Audiobook Review: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

Glow
Sky Chasers #1
Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan
Narrators: Ilyana Kausshin & Matthew Brown
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Science Fiction
Run-Time: 10 hours
Released: September 27th 2011
Review Source: Macmillan Audio
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) 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 the most riveting series since The Hunger Games.

My thoughts on the audio portion: Its seems that Macmillan audio repeats their narrators on many of their audio books. I was familiar with both readers going in and have liked other books read by them. Now in Glow I was split, I did like how Ilyana read her parts but was not a fan of Matthew's reading. I was light a wall switch, kept turning on and off when each reader changed. I don't blame my disconnect with Matthew solely on him, I think it also involved him reading Kieren's part. I felt that both the character and Matthew combined lack a bit of emotion. Now Ilyana reading Waverly was spot on. The only real negative aspect I could have lived without while listening to Glow were the nasally characters, I would have preferred a normal sounding voice. It sounded like they were sick when they read those characters. Other than that I still did enjoy Glow in audio. 

My thought on the actual story: Glow has a touch audience to fight against in the world of science fiction/dystopian. I don't like to compare books but Glow remind me of a weaker version of Across the Universe. That being said Glow is set in the future. Two ships called the New Horizon and Empyrean are deep in space traveling with colonies of people. These two ships are at war with one another. One ship is prospering and the other one is lacking something very important to them. Waverly and Kieran are members on the Empyrean.  When this wars turns real ugly all the girl are kidnapped from the Empyrean and moved over to the New Horizon. Why do they kidnap all the girl and murder some of their parents, well the one thing the New Horizon is lacking is children. Follow Waverly as she sets off to figure out how she can get back to the Empyrean and save all the girls before its too late. 

Glow will provide you with some serious action. At times the story did get extreme in the violence and even disgusting in my opinion but it was needed to make the plot flow. Amy does a great job at detailing the surrounding, you can picture yourself on the ship with them. Overall the idea Amy came up with is good, the pace flowed. The characters were my issue. Some I connected with and others I didn't. The ending was not a favorite of mines. Will I read the next book in the series, of course. I need to know what continues between the two ships and Waverly and Kieran love life.