Glow - BookWyrm

Paperback, 385 pages

english language

Published Sept. 30, 2011 by MacMillan Children's Books, Brand: MacMillan Children's Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-330-53558-8
OCLC Number:: 751739459
ISFDB ID:: 360696
Goodreads:: 10834014

(2 reviews)

If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New …

If a violent battle destroyed the only world you’ve ever known, would you be brave enough to save who was left? Would love be strong enough to survive the fight? Either way, there’s no turning back.

The Empyrean is the only home 15-year-old Waverly has ever known. Part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space, she and her boyfriend Kieran will be pioneers of New Earth. Waverly knows she must marry young in order to have children who can carry on the mission, and Kieran, the handsome captain-to-be, has everything Waverly could want in a husband. Everyone is sure he’s the best choice. Still, there’s a part of Waverly that wants more from life than marriage, and she is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.

Suddenly, Waverly’s dreams are interrupted by the inconceivable – a violent betrayal by the Empyrean's sister ship, the New Horizon. The New Horizon’s leaders are desperate to populate the new planet first, and will do anything to get what they need: young girls. In one pivotal moment, Waverly and Kieran are separated, and find themselves at the helm of dangerous missions, where every move has potentially devastating consequences, and decisions of the heart may lead to disaster.

Pulse-pounding and addictive, Glow begins Amy Kathleen Ryan's Sky Chasers--the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.

4 editions

joeyh reviewed Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Review of 'Glow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

An uncomfortable read, mashed on many ick points for me, including the Lord of the Flies segment, the odd gender divided plot, and several others. If I were religious I might also be bothered by some of the anti-religious viewpoints, although in truth I enjoy seeing this treated by SF, even if it's done as heavy-handedly as it is here.

There is also an uncomfortable tension between it being YA SF, which I have been trained to not expect much scientific rigour from (all those Heinlein juviniles on Mars and Venus, etc..), and it being a generation ship story, which is a SF framing that demands at least pretty plausible science -- otherwise why bother? And the scientific slipups are just so egregious here, including unexplained instantaneous communications, while also seemingly so easy to fix.

Worst of all, it may have sucked me into reading a sequel.

abbybutinspace

rated it

May 10, 2012