Books and Links

[wolffyluna]

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

It's this year's Hugo Best Novel! It's also written by the person who is why Nirvana in Fire and the Silmarillion's orphan_account fic is weirdly good!

After Earth is destroyed in an alien invasion, the last few true patriots mutiny and take ships to an uninhabited system, to build a new society to avenge the Earth. Kyr grew up on Gaea Station as one of the best of her mess, and she is ready to do what ever it takes to serve Gaea Station.

..Kyr learns just how wrong she is.

The book is about patriarchy and child abuse and generational trauma and the sort of society's abusers set up, and, most importantly, Why Sparta Sucks So Bad and Do Not Build The Laconic Torment Nexus.

It's really good, and it's also best to go into it with as few spoilers as possible, other than "it contains all the content warnings."

...but I can't resist talking about the ending.

Man, in some ways it's a little cheap, but I love how in the ending, everyone* is saved. Because part of the message of the story, the thing that Kyr learns is that no, no one isn't worth it. You are not worthy because you are strong or good at things. You are not worthy because your hands are clean. You are not worthy because your friends/family decide you are. Just this once, everyone is saved, every crying toddler and pregnant woman and war criminal*.

And I also love the way solidarity between women is salvific. They only get out with help from Lin (part of the old guard, works in Systems, which is simply not as Cool as being a warrior) and Sif (literally in charge of the pregnant women and children, and yeah, it turns out being good at child wrangling is an important skill.)

It's aggressive equality as a salvific force! Just this once, I want death before dishonour

out! out! the sparrow is out!

This book made me cry at the end and so few books do that.

Links

I have decided to have themed links this time, namely, I'm going to share all the Wyll fan songs I have been listening to on loop.

• Ballad of the Blade by Eldritch Phoenix
• Blade of Frontiers by Jonathan Young
• and my personal favourite, A Patriar's Born But A Hero's Made by Lyv.