Some Desperate Glory cover art

Some Desperate Glory

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Some Desperate Glory

By: Emily Tesh
Narrated by: Sena Bryer
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

'Masterful, audacious storytelling'
Tamsyn Muir, New York Times-bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth

'An outstanding novel . . . one of the debuts of the year' Locus

'Deserves a space on shelves alongside genre titans like Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler'
Publishers Weekly

A thrillingly told space opera about the wreckage of war, the family you find, and the path you must forge when every choice is stripped from you. Some Desperate Glory is the highly anticipated debut novel from Astounding Award and World Fantasy Award-Winner, Emily Tesh.

All her life, Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the destruction of planet Earth. Raised on Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet.

Then Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons, and she knows she must take humanity's revenge into her own hands. Alongside her brother's brilliant but seditious friend and a lonely, captive alien, Kyr must escape from everything she's ever known. If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined

'A profoundly humane and brilliantly constructed space opera that will have you cheering, swearing, laughing, and ugly-crying. It's perfect' Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of The Once and Future Witches

'This book is astoundingly good. An explosive and extraordinary story that I couldn't stop reading and will never forget' Everina Maxwell, author of Winter's Orbit

2024, Arthur C Clarke Awards, Short-listed

2024, Hugo Award Best Novel category, Short-listed

©2023 Emily Tesh (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK
Adventure Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Time Travel Space Revenge
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Valhalla Station (A Space Opera Noir Technothriller) cover art
All Systems Red cover art
The Spare Man cover art
Warlord Born cover art
The Conquered World: Complete Saga cover art
The Outliers Saga: Books 1-3 cover art
Valerie’s Elites: Age of Expansion cover art
Ninefox Gambit cover art
The Never Hero cover art
Deathstalker Legacy cover art
Viceroy's Pride Omnibus: Books 1-3 cover art
Secondborn cover art
Deathstalker cover art
Gunmetal Gods cover art
Shadow of the Conqueror cover art
Guns of the Dawn cover art

What listeners say about Some Desperate Glory

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    55
  • 4 Stars
    25
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    47
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant story brought to life by the narrator.

I couldn’t stop listening, a worthy winner of the Hugo award and rightly sits alongside the greats of Sci fi.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Listen to the audio sample first

This was an enjoyable book but I did not like the narration - I found the way she emphasised words/shaped sentences irritating. Listen before you buy to save yourself potential annoyance.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Refreshingly unique take on military space opera

I loved this story, the narrator was excellent too. The main character developed through their experience in the story and the other characters were complex rather than simple "goodies" and "badies".

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The awful narrator

I’m going to finish this as it’s promising BUT the narration is awful. Like an AI.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Clever world and some good characters

This starts poorly, but improves.

It has a long story to tell, and it has a chance to go off the rails, and yet it is all kept well under control. The final ending feels like a good conclusion even if it is not what you might expect or want.

I liked the twisty timelines.

The personality of Kyr is deliberate. It wont always be like that. Some good growth etc.

A few minor, but good, twists in there as well.

Overall, this one is worth it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Different

I liked it but it didn't captivate me. I kept finding my mind wandering. There were times when I felt the narration didn't suit me and I may have been happier doing the reading myself. It's a good story and I'm not sure why I didn't feel more engaged.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Story in 3 parts

Always like to read the winner of the Hugo awards best novel. This is a great novel and I had read some of the other nominations… and this was far the best of the ones I read.
It’s in three parts…. Really liked parts 1 &2 but third wasn’t quite so good which took it down to 4 stars for me.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely Phenomenal

I'm one of those hopeless reviewers who always leave 5 stars if they enjoyed a book, but if I could leave 6 I would for this one.

The performance was obviously done with a lot of care and appreciation for the book itself so I want to start off by applauding Sena Bryer for that - they clearly have a fantastic range.

The setting is brilliant - Emily Tesh clearly did her research when it came to radicalisation and fascist society and it really shows. I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but I definitely enjoyed and felt the reality of the world and galaxy she created.

The characters are another point where I think Some Desperate Glory stood out - without delving into spoilers the book offers multiple perspectives that allowed them the flourish and develop in ways that I always felt sci fi sometimes struggles with.

Loved the book, loved the narration, loved the characters

6/6 stars

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Shout out to queer space operas gotta be one of my favourite genres

Whewwwwww this book is so great and great narration too! If you love problematic queers going through the horrors of the worst of humanity (and I guess beyond humanity) but also love a laugh and the good ok found family trope (yeah) then gwan gewl.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

mildly entertaining but shallow

world building and depth were very shallow. some concepts were interesting but the characters and story lacked sufficient development and realism. i would say its suitable for a young adult reader in schooling age like harry potter or mazerunner. very relatable to a young adult

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful