Helpful Score: 1
I got an audiobook copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was eager to read this book, I haven't read much YA sci-fi and was curious to see how it was. It was an okay book, decently-written but flawed in a number of ways.
The audiobook itself was very well done. There are two voice actors one for the girl and one for the boy. They both did an excellent job reading and actually added a lot to the story.
Waverly and Kieran are the two oldest teens in their generation aboard the Empyrean. The Empyrean is one of two large ships that left Earth on a generations long journey to terra-form New Earth. When the Empyrean comes up behind the other ship, The New Horizon, they know something is wrong. When they are attacked by the New Horizon things begin to fall apart. Waverly and Kieran are both put in separate challenging situations that will take all of their wits to survive. The book is broken into multiple parts and the parts alternate between Waverly and Kieran.
The premise behind this book is interesting and the characters are well done. Waverly, Kieran, and Seth are all realistic characters that are easy to relate to. The book is also very well written, things are described in such a way that they really come alive for the reader. The tension is built in such a way that you are just holding your breath waiting for the next terrible thing that will happen to these characters.
The main thing I didn't like about the book was the premise and story itself. There is absolutely nothing positive in this book; the characters go from one dreadful situation to another with no glimpse of hope. So I basically found it an incredibly depressing read. Then of course there is a little teenage love triangle drama going on as well which I am not all that fond of.
This is a read for older teens. There are a number of incredibly disturbing things that happen in this story. They were hard for me to read about and process, so I can't imagine younger readers dealing with them. While that makes the story interesting food for thought, it also gave me a yucky, slimy feeling for the whole book. Some of the disturbing things encountered are rape, forced drugging of kids, forced surgeries on kids, violent beatings, mindwashing of young kids, torture, and very graphic descriptions of both violent and surgerical situations. There were some surgical things that happened in this book that seriously made my knees weak while reading about them. As a result I kind of cringed everytime I picked this book up to read it, wondering what horrible thing I would have to read about next.
There is also a heavy religious overtone to this book. You have to read a number of sermons. There is much speculation on religion used to bring hope versus religion used in a cult like way (to subjugate humans). I don't like reading about religion much, I just don't care. It is also a very deliberately paced book, this made it a rather slow read. Lastly there were some consistency issues...for example in the span of a few months some of the women go from not pregnant to incredibly pregnant...scientists are smart enough to do complex surgeries but not smart enough to think about longterm genetic implications. This inconsistencies just further irritated me.
The book does end well tying up a number of issues while leaving an overall goal that needs to be achieved in following books.
Overall this book is thought-provoking. That being said I absolutely did not enjoy reading it. I almost stopped reading it a number of times, but since it was on as an audiobook that I listened to while I was driving, I didn't. There is a heavy religious overtone to this book and there are many very disturbing scenarios that the characters deal with (violent, surgical, and sexual). I would only recommend this for older young adults and up. If you are interested in reading a deliberately paced young adult sci-fi that is incredibly disturbing this might be a great book for you. It wasn't a great book for me though, I wish I could get the time I spent reading this back. I will not be reading anymore of this series.
The audiobook itself was very well done. There are two voice actors one for the girl and one for the boy. They both did an excellent job reading and actually added a lot to the story.
Waverly and Kieran are the two oldest teens in their generation aboard the Empyrean. The Empyrean is one of two large ships that left Earth on a generations long journey to terra-form New Earth. When the Empyrean comes up behind the other ship, The New Horizon, they know something is wrong. When they are attacked by the New Horizon things begin to fall apart. Waverly and Kieran are both put in separate challenging situations that will take all of their wits to survive. The book is broken into multiple parts and the parts alternate between Waverly and Kieran.
The premise behind this book is interesting and the characters are well done. Waverly, Kieran, and Seth are all realistic characters that are easy to relate to. The book is also very well written, things are described in such a way that they really come alive for the reader. The tension is built in such a way that you are just holding your breath waiting for the next terrible thing that will happen to these characters.
The main thing I didn't like about the book was the premise and story itself. There is absolutely nothing positive in this book; the characters go from one dreadful situation to another with no glimpse of hope. So I basically found it an incredibly depressing read. Then of course there is a little teenage love triangle drama going on as well which I am not all that fond of.
