★★★★☆ Conventional, but GOOD conventional

Some Desperate Glory

Emily Tesh

Conventional, but GOOD conventional

I picked up Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory because it is a finalist for the 2024 Best Novel Hugo. I am honestly a bit puzzled why. Don't misunderstand me -- it's good, and I am glad that I was induced to read it by the Hugo nomination. However, I usually expect award nominees to be standouts, by which I mean something new and different. Some Desperate Glory is not that. It felt very Golden Age space opera to me. This was a novel that John W. Campbell Jr. would have felt right at home with (except for the queer representation, which was not something a science fiction author could get away with in the 1930s).

The title comes from Wilfred Owen's brutal "Dulce et Decorum Est". Although familiar with the poem, I had forgotten the last few lines

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

In fact, as I read it I was reminded more of Dar Williams brilliant song "I am the One Who Will Remember Everything".

At the 67% mark I noted to myself, "This seems very conventional. I hope Tesh has some mighty big rabbits to pull out of her hat in the remaining third." Well, she did produce some bunnies, but they were nothing remarkable. The last third is a familiar "Can we try that again?" multiverse story, which has been a staple of science fiction at least since Isaac Asimov's What If— Now, I do want to add that it's very well done. I enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed the Avi character and wished we could have had more insight into what made him tick.

In summary, Some Desperate Glory is a well-executed space opera, whose Hugo nomination surprises me.

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