Spark

Written by Evan Angler

Narrated by Jeff Stewart

In a future United States under the power of a charismatic leader, everyone gets the Mark at age thirteen. The Mark lets citizen shop, go to school, and even get medical care—but without it, you're on your own. Few refuse to get the Mark. Those who do . . . disappear.

Parents are looking for fiction that makes Christianity exciting for kids. This series is an alternative to the Hunger Games series and other dark dystopian fiction. It’s packed with action and intrigue, but the message is written from a Christian worldview. 

Logan Langly went to get his Mark but backed out at the last minute. Ever since, he’s been on the run from government agents and on a quest to find his sister Lily, who disappeared when she went to get her Mark five years ago. His journey leads him to befriend the Dust, a network of Markless who oppose the iron-grip rule of the government. On the way to the capital to find Lily, the Dust receive some startling information from the Markless community, warning that humanity is now entering the End of Days.

Spark introduces nine-year-old Ali, a beggar living in the Dark Lands city of al-Balat. Ali meets a stranger who gives her his tablet, a portal to a tech world that Ali never knew existed. But one day, the tablet begins to communicate back to her—and takes her on a journey that will cross her path with exiled Logan Langly, Chancellor Cylis, and the fierce battle for power that spans reality and the virtual world.

Meets national education standards.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tommy Nelson
• Release date: Nov 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781400235780

Reviews for Spark

[jwitt33 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Spark introduces nine-year-old Ali, a beggar living in the Dark Lands city of al-Balat. Ali meets a stranger who gives her his tablet, a portal to a tech world that Ali never knew existed. But one day, the tablet begins to communicate back to her—and takes her on a journey that will cross her path with exiled Logan Langly, Chancellor Cylis, and the fierce battle for power that spans reality and the virtual world."I honestly wasn't sure how I felt about this installment in one of my favorite series because I thought it would have more of my favorite characters in it than it did, or actually any of them at all, but when I let go of that expectation I found that I was able to enjoy it okay. Little Ali is a tough little cookie, but then she's had to be growing up on the streets like she has. The whole "reality vs. virtual reality" aspect was interesting. I did feel like it jumped around a bit too much, making it hard to follow at times. All in all, although I was able to enjoy it somewhat, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked. It was well written, I just didn't connect with it the way I did the first three books in the series.3 out of 5 stars.*** I would like to thank Evan Angler and the publisher, Thomas Nelson Specialty, for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[karin7-11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

??1/2 rounded up to 3

In the fourth book of this dystopian, post-rapture y/a series we meet some new characters, such as Ali of-no-name, the Baras who flee Greece for Switzerland and Ali's cohorts. There is still plenty of action and intrigue, but for an adult reader, there are some rather obvious things, such as who a new character named Uncle Nico really is. Ali, or Aliyah, is sold when she is four because her mother cannot afford to feed her, and the person that bought her promised her a better life; that life turned out to be to live as a beggar and to meet a daily quota or face the frightening consequences. We meet her at nine when she discovers she is the Toter of Light and she ends up being chased down by the IMPS in order to try and tap her talents. We also see the childhood of the new world ruler, Chancellor Cylis (short for a word meaning "jumping spider.") We see very little of our familiar characters, particularly in the first half of the book, but we do meet a sentient artificial intelligence who leads Ali through what we'd call now the internet.

Sentient artificial intelligence and humans minds zipping around the world via cyberspace are not my cup of tea at the best of times, thus the lower rating. I find this combined with the whole concept of a Christian dystopian novel rather odd. However, my son will probably like this significantly better than I did, and it's a series I'm reading along with him.

[dylanm.b1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

SneakSummary: Ali is a street beggar who lives in an old run down hotel with a group of other street beggars. But Ali is special. She has an ability that nobody else in the world can even come close to. For some reason she can control all technology. It doesn’t matter if that technology has not worked in a century, or if it is still up and running, if it is any bit technological she can control it. The only problem with this is that the government wants to have this power so that they can not only rule the world physically but they can also rule it virtually, and they will do anything to get it. Eventually Ali gets adopted by a loving person who takes great care of her and lets her feast, have a hot bath every night, and even go to virtual school. At virtual school, she finds a glitch in the program that lets her enter cyberspace. There she meets the Ultranet who she then nicknames Mother (because it took the shape of her mom). The Ultranet tells Ali all about her powers and how it wasn’t really Ali that had the power it was the Ultranet who was just doing all of that stuff for Ali. After spending a while with Mother (the Ultranet) Ali’s nice (sort of like a father started asking a lot of questions about the Ultranet. Mother warns Ali about him but it is too late. Her nice loving (almost) father is not who she thinks it is.Review: Sneak was a pretty good book. It was boring throughout most of the book, and it didn’t get good until about the last 75ish pages. The ending was not was not what I was expecting and just like the previous book in the series it had quite a few twists. It wasn’t the best book I have read and the only reason I didn’t stop reading it was because I wanted to know how it ended because all of the other books in its series have had pretty good endings. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a lot of time on their hands and who have read the rest of the books in the series. Overall I didn’t like it that much, but that is just my opinion.