The Spark (Extrahumans, Book 3)

The Spark (Extrahumans, Book 3)
Sarah Jane Bigelow, 2012

Premise: Sequel to Broken and Fly Into Fire. Dee has grown older, but still feels lost inside. She can’t control her powers or her life. The little settlement of former heroes on the planet Valen may have finally gotten the government’s attention, and soon no one will have a safe refuge.

In short, I don’t think this is a bad book, and big chunks of it were great, but overall I was left unsatisfied. Bit too much angst, bit too much dystopia in this one for me. Some great character stuff, but the very end pissed me off. For more details, read on, but Some Mild Spoilers Ahead.

It wasn’t that I wanted the characters to solve all the problems of their dystopian future. At the end of the first book I got the feeling that the author wasn’t interested in telling that story. But I wanted something. I wanted one relationship to not fall apart or one character to not betray/fight/hate the others.

I wanted some personal resolution that had nothing to do with the foretellers from the past. I really sympathized with the characters in this volume who started to be frustrated with being given clues from the past about the future with no rationale or explanation. I was so sick of the freaking Valen folks and it infuriated me that they essentially got off with ‘well, it’s very hard for them, and they try.’ Bleck. The fact that Dee, Penny, etc. ultimately couldn’t really choose to get out of the loop was really frustrating to me as a reader.

That said, a lot of the character development with Dee that took up most of the first half of the book and big chunks of the last section was pretty great. I loved the ways she tried to deal with her pyrokinesis and her ‘luck’.

The reappearance of Torres was well played, and some of the flavor of the city in turmoil was really well done.

End of Spoilers---

There’s some indication that there will eventually be a fourth book, so some of my issues could yet be resolved. However, The Spark still sits at the middle of the road with

3 Stars - A Good Book.