Glow is a hard book to review.

On one hand, it had a great premise. The imagination that went into setting up this world and all the different elements was fantastic. It had a real futuristic, sort-of-dystopian feel. There’s a sense of urgency running through multiple parts of the book and the tension is handled well.

On the other hand, I spent half of the book confused. There’re three different narrators. One was easy to get to grips with even if it was still hard to connect to her character. But the other two? One was some kind of sentient robot that turned to extreme violence in every situation. The other was a drug addict who used to be a dog and had multiple people in his mind? I think. I never quite figured it out.

There were certain elements of the story that you think you’re working out. But then it combines with other aspects, and you realise you don’t really have a clue what’s going on.

I stuck with it because it did draw me in and I was adamant that the different plots were going to pull together somehow. It had parts that really worked and some of the characters you did start to make connections with. There was a lot of potential here but the overall book didn’t work for me.

Maybe Glow is better on a second read and you make more connections with both the plot and the characters. But otherwise, a confusing read.

An interesting take on a tech-crazy world of the future. If you like hive-minds, you'll feel right at home with this book. Can't wait fot the sequel!

unfortunately, I had to DNF this read because I had a very hard time getting into it. I couldn't connect with any of the characters or bring myself to care much about the plot

Glow is a fantastic example of scifi that really engrossed me - fast paced, great tech. Loved it.

I can't wait to see what the author does with their next work.

I really enjoyed the use of the scifi elements with drug addiction. The plot was really well done and the characters were really interesting. This was a wonderful read and I hope there is more in this universe.

Stars: between 3 and 3.5 out of 5

This book has magnificent worldbuilding and a rather scary view of what the human race could become in the near future if we continue or technological race for "improvements" without stopping to consider just how much damage we do to our planet and to ourselves in the process. So yes, I had much fun exploring the world created in this book.

The characters, however, were another story altogether. Granted, there were some interesting ones, like Rex or Elaine up in her crumbling ivory tower of an orbital. The major problem though is that there were simply too many of them. It's like the author tried to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks with this book. Too many ideas, too many plot lines, too many characters.

Unfortunately, he couldn't give enough attention to ALL his characters, so while some character arcs get satisfying (or at least plausible) resolutions, others are left hanging or shoehorned into other character stories as an after thought.

For example, what was the point of Mira in this book, Beyond having Rex realize that he could care and defend someone other than himself? Why bring her back into the story over and over again?

What was the point of Jaxx by the way? It spends the whole book hunting down the star river and merrily murdering and disassembling humans along the way (granted, that was fun to watch and to read about its thought process while this was happening), but then, when he has the river... he lets it go? What was the point of this character and this particular storyline? In fact, what was the point of the confrontation between the orbital and the artificial construct up in space? It brings nothing to the story itself and dies in the most stupid manner in the end.

And there are a lot of examples of those headscratching characters whose motivations and importance to the story aren't clear even in the end. That's what happens when you try to tell too many stories in one book. General confusion and hanging plot lines...

Even the ending, despite its explosions, confrontations, and general destruction and mayhem, is underwhelming. It doesn't bring any resolution to the story of the star river, the McGuffin that was so important to the future of mankind, or so we are told throughout the book... it stays inactivated in the brain of a man-dog. Oh, and why was it so important by the way? No real explanation apart from doom and gloom prophecies is given.

In summary, I loved the world the author created, but the story itself was confusing and meandering and the ending failed to deliver resolution or any emotional impact. Apart from Elaine. She got exactly what she deserved.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Humanity was given an inexpensive, 3d printable fusion reactor. They quickly figured out how to make it explode. Which soon led to chaos as cities were flattened and the orbital stations were cut off from the ground.

There are three main characters;: Rex, who is hooked on Glow and just trying to survive the dystopian hell left behind by the Nova Insanity. Ellyana, who is one of the founders of GFC (the corporation that makes the life extending Simmorta) lives on an orbital station and is fighting her own paranoia. And my favorite, Jett. Jett is an assassin with a robotic body and nanotech that can change his shape and abilities on the fly.

Each of these characters has to face up to what their life means and what, exactly, life is.

I highly recommend Glow to those who like sci fi. I was surprised to find out this is a debut novel. The world building is well done and the characters interesting and believable.

Glow was a great novel, with fascinating storylines mixing with interesting characters . Jordan writes inner monologues as well as any author currently working, and his characters develop slowly throughout the story. He drops you into the middle of the action without too much exposition; what you need to know, you learn piece by piece. I had a difficult time putting myself into the shoes of the protagonists, but without a doubt Jordan is one of the better SF writers currently publishing.

