Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders

I would like to thank Titan Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Titan

Published – Out Now

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.68 Kindle eBook

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 is still determined to save all the worlds. But first she'll have to save herself.

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.