shit out of Tina. Until, umm... they stop annoying each other so much. <3
These misfits become a family and they go thru endless scrapes together.
But they're on an epic quest to find an ancient weapon, and time is running out!
Luckily, they make lots of friends and meet friendly aliens!
People die, but also Tina has to face up to the high cost of violence.
In the end, Tina can't do it alone, because she's not a Chosen One. She's part of a Chosen Family.
VICTORIES is about Tina, a teenager who can't wait to leave home and grab her dreams with both hands, but meanwhile she's stuck... waiting. Until one day, destiny calls!
Tina's best friend is Rachael, an artist who just wants to hide away and draw cool cartoons. Their friendship is the heart of the book.
But there's a monster, who killed her once before, and he's the most beautiful man who ever lived--except he's a cold-hearted mass murderer.
The good news? Tina gets a posse. They ALL HAVE EACH OTHER'S BACKS and they travel through the cosmos righting wrongs and standing up to genocidal monsters.
And there's a teenage girl named Elza who annoys the shit out of Tina. Until, umm... they stop annoying each other so much. <3
These misfits become a family and they go thru endless scrapes together.
But they're on an epic quest to find an ancient weapon, and time is running out!
Luckily, they make lots of friends and meet friendly aliens!
People die, but also Tina has to face up to the high cost of violence.
In the end, Tina can't do it alone, because she's not a Chosen One. She's part of a Chosen Family.
Read
January 5, 2021Tina has spent her entire life knowing that she would leave this earth - permanently. Because she's secretly an alien.
She's technically a clone of a brilliant alien commander who passed away unexpectedly.
Tina longs for her new life to begin and when her internal beacon lights up - she's ready.
She's transported to the wild world of aliens, spaceships and intergalactic wars - but what can one teenage semi-human do against all that?
(Apparently - when you download your previous self's memories...a lot).
Essentially she assembles a crew of brilliant human minds from teenagers who wouldn't be missed (the lonely, the beaten, the forgotten) and together they seek to outsmart and outdo the hoard of alien warships.
I'm so disappointed cause I was SOO looking forward to this one too. I loved the concept and that cover is divine. But the actual book didn't pan out at all.
To put it frank - this book felt a bit messy.
I think it's mostly cause the cast of characters was SO bloated. Honestly, I was grateful when someone died purely because there was one less name to remember.
I think if the characters had less shallow of personalities? Or if there were less of them in general? I might have been able to hold them in my head better.
Plus, I couldn't distinguish what words were alien names vs alien species vs weird human names vs alien planets vs futuristic tech, which ultimately made me just throw up my hands in defeat and soldier through the book without memorizing people or places or things.
I was frustrated by the way the book dealt with real, serious issues.
Essentially, issues were brought up (like abuse or neglect) and then minorly dealt with before the main character moved on to the next issue (think bandage over a gaping wound).
Also, I felt like the main character was given so many "Mary Sue" qualities that I had a hard time warming to her - she literally just downloads memories from her former-self and then spends the whole book going, "ahh yes. a Goobleflorf. Such a rare species of Kandkand. Truly an expert in Flying Peanutfific Aerial Combat."
Even her struggles didn't feel real - it was more of a "oh, will I ever live up to other people's expectations?" rather than real, honest issues.
Ultimately, this one had some good qualities but it wasn't for me.
I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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August 1, 2021
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Macmillan-Tom Doherty Associates for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.
"Victories Greater Than Death" tells the story of Tina, who is an alien raised on Earth by her mother. There’s a beacon inside her that when she’s ready will alert both allies and enemies to her location. With her best friend Rachael she goes to space to fulfil her destiny.
This sounds like a somewhat captivating premise, right? That's what I thought too, but sadly, it wasn't executed well.
Here's why I couldn't fully enjoy this book, finish it, and rate it 3 stars.
reason #1: slow pacing
Truthfully, I don't think this book needed to be 288 pages. The novel felt dragged and had slow pacing, so I became incredibly bored and didn't want to read this. This problem intertwines with the writing, but we'll get into that.
reason #2: confusing writing that ruined the experience and annoyed me.
When something is happening, I always feel confused because scenes weren't described well and the writing didn't seem very articulate. I usually had to flip back a couple of pages to figure out what was happening, which got annoying quick. And I felt like the author just dumped info about different things without giving me anytime to understand it. This might be different for someone else, but this problem kept arising for me. And sometimes, the writing was interrupted by abrupt changes in scenery and I felt like I was constantly trying to keep up. To make matters worse, there were certain parts of the book that were explained in great detail which made the novel feel very dense. But then there were other moments when things weren't explained well at all, and I'm left befuddled.
reason #3: dialogue that felt forced and weird internal thoughts.
A lot of the characters' interactions felt unnatural and weird. I get that because humans and other-worldly creatures are interacting, things would be a little weird, but that wasn't the reason for this. Tina's thoughts were pretty awkward and slightly annoying. Her dialogue with other characters was just...off. That's the best way I can explain it.
So I have a few bones to pick with the writing and dialogue, but there were reasons as to why I rated this book higher than 1 star.
reason #1: creative world building
The scenery for the different places the characters visit is either explained in great detail, or barely described, but I can still admire the creativity that went into creating these worlds and settings. I wish I had more to say about this, but there isn't much to say about it anyway.
reason #2: diverse representation of races, sexualities, and genders
So when Tina teams up with different characters on her "journey", we're introduced to different types of people (and other-worldly creatures I guess). I enjoyed how different identities and pronouns were normalized because that's something I truly look for in a novel. Now while I did like this at first, the discussions of representation were extremely explicit. I think that certain conversations about important issues could have been incorporated more gracefully and less obviously into the plot.
Because of these reasons, it was very hard for me to try and enjoy this book, which is why I had to DNF "Victories Greater Than Death". Although it didn't work for me, that doesn't take away from the creative worldbuilding and unique characters. I would recommend this book to sci-fi lovers who prioritize having diversity and unique characters in novels they may want to read.
"Victories Greater Than Death" tells the story of Tina, who is an alien raised on Earth by her mother. There’s a beacon inside her that when she’s ready will alert both allies and enemies to her location. With her best friend Rachael she goes to space to fulfil her destiny.
This sounds like a somewhat captivating premise, right? That's what I thought too, but sadly, it wasn't executed well.
Here's why I couldn't fully enjoy this book, finish it, and rate it 3 stars.
reason #1: slow pacing
Truthfully, I don't think this book needed to be 288 pages. The novel felt dragged and had slow pacing, so I became incredibly bored and didn't want to read this. This problem intertwines with the writing, but we'll get into that.
reason #2: confusing writing that ruined the experience and annoyed me.
When something is happening, I always feel confused because scenes weren't described well and the writing didn't seem very articulate. I usually had to flip back a couple of pages to figure out what was happening, which got annoying quick. And I felt like the author just dumped info about different things without giving me anytime to understand it. This might be different for someone else, but this problem kept arising for me. And sometimes, the writing was interrupted by abrupt changes in scenery and I felt like I was constantly trying to keep up. To make matters worse, there were certain parts of the book that were explained in great detail which made the novel feel very dense. But then there were other moments when things weren't explained well at all, and I'm left befuddled.
reason #3: dialogue that felt forced and weird internal thoughts.
A lot of the characters' interactions felt unnatural and weird. I get that because humans and other-worldly creatures are interacting, things would be a little weird, but that wasn't the reason for this. Tina's thoughts were pretty awkward and slightly annoying. Her dialogue with other characters was just...off. That's the best way I can explain it.
So I have a few bones to pick with the writing and dialogue, but there were reasons as to why I rated this book higher than 1 star.
reason #1: creative world building
The scenery for the different places the characters visit is either explained in great detail, or barely described, but I can still admire the creativity that went into creating these worlds and settings. I wish I had more to say about this, but there isn't much to say about it anyway.
reason #2: diverse representation of races, sexualities, and genders
So when Tina teams up with different characters on her "journey", we're introduced to different types of people (and other-worldly creatures I guess). I enjoyed how different identities and pronouns were normalized because that's something I truly look for in a novel. Now while I did like this at first, the discussions of representation were extremely explicit. I think that certain conversations about important issues could have been incorporated more gracefully and less obviously into the plot.
Because of these reasons, it was very hard for me to try and enjoy this book, which is why I had to DNF "Victories Greater Than Death". Although it didn't work for me, that doesn't take away from the creative worldbuilding and unique characters. I would recommend this book to sci-fi lovers who prioritize having diversity and unique characters in novels they may want to read.
July 6, 2021
I spent a long time thinking about what I wanted to say in this review. It was clear to me almost from the first page that this book is not good. I finished it because I wanted my review to be fair and because, having adored her other books, I feel the least I owe Charlie Jane Anders is a fair shot. If I didn’t respect her, I would probably be much harsher in what I’m about to say because this book is extremely easy to mock.
So what is wrong with Victories Greater Than Death? All the best things about CJA’s writing are totally stripped away. Her beautiful prose is gone, as is her subtle and elegant world building, and the characters who I cared for. All that was left is a sad shadow.
VGTD is a YA book. So was the book I read immediately before it. I’ve read more than a dozen YA books in this last year (mostly re-reads, admittedly, but the point stands). And if anything that illustrates more clearly what is wrong with VGTD. It feels like CJA thought that to write a YA book you needed to dumb everything down. This isn’t really true. Teenagers /hate/ being condescended to, and the writing of this book, where everything is told rather than shown and the relationships are robotic in their dullness and every adjective is replaced with a “very” is nothing if not condescending. This is like CJA never met a human teenager.
In fact, having never met a human teenager was my primary feeling about the characterization in this book. I mean seriously. They all are around 16 and still un-ironically say the word “butt”. The child characters in All The Birds in the Sky do not have this unreality problem, so I’m not sure if CJA had amnesia when writing VGTD, but it sort-of feels like it. Every character feels like a bad stock character from some kind of anti-bullying PSA made in the 1990s, except for Elza, who is both a bad PSA bully /and/ someone’s angsty Tumblr OC who only ever talks about her trauma. The British character constantly reminds us he’s British, but it feels like the Britishness of someone who has never been to Britain or met a British person. I can’t speak first-hand to the other nationalities but I would guess they have the same problem because Elza says things like “this reminds me of the sewers in Sao Paulo” as if those are distinct from other sewers and also as if she’s worried we’ll forget where she’s from if she doesn’t say it constantly.
