I really enjoyed the beginning of this but I somehow got a little lost along the way. But if you enjoy an interesting and unique premise Anders always delivers.

This book follows Tina and she’s a clone of a famed alien hero, who has a beacon planted in her chest that will one day go off signalling the time she will start her new life and adventure among the stars.

This is a cool quirky novel, and was a fun read but did lack the character development and depth I was hoping for. Nevertheless I think a lot of people are going to love this and I’ll be recommending it a lot.

"Victories Greater Than Death" by Charlie Jane Anders is a heartwarming and thrilling YA sci-fi novel that will leave you eager for more. In the story, Tina, a teenage girl, discovers that she is not from Earth but is instead a clone of a famous alien warrior. She sets out on a journey to space to join her fellow clones in protecting the galaxy from an impending danger.

Anders' writing style is engaging and humorous, with a remarkable sense of character and world-building. The plot is skillfully woven with themes of identity, friendship, and belonging, creating a story that is both emotionally resonant and exciting. The diverse cast of characters in the book brings a great depth and nuance to the story, and the representation of LGBTQ+ characters is well executed. This book is a must-read for anyone who loves YA sci-fi and is looking for an uplifting and enjoyable adventure.

This just really wasn't for me. I love Charlie Jane Anders other books but I missed the complexities of her adult writing. This is probably a fantastic novel, I was just not the target audience.

Dnf @ chapter 28. Everything about this book is such that I should love it! The cast is diverse, I like all the characters, and I really like the the way that gender is handled in here. I heard Anders talk in a podcast a few months ago about a plot point that comes later on in the book that I was genuinely really looking forward to! But, and I can’t even explain it, it just feels like there’s something missing and reading it isn’t fun enough anymore to justify continuing :(

DNF @ 30%

I tried with this one. I am a huge sci-fi fan, and this book just sounded so AMAZING. The premise intrigued me, but alas it fell flat. My biggest problem with this book is the tone. Honestly, it feels like this is meant for a fourth-grader. Which is weird since it's a teen book. It's almost like the author felt she had to dumb things down and infantilise her characters because they were younger. I also found Tina to be a combination of the chosen one and a mary sue. I didn't like her or Rachel at all, and I just couldn't continue reading.

Unfortunately, this book is not for me.

Charlie Jane Anders is great at giving us fun SF with thoughtful characters and interesting aliens - this is a cliche free zone, even in the framework of a Chosen One Gonna Save The Universe story.
Sometimes I wished there was less going on, and more time spent on showing emotional reactions to what happened. It isn't a perfect read, but I like what CJA does enough to always try out their stuff, and this hasn't changed that.

An interesting, sci-fi space opera that is sure to keep the reader engaged. It has a diverse cast of characters and a plot that kicks off right from the very first page. This one is perfect for fans of all the sci-fi greats - Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars. Thoroughly enjoyed how much effort went into the world building in this one, especially given the scope of the world. Definitely one I will be buying in for our library.

I had a great time reading this YA sci-fi novel that’s focused on Tina, an alien clone, who has lived on earth for the longest time of her life – but now she, “the chosen one”, has to fight other evil aliens, who want to kill her in order to, well, do some bad things to the universe - of course, Tina has a cool space crew, gets to visit interesting new planets and a little love story on the side isn’t missing either.

I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, but when I do, it’s usually pretty good – just like this one. Yes, I was confused a lot of times by unknown worlds, new species and planets, but I guess that’s part of the deal. And the deal is good.

Tina did some questionable choices, but who wouldn’t? It’s her first time trying to save the universe and naturally, things can’t be easy – otherwise this wouldn’t be that much fun to read, right?

On top of all the cool space battles, I fell in love with quite a few of the characters (Elza was my favourite!). There’s fat rep, non-binary, trans and more queer rep, Black rep and much more. What I thought was really nice was that all aliens introduced themselves with their pronouns (or lack of those) – it might seem strange at first, but isn’t that kind of the goal we have here on earth too? At least, then people wouldn't assume another person’s pronouns!


Thank you Netgalley for the digital arc.

I was so excited to request this book. I love everything sci-fi, and this book did not disappoint.

This story had it all: humans, aliens, and battles. I certainly loved the diversity of the characters. I loved how each character introduced themselves by name followed by their preferred pronoun. It really puts into perspective how different we all are, and how much we should respect people for who they are.

