A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated on September 11, 2018
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
In a universe of capricious gods, dark moons, and kingdoms built on the backs of spaceships, a cursed queen sends her infant daughter away, a jealous uncle steals the throne of Kali from his nephew, and an exiled prince vows to take his crown back.
Raised alone and far away from her home on Kali, Esmae longs to return to her family. When the King of Wychstar offers to gift the unbeatable, sentient warship Titania to a warrior that can win his competition, she sees her way home: she’ll enter the competition, reveal her true identity to the world, and help her famous brother win back the crown of Kali.
It’s a great plan. Until it falls apart.
Inspired by the Mahabharata and other ancient Indian stories, A Spark of White Fire is a lush, sweeping space opera about family, curses, and the endless battle between jealousy and love.
I’ve been kind of all over the place with my reading lately, and not a lot has been sticking, but when I read the summary for A Spark of White Fire I downloaded it immediately.
I love Sci-Fi and I had some high expectations for this and it didn’t let me down.
Admittedly this story started a little slow for me, but I was completely invested by about 25% in.
Esmae is our main protagonist and her history is so intriguing. She grew up alone away from her family and her home of Kali because her mother sent her away based on a curse that was put upon her mother. Esmae only wants one thing … to return to Kali and help her twin brother take back the throne that was stolen from him.
I really loved the way Mandanna wove the gods into this story, the few we meet, add another layer of drama that is unpredictable, and by the end I couldn’t turn pages fast enough!
Of course nothing goes as planned for Esmae.
After winning the unbeatable, sentient warship Titania from right under her brother’s nose, she heads back to Kali to win the trust of the uncle who stole the throne and encounters Max, her uncle’s adopted son and finds that she can’t seem to ignore him… and she doesn’t really want to.
Max is complicated… he loves his father and will do what he needs to support and keep him on the throne, but he also will do what he can to keep a war from happening, and that means keeping an eye on Esmae. What he doesn’t count on is that he is drawn to her in unexpected ways.
Okay… I know what you’re thinking ….ewwwwww his cousin?? BUT – they aren’t blood related, nor did they grow up together so it wasn’t as weird as it might sound. That said, the romance here is slight. There isn’t a lot of it, which me being me, kind of wanted more, but I’ll take what I can!
If you’re a fan of epic sci-fi space opera’s I highly recommend grabbing this title. I’m really excited to see what book 2 is going to bring us, especially after that ending!
Thank you to the publisher for an early copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
About Sangu Mandanna
Sangu Mandanna was four years old when an elephant chased her down a forest road and she decided to write her first story about it. Seventeen years and many, many manuscripts later, she signed her first book deal. The Lost Girl, a YA sci fi novel about death and love, is available now. Sangu now lives in Norwich, a city in the east of England, with her husband and kids.
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