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| Amy Kathleen Ryan |
A leader is a dealer in hope.– Napoleon Bonaparte
Waverly Marshall and Kieran Alden live aboard the Empyrean with their family and friends. This is a ship that is travelling to New Earth to inhabit it. Everything is going normal – Kieran asked Waverly to marry him, Kieran is doing his news show, Waverly checks the garden and pulls weeds. All this changes when the New Horizon ship becomes their neighbor. The New Horizon left a year before the Empyrean and shouldn’t have been anywhere near them, but here they were. Everyone was interested to find out why. The captains were in “talks” for a while and wouldn’t communicate to anybody what was happening between the two ships.
Chaos ensues and the girls, boys and adults get separated. The girls are taken aboard the New Horizon and are treated as “survivors” and not “captives.” Ann Mather is the captain and she attempts to coddle the girls and make them think that they were rescued from a ship that was malfunctioning. They are put into families to try to stave off bad feelings. Waverly with her friends Samantha Stapleton, Sarah Hodges and Felicity Wiggam go through many trials aboard the New Horizon as they try to survive this takeover.
The adults are trying to fix the reactor leak on the Empyrean leaving the boys on the ship by themselves. The boys go through a lot to find leadership, survive and help the adults get back into the good part of the ship. There is a rivalry between Seth Ardvale and Kieran and at times, it puts the whole ship at risk. All the while, they are continuously searching for the girls, the New Horizon ship and a way to maintain hope.
She cupped his jaw in her hand. He loved her hands and the way they felt warm and soft. He loved her long arms, her strong bones beneath olive skin, and the silken hairs that wandered up her forearms. He lay back on the hay bale and took a deep breath. “You know how I can’t stand you,” he said.
“I can’t stand you, either,” she whispered in his ear.
He pulled her closer. “I was thinking of taking our contest of wills to the next level.”
“Hand-to-hand combat?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he said, his voice vulnerable and small.
The Goodreads synopsis:
What if you were bound for a new world, about to pledge your life to someone you'd been promised to since birth, and one unexpected violent attack made survival—not love—the issue?
Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...
Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.
But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.
Out in the murky nebula lurks an unseen enemy: the New Horizon. On its way to populate a distant planet in the wake of Earth's collapse, the ship's crew has been unable to conceive a generation to continue its mission. They need young girls desperately, or their zealous leader's efforts will fail. Onboard their sister ship, the Empyrean, the unsuspecting families don't know an attack is being mounted that could claim the most important among them...
Fifteen-year-old Waverly is part of the first generation to be successfully conceived in deep space; she was born on the Empyrean, and the large farming vessel is all she knows. Her concerns are those of any teenager—until Kieran Alden proposes to her. The handsome captain-to-be has everything Waverly could ever want in a husband, and with the pressure to start having children, everyone is sure he's the best choice. Except for Waverly, who wants more from life than marriage—and is secretly intrigued by the shy, darkly brilliant Seth.
But when the Empyrean faces sudden attack by their assumed allies, they quickly find out that the enemies aren't all from the outside.
“Sometimes in our lives we must face the great lack. The nothing-ness of loss rears up and we have no choice but to bear it.”
I really liked this book. The story was one that was easy to get into. The story of the boys on the ship reminded me of Lord of the Flies by William Golding where Kieran is Ralph and Seth is Jack. Only I like this version better. It is a book where you don’t know who you can trust as the characters themselves change. Usually when I read a book, I find a character that I love and stick with them throughout the whole series. It was difficult to do in GLOW because of the depth of the characters and the changes that the experiences force them to go through. When I finished the book, I was disappointed because now I have to wait for book #2 of the Sky Chasers series.
Always the explaining was what made him feel better, because he knew what his dad would say. The truth is powerful Kieran. Just tell the truth the best you can and people will usually see your side.
Wow! This sounds like an awesome book and the quote you've put in is really intruiging. Personally, I like the US cover better. I wonder if it'll come out in Australia?
ReplyDeleteIt is an awesome book. If it doesn't come out in Australia, let me know & we'll figure something out. I liked the US cover better on this one. That is a rarity!!
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