On the topic, let’s get into the Elza-Tina relationship. I /hate/ this relationship. I’ve read a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy books with lesbian relationships or protagonists in the last year or so and this is by far the worst one. Elza is nothing but cruel and belittling to Tina from their very first meeting and Tina hates her and then they have /one/ emotionally vulnerable conversation and Tina, who has already been crushing on someone else who isn’t a jerk, falls in love. Do /not/ date people who call you “bossy girl” twice as an insult within your first conversation. That’s not flirting, that’s internalized misogyny. This is technically in line with other YA books but like the bad, misogynistic comp-het YA of the year 2009. You know, the worst of the worst where characters treat each other terribly and still get the relationship because Must Date? It’s like that.
There’s a lot to hate about this book. Just give it a miss. Adults can read CJA’s other books, they’re much better! I’m sure people who are currently kids can give better recommendations for what’s current in that category than I can but I know for a fact there are plenty that are better than this.
So what is wrong with Victories Greater Than Death? All the best things about CJA’s writing are totally stripped away. Her beautiful prose is gone, as is her subtle and elegant world building, and the characters who I cared for. All that was left is a sad shadow.
VGTD is a YA book. So was the book I read immediately before it. I’ve read more than a dozen YA books in this last year (mostly re-reads, admittedly, but the point stands). And if anything that illustrates more clearly what is wrong with VGTD. It feels like CJA thought that to write a YA book you needed to dumb everything down. This isn’t really true. Teenagers /hate/ being condescended to, and the writing of this book, where everything is told rather than shown and the relationships are robotic in their dullness and every adjective is replaced with a “very” is nothing if not condescending. This is like CJA never met a human teenager.
In fact, having never met a human teenager was my primary feeling about the characterization in this book. I mean seriously. They all are around 16 and still un-ironically say the word “butt”. The child characters in All The Birds in the Sky do not have this unreality problem, so I’m not sure if CJA had amnesia when writing VGTD, but it sort-of feels like it. Every character feels like a bad stock character from some kind of anti-bullying PSA made in the 1990s, except for Elza, who is both a bad PSA bully /and/ someone’s angsty Tumblr OC who only ever talks about her trauma. The British character constantly reminds us he’s British, but it feels like the Britishness of someone who has never been to Britain or met a British person. I can’t speak first-hand to the other nationalities but I would guess they have the same problem because Elza says things like “this reminds me of the sewers in Sao Paulo” as if those are distinct from other sewers and also as if she’s worried we’ll forget where she’s from if she doesn’t say it constantly.
On the topic, let’s get into the Elza-Tina relationship. I /hate/ this relationship. I’ve read a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy books with lesbian relationships or protagonists in the last year or so and this is by far the worst one. Elza is nothing but cruel and belittling to Tina from their very first meeting and Tina hates her and then they have /one/ emotionally vulnerable conversation and Tina, who has already been crushing on someone else who isn’t a jerk, falls in love. Do /not/ date people who call you “bossy girl” twice as an insult within your first conversation. That’s not flirting, that’s internalized misogyny. This is technically in line with other YA books but like the bad, misogynistic comp-het YA of the year 2009. You know, the worst of the worst where characters treat each other terribly and still get the relationship because Must Date? It’s like that.
There’s a lot to hate about this book. Just give it a miss. Adults can read CJA’s other books, they’re much better! I’m sure people who are currently kids can give better recommendations for what’s current in that category than I can but I know for a fact there are plenty that are better than this.
May 11, 2022
I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Wow. I loved absolutely everything about Victories Greater Than Death. I'll even admit that I geeked out once I got the actual book from NetGalley. It also doesn't hurt that each and every character was so god damn lovable either. I mean, even the ones I met for like two seconds some how wormed their way into my heart.
In it you will meet Tina and find out that she's a clone of some amazing Captain that sacrificed herself to save a bunch of people. So just to have that much weight on the top of her shoulders.. well she just doesn't know what to do with her life. Then again, she knew that she was not from Earth and that some day she would have to leave the planet she grew up on.
Other than that, you will meet a bunch of different characters. The diversity was insane and the one thing that made me so damn proud/happy was that they would state their name AND then their pronoun. This just made the book unique in my eyes because we don't always get that and it's kind of like a huge guessing game (that everyone will fail).
After meeting everyone, they were on a wild ass ride/adventure. Honestly, so much happened and it was a lot of fun to read all about it. Besides the adventure, this book dives into so many topics that are real and make you pay attention to every little thing that is happening. Again, I loved it all and I'm so happy that I got the chance to dive into this.
In the end, that cliffhanger just about killed me. Waiting will be the death of me but I seriously need the next book STAT!
Wow. I loved absolutely everything about Victories Greater Than Death. I'll even admit that I geeked out once I got the actual book from NetGalley. It also doesn't hurt that each and every character was so god damn lovable either. I mean, even the ones I met for like two seconds some how wormed their way into my heart.
In it you will meet Tina and find out that she's a clone of some amazing Captain that sacrificed herself to save a bunch of people. So just to have that much weight on the top of her shoulders.. well she just doesn't know what to do with her life. Then again, she knew that she was not from Earth and that some day she would have to leave the planet she grew up on.
Other than that, you will meet a bunch of different characters. The diversity was insane and the one thing that made me so damn proud/happy was that they would state their name AND then their pronoun. This just made the book unique in my eyes because we don't always get that and it's kind of like a huge guessing game (that everyone will fail).
After meeting everyone, they were on a wild ass ride/adventure. Honestly, so much happened and it was a lot of fun to read all about it. Besides the adventure, this book dives into so many topics that are real and make you pay attention to every little thing that is happening. Again, I loved it all and I'm so happy that I got the chance to dive into this.
In the end, that cliffhanger just about killed me. Waiting will be the death of me but I seriously need the next book STAT!
February 1, 2021
2.5 stars
I wanted to love this book so badly! A YA Sci-fi Space Opera with a Queer romance in it? I couldn't ask for more. But unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book very much and it was a little bit of a chore to be honest. The only thing that managed to grab my attention was the relationship between Elza and Tina but that's it. It took me a while to get through it and it's probably because I didn't really care about the plot... so yeah. I'm disappointed but I'm sure you can enjoy it a lot more than me!
Victories Greater Than Death follows Tina, a young alien on Earth raised by a woman after being left to her care. Tina is actually the clone of a really important/famous heroine that died to save her people. The 'good' aliens are hoping to be able to put her memories back into Tina but things aren't going to go down like planned. There's also an evil alien called "Marrant" which means Funny in french... probably because he likes to laugh while killing people.
(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)
I wanted to love this book so badly! A YA Sci-fi Space Opera with a Queer romance in it? I couldn't ask for more. But unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book very much and it was a little bit of a chore to be honest. The only thing that managed to grab my attention was the relationship between Elza and Tina but that's it. It took me a while to get through it and it's probably because I didn't really care about the plot... so yeah. I'm disappointed but I'm sure you can enjoy it a lot more than me!
Victories Greater Than Death follows Tina, a young alien on Earth raised by a woman after being left to her care. Tina is actually the clone of a really important/famous heroine that died to save her people. The 'good' aliens are hoping to be able to put her memories back into Tina but things aren't going to go down like planned. There's also an evil alien called "Marrant" which means Funny in french... probably because he likes to laugh while killing people.
(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)
March 1, 2022
rep: bi/pan mc, trans woman bi/pan li, indian sc, poc sc's, non binary sc's
I really wanted to enjoy this book but the style is very abrupt, there's too many info-dumps, and i don't care about the characters because we're thrust into the action scenes before we can form any attachments to them. A ton of non-distinct side characters are introduced very fast and I couldn't keep track of the cast. The plot of retaining someone else' memories sounded interesting at first, but information kept appearing when it was convenient for the plot which I found boring.
I did like everyone introducing themselves with their pronouns and some of the dialogue was funny, the budding enemies to lovers intrigued me but whenever I started to get interested, the tone changed or the scene ended and we were back to uninteresting plotlines.
I really wanted to enjoy this book but the style is very abrupt, there's too many info-dumps, and i don't care about the characters because we're thrust into the action scenes before we can form any attachments to them. A ton of non-distinct side characters are introduced very fast and I couldn't keep track of the cast. The plot of retaining someone else' memories sounded interesting at first, but information kept appearing when it was convenient for the plot which I found boring.
I did like everyone introducing themselves with their pronouns and some of the dialogue was funny, the budding enemies to lovers intrigued me but whenever I started to get interested, the tone changed or the scene ended and we were back to uninteresting plotlines.
April 16, 2021
3.5/5 Stars
This book has almost everything I could want in a YA sci-fi novel – a diverse cast of characters, found family dynamics, vivid worldbuilding and a sweet sapphic romance – and it’s even compared to Star Wars and Doctor Who (although I think that it is much more like I Am Number Four and Star Trek!). As soon as I dived into the novel I was drawn in by Charlie Jane Anders’ fun and witty prose and I was excited to delve further into the sci-fi world that she has created. But, I quickly found some little issues in the book, which grew to be much larger, and sadly this book just didn’t fully click with me.
Starting with the positives, though – I really loved the diversity that we had in the book! The main character, Tina, is queer and doesn’t label her sexuality (though she does say that she is attracted to people regardless of their gender) and the love interest is a Black Brazilian sapphic trans girl! As for the side characters, we have a queer Black British guy, a Chinese guy and an Indian girl. Aside from that, there are two characters that I also read as neurodivergent, particularly Rachel who (as an autistic reader), I read as being autistic! Whether or not this was the author’s aim with the character, I really enjoyed how she was characterised! Another thing I loved about the representation in the book was the positive angle that it takes towards fat people – there is no suggestion that being fat is bad, and instead shows it in a very positive light, showing the advantages of it, and I was so unbelievably happy to see that included, even if it was only briefly mentioned! Furthermore, the characters stated their pronouns (including neopronouns) when introducing themselves which, although slightly clunky at times, was a really great addition! One tiny nitpick I have with the rep (though this may have been dealt with in the finished copy) is that Yiwei was referred to using his full name – Wang Yiwei – several times throughout the book, whereas the other characters weren’t, and to me it felt like perhaps the author didn’t fully realise that Wang is his surname and by using his full name in a really conversational manner felt super clunky.