There were lots of battle scenes which made the story so action-packed, which led to an exciting pace. It also gave way to the world building, and how much detail the author put into the story. The descriptions of each planet, and the detail of the politics and such was brilliant, and extremely interesting.

I can’t wait for the next book!

A massive thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for this review copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with an ARC of Victories Greater Than Death in exchange for my honest thoughts!

I'll admit that it took me a while to get into this book, but when it finally picked up the pace for me, I had fun reading it. At the beginning, I felt that both the characters and plot seemed a little juvenile - which is probably because it was intended for a much younger target demographic - but as time went on, the characters, for the most part, grew on me, and the story really unfolded nicely!
I think this book really shines when it comes to personal connections and character diversity. I adored seeing this bunch of weird kids make their way in space, learning that the things that made them different back on earth made them stand out and fit in in this different setting.
I'll admit that the plot gets pretty dark later on and touches on some really serious issues, which is something I greatly enjoy in fiction. I'm very intrigued to see where the story will go, with the way it was set up in book 1!

I'd definitely recommend this book for younger readers who are looking for an intro to Sci-Fi with lovable characters from all different backgrounds, where everyone can carve out a place for and be true to themselves.

I liked getting thrown right into the story. The action is definitely there from the start and the continues to have a big part of the plot. There were quieter moments in between, though, moments that focused on showing the different characters and their interests and their relationships with each other. I liked the mix of action and character & world building.

I also loved how wonderfully, unapologetically queer this book was. Throughout the story, we meet many different alien species and all of them have a different approach to gender and sexuality and you know what? I am here for that. It was so nice to see more than two genders, different ways of sex and exploring sexuality and everyone just accepting it? That was so amazing and refreshing! Especially because everyone introduced themselves with their pronouns. Even when it was an exchange with the enemy it was always „I’m xy and my pronouns are xy“ and that was so good to see. It was normal through the whole universe and I really wish it was like that here as well.

I also really enjoyed the cast of characters, all their little quirks and their interests, but also their problems and insecurities and their hopes. While the cast is quite big, each character is well characterized. Of course not everyone equally, that is impossible for so many characters but just enough to not make the characters fall flat.

I can’t even pinpoint what my problem with Victories Greater than Death was. Especially towards the end, I enjoyed it so much. But I never could get entirely warm up to the story as a whole. I strongly believe this is a case of „the right book at the wrong time“ so I will definitely reread it.

I strongly recommend this amazingly queer book, especially if you like space, spaceships and cool group dynamics!

Overall, this book had so much potential! The diversity and representation was incredible and without a doubt my favourite thing. But it ended up just being too clever for its own good.

Sadly, this book went downhill quickly... I've broken this review into two sections because I have very different opinions on the first 25% compared to the second. I actually gave up on this book just after halfway through.

0-25%: This had a truly brilliant start! The premise fascinated me, and I loved the writing style. Quite a few characters were introduced all at the same time, and it was difficult to keep track of them all. The world-building was extremely heavy, but I really enjoyed learning about it all. I also loved the way the information was told, it was all very clever.

25-50%: I was very lost during this part of the book. It was certainly action packed, but I'm not sure that was for the better. Everything felt rushed, and the pacing was a mess. Most of the time I was confused at what was going on. There's so much detail to every part of this book, but still it managed to not really make sense...

I might try this book again in the future because I really loved the group of main characters and the way the world was described. But the plot was too much of a mess and sadly it spoilt the entire book.

Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

This is Charlie’s debut into the young adult world. It is a science fiction novel with influences from Star Wars and Doctor Who, which immediately reeled me in. I am a sucker for Star Wars. This novel started slow, but built momentum as it progressed, by the end I was absolutely riveted. The characters were what made it for me, they were really likeable, and I loved the way Charlie allowed the characters time for growth. Although I loved Tina, the main character, I had a particular love for Rachael and Elza. They were hugely loveable and interesting in the way they had so much depth. I definitely recommend this book to all readers that love YA sci-fi.

Which science fiction fan hasn’t wanted to go into space? Be it the Enterprise, The TARDIS or an X-Wing - space as we know is cool. But the journey is also important for us to face adventures and also who we really are. In Charlie Jane Ander’s refreshing new YA space opera Victories Greater Than Death we find a galaxy at war and a young teenager that finds herself at the forefront of the fightback pulling together a small group of talented nerdy humans to save everyone.

