I knew this fast-paced fantasy was for me from the first chapter. The Sparks has everything you need for the start of an amazing epic fantasy series; internal struggle within a powerful family, an ancient feud between rival families, a power hungry and possibly supremely crazy emperor, a mysterious outside land that few have ventured to. Sign me the hell up!
Immediately I fell in love with the ancient mythos surrounding the powerful families of Altryon. It’s on that true or not, makes complete sense for why the three remaining families (there were originally four) have spent generations fighting each other for power. They’ve been fighting for so long that the true reasons why are basically unknown, except that it has always been this way. So, what do you do when you have three families trying to kill each other? You put a third party in charge of them, say an emperor, and wait for chaos.
The Sparks starts off this series with a bang, literally, forcing the children of these families to come together (for better or worse) in a common revolution and goal. Save themselves, save their families, kill the bastards doing this to them and get the hell out of dodge.
Jon Eric Preston is an amazing narrator. The voices he was able to pull off were incredible and helped shaped the characters I was hearing so well in my mind. His voice gave each character life, a walk, and attitude.
I’m definitely going to be looking forward to the next two books. Consider me hooked.