Something else I really enjoyed was the worldbuilding! It was so obvious that Charlie Jane Anders took time to fully develop this vibrant and sprawling sci-fi universe, even down to the tiny details, and for someone who’s not a sci-fi reader, this just made the story all that more engaging! I can see why, for some readers, that the worldbuilding might be too heavy, as there are a lot of different alien races, but for me, it was definitely a plus! The book was also just fun! I’ve already mentioned that the author’s writing style was fun and witty, but it was just so gripping and really drew me into the story. At times I do think it read on the younger side of YA, but that was far from being a problem, as it offered a certain lightheartedness among all the heavier topics that were discussed.
Speaking of said heavier topics, I’m going to segue into the aspects of the book that didn’t grab me as much. The book tackles some interesting topics, such as eugenics and colonisation, which mirrored our own world at times, though I couldn’t help but feeling that they were dealt with far too quickly and not in enough depth. For example, the topic was brought up to the main character but the book never divulged how this affected the planet or people in question, and it was swept under the rug so that we could have another action scene, only to be forgotten about by the end of the chapter and maybe only briefly mentioned again near the end of the book. This happened with other aspects of the book, too, particularly regarding Tina finding out more about the hero that she was cloned from. She finds out something about her ‘past’ that upsets her, and is something that would definitely take an emotional toll on you, and by the end of the chapter she was over it.
Furthermore, the book felt simultaneously under-developed and info-dumpy! Starting with the under-developed side, we have the side characters. I really could not tell you anything more about Yiwei than that he likes to play music and has a cute wee robot that he programmed, and as for Keziah…absolutely nothing! There was meant to be this whole found family aspect between the ‘Earthlings’ and I just didn’t feel it. Tina rarely interacted with the two male characters and my favourite trope felt like it was nowhere to be seen. Then there’s the sapphic relationship…oh boy! I was really excited about the relationship, as there are so few sapphic relationships with trans characters in YA, but I was sorely let down. There was no chemistry between Tina and Elza at all, as well as absolutely no yearning. It was like halfway through the book the author had flipped a switch and Tina was all of a sudden in love with Elza (and don’t get me started on the I love you not five minutes after they got into a relationship). It was just so underwhelming and I didn’t feel anything for the characters or their relationship (this also goes for the relationship between two side characters that just came out of nowhere).
And onto the info-dumpy part of the book! When Tina boards the ship, she goes through a really simple procedure to try and have the famous space hero’s memories given ‘back’ to her, but instead just ends up with all of the information that she knew, but none of it relating to her past or her home planet. So, Tina all of a sudden has all this information about the ship, about intergalactic politics and different alien races. And she loves to flaunt it! Everything about her getting all of this information felt so unnatural and convenient to driving the plot forwards. And when Tina told the other humans about a certain thing, it was info-dump central! I quickly found myself getting the alien characters’ names muddled up and I did feel a wee bit overwhelmed with all the information we were getting about some of the people and places.
Overall, though, this was a really fun read and I think that lovers of YA sci-fi will absolutely adore this book! The book was witty and the diversity was a real highlight, and I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel to find out what happens next!
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for the eARC copy in return for an honest review!
Want more sapphic books? You can find me here: Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram
This book has almost everything I could want in a YA sci-fi novel – a diverse cast of characters, found family dynamics, vivid worldbuilding and a sweet sapphic romance – and it’s even compared to Star Wars and Doctor Who (although I think that it is much more like I Am Number Four and Star Trek!). As soon as I dived into the novel I was drawn in by Charlie Jane Anders’ fun and witty prose and I was excited to delve further into the sci-fi world that she has created. But, I quickly found some little issues in the book, which grew to be much larger, and sadly this book just didn’t fully click with me.
Starting with the positives, though – I really loved the diversity that we had in the book! The main character, Tina, is queer and doesn’t label her sexuality (though she does say that she is attracted to people regardless of their gender) and the love interest is a Black Brazilian sapphic trans girl! As for the side characters, we have a queer Black British guy, a Chinese guy and an Indian girl. Aside from that, there are two characters that I also read as neurodivergent, particularly Rachel who (as an autistic reader), I read as being autistic! Whether or not this was the author’s aim with the character, I really enjoyed how she was characterised! Another thing I loved about the representation in the book was the positive angle that it takes towards fat people – there is no suggestion that being fat is bad, and instead shows it in a very positive light, showing the advantages of it, and I was so unbelievably happy to see that included, even if it was only briefly mentioned! Furthermore, the characters stated their pronouns (including neopronouns) when introducing themselves which, although slightly clunky at times, was a really great addition! One tiny nitpick I have with the rep (though this may have been dealt with in the finished copy) is that Yiwei was referred to using his full name – Wang Yiwei – several times throughout the book, whereas the other characters weren’t, and to me it felt like perhaps the author didn’t fully realise that Wang is his surname and by using his full name in a really conversational manner felt super clunky.
Something else I really enjoyed was the worldbuilding! It was so obvious that Charlie Jane Anders took time to fully develop this vibrant and sprawling sci-fi universe, even down to the tiny details, and for someone who’s not a sci-fi reader, this just made the story all that more engaging! I can see why, for some readers, that the worldbuilding might be too heavy, as there are a lot of different alien races, but for me, it was definitely a plus! The book was also just fun! I’ve already mentioned that the author’s writing style was fun and witty, but it was just so gripping and really drew me into the story. At times I do think it read on the younger side of YA, but that was far from being a problem, as it offered a certain lightheartedness among all the heavier topics that were discussed.
Speaking of said heavier topics, I’m going to segue into the aspects of the book that didn’t grab me as much. The book tackles some interesting topics, such as eugenics and colonisation, which mirrored our own world at times, though I couldn’t help but feeling that they were dealt with far too quickly and not in enough depth. For example, the topic was brought up to the main character but the book never divulged how this affected the planet or people in question, and it was swept under the rug so that we could have another action scene, only to be forgotten about by the end of the chapter and maybe only briefly mentioned again near the end of the book. This happened with other aspects of the book, too, particularly regarding Tina finding out more about the hero that she was cloned from. She finds out something about her ‘past’ that upsets her, and is something that would definitely take an emotional toll on you, and by the end of the chapter she was over it.
Furthermore, the book felt simultaneously under-developed and info-dumpy! Starting with the under-developed side, we have the side characters. I really could not tell you anything more about Yiwei than that he likes to play music and has a cute wee robot that he programmed, and as for Keziah…absolutely nothing! There was meant to be this whole found family aspect between the ‘Earthlings’ and I just didn’t feel it. Tina rarely interacted with the two male characters and my favourite trope felt like it was nowhere to be seen. Then there’s the sapphic relationship…oh boy! I was really excited about the relationship, as there are so few sapphic relationships with trans characters in YA, but I was sorely let down. There was no chemistry between Tina and Elza at all, as well as absolutely no yearning. It was like halfway through the book the author had flipped a switch and Tina was all of a sudden in love with Elza (and don’t get me started on the I love you not five minutes after they got into a relationship). It was just so underwhelming and I didn’t feel anything for the characters or their relationship (this also goes for the relationship between two side characters that just came out of nowhere).
And onto the info-dumpy part of the book! When Tina boards the ship, she goes through a really simple procedure to try and have the famous space hero’s memories given ‘back’ to her, but instead just ends up with all of the information that she knew, but none of it relating to her past or her home planet. So, Tina all of a sudden has all this information about the ship, about intergalactic politics and different alien races. And she loves to flaunt it! Everything about her getting all of this information felt so unnatural and convenient to driving the plot forwards. And when Tina told the other humans about a certain thing, it was info-dump central! I quickly found myself getting the alien characters’ names muddled up and I did feel a wee bit overwhelmed with all the information we were getting about some of the people and places.
Overall, though, this was a really fun read and I think that lovers of YA sci-fi will absolutely adore this book! The book was witty and the diversity was a real highlight, and I’ll definitely be picking up the sequel to find out what happens next!
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for the eARC copy in return for an honest review!
Want more sapphic books? You can find me here: Book Blog | Twitter | Instagram
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May 28, 2021The author did NOT understand the assignment. At fucking ALL. Pls excuse this rant, I just have a lot of feelings.
Victories Greater Than Death is about a girl named Tina who knows she is different. She's the keeper of a interplanetary rescue beacon that will one day go off and she'll be taken to the stars. She dreams of fulfilling her destiny of saving all the worlds and living up to her legacy. Tina is a clone of a famed alien hero, disguised as human until her beacon goes off. When her beacon finally does go off, her mission to save the galaxy isn't what she thought it would be.
You know when you are shopping and you see a pair of AMAZING pants that look great on the mannequin so you buy them? Then it turns out they don't fit you right and look like trash? This book is the equivalent. It looks good before you try it on but then it turns out to be disappointing as hell.
This book starts off so good. Before I started, I had a friend warn me about problems they had and I was like what are they talking about this is good? But then I got to the part where it all went downhill, fast.
This sPACE ALIEN BOOK is ALL about fucking HUMANS. I cannot express how disgusted I am with that. Tina and her best friend go to space and hang out on an alien spaceship. Then there is a montage of them bringing more human kids to the ship for whatever fucking reason and then the book focuses ONLY on the humans as the aliens are spicy background characters. There is a clear divide between the important human characters and the aliens and it was wrong??? ALL of the romance is human x human only and I'm literally so upset okay. I love alien romance but this said "no, fuck you freak."
I did like how the aliens were so different and were actually aliens that identified in all different ways instead of the basic human binaries (and no sexy space elves). But they were so unimportant?? Their species get a quick explanation from Tina like space wikipedia. She literally calls it space wikipedia and so much shit was just deadpanned explained like that and it wasn't organic or necessary.