Tina has flunked Driver’s Ed yet again; her best friend Rachael has had to leave school due to bullies and despite that they are about to protest against an online commentor who promotes sexism. But Tina has for many years known she is not quite human. Her mother was asked by an alien to guard her as an infant as she is the clone of a great warrior. Just as the protests begin Tina starts broadcasting a signal that not only attracts her former employer The Royal Fleet but also their deadly rivals The Compassion. A shoot out on Earth leads to Tina and Rachael arriving on board the HMSS Indomitable and confirming that she is the clone of the legendary Captain Thoah Argentian but the process has left her with no personal memories of her old safe just the facts of the new galaxy they are in - being nicknamed Space Wikipedia by her friends is accurate. Tina, Rachael and a small group of smart geeks and nerds get recruited via online games to help save the universe and discover what led to Captain Argentian’s death.

This was an exhilarating and fantastic piece of science fiction. The weirdness and humanity of Doctor Who gets mixed with the set-up of Star Wars and Star Trek combined with a clear twenty first century perspective. The universe the story takes place in is absolutely fascinating with the Fleet not being the cutting-edge technology they have been but often slow and short of budgets that have allowed the Compassion to take hold. The Compassion are zealots now fixated on making the universe only fit for humanoid species and happy to destroy anyone that doesn’t match the ideal. Anders throws in a huge assortment of aliens for us to enjoy from kind aliens with skulls, engineers who can explode when they lose their temper and an alien race that needs three sides before they will commence a war. It is beautifully alien and a culture shock for our humans, but we also see there are small joys of progression – everyone gives their pronouns when introducing themselves; a ship has two Captains to help reach a consensus in times of stress and the Fleet is very keen to help people find their true careers. Alongside this Anders also notes that these two quasi military groups have now been so focused on their own war they are ignoring a huge amount, of species in need of galactic help with issues such as climate change and poverty. I love the subtle political points being made as the story progresses. What other groups call themselves compassionate I ponder.

Into this sweetshop of joy comes the human Earthlings led by Tina and Rachael. And this is a geeky cast I think readers are going to love meeting. Tina is our narrator, and the story puts her centre stage with someone who is a young teenager who knows she isn’t the legend everyone was hoping for and yet wants to do her best to help everyone. Very quickly we see someone happy to risk her life to save others and yet also fight the despair that isn’t yet skilled or knowledgeable to take up being a captain again. Rachael is her counterpoint - introverted, artistic, and able to pull a team together but she has to battle the introverts’ dreaded fear running out of energy working with so many people. We get a wider cast quickly introduced from the adrenaline fuelled Damini who becomes a pilot, the technology obsessed Yiwei getting over a bad break-up; science loving Keziah and my favourite the smart mouthed hacker Elza. The latter is a glorious character who challenges Tina’s rosy view of the fleet and yet there are sparks between this trans character and Tina that make you really hope they both learn to discuss their feelings. Anders does a brilliant job of giving each character a separate voice and task to help the plot move along but with some joyous snark and banter to enjoy too.

Lastly, I need to highlight the frenetic energy this space opera has. Although there are character moments expect land battles, spaceships duelling to the death and dramatic rescues and dangers to face. This galaxy is not safe, and The Compassion is not stupid in charge is the person who killed Tina’s old body Marrant a person obsessed with making himself the perfect human and who has created the ability to turn anyone into a puddle of organic materials. When you see what else they can do then you will hate them even more (It’s a brilliant yet horrible idea!)! Importantly though this story has consequences and seeing characters we like die gives it a dramatic tension. But alongside this standard battle of two forces, we start to gain a glimpse of a bigger galactic battle and even more powerful forces that I suspect we will see more of in future volumes.

This is a brilliant story that once I started, I could not stop reading. It is science fiction to make the pulse race; the head think and the heart feel. I certainly think it’s some of the best lines talking about rebellion, love and being human I’ve read in a while and I think may be my favourite of Anders stories to date. Lovers of creative space opera should queue up for this now – I think everyone should give this a try! You will have a lot of fun and as a famous Doctor once said The Trip of a Lifetime.

Before I start, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It always hurts to read a book that I just didn't enjoy and then review it. I know that someone, in this case Ms Anders, has put their blood, sweat and tears into writing a book. I know I couldn't do it. But I also know that this just was not for me.

Tina is the clone of a spaceship captain, hidden on Earth as a teenage girl. Until she isn't hidden and is on a spaceship and... there are some other teenage characters and there is a big bad and, yeah.

