Review: The People of Sparks

"People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will always spring up again."

I read The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau close to five years ago. I liked it enough to borrow the movie from the library (which I liked well enough), but I hadn't sought out the sequel. My sister recently recommended the sequel, The People of Sparks, saying that she liked it more than the first one.

It's been too long since I read the first one to really compare them, but The People of Sparks was more thought provoking than I remember The City of Ember being. In this continuation, the people escape from they dying city of Ember and find that they had been living underground for generations. They find their way to Sparks, where the people rather reluctantly take in a group of backward refugees (cavepeople as they come to call them) who use up their resources and know very little about surviving on the surface.

What made this book most interesting for me is that it takes place hundreds of years after an apocalyptic event. There are a few other stories that explore the after effects of apocalypse (The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Kevin Costner in The Postman), but most seem to focus on the apocalyptic event and trying to prevent it or survive it (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Armageddon, etc.).

I used to think that I'd prefer to be killed (quickly, of course) in any sort of apocalyptic event rather than have to try to survive the aftermath. Until I became a mother last year. Now when I watch those movies my survival instinct (particularly for my daughter's survival) is much more intense.

The People of Sparks explores the world and humanity's survival long after we almost wipe ourselves out. How do they survive? When do they finally begin to thrive? And do we ever really learn from the mistakes of the past?