This book teases at everything I love in sci-fi just to deny me basic alien rights. What is the point of traveling in space with a bunch of aliens when you focus only on the humans? I didn't like the adventure and the bad guy was a joke. His name could have been villain mcbadguy for how generic he was and how he kept making speeches about being badguy.
No thank you I did not like this and I'm going to play Mass Effect where I can actually have alien fun on my spaceship full of aliens.
Victories Greater Than Death is about a girl named Tina who knows she is different. She's the keeper of a interplanetary rescue beacon that will one day go off and she'll be taken to the stars. She dreams of fulfilling her destiny of saving all the worlds and living up to her legacy. Tina is a clone of a famed alien hero, disguised as human until her beacon goes off. When her beacon finally does go off, her mission to save the galaxy isn't what she thought it would be.
You know when you are shopping and you see a pair of AMAZING pants that look great on the mannequin so you buy them? Then it turns out they don't fit you right and look like trash? This book is the equivalent. It looks good before you try it on but then it turns out to be disappointing as hell.
This book starts off so good. Before I started, I had a friend warn me about problems they had and I was like what are they talking about this is good? But then I got to the part where it all went downhill, fast.
This sPACE ALIEN BOOK is ALL about fucking HUMANS. I cannot express how disgusted I am with that. Tina and her best friend go to space and hang out on an alien spaceship. Then there is a montage of them bringing more human kids to the ship for whatever fucking reason and then the book focuses ONLY on the humans as the aliens are spicy background characters. There is a clear divide between the important human characters and the aliens and it was wrong??? ALL of the romance is human x human only and I'm literally so upset okay. I love alien romance but this said "no, fuck you freak."
I did like how the aliens were so different and were actually aliens that identified in all different ways instead of the basic human binaries (and no sexy space elves). But they were so unimportant?? Their species get a quick explanation from Tina like space wikipedia. She literally calls it space wikipedia and so much shit was just deadpanned explained like that and it wasn't organic or necessary.
This book teases at everything I love in sci-fi just to deny me basic alien rights. What is the point of traveling in space with a bunch of aliens when you focus only on the humans? I didn't like the adventure and the bad guy was a joke. His name could have been villain mcbadguy for how generic he was and how he kept making speeches about being badguy.
No thank you I did not like this and I'm going to play Mass Effect where I can actually have alien fun on my spaceship full of aliens.
January 4, 2021
Initial thoughts: This book was action packed, incredibly queer, and so much fun! Victories Greater Than Death isn’t even out til April and I already need Book 2 immediately, LOL.
Update (1.3.21): I wanted to close out 2020 on a high note with a fun read, and man, did this book deliver! Victories Greater Than Death is Charlie Jane Anders' YA debut (out April 13th). It was a wild, enjoyable ride from start to finish, with a diverse cast of unique, well developed characters that I absolutely adored! ⠀
⠀
I was going to try and keep this review ~*~professional~*~ but I think that would actually be a disservice to the book, so: You know that one TikTok video where the creator says "the only requirement I have for a book is that it's gay and it slaps"? Victories Greater Than Death is extremely gay and it slaps so hard! ⠀
⠀
Some things I loved about Victories Greater Than Death: ⠀
• A universe so queernorm that the standard introduction/greeting includes sharing your pronouns (including normalized neo-pronouns)⠀
• Found family (in space!!!) with a diverse cast of both human and alien characters ⠀
• Adorable friends to lovers romance with a trans girl love interest (would absolutely die for Elza, my brilliant, cynical hacker queen)⠀
⠀
I would especially recommend picking this one up if you enjoyed Once & Future, because Victories Greater Than Death brings the same sort of fun, chaotic “space is gay” vibes to the table!
ARC Note: Massive thanks to Tor Teen for sending me this ARC! All opinions my own.
Let's be friends! Bookstagram | Booktube | Book Blog | Twitter
Update (1.3.21): I wanted to close out 2020 on a high note with a fun read, and man, did this book deliver! Victories Greater Than Death is Charlie Jane Anders' YA debut (out April 13th). It was a wild, enjoyable ride from start to finish, with a diverse cast of unique, well developed characters that I absolutely adored! ⠀
⠀
I was going to try and keep this review ~*~professional~*~ but I think that would actually be a disservice to the book, so: You know that one TikTok video where the creator says "the only requirement I have for a book is that it's gay and it slaps"? Victories Greater Than Death is extremely gay and it slaps so hard! ⠀
⠀
Some things I loved about Victories Greater Than Death: ⠀
• A universe so queernorm that the standard introduction/greeting includes sharing your pronouns (including normalized neo-pronouns)⠀
• Found family (in space!!!) with a diverse cast of both human and alien characters ⠀
• Adorable friends to lovers romance with a trans girl love interest (would absolutely die for Elza, my brilliant, cynical hacker queen)⠀
⠀
I would especially recommend picking this one up if you enjoyed Once & Future, because Victories Greater Than Death brings the same sort of fun, chaotic “space is gay” vibes to the table!
ARC Note: Massive thanks to Tor Teen for sending me this ARC! All opinions my own.
Let's be friends! Bookstagram | Booktube | Book Blog | Twitter
November 20, 2020
A huge thanks to Edelweiss and Tor Teen for the e-arc.
This was my first book by Charlie Jane Anders, and it won't be my last. I haven't read such a refreshing sci-fi in a long time. With a cross between Space Balls, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this tops my favorite YA books ever.
Tina is a clone, living on Earth and awaiting the day when her beacon would summon her back to space. But when the day comes, she finds herself hunted by a monster as she tries to escape Earth.
The beginning felt so separate from the rest of the book. The setup was great, don't get me wrong, but the real story happens when Tina and her friend Rachel recruit Earthlings to help fight off a sadistic rebellion called the Commission. While she slowly regains the memory of the former captain she was cloned from, she discovers how far she's willing to go to save the galaxy.
With the brief synopsis out of the way, let me get to the meat of this story: the characters. I adored the different species Tina meets and her interactions with them. Every one of them was unique and stood apart from one another. Rachel resonated with me in that she is an introvert with tenancies to shut down after too much social interaction. I cared about everyone the crew members. I rooted for them.
This was the most fun I've had reading a book in 2020. There is so much going on in this book, but it's so easy to understand. We jump from planet to planet, battle to battle with ease. Ander's writing style sucks you right in.
GOD, I LOVED ALL THE PRONOUNS. Aliens greet each other by introducing themselves by name and pronoun and it's so refreshing. There is so much diversity in this book, and the first YA I've ever read when the love interest is trans.
Anders touches upon some heavy issues such as depression, anxiety, and discovering who you are as a person. It felt real, and raw in a story where aliens blow different colored bubbles to signify how they feel. :D
I cannot get over how fantastic this book was. have you seen the cover? Are you looking at it right now? Scroll up, and come back to me...ok, you've taken a closer look, and ARE YOU NOT AMAZED? I cannot wait to see this sitting on my bookshelf. I'm already getting together my bookstagram props to make this book SHINE
Find me on Insta at @celiamcmahonreads
This was my first book by Charlie Jane Anders, and it won't be my last. I haven't read such a refreshing sci-fi in a long time. With a cross between Space Balls, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this tops my favorite YA books ever.
Tina is a clone, living on Earth and awaiting the day when her beacon would summon her back to space. But when the day comes, she finds herself hunted by a monster as she tries to escape Earth.
The beginning felt so separate from the rest of the book. The setup was great, don't get me wrong, but the real story happens when Tina and her friend Rachel recruit Earthlings to help fight off a sadistic rebellion called the Commission. While she slowly regains the memory of the former captain she was cloned from, she discovers how far she's willing to go to save the galaxy.
With the brief synopsis out of the way, let me get to the meat of this story: the characters. I adored the different species Tina meets and her interactions with them. Every one of them was unique and stood apart from one another. Rachel resonated with me in that she is an introvert with tenancies to shut down after too much social interaction. I cared about everyone the crew members. I rooted for them.
This was the most fun I've had reading a book in 2020. There is so much going on in this book, but it's so easy to understand. We jump from planet to planet, battle to battle with ease. Ander's writing style sucks you right in.
GOD, I LOVED ALL THE PRONOUNS. Aliens greet each other by introducing themselves by name and pronoun and it's so refreshing. There is so much diversity in this book, and the first YA I've ever read when the love interest is trans.
Anders touches upon some heavy issues such as depression, anxiety, and discovering who you are as a person. It felt real, and raw in a story where aliens blow different colored bubbles to signify how they feel. :D
I cannot get over how fantastic this book was. have you seen the cover? Are you looking at it right now? Scroll up, and come back to me...ok, you've taken a closer look, and ARE YOU NOT AMAZED? I cannot wait to see this sitting on my bookshelf. I'm already getting together my bookstagram props to make this book SHINE
Find me on Insta at @celiamcmahonreads
March 20, 2021
Tina is just your average teenage girl... whom is also an alien with a beacon in her chest that will go off when it's time to start her new life... in space. And yes, it's just as cool as it sounds!
When Tina's beacon goes off, her and her best friend, Rachael, make a run for it. They are soon surrounded by the enemy aliens (super creepy enemy aliens), but they are still doing their best to escape. Luckily, a friendly face appears... or, at least, a face that doesn't look murderous, Yatto the Monthaa. Yatto (they/them) takes both Tina and Rachael to The Royal Fleet... and things get even more exciting.
This story is a tale of the best group of misfits working together, a tale of what it means to really be a hero, and ultimately a tale of peoples coming together to fight oppression. I couldn't help but cheer everyone on at the end, but don't worry.... there will be more! And I can't wait to find out what happens next!
When Tina's beacon goes off, her and her best friend, Rachael, make a run for it. They are soon surrounded by the enemy aliens (super creepy enemy aliens), but they are still doing their best to escape. Luckily, a friendly face appears... or, at least, a face that doesn't look murderous, Yatto the Monthaa. Yatto (they/them) takes both Tina and Rachael to The Royal Fleet... and things get even more exciting.
