The Sparks

De: Kyle Prue

Narrado por: Jon Eric Preston

Honor does not bend. A will of iron does not break. Victory lies within the ashes.

The Vapros, the Taurlum, and the Celerius: three dynasties bound by an ancient promise, and given superhuman abilities to protect the city of Altryon from the dangerous world beyond its walls. The Vapros have the ability to teleport and turn their enemies to ash, the Celerius have super speed and the ability to heal from any wound, the Taurlum have skin like steel and godlike strength. Centuries of petty infighting have turned the families against each other, resulting in a secret war. A powerful emperor now rules over all, as the families have been weakened by massive casualties.

Sixteen-year-old Neil Vapros desperately wants to become an assassin to please his hypercritical father. After failing his first mission, Neil learns that a sinister new force has awakened. This mysterious new power threatens to shatter the established order and threaten the lives of everyone in Altryon - regardless of their family name or allegiance.

About the Author

Kyle Prue is an award-winning author, actor, and comedian. Prue wrote The Sparks when he was just 16 years old. He will complete the series with The Flames and The Ashes.

©2015 Kyle Prue (P)2022 Kyle Prue

Reseñas de la Crítica

IndieFab Award

Best Book in Florida and Best Fiction for Young Adults

Honorable Mention at the New England Book Festival

Honorable Mention at the Midwest Book Festival

Honorable Mention at the Southern California Book Festival

Honorable Mention at the International London Book Festival

International Moonbeam Award for Best Young Author

"A crackling read. The Sparks builds a vivid world that is at once otherworldly and relatable. Characters spring from the page in a deft twist on mythology that belies Kyle Prue's young age. He's a voice to be heard." (Scott Bowles, USA Today)

Wow! Exciting, thrilling and many turns!

Wow! I’m honestly impressed with the detailed and descriptive writing that Kyle Prue offers. With each scene, I could see the colors of the character’s armor or cloaks, the size and shape of their weapons and the look on their faces.
I became so enthralled with this audiobook that I even added an extra walk to my nightly routine just so I could listen a little more, a little more.

A feud between three families escalates as they discover a common enemy, a ruthless common enemy who appears to stop at nothing to end them.
A young group of extraordinary teenagers blossom into territory unknown as they find heightened powers and perfect their skills of working their surroundings and the people around them to get what they want, sometimes simply to gather the information they need.

I was beginning to feel a sadness as this book ended because I wanted to hear more about the characters and what would ultimately become of them . . . And then the end gave us an excerpt of the next book in this trilogy!
Now I’m doing a happy dance as I realize I DO get to hear more and more about this journey and the developing characters.

Murder, Magical and Betrayal all in one place.

The first book of a series lays the most information on its’ characters. In The Sparks , author Kyle Prue not only gives great backstories he also tells plots inside of plots. To start off there are three feuding families. The Vapros who can teleport, the Celerius who heal quickly and have super speed and then the Taurlum family with incredible strength. These feuding families must join forces to upset the Emperor and his masked man with the army of assassins. The kids from the three families, Neil, Darius and Lilly must put aside their differences and work together to defeat the Emperor and defend the city of Altryon. In each chapter you are gifted with a different point of view. You get to see the different angles through the eyes of different characters. The kids are conditioned from birth to learn to kill the other families but now they have to learn to trust each other which in itself is very difficult. But as the story unfolds you see personalities develop and deeper relationships grow.
Kyle Prue is an exceptional storyteller. He builds this magical world right before your eyes. The characters are interesting and layered. He sucks you into this fantasy world. I appreciated the presence of strong women like Bianca, Jennifer and Victoria who were Neil’s sisters and friends. I look forward to the next book in the series. I don’t think you could have got a better narrator then Jon Eric Preston. He was amazing at interpreting several emotions. You could hear the anguish, the surprise, the anger and the triumph in his voice. He could produce the difference in the characters. Even the female voices. Between both Prue and Preston you are giving a magical experience that you won’t forget. I recommend you listen to this story to get the full effect on how amazing of a story it is. If not able to listen to it I recommend at least reading it. You will not be disappointed. An excellent book. Well Done!

