Some Desperate Glory

I ended up pretty mixed on this one. At first, I was really bored. The lawful neutral protagonist who can't get a clue in a dystopia that just didn't make any sense. <spoiler>You want the human race to survive by both training women for war and also relegating them to a breeding harem? And you are controlled breeding people but also have sex as much as you want with the concubines but being gay is not ok? I see the inspiration in other controlled societies, but this one seemed like it shouldn't have lasted 2 years, especially with a leader as lacking in charisma or skills as Jole. </spoiler>

It feels like the message of the book is a good one, but for me that message superseded the actual writing, and made the story as a whole fall a bit flat for me. It still won the Hugo, and while it wouldn't have been my pick, I see why it got the nomination. The aliens are good, the plot once you're off of Gaea station is intriuging, and the pace is sharp. As a rule though, I just kept coming back to the fact that I didn't really enjoy spending time with any of the characters, and that this was one of the dumber dystopias out there, built more to highlight reality's flaws than because it makes sense for the world-building.

So yeah, I'm going with 4 stars because it was better than a lot of things I give three stars, but overall kind of meh.