I'd been dying to read GLOW for...well...forever and was thrilled when Netgalley offered me an ARC. I absolutely loved the sci-fi world, the relentless action, and vividly imaginative. Set in a world where humanity has come to a screeching halt as the result of Nova-Insanity, the ultimate question seems to be: What is our purpose? Who are we without our own minds and memories? I love how Jordan imbued the entire story in these types of questions and it's echoed in the three beings we follow in the story. This is what sci-fi is all about!

From the publisher's description, as found on Goodreads:
After the Nova-Insanity shattered Earth's civilization, the Genes and Fullerenes Corporation promised to bring humanity back from the brink. Many years later, various factions have formed, challenging their savior and vying for a share of power and control.

Glow follows the lives of three very different beings, all wrestling mental instability in various forms; Rex - a confused junkie battling multiple voices in his head; Ellayna - the founder of the GFC living on an orbital satellite station and struggling with paranoia; and Jett - a virtually unstoppable robotic assassin, questioning his purpose of creation.

...

I think that's all you really need to know, although the description does go on.

Three beings wrestling mental instability, including a robotic assassin questioning his purpose. Uhhhh.... That alone would suggest that either this is going to be a wild, Philip K. Dick-like tale or a messy conglomerate of ideas. The possibility of the former is what had me excited to read it, but unfortunately it came across as the latter.

There's a lot going on here ... a LOT ... but that shouldn't be a detriment to the story - it should enhance the reader's desire to put it all together. Unfortunately it is a detriment. We get bogged down in the weight of this world and all the information that we have to receive in order to make sense of it all.And somehow there's characters in here, involved in the story, but I never felt I got to know them and I certainly cared even less about them.

A big chunk of the plot revolves around 'Glow' - a nanotech drug. While there was a pretty interesting facet of this drug (the ability to survive from host to host, carrying portions of the previous host(s) into the next host), I really couldn't shake the feeling that this was so familiar.

Drugs and drug use in science fiction is not a new concept but it does feel as though we've suddenly seen a rash of 'tech drugs' in recent sci-fi and I can name three that have come from publisher Angry Robot (Ramez Naam's Nexus series; Ferrett Steinmetz's Flex series [okay ... not a tech drug, but a high-profile drug around which the series is based]; and Amanda Bridgeman's Salvi Brentt series' drugs).

'Glow' didn't feel new and creative but rather a slightly creative rehash of what has gone (recently) before.

Looking for a good book? Glow, by Tim Jordan, is a science fiction novel that tries to encompass too much in a wildly inventive manner and the result is a difficult to read mess.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This will not be for everyone. It's a bit of a downer overall, and the ideas are not always fully flushed out. However, there is good action and the author has a vivid imagination which is on display. I'm sure this will please many sci-fi readers.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

Humanity has stalled. The world-shaking event known as the Nova-Insanity has caused the GFC - manufacturers of the life extending nanotech drug Simmorta - to sequester themselves inside their orbital platform. Once connected to Earth via space elevator, they now live isolated and in constant fear of infiltration by the powers that be on Earth, as well as by a deadly foe of their own making. Meanwhile, Coriolis City, the manufactured island port for the space elevator, has become a hive of gang activity and criminality, where the memory altering drug known as Glow ravages the increasingly addicted populace. The void spawned assassin known as Jett searches for answers across this decaying landscape, while the mysterious addict known simply as Rex struggles to piece his shattered memories back together and understand his past.

In stark contrast to its cosy sounding title, there’s a distinctly grungy feeling to Glow. This isn’t a shimmering, shiny white plastic vision of the future where everything looks like it just rolled off the Apple manufacturing line. No, this is a world of partially collapsed buildings inhabited by increasingly desperate members of society, with acres of the surrounding land scarred into vitrified glass by the devastation of the Nova-Insanity. Things are little better high above Earth, where filthy orbital platforms are occupied by paranoid corporate business leaders like Ellayna, who clutches at her last vestiges of power while jumping at shadows. There’s tons of atmosphere and style here, all with a liberal handful of grime rubbed across it.

Tim Jordan does such a wonderful job of setting the scene thanks to the level of detail he provides; indeed, the Nova-Insanity itself could be a book all of its own. When the plans for a microscopic solid-state fusion reactor were released for free to everyone with a 3D printer, the catastrophic consequences of hackers realising they could be rigged to function as devastating weapons of mass destruction brought humanity to the brink of annihilation. The inextricable links between the setting and this succinctly delivered piece of backstory - as well as its impact on humanity’s wary approach to technology in the event’s wake - is a masterfully conceived piece of storytelling. It also ensures that anyone who stands against the technologically advanced voidian known as Jett doesn’t stand much of a chance.

