I wasn’t expecting to particularly love Glow when I put my name into the proverbial hat for the chance to win an advance copy. It was being billed as a “YA” book, and I’ve had little exposure to books falling under that particular label, so I figured I’d take a chance at expanded my reading horizons, if just a little bit. Besides, it was science fiction dealing wtih generation starships; it could certainly be interesting. And it is. In a way.
But I had a hard time liking the book.
It starts off with your typical high school romance between teenaged Kieran Alden and Waverly Marshall. We’re introduced to the protagonist lovebirds for only a handful of pages before they split up to attend to their various duties on the ship. Kieran and Waverly’s generation are the first to be born on the Empyrean, the enormous starship sent out into space (after its sister ship, the New Horizon) for the colonization of New Earth.
It’s not too long before disaster strikes: the New Horizon has inexplicably slowed, and when the Empyrean catches up inside a nebula, the ship is ambushed, and Waverly and the other young girls are abducted and taken back to the New Horizon. Waverly, now separated from her family and her boyfriend, has to deal with life as a “guest” aboard the new ship, and somehow figure out what’s going on, and maybe find a way back to the Empyrean. Kieran, meanwhile, is left in charge of the Empyrean with a handful of boys—the adults all killed, injured, or gone missing. His goals are similar to Waverly’s, though where Waverly is pitted against a handful of scheming adults, Kieran finds himself up against a group of mutinous boys.
On the one hand, it’s all rather ridiculous. How on earth (or off of it) do all of the adults on board the Empyrean manage to get taken out so easily? They wind up in four groups: blown out an airlock, gunned down in a shuttle bay, in a shuttle chasing after the New Horizon, and dead/dying of radiation from fixing the engines. That accounts for every. Last. Adult. On. Board. Leaving Kieran to play out “Lord of the Flies” in outer space, against one particular boy who’s motivated by nothing more than petty jealousy. I mean, come on.
As for Waverly and the girls, turns out the New Horizon folks are ultra-conservative religious fundamentalists (they even dress like the Amish for church services) who have been duped by their scheming Pastor/captain into abducting the Empyrean‘s girls as some sort of mission from God. Like most everyone else in the book, the characterizations of the New Horizon folks are all incredibly obvious: they’re either overtly slimy and evil, or perfectly sweet and innocent.
At least it reads quickly. The suspense is good, and the chapters are short—always helpful in making the pages fly by. There’s the occasional twist where you think, “Ah, this isn’t as stereotypical and/or predictable as it seems,” but only until it’s revealed that yes, in fact, it is.
Ah, but then comes the ending, and I’m still not sure whether it makes the book more irritating, or salvages the whole thing. You see, due to the portrayal of the New Horizon folks, I had pretty much written the whole book off as an extended “religion is bad” rant. But that was before the story took a bizarre left turn in which Kieran finds God. That would have fit in fine with a “religious people are crazy” theme, but see, the thing is: God actually talks to Kieran in person. Nothing wrong with that, but aside from it being mentioned in the very beginning that Kieran’s family was kind of religious, there was nothing in the book leading up to this. I was completely yanked out of the story, it was such a bizarre moment.
And yet, in this awkwardly-executed transformation lies the genius of this book: by the end, Kieran sees himself as appointed by God to lead the Empyrean to paradise. Which is precisely what occurred on board the New Horizon. There’s a nice contrast there, and a theme for the next book to explore: Is there a difference between those called by God and those who merely claim to be called by God, and how do you tell the difference? It’s an intriguing idea, the introduction of which is marred by the manipulative cliffhanger tacked on at the end.
Overall, I guess mostly I enjoyed it, but there’s little about it that I actually liked. I’m sure that readers much younger than myself will have a much kinder view of Glow than I do, but at the same time I’m not sure how it’s awkwardly-presented themes will resonate. [2.5 out of 5 stars]
Tags: 2.5 stars, book reviews, books, sf challenge 2011