This story is a tale of the best group of misfits working together, a tale of what it means to really be a hero, and ultimately a tale of peoples coming together to fight oppression. I couldn't help but cheer everyone on at the end, but don't worry.... there will be more! And I can't wait to find out what happens next!
August 6, 2021
Victories Greater Than Death is a YA science fiction novel that I found to be good fun. It features, a diverse band of characters and a decent plot. One thing I did really like was at whenever a new character introduced themselves, they always gave their pronouns, and since there alien species in this, there were a fair number of neo-pronouns used, which I just thought was fantastic. It is certainly something we need to normalise, and it’s great having books like this to that for readers, I think it is fabulous and very much so necessary for us to be a more accepting society. So that was certainly a huge point in the novels favour, however, you would have noticed the three-star rating, which did mean I had some issues with this novel.
Look, as a whole this novel was fine. I enjoyed, I had a good time - but it didn’t give me anything more than that. I didn’t connect with the characters emotionally, even though I did think a few were definitely well written, largely Tina, Rachel and Elza. I did think that since this book was not particularly long, there was a lack of depth with many of the side characters. I simply felt that I did not get to know them well enough despite them playing an important role in the story. They represented different people sure, but I didn’t feel like I actually got to know many of the characters(including many important ones).
For some reason, I had a hard time picturing all the different alien races, planets and so forth. I don’t know if it was a lack of descriptions or if they were not described vividly or memorably enough for me, but I did wish that I could have pictured things a lot better to be more fully immersed with the novel. And I think ultimately that is why this was a three-star read for me, in that I just was not as immersed nor invested with this world or characters as I would have liked to be. Then, moving onto the worldbuilding, I thought it was fine, but again, I would have liked things to have been better described, and importantly for things to have been explored in greater detail than just the bare surface. I mean, as the reader, we visit several varying planets, yet it doesn’t feel like we do because there was not enough contrast between these locations for me.
The world here certainly is expansive and is told from a huge scope - whilst also feeling quite small. The story itself here is actually fairly contained where it stays with the same cast of characters throughout largely on or around a single spaceship. We learn of all this intergalactical stuff, except that I didn’t experience any of that. Obviously could be saving things for the sequel and what not, but at the same time, I would have liked a bit more in not necessarily expanding the world, but merely giving the reader a bit more of what there is on offer.
I found the plot to be fine and the author did manage to pack quite a lot into here, but it also wasn’t the most exciting thing for me unfortunately. There is a lot of travelling and planet hopping which was fine, but it wasn’t stellar. I actually thought the villain in this was pretty cliché and incredibly standard while being overly dramatic for no purpose other than for dramatization. Yes, some people would not have any qualms with that, but it just was not that interesting of an antagonist for me, which was a shame.
In the end, this novel ended up being pretty average, even though I did want to like it a lot more than I did. 6/10
Look, as a whole this novel was fine. I enjoyed, I had a good time - but it didn’t give me anything more than that. I didn’t connect with the characters emotionally, even though I did think a few were definitely well written, largely Tina, Rachel and Elza. I did think that since this book was not particularly long, there was a lack of depth with many of the side characters. I simply felt that I did not get to know them well enough despite them playing an important role in the story. They represented different people sure, but I didn’t feel like I actually got to know many of the characters(including many important ones).
For some reason, I had a hard time picturing all the different alien races, planets and so forth. I don’t know if it was a lack of descriptions or if they were not described vividly or memorably enough for me, but I did wish that I could have pictured things a lot better to be more fully immersed with the novel. And I think ultimately that is why this was a three-star read for me, in that I just was not as immersed nor invested with this world or characters as I would have liked to be. Then, moving onto the worldbuilding, I thought it was fine, but again, I would have liked things to have been better described, and importantly for things to have been explored in greater detail than just the bare surface. I mean, as the reader, we visit several varying planets, yet it doesn’t feel like we do because there was not enough contrast between these locations for me.
The world here certainly is expansive and is told from a huge scope - whilst also feeling quite small. The story itself here is actually fairly contained where it stays with the same cast of characters throughout largely on or around a single spaceship. We learn of all this intergalactical stuff, except that I didn’t experience any of that. Obviously could be saving things for the sequel and what not, but at the same time, I would have liked a bit more in not necessarily expanding the world, but merely giving the reader a bit more of what there is on offer.
I found the plot to be fine and the author did manage to pack quite a lot into here, but it also wasn’t the most exciting thing for me unfortunately. There is a lot of travelling and planet hopping which was fine, but it wasn’t stellar. I actually thought the villain in this was pretty cliché and incredibly standard while being overly dramatic for no purpose other than for dramatization. Yes, some people would not have any qualms with that, but it just was not that interesting of an antagonist for me, which was a shame.
In the end, this novel ended up being pretty average, even though I did want to like it a lot more than I did. 6/10
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April 13, 2021There is a lot to love in in this first entry in a YA space opera. We meet Tina, a high-school aged teen dealing with the usual high school issues. But actually, Tina has a kind of bomb inside her, no less than a secret identity of which she is unaware—yet.
Because she will be yanked out of her life and into her former one as a heroic captain of the Royal Fleet. She ends up dragging along her BFF, who has been so traumatized by her life experience so far that this sudden change actually seems a good thing, including meeting non-human life forms.
And so the adventures begin.
Anders does a lot of things right—there is a lot of diversity of every kind here, even before we meet the non-humans. But while that was awesome, it was also earnest and awkward at times, the story stopping and starting in lurches as Anders over-explains to her teen audience.
It seems obvious to me that Anders is not used to writing for a younger audience, and is feeling the way into this type of story and pacing. I really think that the teen audience who will be drawn to this book already knows a lot of what gets exposited at length . . . but kids are also good at skimming “lessons” in books and going on to find the meat of the story, judging by both my experience as a teacher and remembering myself as a kid reader.
And really, if that’s the worst that I can say about a book, I think I can turn both thumbs up. Easy fix for future books, which I look forward to!
Copy provided by NetGalley
Because she will be yanked out of her life and into her former one as a heroic captain of the Royal Fleet. She ends up dragging along her BFF, who has been so traumatized by her life experience so far that this sudden change actually seems a good thing, including meeting non-human life forms.
And so the adventures begin.
Anders does a lot of things right—there is a lot of diversity of every kind here, even before we meet the non-humans. But while that was awesome, it was also earnest and awkward at times, the story stopping and starting in lurches as Anders over-explains to her teen audience.
It seems obvious to me that Anders is not used to writing for a younger audience, and is feeling the way into this type of story and pacing. I really think that the teen audience who will be drawn to this book already knows a lot of what gets exposited at length . . . but kids are also good at skimming “lessons” in books and going on to find the meat of the story, judging by both my experience as a teacher and remembering myself as a kid reader.
And really, if that’s the worst that I can say about a book, I think I can turn both thumbs up. Easy fix for future books, which I look forward to!
Copy provided by NetGalley
September 15, 2022
Soon on Cartoon Network?
(Review in the reading updates).
(Review in the reading updates).
March 27, 2023
Victories Greater Than Death is a fun, action-heavy YA sci-fi novel filled with queer characters and found family. Note about my rating is that this is much more plot and action-focused than I personally prefer in my books. So while I think this is a great version of what it is and there's a lot that I like about it, I'm going to recommend it to people who love an action-packed space adventure! But this gets major points for diversity, a sweet sapphic romance sub-plot, and just casually integrating trans and sapphic characters with aliens. It would make a fantastic TV show.
The main character has been raised as a human teen, but actually she's the clone of a famous alien starship captain. Now she's coming of age and being brought back to space by aliens, along with her best friend and some other smart human teenagers where the fate of the universe is in their hands.
The main character has been raised as a human teen, but actually she's the clone of a famous alien starship captain. Now she's coming of age and being brought back to space by aliens, along with her best friend and some other smart human teenagers where the fate of the universe is in their hands.
September 16, 2023
Just, wow! What a flipping fun ride! An absolutely *chef's kiss* perfect YA space romp, with all the queer found family feelings my lil gay heart could want! Tina and Rachael and their crew kept me on the edge of my seat, made me snort cackle and swoon!
A delightful start to a galaxy spanning trilogy! It's going to be physically painful to wait for the next book....
Many thanks to Tor Teen & NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
A delightful start to a galaxy spanning trilogy! It's going to be physically painful to wait for the next book....
Many thanks to Tor Teen & NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
April 17, 2021
This book was off to a very strong start for me. It initially reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy, with the alien dropped off on earth plotline, and it introduced a fun cast of characters. Later on though, it fizzled out for me a little. It was an enjoyable adventure, but there wasn't enough character depth and development for me to really stay engaged in it.
May 16, 2022
This reread made me love this even more!! Can't wait to pick up the sequel.
Rep: white pansexual cis female alien MC, Black Brazilian trans-nonbinary bisexual femme side character, white fat cishet female side character with anxiety, Indian cis female side character, Black British cis male side character, Chinese cishet male side character, queer and nonbinary alien side characters.
CWs: Death, violence, murder, gun violence, genocide, torture, injury/injury detail. Moderate: transphobia/transmisia, past mentions of war, past mentions of physical child abuse, mental illness (anxiety), xenophobia, medical content. Minor: Fatphobia, confinement.
____________________________________________________________
Space Gays!! Say no more, I'm in.
The author interview at the end of this was so damn cute! Victories Greater than Death gave me a lot of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet vibes, while still being its own story.
Tina Mains is a human with an interplanetary rescue beacon. When that baby lights up, Tina will be going on a space adventure. And when it does, Tina knows she'll be ready. But when Tina actually gets to space and finds out who she is, things start to get messy and Tina is a whole world of danger she never expected.
I loved this book! It was such a fun space romp from start to finish. The characters that make up Tina's crew were so lovable. And it made me really happy that everyone would introduce themselves with both their name and pronouns. I loved seeing Tina learn about the galaxy and all the various alien species/races. The ending was especially wild and I really need book 2 now!
Rep: white pansexual cis female alien MC, Black Brazilian trans-nonbinary bisexual femme side character, white fat cishet female side character with anxiety, Indian cis female side character, Black British cis male side character, Chinese cishet male side character, queer and nonbinary alien side characters.
