Monsters are real.
But so are heroes.
Sparks are champions of weird science. Boasting capes and costumes and amazing super-powers that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard, they fight an eternal battle for truth and justice . . . mostly.
Darklings are creatures of myth and magic: ghosts, vampires, were-beasts, and the like. Their very presence warps reality. Doors creak at their approach. Cobwebs gather where they linger.
Kim Lam is an ordinary college student until a freak scientific accident (what else?) transforms Kim and three housemates into Sparks—and drafts them into the never-ending war between the Light and Dark. They struggle to master their new abilities—and (of course) to design cool costumes and come up with great hero-names.
Turns out that “accident” was just the first salvo in a Mad Genius’s latest diabolical scheme. Now it’s up to four newbie heroes to save the day, before they even have a chance to figure out what their team’s name should be!

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JAMES ALAN GARDNER has twice won the Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, as well as the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for short fiction, and the Asimov’s Reader’s Choice Award. He lives in Ontario. James is the author of Expendable, Commitment Hour, Vigilant, Hunted, Ascending, Trapped, and Radiant.

"A very smart, funny, thrilling, and quite original science fictional treatment of magic by a master of both, featuring an irresistibly appealing heroine. " —Spider Robinson
"James Alan Gardner is a genius. He always knocks my socks off with his inventive use of language, wild imagination, and engaging storytelling, and this novel is his best yet. You'll love it—it's an absolute joy, managing to be funny, moving, and exciting all at once."—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night
"Read this! It's brilliant, fast-moving FUN. The writing just POPS. A witty, wild ride."— Ed Greenwood, New York Times bestselling author