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Title: The Spark
Author: Susan Jane Bigelow
Genre: Science Fiction/superheroes (book three)
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Extrahumans fight tyrannical government in space.
Thoughts: I’m still not sure whether this was the end of a trilogy or not.
In favor: the lingering mystery of why Broken’s powers, well, broke is completely ignored and seems to be no longer relevant; we meet the grown up macguffin child from the first book; central characters end up back physically where they started; the precognitive who kicked this all off gets the last word as he writes the letter that kicks it all off.
Against: the events the precog is pushing everything toward still haven’t happened; half the characters from the last book disappeared and are only vaguely referred to; major antagonists are still around; and the characters have only kind of resolved some of their issues.
This is, unfortunately, a book in which many events occur and nothing much happens. A lot of time elapses over the course of the novel and several characters have major personality shifts either between the last book and this one or during the unshown time periods. They’re all reasonable personality shifts that have some believable causes, but because they essentially happen offstage, it feels more like the author shoehorned them in to make plot happen than something that naturally evolved in the character’s arc. Especially the first couple chapters feel like the author wrapped up emotional arcs for characters in the last book and then realized that she really needed those characters to be in a different emotional place and so just hit “reset”. Renna, for instance, did a lot of heavy emotional lifting and ended up with Brian in the last book. Here, she abruptly realizes she’s fallen out of love off-page, and then turns into a very different person by the end, without us being there for any of it.
Most disappointing, I feel, is the ending. If there is a fourth book, I’ll forgive it. But the point of St. Val’s letters is that he’s supposed to be pushing people into decisions that will fix the future. The books end without any of the actions caused by his letters having done anything, though. Dee, for example, is supposed to bring Torres to Clearfield. But this action has no noticeable impact on the political situation. Perhaps Val’s point was to, instead, manipulate her into taking on the Confederation. But when the book ends, it’s not like she’s struck any kind of decisive victory—there is absolutely no sign that any of her actions accomplished anything other than killing a lot of people. Likewise, we meet the grown up child saved in the first book. Kid’s charismatic and all, but he still hasn’t done anything by the end of the book.
The writing’s not bad, and the world-building from the first book is still interesting. I am invested in the characters. But there’s a lack of focus here—the plot wanders without conclusion and characters all seem adrift. If this is the end of a trilogy, it’s disappointing. If there’s more to come, I’ll admit I’m losing patience.
Author: Susan Jane Bigelow
Genre: Science Fiction/superheroes (book three)
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Extrahumans fight tyrannical government in space.
Thoughts: I’m still not sure whether this was the end of a trilogy or not.
In favor: the lingering mystery of why Broken’s powers, well, broke is completely ignored and seems to be no longer relevant; we meet the grown up macguffin child from the first book; central characters end up back physically where they started; the precognitive who kicked this all off gets the last word as he writes the letter that kicks it all off.
Against: the events the precog is pushing everything toward still haven’t happened; half the characters from the last book disappeared and are only vaguely referred to; major antagonists are still around; and the characters have only kind of resolved some of their issues.
This is, unfortunately, a book in which many events occur and nothing much happens. A lot of time elapses over the course of the novel and several characters have major personality shifts either between the last book and this one or during the unshown time periods. They’re all reasonable personality shifts that have some believable causes, but because they essentially happen offstage, it feels more like the author shoehorned them in to make plot happen than something that naturally evolved in the character’s arc. Especially the first couple chapters feel like the author wrapped up emotional arcs for characters in the last book and then realized that she really needed those characters to be in a different emotional place and so just hit “reset”. Renna, for instance, did a lot of heavy emotional lifting and ended up with Brian in the last book. Here, she abruptly realizes she’s fallen out of love off-page, and then turns into a very different person by the end, without us being there for any of it.
Most disappointing, I feel, is the ending. If there is a fourth book, I’ll forgive it. But the point of St. Val’s letters is that he’s supposed to be pushing people into decisions that will fix the future. The books end without any of the actions caused by his letters having done anything, though. Dee, for example, is supposed to bring Torres to Clearfield. But this action has no noticeable impact on the political situation. Perhaps Val’s point was to, instead, manipulate her into taking on the Confederation. But when the book ends, it’s not like she’s struck any kind of decisive victory—there is absolutely no sign that any of her actions accomplished anything other than killing a lot of people. Likewise, we meet the grown up child saved in the first book. Kid’s charismatic and all, but he still hasn’t done anything by the end of the book.
The writing’s not bad, and the world-building from the first book is still interesting. I am invested in the characters. But there’s a lack of focus here—the plot wanders without conclusion and characters all seem adrift. If this is the end of a trilogy, it’s disappointing. If there’s more to come, I’ll admit I’m losing patience.