CWs: Death, violence, murder, gun violence, genocide, torture, injury/injury detail. Moderate: transphobia/transmisia, past mentions of war, past mentions of physical child abuse, mental illness (anxiety), xenophobia, medical content. Minor: Fatphobia, confinement.
____________________________________________________________
Space Gays!! Say no more, I'm in.
The author interview at the end of this was so damn cute! Victories Greater than Death gave me a lot of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet vibes, while still being its own story.
Tina Mains is a human with an interplanetary rescue beacon. When that baby lights up, Tina will be going on a space adventure. And when it does, Tina knows she'll be ready. But when Tina actually gets to space and finds out who she is, things start to get messy and Tina is a whole world of danger she never expected.
I loved this book! It was such a fun space romp from start to finish. The characters that make up Tina's crew were so lovable. And it made me really happy that everyone would introduce themselves with both their name and pronouns. I loved seeing Tina learn about the galaxy and all the various alien species/races. The ending was especially wild and I really need book 2 now!
April 13, 2021
Tina Mains not only has the hopes of her former comrades to fulfill as the clone of an inspiring and seriously tough ship captain and fighter, but she also has her own desire to make a difference in others’ lives. Which, until her alien destiny comes calling, along with a murderous guy and his henchpeople, has been to protest injustice and inequality wherever she can in her home on Earth.
Once in space on a ship captained by one of original Tina’s friends, with her current best friend Rachel (who was caught with teen Tina when said destiny arrived), teen Tina discovers the stakes are not just personal: countless other alien races are at risk of eradication (by the murderous creep).
After recruiting a few teen geniuses from earth, Tina, Rachel, the new teens, and the whole crew are on a race to find a mysterious doodad with an unknown ability.
All the Earth teens need to learn new skills and learn to work with each other and the experienced crew, while somehow thwarting the murderous creep. The peril and danger are high and constant, and there’s tension amongst the teens, as they get to know one another and are pursued by the creep.
This is an entertaining, snappy, fast-moving space opera with a likeable teen protagonist and equally likeable teen geniuses. It also deals with some heavy duty stuff like identity, living up to others’ hopes, bigotry, and genocide.
There’s less melodrama amongst the teens than I expected, and instead believable friction as the stakes are revealed to be really high, with terrible outcomes for failure. I loved, and I mean loved, each of the teens, and how they slowly bonded despite the many, scary things happening around them.
I also loved the amount of diversity amongst the teens and the aliens, as well as a funny reference to a particular Star Trek episode. There is also a nice subversion of the usual trope where the amnesiac becomes the glorious warrior and loves it.
And damn, I want to be able to fly a ship like Damini, or reconfigure the hull like Kizhei or listen to music played by Yiwei.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Once in space on a ship captained by one of original Tina’s friends, with her current best friend Rachel (who was caught with teen Tina when said destiny arrived), teen Tina discovers the stakes are not just personal: countless other alien races are at risk of eradication (by the murderous creep).
After recruiting a few teen geniuses from earth, Tina, Rachel, the new teens, and the whole crew are on a race to find a mysterious doodad with an unknown ability.
All the Earth teens need to learn new skills and learn to work with each other and the experienced crew, while somehow thwarting the murderous creep. The peril and danger are high and constant, and there’s tension amongst the teens, as they get to know one another and are pursued by the creep.
This is an entertaining, snappy, fast-moving space opera with a likeable teen protagonist and equally likeable teen geniuses. It also deals with some heavy duty stuff like identity, living up to others’ hopes, bigotry, and genocide.
There’s less melodrama amongst the teens than I expected, and instead believable friction as the stakes are revealed to be really high, with terrible outcomes for failure. I loved, and I mean loved, each of the teens, and how they slowly bonded despite the many, scary things happening around them.
I also loved the amount of diversity amongst the teens and the aliens, as well as a funny reference to a particular Star Trek episode. There is also a nice subversion of the usual trope where the amnesiac becomes the glorious warrior and loves it.
And damn, I want to be able to fly a ship like Damini, or reconfigure the hull like Kizhei or listen to music played by Yiwei.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Read
April 7, 2022A space opera epic in the classic style - with a modern revamp. A girl from Earth is taken to lead an alien race to victory, and brings her best friend along for the ride. The love interest is a trans girl, which was so nice to see! Lots of fun, and I'm excited to see where the sequel takes the cast.
April 20, 2021
This book was a whole mess. I don't even know where to start. It went from skipping parts of scenes (and whole scenes) and dialogue to repeating information we were already given, and including made up terms along with their explanations completely unnecessarily. There's instalove, or at least a slow buildup to infatuation that then gets the "Love" label slapped on it. We have past trauma that's just sort of tossed out there and left hanging, unaddressed, I guess in an attempt to try and add depth to otherwise shallow characters. Quite a few characters we're supposed to feel attached to are never explored beyond their one trauma, talent, hobby or personality trait. A good number of characters are straight up killed off and it feels like absolutely nothing because some of them appeared purely to be killed off. The main character exists somewhere in the borderlands between "Mary Sue" and "Not Like Other Girls" and I found her best friend Rachael almost completely unlikeable. The "I supported you so you have to support me" scene turned me off this character entirely.
There were a lot of weird, almost fanfic vibes to some of the story beats, like - why is Tina given full responsibilities with no training after the memory recovery only halfway worked? Why were all of the other untrained teenagers given similar levels of responsibility with, again, almost no training? Unless more time passed than was ever indicated in the book, this makes no sense. (Although I did find myself thinking "it's no wonder the Royal Fleet is in such a raggedy shambles if this is how they do things.")
The villains were all absolutely laughable and I found myself rolling my eyes at their ship names and dialogue more than once. I think half of the Compassion must spend a lot of time on Reddit.
In a similar vein, I noticed a lot of very heavyhanded metaphorical moments. Sci-fi is frequently used as a carrier pigeon for real life situations or struggles, but those books generally at least try to use subtlety. This one did not, and I was expecting more from such a praised author.
Overall, I felt as if this book was both dumbed down and hobbled in an attempt to reach the target audience. Teenagers are young, not stupid; they can handle subtle messages and all the bits of scenes that seem to have been devoured by the void, leaving us to be thrown here and there all willy-nilly. I was excited for this book, and came away extremely disappointed.
(As a side note, I have seen that this is supposed to be comparable to Doctor Who or Star Wars, but in my opinion a more fitting comparison would be Guardians of the Galaxy.)
There were a lot of weird, almost fanfic vibes to some of the story beats, like - why is Tina given full responsibilities with no training after the memory recovery only halfway worked? Why were all of the other untrained teenagers given similar levels of responsibility with, again, almost no training? Unless more time passed than was ever indicated in the book, this makes no sense. (Although I did find myself thinking "it's no wonder the Royal Fleet is in such a raggedy shambles if this is how they do things.")
The villains were all absolutely laughable and I found myself rolling my eyes at their ship names and dialogue more than once. I think half of the Compassion must spend a lot of time on Reddit.
In a similar vein, I noticed a lot of very heavyhanded metaphorical moments. Sci-fi is frequently used as a carrier pigeon for real life situations or struggles, but those books generally at least try to use subtlety. This one did not, and I was expecting more from such a praised author.
Overall, I felt as if this book was both dumbed down and hobbled in an attempt to reach the target audience. Teenagers are young, not stupid; they can handle subtle messages and all the bits of scenes that seem to have been devoured by the void, leaving us to be thrown here and there all willy-nilly. I was excited for this book, and came away extremely disappointed.
(As a side note, I have seen that this is supposed to be comparable to Doctor Who or Star Wars, but in my opinion a more fitting comparison would be Guardians of the Galaxy.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2022
Gosh I really wanted to like this book but while there are things I do like, e.g. creative world building, representation including on a particular introvert character, I just could not bring myself to care about most of the characters and most of all, the plot. It is actually a fast moving space opera, but I got the feeling we might be moving too fast from one planet to another and while there were lots of interesting aliens (one of them had pregnant women as rulers), I found myself a bit at a loss everytime one adventure bout was over. And then the villain, he's just boring. I think Anders put too many characters here, I would prefer a more focused approach like in All The Birds in the Sky.
October 13, 2021
Это было плохо… Очень плохо.
Сначала мне нравилось. Было интересно, динамично и необычно. Я так люблю научную фантастику, но ее сейчас почти не пишут и не издают, поэтому я искренне обрадовалась такой книге, даже несмотря на всю ее чрезмерную «толерастию».
К сожалению, как только Тина попала на корабль, читать это стало невыносимо.
Самая большая проблема книги в том, что она невероятно скучная. Это одна из самых нудных, неинтересных и ужасно написанных книг, что я читала (не беря, конечно, в расчет бессюжетное порно).
Автор пишет откровенно плохо. Она забывает о том, о чем только что говорила. Создав практически новую вселенную с миллионами рас и персонажей, она ничего толком не объясняет, рассчитывая, видимо, на то, что читатель просто будет каждый раз при появлении нового слова или героя лезть в глоссарий в конце (о чем авторы вообще в таких случая думают?)
Развитие сюжета медленное… Очень медленное. Мало того, что оно состоит просто из скучнейших сражений (где-то на середине я перестала вообще вникать в то, что там происходит и кто опять нападает на героев), так еще и отношения прописаны просто отвратительно. Между Тиной и Эльзой (черной девочкой-трансом) нулевая химия (о чем пишут почти все читатели), они в итоге оказываются вместе исключительно потому, что так надо. А уж про то, что они признаются в любви друг другу в тот же день, когда начинают встречаться… Тут даже говорить не о чем.
Персонажи все исключительно фоновые. Они представители всех рас, полов (да, полов тут до и больше) и ориентаций. Также есть персонажи с проблемами в психологическом развитии и люди с лишним весом. Автор решила обнять и приласкать абсолютно всех «меньшинств», видимо, думая, что в современном мире этого вполне достаточно для высокой оценки читателей.
Но оказалось, что нынешнее поколение не совсем потерянно, и исключительно толерантности автора (без нормального сюжета и героев) для книги пока не достаточно.
И, к слову, при всем своем разнообразии персонажи абсолютно фоновые. Мы о них не знаем ничего, кроме того, как их зовут, какого они пола, цвета, ориентации и откуда родом. Это странно и печально для истории, в которой явно предполагалось, что шестеро одиноких и непонятых землян станут не просто командой и друзьями, но настоящей семьей друг для друга.
Диалоги между героями, как и размышления Тины, от чьего лица идет повествование, абсолютно нелогичные и бессмысленные. У меня постоянно возникали следующие мысли: «К чему они это вообще?» и «Это сейчас вообще важно?»
Как я уже говорила, я где-то на середине книги просто перестала вникать в сюжет и происходящее. Мозг отказывался на это реагировать. Полистав отзывы, я поняла, что такое было с большинством читателей. Отсюда и такой низкий рейтинг книги на Goodreads – 3,58. Большинство это не вынесло и даже не дочитало.
Очень обидно, что сейчас, когда научной фантастики среди книг так мало, издают подобное… Разочарование века. Автор не умеет писать, подавать информацию и строить мир… Да и персонажей и отношения прописывать у нее тоже не выходит. Это очень печально. Хотя автор явно старалась.
Итоговая оценка: 4/10
Сначала мне нравилось. Было интересно, динамично и необычно. Я так люблю научную фантастику, но ее сейчас почти не пишут и не издают, поэтому я искренне обрадовалась такой книге, даже несмотря на всю ее чрезмерную «толерастию».
К сожалению, как только Тина попала на корабль, читать это стало невыносимо.
Самая большая проблема книги в том, что она невероятно скучная. Это одна из самых нудных, неинтересных и ужасно написанных книг, что я читала (не беря, конечно, в расчет бессюжетное порно).
Автор пишет откровенно плохо. Она забывает о том, о чем только что говорила. Создав практически новую вселенную с миллионами рас и персонажей, она ничего толком не объясняет, рассчитывая, видимо, на то, что читатель просто будет каждый раз при появлении нового слова или героя лезть в глоссарий в конце (о чем авторы вообще в таких случая думают?)
Развитие сюжета медленное… Очень медленное. Мало того, что оно состоит просто из скучнейших сражений (где-то на середине я перестала вообще вникать в то, что там происходит и кто опять нападает на героев), так еще и отношения прописаны просто отвратительно. Между Тиной и Эльзой (черной девочкой-трансом) нулевая химия (о чем пишут почти все читатели), они в итоге оказываются вместе исключительно потому, что так надо. А уж про то, что они признаются в любви друг другу в тот же день, когда начинают встречаться… Тут даже говорить не о чем.
Персонажи все исключительно фоновые. Они представители всех рас, полов (да, полов тут до и больше) и ориентаций. Также есть персонажи с проблемами в психологическом развитии и люди с лишним весом. Автор решила обнять и приласкать абсолютно всех «меньшинств», видимо, думая, что в современном мире этого вполне достаточно для высокой оценки читателей.
Но оказалось, что нынешнее поколение не совсем потерянно, и исключительно толерантности автора (без нормального сюжета и героев) для книги пока не достаточно.
И, к слову, при всем своем разнообразии персонажи абсолютно фоновые. Мы о них не знаем ничего, кроме того, как их зовут, какого они пола, цвета, ориентации и откуда родом. Это странно и печально для истории, в которой явно предполагалось, что шестеро одиноких и непонятых землян станут не просто командой и друзьями, но настоящей семьей друг для друга.
Диалоги между героями, как и размышления Тины, от чьего лица идет повествование, абсолютно нелогичные и бессмысленные. У меня постоянно возникали следующие мысли: «К чему они это вообще?» и «Это сейчас вообще важно?»
Как я уже говорила, я где-то на середине книги просто перестала вникать в сюжет и происходящее. Мозг отказывался на это реагировать. Полистав отзывы, я поняла, что такое было с большинством читателей. Отсюда и такой низкий рейтинг книги на Goodreads – 3,58. Большинство это не вынесло и даже не дочитало.
Очень обидно, что сейчас, когда научной фантастики среди книг так мало, издают подобное… Разочарование века. Автор не умеет писать, подавать информацию и строить мир… Да и персонажей и отношения прописывать у нее тоже не выходит. Это очень печально. Хотя автор явно старалась.
Итоговая оценка: 4/10
May 14, 2021
Tina is a teenager on Earth whose biggest problems seem to be high school bullies and prejudiced talk show hosts. In reality, she's the reincarnation of an alien race's greatest hero, and the time has finally come for her fulfill her destiny.
Except when her beacon goes off, the alien spaceship that picks Tina up is a bedraggled husk run by a skeleton crew. The war against the symmetry-obsessed Compassion is going badly. Five other young humans join Tina on the HMSS Indomitable, and over time they become a found family.
I absolutely loved parts of this: the world building is SO MUCH fun. There are different greetings depending on the circumstances and who's saying them. There are loads of invented alien races with their own histories, physiologies, and cultures. The ship combat is wild and fast paced. I'm really interested in thinking more about one of the themes of this book, wherein the Royal Fleet promised to protect and help the galaxy but now spends all their efforts and resources fighting the Compassion. I'd love to see more of the Royal Fleet itself; the idea of alternate captain alone is worth an entire book, let alone how all these different alien races work together. I love that the book actually managed to make art save the day--literally Damita's anthropology and puzzles skills, and Rachel's ability to draw, be the keys to the graphic gestural interface .
What I didn't love so much I ascribe to this book not really being for me. It's written with a young adult audience in mind, which is perhaps why a fair amount of its page time is on Tina and her friend's romantic and emotional turmoil, and why the book is so fast-paced that I almost felt annoyed. I wanted to spend so much more page time on so many scenes and planets, and instead we were hurried through them. It does mean that this book is under 300 pages and therefore a pretty quick read, but frankly for me that's not a positive.
Overall, really enjoyed this, really liked Tina, and would LOVE to see more in this series.
Except when her beacon goes off, the alien spaceship that picks Tina up is a bedraggled husk run by a skeleton crew. The war against the symmetry-obsessed Compassion is going badly. Five other young humans join Tina on the HMSS Indomitable, and over time they become a found family.
I absolutely loved parts of this: the world building is SO MUCH fun. There are different greetings depending on the circumstances and who's saying them. There are loads of invented alien races with their own histories, physiologies, and cultures. The ship combat is wild and fast paced. I'm really interested in thinking more about one of the themes of this book, wherein the Royal Fleet promised to protect and help the galaxy but now spends all their efforts and resources fighting the Compassion. I'd love to see more of the Royal Fleet itself; the idea of alternate captain alone is worth an entire book, let alone how all these different alien races work together. I love that the book actually managed to make art save the day--literally Damita's anthropology and puzzles skills, and Rachel's ability to draw, be the keys to the graphic gestural interface .
What I didn't love so much I ascribe to this book not really being for me. It's written with a young adult audience in mind, which is perhaps why a fair amount of its page time is on Tina and her friend's romantic and emotional turmoil, and why the book is so fast-paced that I almost felt annoyed. I wanted to spend so much more page time on so many scenes and planets, and instead we were hurried through them. It does mean that this book is under 300 pages and therefore a pretty quick read, but frankly for me that's not a positive.
Overall, really enjoyed this, really liked Tina, and would LOVE to see more in this series.
May 13, 2021
Tina is the clone of an intergalactic space hero. She's been left on Earth in the care of a human mother. Although she does not fit in, she truly desires to be the hero. Her skirmishes with bullies brings her to her BFF Rachael, an introvert with a heart of gold. When Tina's time comes to serve her mission Rachael goes with her. They are joined by 4 other teenagers from around the world: Damini from Mumbai, Keziah a physicist from Britain, Wang Yiwei a robotics specialist and Elza a hacker from Argentina.
Anders paints a colorful galaxy with a host of different types of creatures. As we are given backgrounds on their planets, the characters introduce themselves giving their names and their pronouns. In this galaxy there seems to be no sexism. I was tickled when we met the aliens with three genders. On their planet every argument has three sides and any war that is entered must have three nations willing to fight (Hence no war). The other interesting concept was that everyone on The indominatble was humanoid. The question was why is this the case? Do humans and other planetary species like us work together for advancement? Or do we destroy evryone and everything that is unfamiliar to us? As with the three gendered planet there are no two sides here.
Victories Greater Than Death was an action packed space odyssey that leaves you hanging over the precipice. Loved the premise behind this book! The characters were freakin awesome! You had action, drama, found family . . . This was a great start to a new series. I stand here with bated breath waiting to see what Anders has in store for us next.
Anders paints a colorful galaxy with a host of different types of creatures. As we are given backgrounds on their planets, the characters introduce themselves giving their names and their pronouns. In this galaxy there seems to be no sexism. I was tickled when we met the aliens with three genders. On their planet every argument has three sides and any war that is entered must have three nations willing to fight (Hence no war). The other interesting concept was that everyone on The indominatble was humanoid. The question was why is this the case? Do humans and other planetary species like us work together for advancement? Or do we destroy evryone and everything that is unfamiliar to us? As with the three gendered planet there are no two sides here.
Victories Greater Than Death was an action packed space odyssey that leaves you hanging over the precipice. Loved the premise behind this book! The characters were freakin awesome! You had action, drama, found family . . . This was a great start to a new series. I stand here with bated breath waiting to see what Anders has in store for us next.
March 21, 2023
Tina has known since she was a kid that her destiny lies beyond Earth. From the outside, she looks like a regular high schooler, someone who loves her friends, has a passionate sense of right and wrong, and never passes by an opportunity to stand up to a bully or a corrupt local business owner. But in her chest is a star beacon which will someday activate and call an alien spaceship to pick her up and return the memories of her previous life. Tina is the clone of a famous and beloved space general from the Royal Fleet and she can't WAIT to get to the business of saving people for real. But when Tina's ship and future come for her, she learns that battles are messy and fighting comes with causalities. This is the first book of a trilogy, which asks the questions: what are acceptable losses when fighting for a greater good? How far will you go to save your friends? How about a girl you just met, but are already half in love with? This series is fairly light in the realism and sci-fi world building departments, and cares about its characters maybe more than its plot, but its delightfully queer, trans, and full of heart.