This is a read for older teens. There are a number of incredibly disturbing things that happen in this story. They were hard for me to read about and process, so I can't imagine younger readers dealing with them. While that makes the story interesting food for thought, it also gave me a yucky, slimy feeling for the whole book. Some of the disturbing things encountered are rape, forced drugging of kids, forced surgeries on kids, violent beatings, mindwashing of young kids, torture, and very graphic descriptions of both violent and surgerical situations. There were some surgical things that happened in this book that seriously made my knees weak while reading about them. As a result I kind of cringed everytime I picked this book up to read it, wondering what horrible thing I would have to read about next.
There is also a heavy religious overtone to this book. You have to read a number of sermons. There is much speculation on religion used to bring hope versus religion used in a cult like way (to subjugate humans). I don't like reading about religion much, I just don't care. It is also a very deliberately paced book, this made it a rather slow read. Lastly there were some consistency issues...for example in the span of a few months some of the women go from not pregnant to incredibly pregnant...scientists are smart enough to do complex surgeries but not smart enough to think about longterm genetic implications. This inconsistencies just further irritated me.
The book does end well tying up a number of issues while leaving an overall goal that needs to be achieved in following books.
Overall this book is thought-provoking. That being said I absolutely did not enjoy reading it. I almost stopped reading it a number of times, but since it was on as an audiobook that I listened to while I was driving, I didn't. There is a heavy religious overtone to this book and there are many very disturbing scenarios that the characters deal with (violent, surgical, and sexual). I would only recommend this for older young adults and up. If you are interested in reading a deliberately paced young adult sci-fi that is incredibly disturbing this might be a great book for you. It wasn't a great book for me though, I wish I could get the time I spent reading this back. I will not be reading anymore of this series.
Helpful Score: 1
Ill be upfront and say that Sci-Fi novels usually arent my cup of tea, but theres something about Glow that just drew me in from page 1. Maybe its because Amy Kathleen Ryan created a world so realistic, so visceral, that I couldnt help myself. Maybe its because the characters are complex and the plot is powerful. Its probably an electrifying combination of all of the above.
I loved Waverly as a character. When the girls are kidnapped, she becomes their leader as the oldest. They look to her, and she has the insight to not only realize something is very wrong with the way the girls were taken, but also the intelligence to know she has to play along while on board the New Horizon. She was a joy to read from start to finish. I loved her sections in the novel and was often fighting the urge to skip ahead and stay with her story instead of reading what was happening to those left behind on the Empyrean.
The other two leads, Kieran and Seth, were somewhat more disturbing for me to read. I felt like Kieran was a weak leader, and he was very black and white. I also didnt feel the chemistry between him and Waverly the way I did between Waverly and Seth. The problem with Seth is that I felt he went from shy, bad boy to crazy, psycho boy. I honestly have no idea who Id prefer Waverly withI feel Kieran is too wishy-washy and Seth is too unpredictable (and not in a fun way). Im assuming that well later learn more about their reasons for doing things in later books and that will help me make a better choice. But for this book, I didnt really enjoy either.
The Sky Chasers series is definitely going to be big. You can tell that from reading the blurb. Its futuristic, its dramatic and its insanely intense. While I dont usually like to be as in the dark as I feel with this book, sometimes its good not to know where the story (and characters) are going. There were several plot twists in this book that left me breathless. I cant wait to see what Ryan has in store for the rest of the series.
I loved Waverly as a character. When the girls are kidnapped, she becomes their leader as the oldest. They look to her, and she has the insight to not only realize something is very wrong with the way the girls were taken, but also the intelligence to know she has to play along while on board the New Horizon. She was a joy to read from start to finish. I loved her sections in the novel and was often fighting the urge to skip ahead and stay with her story instead of reading what was happening to those left behind on the Empyrean.
The other two leads, Kieran and Seth, were somewhat more disturbing for me to read. I felt like Kieran was a weak leader, and he was very black and white. I also didnt feel the chemistry between him and Waverly the way I did between Waverly and Seth. The problem with Seth is that I felt he went from shy, bad boy to crazy, psycho boy. I honestly have no idea who Id prefer Waverly withI feel Kieran is too wishy-washy and Seth is too unpredictable (and not in a fun way). Im assuming that well later learn more about their reasons for doing things in later books and that will help me make a better choice. But for this book, I didnt really enjoy either.
