Sparks of Light (Into the Dim #2)

Sparks of Light by Janet B.  Taylor
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.
I was not as impressed by this book as I was the first in the series. It just felt kind of pieced together and I didn't see much character development. Perhaps my opinions were colored by the fact that I read "The Last Magician" a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. That book, although the first in a series, takes a similar concept of time travelers in turn-of-the-century New York and does a much better job.
Because this book was the second in a series, I needed a little more time/effort spent on going back over background information from the first book. Even though I did read the first one, there were details I had forgotten and so I felt a bit lost going into this one, when things weren't explained very well. If one does read this book, I would definitely recommend reading the first one right before starting this one.
Also, I felt as though much of the emotional journey that the various characters were on were left to the first book, so this was like, "The Continuing Adventures of..." Nothing really new or exciting happens to them to affect them, unless one takes into account artifacts or information that they uncover. But if one hasn't read the first book, one will have no idea why those artifacts or information is important.
The action that takes place in the "hospital" didn't seem to really fit, either. It didn't really move along the story or have much connection to what was going on. All of the things at were relevant to he story, like initially meeting with Tesla, finding the villains, planning the climactic event at the end, all happened "off-stage." Even things like studying building plans were a little too conveniently added in all of a sudden, like, "Good thing I studied those blue prints last week back at home so that now I know we can sneak in through this windows over there."
This book could have bee much better, and I would definitely not recommend it if you have not read the first one.


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