April 17, 2021
Oohhh this is kind of giving me a (general) sorta Seven of Nine vibe! Sign me the F UPPPP!
May 5, 2021
So excited to read this new YA novel from Charlie Jane Anders. Previously I read her debut,
All the Birds in the Sky
, which I thought was full of fun, quirky writing and good ideas but whose ending didn’t quite gel. Victories Greater Than Death, I was hoping, would deliver the same kind of quirky entertainment but with an overall plot that was more focused and more satisfying. In this sense, it succeeds. However, there are still aspects to this book that didn’t work great for me.
Tina Mains might look like your average human teenager, but she is actually the alien clone of a dead war hero. She was left on Earth as a baby, with a beacon that would activate when the time came for the aliens to reclaim her and restore her progenitor’s memories in a bid to finish a war they didn’t want to start. When this finally happens, Tina is excite: she has been preparing for this her whole life. Yet the reality is, as it always is, so much more complicated and disappointing than the anticipation fantasy. Along with her best friend, Rachel, and a few more brilliant recruits from Earth, Tina finds herself in a strange position on an alien spaceship trying to stop a mad supervillain from genocide. You know, no big deal.
There is a zaniness to this book that reminds me of 1990s science fiction, and I love it. We need more of this. The diversity of alien species reminds me a lot of John Scalzi’s writing (although, as with a lot of science fiction, including Scalzi’s, the exposition required to populate this universe can occasionally get out of hand). Anders approaches her alien societies with a sense of playfulness. One of the things I most appreciated was how the Royal Fleet, despite its name, is not particularly hierarchal. There’s a Captain and an Alternate Captain, but after that, most people have job titles instead of ranks. I think a lot of our modern science fiction is still hungover from the hold that military SF took on the genre after the success of things like Star Trek. Nothing wrong with those series, of course, but I like that Anders deliberately tries to imagine a very different approach to organized, multi-species space travel.
Similarly, another stand-out feature of this book was the inclusion of pronouns. Apparently it’s a function of Anders’ brand of universal translator, which can infer your pronoun—both the standard human ones like she, he, and they, as well as some neopronoun or more alien pronouns like wey. I’ve been a fan of sharing my pronouns since before I realized I was a trans. (Wow, that sounded like such a hipster thing to say, lol.) Seeing this on page was very powerful.
Finally, Anders normalizes consent and asking before touching. Every time a character is upset, other characters ask, “Can I hug you?” before they do so. This is so valuable to see modelled, particularly in a YA book—consent is important, even when your touch is meant to be comforting, because some people are touch-averse or simply don’t want to be touched by you in this moment. Showing young people that it’s ok to decline, and that it’s important to ask, is good.
The characters of Tina and Rachel and their relationship are interesting and one of the best features of the book. I felt Rachel so hard, especially the week that I read this, which was a No Good Very Bad Week indeed. Tina is extroverted and gregarious, whereas Rachel is, like me, an introvert who needs to recharge by herself a lot. The balance in this relationship, the fact that Tina respects Rachel’s boundaries so much, and that the other members of the crew also respect them, is awesome. Again, Rachel helped me see myself in science fiction in a way that isn’t always present on page or screen. Moreover, while Tina has a romantic subplot in the works, her platonic relationship with Rachel is clearly the most important relationship in this book, and I love this!
I liked how Anders avoids making Tina into a Mary Sue who inherits her progenitor’s skills, knowledge, and reputation automatically. Without going into details, let’s just say the cloning process turns out to be … flawed. This leaves Tina struggling to live up to the memory of her progenitor even though she isn’t quite this person. It’s a weird, thorny issue of identity, and I think Anders handles it very well.
The other human characters are less memorable and, while certainly not stereotypical, somewhat one note. Elza might be the exception. Love the casual inclusion of a trans character, of course. The fact that she comes from so much trauma and that it makes it difficult for her to integrate into this new situation is an important distinction from the other humans whom Tina and Rachel recruit. At the same time, however, I wish the book had given Tina and Elza more opportunities to explore this in the depth it demands.
Indeed, my criticism of Victories Greater Than Death is mostly about the plot and pacing. I breezed through this book in just over a day, mostly because I was enjoying it so much, but also because it’s just not that long. I appreciate that we aren’t forced to wait around on Earth very long before we meet the aliens. Nevertheless, the story flies through Tina and Rachel’s acclimation and induction into the Royal Fleet’s conflict with the Compassion. It doesn’t give us much time to digest the magnitude of this conflict. There’s your usual Forerunners who left powerful tech lying around, ancient enemies, all that jazz—as far as science fiction ideas go, things are pretty standard from here on out.
So, I enjoyed Victories Greater Than Death and recommend it to people who like quirky, compassionate science fiction and as a YA novel in general. That being said, there’s still something about Anders’ writing style, about the choices she makes in terms of plot and character, that leaves me a tiny bit unsatisfied.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
Tina Mains might look like your average human teenager, but she is actually the alien clone of a dead war hero. She was left on Earth as a baby, with a beacon that would activate when the time came for the aliens to reclaim her and restore her progenitor’s memories in a bid to finish a war they didn’t want to start. When this finally happens, Tina is excite: she has been preparing for this her whole life. Yet the reality is, as it always is, so much more complicated and disappointing than the anticipation fantasy. Along with her best friend, Rachel, and a few more brilliant recruits from Earth, Tina finds herself in a strange position on an alien spaceship trying to stop a mad supervillain from genocide. You know, no big deal.
There is a zaniness to this book that reminds me of 1990s science fiction, and I love it. We need more of this. The diversity of alien species reminds me a lot of John Scalzi’s writing (although, as with a lot of science fiction, including Scalzi’s, the exposition required to populate this universe can occasionally get out of hand). Anders approaches her alien societies with a sense of playfulness. One of the things I most appreciated was how the Royal Fleet, despite its name, is not particularly hierarchal. There’s a Captain and an Alternate Captain, but after that, most people have job titles instead of ranks. I think a lot of our modern science fiction is still hungover from the hold that military SF took on the genre after the success of things like Star Trek. Nothing wrong with those series, of course, but I like that Anders deliberately tries to imagine a very different approach to organized, multi-species space travel.
Similarly, another stand-out feature of this book was the inclusion of pronouns. Apparently it’s a function of Anders’ brand of universal translator, which can infer your pronoun—both the standard human ones like she, he, and they, as well as some neopronoun or more alien pronouns like wey. I’ve been a fan of sharing my pronouns since before I realized I was a trans. (Wow, that sounded like such a hipster thing to say, lol.) Seeing this on page was very powerful.
Finally, Anders normalizes consent and asking before touching. Every time a character is upset, other characters ask, “Can I hug you?” before they do so. This is so valuable to see modelled, particularly in a YA book—consent is important, even when your touch is meant to be comforting, because some people are touch-averse or simply don’t want to be touched by you in this moment. Showing young people that it’s ok to decline, and that it’s important to ask, is good.
The characters of Tina and Rachel and their relationship are interesting and one of the best features of the book. I felt Rachel so hard, especially the week that I read this, which was a No Good Very Bad Week indeed. Tina is extroverted and gregarious, whereas Rachel is, like me, an introvert who needs to recharge by herself a lot. The balance in this relationship, the fact that Tina respects Rachel’s boundaries so much, and that the other members of the crew also respect them, is awesome. Again, Rachel helped me see myself in science fiction in a way that isn’t always present on page or screen. Moreover, while Tina has a romantic subplot in the works, her platonic relationship with Rachel is clearly the most important relationship in this book, and I love this!
I liked how Anders avoids making Tina into a Mary Sue who inherits her progenitor’s skills, knowledge, and reputation automatically. Without going into details, let’s just say the cloning process turns out to be … flawed. This leaves Tina struggling to live up to the memory of her progenitor even though she isn’t quite this person. It’s a weird, thorny issue of identity, and I think Anders handles it very well.
The other human characters are less memorable and, while certainly not stereotypical, somewhat one note. Elza might be the exception. Love the casual inclusion of a trans character, of course. The fact that she comes from so much trauma and that it makes it difficult for her to integrate into this new situation is an important distinction from the other humans whom Tina and Rachel recruit. At the same time, however, I wish the book had given Tina and Elza more opportunities to explore this in the depth it demands.
Indeed, my criticism of Victories Greater Than Death is mostly about the plot and pacing. I breezed through this book in just over a day, mostly because I was enjoying it so much, but also because it’s just not that long. I appreciate that we aren’t forced to wait around on Earth very long before we meet the aliens. Nevertheless, the story flies through Tina and Rachel’s acclimation and induction into the Royal Fleet’s conflict with the Compassion. It doesn’t give us much time to digest the magnitude of this conflict. There’s your usual Forerunners who left powerful tech lying around, ancient enemies, all that jazz—as far as science fiction ideas go, things are pretty standard from here on out.
So, I enjoyed Victories Greater Than Death and recommend it to people who like quirky, compassionate science fiction and as a YA novel in general. That being said, there’s still something about Anders’ writing style, about the choices she makes in terms of plot and character, that leaves me a tiny bit unsatisfied.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
April 5, 2021
This was such a fun, geeky, queer space opera filled with an amazing sense of found family and adventure! I didn't expect to read this all in one sitting but I couldn't put it down I was having such a great time. Tina is the clone of an amazing alien captain, living on earth so she can grow up hidden from the intergalactic war waging above her. When she's ready, they're going to come for her so she can save the universe (no pressure!). The only thing is, how can she live up to the captain she was created from? Also introducing a hugely diverse found family cast, an adorable romance, and ethical questions surrounding being a hero! If YA sci-fi is your thing I'd definitely recommend giving this a go.
CW: violence, death, mention of transphobia, mention of racism, mention of parental abuse
Thanks to Tor Teen for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
If you enjoy diverse sci-fi you should check out my Blog! You could also follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
CW: violence, death, mention of transphobia, mention of racism, mention of parental abuse
Thanks to Tor Teen for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
If you enjoy diverse sci-fi you should check out my Blog! You could also follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
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