In what has quickly become one of my top novels of the year, Emily Tesh crafts a unique fantasy world full of violence, intensity, and intrigue in The Incandescent (Tor 2025). In Tesh’s newest novel, which has been compared to fiction by Naomi Novik and Emily Danforth, Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood Academy—a schoolRead More
Not-So-Dark Academia: The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
I was very excited to get an ARC for The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, because Some Desperate Glory was one of my top books of 2023. Magical boarding school is a jump from space dystopia redemption arc, but Emily Tesh continues not to disappoint. The Incandescent is a zippy, fresh perspective of a boarding school story that sucked me from the beginningRead More
A Brutal and Brilliant Space Opera: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! I thought about reviewing Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory on here last month, right after I finished reading it, but I decided against it because I couldn’t figure out how to talk about in any sort of coherent way. My initial Goodreads review was mostly swearingRead More
An Anti-Fascist Queer Space Opera: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is one of the most powerful science fiction books I have ever read. I have not been able to read another book because I keep wondering where the main character Kyr has gone. I look for her in everything. She is such a well-rounded, complicated character (the best kind),Read More
Queerness is a Radical Act: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Bookshop.org Affiliate Link Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is a wild ride of coming of age story, personal growth story, and dystopian sci fi. Gaea Station believes itself to be the last bastion of humanity that hasn’t sold out to aliens since Earth was destroyed. Every resource is carefully allocated and everybody is assigned theirRead More