Before they were torn asunder, Laia lived happily and quietly with her Nan, Pop, and brother Darin within the Scholar district of Martial-ruled Serra. Although Laia is afraid to venture outside her home due to the heavy Martial presence, Darin loves to explore all parts of their home city… even those that are forbidden.
A chance encounter with famed swordsmith Spiro Teluman, who sees in Darin a talent for forging weapons, leads him down a path that pulls him away from his family but towards hope for his people. Meanwhile, Laia is forced to take her brother’s place accompanying Pop to combat a dangerous illness spreading quickly through Serra. When Laia discovers a surprising cure, will she brave exposure and the heavily-patrolled streets so she can save the city and someone she loves?
I decided to go for a quick read and chose Sabaa Tahir's A Spark Within the Forge! I had almost forgotten about the prequel series Sabaa wrote for her An Ember in the Ashes quartet! It's been so long since I read the original series I can't quite remember all the details, so bits of the prequel story are starting to get a bit lost for me, but I still enjoyed it anyway. I remember vague details about things, but I am enjoying it all the same!
Sonia Liao's illustrations in this one were stunning! I always love the different styles graphic novels take on! I am not a seasoned graphic novel reader but I've read a handful and the different styles in art always delight me! I love the choice of colors too and noting the different tones based on the scenes and what's happening!
Nicole Andelfinger helped to adapt the story and I must confess, I am deeply curious about what a story adapter does! I mean I get the general concept of it all, but yes, this role fascinates me as a reader!
Onto the actual story, this time around we are with Laia and her brother, Darin before the events of the series at large take place! I remember the first graphic novel focused on Elias, Helene, and Tavi. So jumping over to Laia's past was an interesting take. We get bits of both Lai and Darin in this one and kind of seeing how they got onto their starting paths of the main series. It was definitely intriguing!
Darin has been shirking his healing duties lately, taking more to sketching and basically staying out past the citywide curfew and dodging the Martials all the while. Whereas Laia has to take on some of Darin's healer duties and helping her grandfather tend to the sick.
Laia has an intense fear of the Martials and it kind of keeps her from living life. Her best friend is sad that Laia won't take a risk and come out past curfew to party with her and their other friends. Then Darin is questioning his life choices and what he actually wants to do with his life as we know things in their world are not well. There's a great dissent among the Martials, the unnamed Commandant, and the citizens who are subject to their whims.
All in all, I found this to be a great read! It's a fast one too as I just finished my last book and read this one in a handful of minutes! I forget how quick graphic novels go but yet I enjoyed it all the same! I did see on Goodreads that this was supposed to be a prequel trilogy and I am starting to think it's going to remain unfinished as there were two years between the first two books and here we are two years later with nothing on this unnamed third. So here I am again, falling in love with an amazing series that got canceled. This happened with the Vampire Academy graphic novels too but that one ended with Shadow's Kiss and we all remember (possibly, maybe) how that one ended! It's a tragedy all the same with this one as well as now I will always wonder...what was meant to happen next? It would probably have ended with sadness as well since the quartet had yet to begin and all the chaos that Laia and her soon-to-be friends would endure had yet to begin.
A Spark Within the Forge was still a fun and delightful read! There's always something magical about reading a graphic novel that's based off a book series I've read! Yes, sometimes we're lucky and get movies or TV series of our favorite shows, but then we sometimes we get graphic novels and that's a whole other kind of magic entirely!
Overall Rating 5/5 stars
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