In her acknowledgments, Tesh cites novelist Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) as an important influence. Tesh and Le Guin both write “social science fiction” (438). Le Guin is known for writing science fiction that explores real-world social problems, and this is reflected in Tesh’s character Ursula Marston, whose fictional book Earth’s Children: Humanity After the End of the World considers the war-like nature of humans and what it would take to achieve peace. Tesh is also interested in characters outside of the gender binary, such as Yiso. Some inspiration for this can be seen in Le Guin’s novel The Left Hand of Darkness. In this novel, individual members of an alien species are both male and female at different times in their lives. Many of Le Guin’s novels, including The Dispossessed and The Word for World Is Forest have anti-war messaging like Some Desperate Glory.

Tesh also cites British fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) as a major influence. Avi’s simulation of a clifftop garden is a deep-space version of Minas Tirith, the fortress capital of the Realm of Men in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Avi also creates orcs for Kyr to fight in a simulation, stating that they are from a book. The found family of Kyr, Avi, Yiso, Mags, and Cleo in Some Desperate Glory also reflects the interspecies group from the Fellowship of the Ring.

A clear predecessor to Some Desperate Glory is Lois McMaster Bujold’s space-opera series starring Miles Vorkosigan. Bujold contrasts two worlds: the war-like and military-centered Barrayar and the liberal and peace-loving Beta Colony. These can be compared to Tesh’s settings of Gaea Station and Chrysothemis. Furthermore, Miles is known for being rebellious, as Kyr turns out to be; they both arrange escapes and are frenzied leaders. Bujold, writing in a male-dominated genre in the 1980s, paved the way for Tesh and other women writing space operas.

Another predecessor to Tesh is Tamsyn Muir. Muir writes sapphic science-fiction characters, including Gideon from Gideon the Ninth. Gideon and Harrowhark’s relationship can be compared to Val and Lisa’s relationship, which appears in another universe as the unrequited love between Kyr and Lisabel. Furthermore, Gideon is a large fighter, like Kyr, and both characters are led to believe that they are fighting for a nobler cause than they truly are. Harrow the Ninth, Muir’s sequel to Gideon, parallels the cult of personality in Some Desperate Glory and explores similar possibilities for imaginative resistance. Like Kyr, Harrow engages with a variety of alternative scenarios, including ones in which she can have fulfilling LGBTQ+ relationships through both trauma-driven fantasy and magical alterations to her memories.

Other LGBTQ+ science-fiction novels include The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. It also features multiple universes, like Some Desperate Glory. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki is thematically similar to Some Desperate Glory in its exploration of LGBTQ+ identity and found family. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine features excerpts from fictional documents that help the readers understand the world, like Some Desperate Glory.