Maybe I was not the right audience for it but I found the book vaguely saccharine and then NOT AT ALL in other places. I found the romance incredibly forced and the friendship between Tina and Rachel was lovely but it just made no sense in the long run, like Tina kept forgetting who she was? IT also got very 'Shakespeare-writing-a-tragedy' at the end, and by that I mean, there were characters left, until there weren't.
Also she abandoned her mum without so much as a by your leave because she was chasing some dream that didn't quite come off...? I was weirdly more interested in Tina being on Earth too than the ship.

It took me a long time to get started and then, it took a long time to finish.

So sorry, I'm not sure I'll be reaching for this again - maybe it is someone's cup of tea and I hope they really enjoy it, but that person is not me.

VICTORIES GREATER THAN DEATH is an action-packed space adventure with a diverse cast of characters. It’s pure fun and the action scenes are so well written. Perfect for fans of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, it features a hugely varied number of aliens with snippets of information about each species. I loved meeting all the different aliens and growing attached to them.

Aboard the spaceship are six Earthlings, with Tina being the main character and clone of a deceased famous fighter. Alongside Tina, we have my favourite character Rachael, an introverted artist, Damini, adrenaline junkie and puzzle solver, Yiwei, into music and robotics, Keziah, a genius physicist, and Elza, a snarky hacker. I always love the found-family trope and their bond didn’t disappoint.

The novel explores destiny versus forging your own path, as well as the oppression and genocide of a number of species and cultures. I found the villain Marrant to be a little flat and would have appreciated his character being fleshed out more so I could understand his motives. The story ends with an even larger threat looming and sets the scene for book two.

If you’re looking for pure escapism then you can’t go wrong with this space adventure. It’s perfect for all the sci-fi nerds who’ll appreciate its vast world-building and diversity of alien life.

This book was off to a very strong start for me. It initially reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy, with the alien dropped off on earth plotline, and it introduced a fun cast of characters. Later on though, it fizzled out for me a little. It was an enjoyable adventure, but there wasn't enough character depth and development for me to really stay engaged in it.

This was such an incredibly fun book to read. Take Charlie Jane Anders’ smart science fiction for adults, cross it with the ridiculousness of Doctor Who and add a good pinch of queer found family. I loved the cast of human teen misfits being drafted aboard a space ship to try and save the galaxy, led by Tina, a legendary general reborn. It’s hard to pick favourites – Tina, slowly getting memory back from her past life and turning into a huge purple alien, Rachael, the ‘ordinary friend’ who has to deal with anxiety on top of being in space, or Elza, Brazilian badass with bonding issues, among others. I just want to hug them all and reassure them.

This book is full of diversity, both on surface level, but also deeper down. Rachael’s issues with anxiety are described with nuance and resonated a lot with me. Most characters introduce themselves with their pronouns immediately, and many choose to use neopronouns. Victories Greater Than Death has queerness in its bones, and I love it. I also really appreciated how, in her acknowledgements, Charlie Jane mentions multiple sensitivity readers for different aspects of the book. It shows the care and effort that she put into this.

All of this is packaged in a big-scale space adventure, both thrilling and fun. And yes, the teens are more skilled and powerful than they have any right to be, but it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the story. The enemy operates with a weapon that changes the perception of its victims in the eyes of their friends and allies, and if that’s not scary I don’t know what is. It’s brilliant escapism, think Firefly-style shenanigans but with a misfit gang of teens. Read it.

4.5 Stars

This is such a fun book! Such a fast-paced romp across space that just sweeps you the galaxy with a rag-tag found family. The writing style is really engaging. I particularly loved the various call and response greetings of the Royal fleet, they had a real humour and slight pragmatism to them that I really enjoyed. There was a real license to be creative with the universe and I think Anders really built something fun, exciting and beautiful.

While the main character's ARC is a little lack lustre, essentially boiling down to learning not to try am please everyone's inflated expectations of you, the side arc, universe building and relationships within the book were really entertaining. I loved the normalization of asking to physically interact with another being that wasn't seen as 'alien' but also perpetuated by the human characters too. I love a good found family and this one is just filled with such awesome characters. There is a subtly to the diversity, which is beautiful. The diversity of characters is there all the humans from different countries, ethnic backgrounds, sexualities, neurodiversity, all communicating in there own languages relying on translators (that don't always work -due to slang) to communicate. Then you have the Alien species which run wild in descriptions of all kinds. Yet it doesn't feel forced or like a tick box exercise that some YA books can feel like. These characters have dimension to them and the collection of them into this crowd feels natural.

