Giveaway & Review: The Sparks by Kyle Prue
The Houses have been warring for generations. Each House has it’s warriors and assassins along with their special abilities. Now something has taken aim at the major Houses and old feuds may have to be set aside in order for the remnants of these Houses to survive. Building trust enough to mount a strategic attack may be impossible.
Set in the fictional city of Altryon, Neil Vapros is an assassin in training. He desperately wants his father’s approval but gaining that may be impossible. The Vapros are currently targeting the senior members of House Taurlum but taking one out is harder than Neil expected. In fact, if it wasn’t for Neil’s street-wise commoner friend Bianca, his role in this tale may have ended quite early on.Even as Neil tries to come up with new ways to prove himself worthy of the Vapros House, something starts targeting the three ruling Houses. Despite their special powers, they die or disappear one after the other. The steel skin and incredible strength of the Taurlum House doesn’t keep them safe. For each incredible power, there is a weakness and the Taurlum weakness is not a secret. Members of the Vapros House can teleport and also turn human bodies into ash. House Celerius (the ability to heal quickly coupled with super speed) comes into it a bit later but also plays a significant role. Myth holds that these Houses were given special abilities in order to protect the people of Altryon. Outside there city-wide walls lies only rumors and guesses.
This rich, deadly world that Prue created is the thing that I loved most about this book. These long-feuding Houses and the kids growing up in this culture where they are expected to kill members of the other Houses whenever they get the chance is a great setting. When major changes start happening to this status quo, it gets really interesting. Now the main characters no longer have this family script on how to behave and they have to start thinking and acting for themselves and the ones they truly care about. For instance. Neil’s sisters (Jennifer and Victoria) aren’t particularly loving towards him. Once his family comes under attack, things shift.
The Narration: Jon Eric Preston was a really good pick for this book. While is female character voices could use a bit more femininity, he kept all the characters distinct. He had a variety of voices for all the male characters. What he excelled at were the numerous emotions. He was great at getting the characters’s anger, grief, frustration, joy, triumph, surprise, and more across to the listener.
What I Liked: Great setting; the super powers; the culture these kids were raised in and how that affects their actions going forward; the intense scenes with the Emperor; hints of a bigger world outside the city; how the remnants of these great Houses come together.
What I Disliked: There is one particularly obvious plot point that I cringed at.
