Sparkers

Gr 5–8—Marah discovers that her brother Caleb has been struck by the illness that is spreading rapidly in the city of Ashara. Like the other victims, Caleb is feverish and his eyes have turned an unnaturally dark color. The sickness is always fatal. What can she do? Marah is only a halan, a sparker as they are insultingly called, and does not possess the magic of the ruling class of kasari. Marah, as do many of the halani, has the gift of intuition, but that did nothing to save her father from dying years ago or the young man in the marketplace from being magically executed by the First Councilor Corps a few weeks before. Yet that same day in the marketplace, Marah saved a young kasiri girl, Sarah, who has taken a keen interest in Marah's storytelling abilities. Soon Marah meets Sarah's older brother, Azariah, who shares her fascination for languages. Pooling their knowledge, they soon discover that they are in possession of the recipe for a cure for the dark eyes, but it comes from a language outlawed by the council over a hundred years ago. The two children must risk their lives to get the ingredients on the black market and brew the magic cure—all while hiding from their pursuers. Marah and Azariah, with the help of his family, must attempt to overcome the First Council and disperse the cure to all. This book holds all that fantasy readers could desire: magic, intrigue, mysterious characters, ancient curses, and a dark evil that must be defeated. Not everything is wrapped up neatly, and the various characters are multilayerd, neither all good nor all bad. A worthy and worthwhile stand-alone book in a genre so often serialized.—Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library, MA