Looking For a Good Book

The nanotech drug Glow is everywhere.

Rex remains in hiding as he’s still recovering from his addiction. Every day is a different challenge. But there are bigger problems to face – a new alliance threatens the balance of power in the world again, and a dangerous enemy from Rex’s past tracks him down.

Is it really possible that Rex is the cure for the plague? Or is he, more likely, the root of humanity’s downfall? Rex must decide if he really is a prophet… or just a coward.

I did not care for the first book but I had received the second book to review before I’d started Glow. I decided to give it some time and come to this book fresh and I was really, really intent on giving this a good read and hoped it would enjoy it more.

Unfortunately, I did not.

As I noted in the review of the first book, this does not feel new or fresh. Science fiction and drugs have been a pretty common idea. Philip K Dick was a master of this, and more recently (like ten to twelve years ago), both Amanda Bridgeman and Ferrett Steinmetz published some awesome drug-themed scifi with the same publisher.

Mostly I felt the book was overwritten. Good god it took a long time to have every single thing explained and going from Point A to Point B just took much longer than it needed to.

The characters were not interesting or relatable.

There’s a kernel of an idea here that works. The concept is sound and the world is sound and very Blade Runner-like to me. But what happens in the world and who it happens to, didn’t interest me.

Looking for a good book? Afterglow by Tim Jordan is wild scifi on a drug trip. It’s a bit too heavy on concept and not detailed enough in execution to work well.

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

* * * * * *

Afterglow

author: Tim Jordan

series: Glow #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 9780857669872

paperback, 400 pages