Home of the Brandon Sparks Young Adult novels.
Posts tagged Brandon Sparks
Characters
Jan 14th
A note about the characters – Joshua Fuld
The story began with a boy and his computer and evolved into a continually expanding universe of humans, aliens and Starbloods. From the beginning I decided that the characters in the Brandon Sparks Universe would be different from what I would call the “caricature characters” you find in much of popular fiction. It was not my desire to pigeonhole characters and lock them into a formulaic pattern in an effort to get the audience to feel like they already know the characters. While it is easy to label a character as this type or that type, you will find that who they are at the beginning of the series is completely different from who they are when it concludes. Each character is unique, and readers will enjoy getting to know them long the way.
As you explore the BSU, you will encounter a wide array of characters with unique backgrounds and life stories, as well as a different set of events that led them to their encounter with Brandon Sparks. One of the main focuses of this web site is to provide the audience with as much information as possible. On each character page you will find a character description written by C.K., and a note from the author (that’s me) explaining how the character came to life. There is even a note from the future. Charlie, Brandon’s house computer gives his take on each character. So, start exploring now and find your favorite one!
Spoiler Alert: By reading the character descriptions you will be exposed to information that hints at events in future novels of the Brandon Sparks series.
Additional Alert: If certain character descriptions seem incomplete, it is intentional. Some information has been withheld so as not to spoil the storyline. Don’t worry, it will be added at a later date.
Final Alert (I promise): The Spoiler Alert and the Additional Alert seem to contradict one another. To clarify, the Spoiler Alert is referring to nuggets of information that are intentionally included in the character descriptions to foreshadow future events in the Brandon Sparks series while the Additional Alert is referring to information that would give away significant portions of the plots of books 3-6. I hope this clears things up.
The Characters
About
Nov 17th
A note about the Brandon Sparks Universe – C.K.
I’ve thought long and hard about how to use this space to tell you what the Brandon Sparks novels are about. It would be appropriate to give you a brief synopsis of the six novels but that is not what I intend to do. You can already find descriptions of the first two novels in the series, Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun and Brandon Sparks and the Star Shadow. Instead I have decided to share with you the discovering of Brandon Sparks by a young person.
Roughly four years ago my doorbell rang and in walked my nine-year-old granddaughter, Halley. My daughter, Kara, and her husband, Mark, were taking my wife to the theater. I had happily offered myself as a babysitter to escape the indescribable torture of sitting through the politically oriented Broadway shows that Dolores holds so dear. Instead I had the pleasure of spending the day with my favorite granddaughter and introducing her, in the most basic of ways, to the subject I am most passionate about.
After filling up on ice cream sandwiches, I told Halley that I wanted to read her a story. She of course said that she was too old to be read to, truth be told, she was, but though she devoured books as a small child, she had lost the love of reading over the years. Both of her parents worked long hours and though they were deeply involved with her education, the need for casual reading did not rank as a high priority. Regardless, I pulled out an old copy of Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun that I kept in the odds-and-ends drawer in my kitchen and slid it in front of her. The pages had begun to yellow, but the cover was clear; a young boy sleeping in bed, the early morning sunlight streaming through his bedroom window while the stars and night sky swirled magically on his ceiling.
As is typical of someone who does not read novels often, Halley asked me if the book had any pictures in it. I laughed at this and told her that it did. It had thousands of pictures, but she would need to use her imagination to see them. Halley gave me that all-too-familiar look an older person gets when someone wants convey that they just said something that makes them sound really old. I asked her for a bit of patience as I folded back the cover and began to read. When I had finished the introduction, I asked her if she wanted me to continue. She said, “Yes,” and just as I was about to begin, my phone rang. As I spoke on the phone I noticed that Halley had picked up the book and began reading it herself. After my phone call I excused myself from the room, and peeked back in at the last minute to see my granddaughter fully immersed in the story.
We barely spoke the rest of the day but that did not bother me at all. A big grin filled my face as I watched my granddaughter consumed by the wonderful story of Brandon Sparks. When my family returned from the theater, Halley had gotten through the first third of the book. It took her the rest of the weekend to complete the novel. She called me Sunday evening and asked me if there was any more. I told her, “You have only just scratched the surface.”
