The People of Sparks (City of Ember Book 2)

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The audio narration is pretty good, if old-school. The most annoying thing was the way the mayor’s dialogue would pause every three words for the super-fat mayor to catch his breath.

The People of Sparks is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Jeanne DuPrau, published in 2004. It is the second "Book of Ember" in the series, and a sequel to The City of Ember; other books in the series include The Prophet of Yonwood and The Diamond of Darkhold. Y la chispa, the spark, crea el fuego que no solo da vida y luz y calor... Tambien es peligro y violencia... Tensión...

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The weak writing, admittedly present in City of Ember, is more apparent here in the second book...and the story is a bit overbearing & heavyhanded with its message, at the expense of the story-unfolding... The message is peace-keeping and war-avoiding though, so I guess I have a bit of leniency for the message-hammering. The heart of the allegory is in the different responses by various citizens to their town's problem: those who deny the problem, those who wait blindly for rescue, those who selfishly hoard as many goods for themselves as they can. It is easy to make application to various groups in our own society. Lina and Doon are among the few who actively search for a positive solution. Even within their own hearts they struggle with conflicts of fear and pride, which might have hindered the saving of the city. When an unspecified global catastrophe looms, an underground city known as Ember is constructed to shelter a large group of survivors. In addition, a small metal box intended for a future generation of Emberites is timed to open after 200 years. This box is entrusted to the Mayor of the City of Ember, and each Mayor passes it on to their successor. When the seventh Mayor dies suddenly, the succession is broken, and over time, the box's significance is forgotten. The box opens by itself at the allotted time, but it goes unnoticed. Several decades later, Ember's generator begins to fail, and food, medicine and other necessities are in dangerously short supply. I am sort of a late-comer with Young Adult novels. I blame it on my age. When I was a teenager in the 60s there was no real level between children and adult literature. Teen literature was a bit of a no man's land. I didn't realize there might actually be real literature in YA until I read the Harry Potter series. Since then, I've dabble a bit with the genre and discovered some gems: The Hunger Games series, Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, and Dan Wells' John Wayne Cleaver series. Of course there are plenty of duds too (Hello, Twilight!). Yet I am more willing to explore in this field than I was before. Wouldn't it be strange, she thought, to have a blue sky? But she liked the way it looked. It would be beautiful - a blue sky.”

Which is why the entire set is still dressed and covered with warning signs, which doesn’t stop Gil at all from showing us Loris’ breakfast machine, “something I’m unnecessarily proud of. It’s one of the contraptions that Doon’s father has built, an automatic can opening breakfast machine which I believe every good family film needs to have. So I’m perpetuating a long standing rich movie tradition of breakfast machines and I’m really, really proud of this one because it totally works. It’s amazing. It went from a sketch in my sketch book into a completely non-working, working model in a matter of weeks because we’ve got some brilliant, brilliant physical effects dudes working on this film.”

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Lina and Doon escaped the dying city of Ember and led their people to the town of Sparks. But it’s winter now, and the harsh realities of their new world have begun to set in. When Doon finds a book that hints at an important, long-lost device, it doesn’t take much for him to convince Lina to join him for one last adventure in the place they used to call home. But will this mysterious technology be enough to help their people? And what— and who—will they find when they return? I really enjoyed the character dynamics DuPrau set up in this novel. With very few exceptions, all of the players were honestly trying to do good. She set up some great conflicts which resulted in each group of people trying to do what was good, and yet that "good" was conflicting and causing tension. It's the old adage "you can't please everyone all the time." There are always self-interests of individuals and even of groups which will collide with other individuals and groups. This book presented great examples of how people interact and shows motivation for making compromises and looking at the situation from the point of view of the other person. Maybe it can be stopped at the beginning," Maddy said. "If someone sees what's happening and is brave enough to reverse the direction."