Jett is a singularly deadly entity, a biotech being made of fullerene fibres and topped with a leering skull. Able to survive an onslaught capable of destroying a small army, he is sent to Earth by his voidian mentor and fellow adversary of the GFC, Ursurper Gale. Like a cross between Venom and the T-1000, Jett closes on his prey through a variety of means, be they grisly interrogation tactics or all-out, blistering assault, morphing between forms for infiltration, deception or unmitigated carnage in the blink of an eye. His adaptability and combat proficiency keep him far more than one step ahead of most assailants, as he literally rips apart those who get in his way, often before they even realise what’s happening. Amongst the existential probing and the corporate wrangling taking place elsewhere, Jett’s scenes are entertainingly action-packed segments of hyperviolence.

That’s not to say, of course, that these other elements of the story are dull - far from it. Rex, with his addiction and seemingly inexplicable resistance to the ravages of Glow, is a veritable treasure trove of mysteries and intrigues. His head is full of the memories and personalities of past addicts, carried along with his gruesomely recycled drug of choice. He’s picked up early on by the Sisterhood of Salvitor, a group of robotic nuns who believe in the coming of an entity known as the Future-Lord, and are eager to nurse the recovering addict back to health. It’s through Rex that some of the deeper philosophical dives take place, with a recurring theme of the fallibility of memory and the consequent ramifications akin to the likes of A Scanner Darkly. He frequently questions his reality, his sense of self and his own mind; at times, it can be a lot to wrap your head around, but clarity comes with hindsight as the storylines converge and weave together in a way that’s both satisfying and highly climactic.

Glow is an immensely entertaining and hugely ambitious debut, a tale of technology running riot - quite literally, in some cases - that’s packed with interesting ideas and themes, not to mention visceral action perpetrated by morally grey characters. Tim Jordan has aimed high here, and it’s paid off spectacularly. One to watch.

When someone discovered cheap 3D-printable fusion power and gave it to the world, it seemed like a good thing. Right until someone else figured out how to make it explode. Then all hell broke loose, flattening cities and destroying the space elevators that tethered the orbiting cloud cities.

There are three main threads to follow and the narrative switches back and forth frequently. There’s Rex, a down-and-out Glow junkie struggling to consciousness in an alley with a corpse tied to him. It’s not an auspicious beginning. But you may be more interested in Jett, a nearly indestructible synthetic voidian, who first appears dropping from orbit and evading the defense grid of the Alliance, the current global power, or Ellyana, one of the founders of the corporation that built the orbital cities and developed the life-extension drug Simmorta. Ultimately you can be sure the stories will collide, but the most human of them is Rex’s, ironically so, because he’s convinced that he was once a dog.

In this debut novel, Tim Jordan has created a rich world, and his three main characters take you through different levels of it, reminiscent of last December’s Complex by A.D. Enderly. Rex is taken in by a cybernetic order of Sisters/Nuns, devoted to creating a future god and (among other things), helping people to kick Glow.

Glow falls into the collection of books where an AI wants to have a real body of its own, though frankly, I’m not sure they know what they’re in for. It’s a great story that does an interesting job of not cheating a lot on the science side. Sure, Jett is made of nearly indestructible smart matter, but the cloud cities use spin gravity and their aging populations may have fled to VR worlds, but only by accessing implants rather than uploading their consciousnesses. Even Glow doesn’t get off easy in its efforts to become real.

When I read the description of this book I was pretty excited to read it, unfortunately it didn’t deliver.

Set in a depressing futuristic earth this story follows three characters as some eminent threat approaches. Rex, an ex drug addict/human-dog hybrid, is trying to get clean at a rehab center run by robot nuns. Jett, a super hi tech android, was sent to earth to find the source of Glow, a drug made of nano-bots. Ellayna, the founder of some sort of all powerful corporation, lives in space with the various heads of the company, most of whom exist almost entirely in VR.

This def has the makings of an amazing space opera/ action/mystery/ fantasy/ sci-fi thriller, but really it was chaotic mess. I almost DNFed this book but I struggled through hoping that it would get better.

The first few chapters were pretty dry and boring. There was a lot of technical jargon and i found myself zoning out. Things didn’t start getting interesting until almost halfway through the book, and by then I just didn’t care anymore.