The book itself can get a little info-dumpy with its worldbuilding which is a little disappointing as at times it turns the main character, and narrator, into a bit of a walking talking Wikipedia (which the book even jokes about), but that worldbuilding is interesting, creative and relevant to the story. So while a little off putting at times can be forgiven once you are immersed in the story.

This is a light and bubbly, feel-good space opera that just leave you with that fuzzy warm feeling of reading a fun adventure. Its about finding yourself, finding a place to belong and owning who you are, all while defeating evil space villains on a tin can of a space ship. Its really fun. I will definitely continue with this series.

Victories Greater Than Death is a science fiction story that embraces the weirder and more outlandish areas of the genre, a book that isn't afraid to throw readers into huge interplanetary conflict between dozens of species with little to no context, and allows the fast moving pace to sweep you up into things.

The story is centred on Tina, a teenage girl who has grown up knowing a huge secret, that aliens are real, and she's one of them. Tina has been raised with the knowledge that she's the clone of an important captain from some huge interstellar alliance, and that one day something inside her is going to activate and call the aliens down to take her away. Despite this, Tina seems to have grown into a pretty well rounded and adjusted young woman. She doesn't have many friends, but one few she does have she cares for deeply, and she's always driven to try and do good and call out injustice where she sees it.

Instead of having fears of being an impostor, or worrying that her life is just some kind of cover for another person she's looking forward to eventually being taken off into space, and the first few chapters deal with her trying to get the beacon inside her to activate. Once it does, however, she finds herself being swept up in an adventure she never anticipated.

Much like Tina, the readers are dropped into things with very little knowledge, and are having to play a little bit of catch up to begin with. We learn that there is a peacekeeping group, the Royal Fleet, and that Tina is a part of this, thanks to the woman she was cloned from being a captain in it. Unfortunately, there are bad guys out there too. The Compassion are a group of former Royal Fleet members and various villains who've come together to impose their twisted order on the galaxy.

When the Royal Fleet picks up Tina, and her best friend Rachel, she expects Captain Argentian's memories to be unlocked, but things don't go according to plan and Tina gains access to some information but no memories, making her a walking space Wiki. Now she's stuck in the middle of a war where she's struggling to catch up. To try and help out the Royal Fleet recruits a handful of the best and brightest teens from Earth before they have to leave the planet and set out on their mission to stop the Compassion, leaving Tina and her new friends joining the fight as cadets.

Victories Greater Than Death has a lot of cool stuff going on, and there's a lot to discover over the course of this book. Charlie Jane Anders really populated this galaxy, and there are dozens of strange aliens to encounter. Some, like those of the species Tina belongs to, are very human-like, whilst others are odd and interesting humanoids, and others are so different and so alien that they're almost impossible to describe.

Whilst I had a lot of fun discovering much of this there is a lot thrown at the readers, and we get alien names, alien species, alien food, the names of planets, and alien greetings that differ every time and have very specific meanings and responses. This led to me feeling a bit lost at times, and there was more than one occasion where I'd wished I'd made notes of who characters were as I got them confused every now and then. I'd definitely be making a spreadsheet the next time I read through this.

Despite this small issue, the book was really entertaining, and had a lot of very cool things going for it. The aliens that Anders comes up with, and their respective worlds, are all really fascinating, and I always wanted to learn more about everything the characters came across. Not only that, but the human characters were a really interesting an varied group too. There were people of colour, queer people, trans people, people from rich backgrounds and poor ones, people who'd been victims of bullying and abuse. The six human characters (if you count Tina) were a great cross section of diversity and experience, and whilst I'm sure there'll be people complaining about the amount of diversity it was something that I thought made the book a much more enjoyable read.

The book's been described as a Young Adult book, and whilst I can certainly see where that's true I thought the type of YA audience it was being aimed at seemed to vary from time to time. There were moments where the book felt like it was aimed at a younger audience, possibly even getting close to being a Middle Grade book, whilst there were other times it dealt with some quite adult themes. As such, I think it's one of those YA books that's going to appeal to a lot of different people, and will find a wide audience.

Victories Greater Than Death is a big space opera, a book that takes big, wild concepts and allows them to play out, not necessarily worrying that the audience is going to keep up. It moves with a brisk pace and goes to some interesting and intense places. A book that will definitely appeal to sci-fi fans, but wider audiences too. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next book has in store.