Some Desperate Glory

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.