Excellent action packed fantasy

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The Sparks really took me by surprise. I wasn't sure I was going to really get into the story, but I really did. The story is very intriguing. There is tons of action and I loved the way the plot unfolded into this super awesome story. I don't really want to go too much into it, but man this one was good.

Jon Eric Preston was excellent. There are quite a few characters in this book and Jon did a great job voicing all of them. His voice does a great job keeping me on the edge of my seat as crazy things are happening to these characters in their fight for their life. Usually I like books like this to have multiple narrators to really give voice to each character, but the narrator did a great job. It was really fun to listen to this book.

The Sparks was a fun story about families gifted with powers who have a long history of warring with one another. They must learn to set aside a long lasting feud in order to stay alive as they go from the protectors of their city to the enemy. The world was a fun one and I loved the different superpowers each character had and how they used them. The action was really fun and enjoyable. I really can't wait to see what happens next for these characters.

Great YA fantasy that can be enjoyed by anyone.

I enjoyed The Sparks much more than I thought I would at first. The book follows quite a few different characters and from their point of view at times but the main protagonist would probably be Neil Vapros who is a teen who is training to be an assassin of the Vapros Family which is one of the 3 main families in the novel that have special powers in the novel. The three families are the Vapros, Taurlum and Celerius. The families all have different main powers and each individual can learn/acquire different advanced powers generally through a traumatic experience.

The Vapros main power is that they dematerialize and re-materialize in another location in the general vicinity, they do this by turning to ash and then reforming from ash. They can also turn dead bodies into ash or if they are really powerful live people into ash.

The Taurlum - are big brutish people who's main power is incredible strength and with skin that is as tough as steel whose only weaknesses are their pressure points which if punctured make the rest of their bodies vulnerable.

The Celerius - main power is speed and extremely fast healing.

The 3 families have been feuding with each other for centuries and because of this lost much of their power in their city that they were tasked to protect as their was an uprising an now their is an emperor who rules the city even though the families still have much power and economic clout.

The families feud is very ingrained in the lives of the families and the city itself but can a common enemy and a need to survive bring them together?

The narration by Jon Eric Preston is great and a perfect fit for the story. The book is filled with interesting characters and there is much intrigue and death as well. I recommend the story and am quite interested in reading further books in the series to see how things turn out.

"Please note I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review."

A mystical adventure that you won’t soon forget

I am so honored to have listened to this book! Wow! I personally love mythical and the supernatural mixed with action and adventure. This book has it all! It is fast paced, highly intriguing, and never without excitement. I purposely wait to read about the author until I’m done with a book; it’s just a quirk of my own. Much to my surprise, this author wrote this book when he was merely a teenager! I was wowed by this discovery! The language used and characters are so well developed that it was amazing to know that the author was young. This young author surely has a knack for bringing other worlds to life and to draw the reader in to his world. Though the book is long, don’t let that intimidate you. You’ll be done too soon and yearning to continue with the saga. The concept of specific families reminded me slightly of a Harry Potter feel with the division of houses. I personally loved this and the fact that the setting was always dictated so that there was zero confusion. I’d love to see how well Hollywood could depict this book on the big screen. This could be the next big blockbuster!
I have to give credit to the narrator of this book. Not only did I listen to this book, but I followed along. This narrator, I would give 5 stars! The inflection, dictation, various voices for each character, and the add lib of sound effects was beyond amazing! Mr. Preston, you really brought these characters to life for me! Thank you! I wasn’t bored for even a moment and hated to pause the book to return to my real life responsibilities.
Thank you both Mr. Prue and Mr. Preston for this amazing escape from reality! I can’t wait to read and listen to more!