The Sky Chasers series is definitely going to be big. You can tell that from reading the blurb. Its futuristic, its dramatic and its insanely intense. While I dont usually like to be as in the dark as I feel with this book, sometimes its good not to know where the story (and characters) are going. There were several plot twists in this book that left me breathless. I cant wait to see what Ryan has in store for the rest of the series.
Helpful Score: 1
Waverly and Kieran are teenagers living in a ship which left a dying earth, one of two ships en route to New Earth. Their ship, Empyrean, is primarily occupied by people who have no religious affiliation while New Horizon is occupied by fundamental believers. Waverly and Kieran are believed by all destined to marry.
Both ships encounter the problem of infertility. Scientists on Empyrean solve the problem and supposedly share their results with the people living on New Horizon. Just one hitch - the women of New Horizon become sterile due to an error in the transmitted data. Accidental or intentional?
Conflicts between the captains evolve into violence and New Horizon residents invade Empyrian and abduct the girls, murder many adults and severely damage Empyrian. Of the remaining adults, most are exposed to severe radiation poisoning and die, one by one, leaving only the boys to operate Empyrian.
As the story unfolded I found myself troubled by the scenarios the author described as the boys travel through space hoping to catch New Horizon. For me, several of the incidents seemed beyond belief. However, the story takes a strange twist when Kerian becomes a spiritual leader. Will he be as cruel as the New Horizon leader? The story ends assuring the reader that there will be a followup - perhaps the start of a series. This is a novel worth reading and I look forward to the sequel.
Both ships encounter the problem of infertility. Scientists on Empyrean solve the problem and supposedly share their results with the people living on New Horizon. Just one hitch - the women of New Horizon become sterile due to an error in the transmitted data. Accidental or intentional?
Conflicts between the captains evolve into violence and New Horizon residents invade Empyrian and abduct the girls, murder many adults and severely damage Empyrian. Of the remaining adults, most are exposed to severe radiation poisoning and die, one by one, leaving only the boys to operate Empyrian.
As the story unfolded I found myself troubled by the scenarios the author described as the boys travel through space hoping to catch New Horizon. For me, several of the incidents seemed beyond belief. However, the story takes a strange twist when Kerian becomes a spiritual leader. Will he be as cruel as the New Horizon leader? The story ends assuring the reader that there will be a followup - perhaps the start of a series. This is a novel worth reading and I look forward to the sequel.
Uh, WOW. And not a good wow. I only got about 50 pages in before I realized that there was no way, except maybe by gunpoint, that I was going to be able to finish this book. This reads like someone threw a lot of money at a person and was like, here, indulge in writing something that contains a love triangle, a spaceship, big bad evil doo-doo men, and sexual desire. The problem with starting with these requirements, of course, is that they are not allowed to develop naturally out of inevitable beliefs and actions of the characters. Reading the invasion scene was like envisioning a transcript of an elementary school play about scary, scary aliens invading a spaceship.
Look: I know that there have been scores of past civilizations that have done this sort of "raping and pillaging" thing--but what happens in one of the first scenes of GLOW is so far removed from tense believability as to be comical. Minus the theoretical sexual desire (a mostly-male spaceship kidnaps the other spaceship's girls in order to foster increased opportunities for procreation), this could've totally been a play put on by second-graders. Those little kiddies sure would love the scenes of pillage and fighting.
Shame it had such a pretty cover.
Look: I know that there have been scores of past civilizations that have done this sort of "raping and pillaging" thing--but what happens in one of the first scenes of GLOW is so far removed from tense believability as to be comical. Minus the theoretical sexual desire (a mostly-male spaceship kidnaps the other spaceship's girls in order to foster increased opportunities for procreation), this could've totally been a play put on by second-graders. Those little kiddies sure would love the scenes of pillage and fighting.
Shame it had such a pretty cover.
It started out really interesting. The ending was very abrupt, and not in a cliffhanger type of way either. Probably won't be continuing this series due to the direction the story seems to be going.
