Name: Briar Rose's review of Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
Item: Victories Greater Than Death
Rating: 2
Author: Briar Rose

Charlie Jane Anders

Outsmart Your Enemies. Outrun the Galaxy. “Just please, remember what I told you. Run. Don’t stop running for anything.” Buckle up your seatbelt for Victories Greater Than Death, a thrilling YA sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders. 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--and everyone in the galaxy is expecting her to actually be the brilliant tactician and legendary savior Captain Thaoh Argentian, but Tina....is just Tina. And the Royal Fleet is losing the war, badly--the starship that found her is on the run and they barely manage to escape Earth with the planet still intact. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she's still determined to save all the worlds. But first she'll have to save herself.

Victories Greater Than Death

Ashley Holstine

From internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) comes Victories Greater Than Death, first in the thrilling adventure Unstoppable series, set against an intergalactic war—Anders’s long-awaited YA debut. THE UNIVERSE IS CALLING—and time is running out. Tina has always known her destiny is outside the norm—after all, she is the human clone of the most brilliant alien commander in all the galaxies (even if the rest of the world is still deciding whether aliens exist). But she is tired of waiting for her life to begin. And then it does—and maybe Tina should have been more prepared. At least she has a crew around her that she can trust—and her best friend at her side. Now, they just have to save the world.

Briar Rose

I really liked All the Birds in the Sky, so I was excited to read Charlie Jane Anders’s YA debut, but unfortunately it ended up being a huge disappointment to me. Everything about it, from the writing style to the dialogue to the character interactions, was strangely childish, far below the actual ages of the characters. The action often jumped around like a drunken grasshopper. Things happened just to happen, without moving the story or character arcs forward. There was plenty of diversity, but it seemed mostly one-dimensional and felt shallow and perfunctory to me, like filling a quota, a la ’80s and ’90s kids’ shows. Definitely won’t be picking up the sequel.

Didi Chanoch

A complete delight from start to finish. This was much lighter than CJA's novels for adults, but just as good.

Katheryn Sowers 

I can't stand this book, it mentioned Fortnite 😭

Ikikik pronouns are important, and I love diversity in books but dear lord, after anyone was introduced it was "my pronoun is she/he/they" and when 3 people are introduced in a very short period of time it gets annoying.
Literally someone's introduction was "hello I'm this person, my pronoun is she and you're all my prisoners"

I don't have a problem with saying people's pronouns, I have a problem with it feeling so incredibly forced. And almost fake. 

The writing was slow and dense and overly specific for some things and not at all specific for things that needed to be.

Idek what it was about , I was so lost the entire time. Almost dnfed but I pushed through and it wasn't worth it guys

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Victories Greater Than Death

Author: Charlie Jane Anders

Book Series: Unstoppable Book 1

Diversity: Pronoun usage, Non binary side character, Plus Size side character, Indian side character, Asian side character, Brazilian transgender side character, Black gay side character, Anxiety rep side character, F/f romance

Rating: 1/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, science fiction

Genre: YA Sci-fi

Publication Date: April 13, 2021

Publisher: Tor Teen

Pages: 288

Recommended Age: 14+ (Child abuse mention TW, Death, Slight sexual content, Gore, Violence)

Explanation of CWs: 1 mention of child abuse in the past. There is lots of violence and death and gore in this book. There is also one scene that's suggestive of sex.

Synopsis: 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.

Review: So while I managed to get through this whole book (and it was a struggle) I hated every moment reading this book past 15%. The book really felt bland and tropey, and when I say tropey I mean the book tries to use a ton of the usual tropes of YA sci-fi but fails to write them and tell them well. The book wasn't anything very unique and there was just so much clutter in the book to go through in order to understand who was who for the aliens and what was going on. The author didn't let the side characters really develop or grow and while I loved that they all were very diverse, the author didn't write their identities into how they interacted with their environment. In fact, all of the characters felt super 1 dimensional and flat. There was too much telling and virtually no showing. The world building was awful. And the book, overall, was just awful and there's better books out there that utilize the same tropes, but they actually work.

Verdict: Not for me but maybe for you!

Ben Nathan

I really enjoyed how this was just fun. So delightful and playful, yet serious at times. I think the fact that it didn't re-explain itself repeatedly was a very welcome thing in the YA-ness of it. Strong Suggest!

Teresa Schultz

I really loved Charlie Jane Anders' All the Birds in the Sky, so I was really hopeful for her first YA book. Alas, it was not nearly as good. It started with a really interesting premise: The memories of a famous commander in an intergalatic war who just died are put into a new child, Tina, who is then sent to hide on Earth while she regrows into an adult. She's spent a large chunk of her life waiting to be picked up by her fellow space comrades while dealing with the indignities of high school life. But when she finally is picked up, it's not at all what she expected, including a spaceship on its last legs. The pacing of the book needed some work - it was so fast that I felt we skipped past a lot of really important things. Like, Tina might have been happy to leave Earth, but she did love her Earth mother. And yet she never really thinks about her mother again once she leaves. Tina also isn't the only human to get picked up, and while the book touches lightly on these characters dealing with the possibility they might never see Earth again, it just seems to get REALLY pushed to the side. And while I appreciated some of the world building in the book (especially the ridiculous number of possible greetings that these fighters use), it seemed kinda skin deep and never really went beneath the surface. There was also so much of it that it just became overwhelming and hard to really care about many of the characters (although I did connect at some level with Tina and her best friend).

I also found myself saying "well that's awfully convenient" A LOT. Like, humans taking to a completely foreign environment like a fish to water. Just, kinda hard to believe.

With that said, it does a great job of normalizing LGBTQ+ characters and relationships, offering a number of characters and circumstances that are just a regular part of the world. There's also lots of action, so if you're in the mood for just a romp, this could be a good book for you. And the story telling did get more interesting in the final third, with a very interesting ending that seems to promise a sequel with potential - but only if Charlie Jane Anders works out some issues.

Jessie G

** spoiler alert **
           I enjoyed this even though I found the plot to be a little underdeveloped. I feel like there was more focus on characters than plot - which isn't necessarily a bad thing but not usually my cup of tea. That being said I did thoroughly enjoy all the characters in the book and the found family elements. I also LOVED the diversity and representation. Also, hell yes for normalizing introducing yourself with your pronouns!

Ashley Holstine &
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

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