I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I've been waiting for this book for about a year and whooooodoggie did it surpass expectations. The story was fresh and exciting, there are detailed descriptions of the characters and environments, and it gets surreal and dream-like in places adding to the complex mystery and plot. Glow is also a dense book, as in it seems bigger than its four hundred pages. There's a couple converging plot lines told through a multitude of character viewpoints and there's a ton of background stuff about not only the characters but the world and the history of how-we-got-to-where-we-are in the story in general. I loved the action as well. It's big and juicy and some of the weaponry ideas are staggering in their awesomeness. The final thirty percent is one long action sequence that changes locations about a dozen times and includes shit falling to the planet from space after being blown up, a seriously badass one man wrecking crew synthetic organism thing that does some mind-blowing shit to some deserving bad guys, and spectacular reveals that explains just what in the hell had been going on during the previous seventy percent. Did I mention the killer android nuns with dark secrets? Well, yeah, they're in here, too.

The author, Tim Jordan, has a strong, clear voice and was able to convey a very intricate and seemingly incoherent mix of happenings into a fun and entertaining read that does not insult the readers intelligence or rely on info dumps to further the story. I knew I was going to like this from about the first page as the writing was rich and concise and it all just seemed so new. A new voice, but one I connected to right away.

Thanks to Tim Jordan, Angry Robot, and Netgalley for the review copy, opinions are my own.

Maybe not the greatest book I've read this year, but original and different and i respect that. Worth reading if you like taking risk and trying new stuff!

DNF at 37%. I liked the beginning but my initial enthusiasm started to wane when the author did his best to bog the narrative down with unnecessary details and jargon. As far as I can tell at this stage, there's little character development and the plot is thin. Readers obsessed with layered world-building (developed at characters and plot's cost) will, probably, find more enjoyment here.

Sorry, but I didn't make it to the end of this one. Someone once told me that life is too short to be wasted on mediocre books. The story is told through several different perspectives, and unfortunately all are odd and not easy to follow or tell what exactly is going on. The synopsis has an interesting plot and the writing is good and well written. The story falls where there is so much half hatched far fetched ideas trying to take place and meld into one coherent story. I ultimately gave up for that reason. I was halfway through (and struggling to get there) and didn't actually know what was going on and understand half of it, and know or care where the book was going. Hopefully this works for other people because I don't think the author is a bad writer this was just a bad story.

I selected this because my relatively balanced reading diet required a science fiction entry. But found this mostly unpalatable. It’s sad, really, because I’m the first person actually reviewing this on GR and ideally it’s be nice to have nice things to say about the book…so lemme look for some…ok, here goes…my dislike of Glow might not be entirely Glow’s fault. Technically (and I use the word deliberately because it’s such a tech heavy sci fi) it’s a fine book. It has an elaborate plot, intricate world building and oodles of action. It has idiosyncratic novelties like robot nuns and multiple personalities, but…but…the entire thing is such a plodding convoluted mess and so prolix with it, it takes forever to get through, it’s a drag the entire way and in the end there isn’t much to show for it, outside of checking that science fiction box.
Again, this is a very subjective opinion. I read a lot and as such encounter sh*t books with some frequency and this isn’t a sh*t book, it’s just one that really didn’t work for me. It didn’t grab me at first and failed to do so throughout, it didn’t begin to even remotely interest until about fifth of the way in, but even then it was never enough. The only character I remotely cared about/was interested in was rex and it might have been exclusively because of one of his alternate personalities that wasn’t a person. Which is actually directly responsible for the winner of an ending and the only time the book hit the right emotionally engaging notes in 400 pages.
Like so many debuts, this was dramatically overwritten and the kitchen sink approach did nothing for it. There are some genuine good thoughts that went into it about immortality and I really love the concept of Forever Friends, but, again, this just highlights how much of a letdown the people and robots of this book were.
Tons of tech, tons of jargon, tons of science, but light on fiction or at least the sort of fiction I’m into (think Black Mirror). Basically, I’m more about people stories told in scientifically enhanced worlds, not scientifically enhanced words with some people thrown in.
And to answer the obvious question here, I read this one all the way through because of my obsessively completist nature. That was the only reason. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made it past chapter one and chapter one was meant to be the exciting beginning you can’t put down, it had a guy zip tied chained to a corpse with no memory of getting that way. And honestly, if you can’t sell that…
So yeah, a very disappointing, ploddingly slow mess of a read…for me. Might work for some, who knows. Thanks Netgalley.