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Sparks [Kindle Edition]

David Quantick (Author), Steven Appleby (Illustrator)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
Kindle Price: £1.93 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
* Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

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Product Description

Product Description

"I will go back to reading David Quantick's excellent Sparks now" - Neil Gaiman

"“If you choose to only live in one alternative reality make sure it’s the one in which you read Sparks by David Quantick” – Ben Aaronovitch

When Paul Sparks is dumped by Alison, he decides to use a gateway into a million parallel universes to look for a new girfriend - an Alison who won't dump him. It's a simple plan - he's a simple man - except for the forces of the Random, a man called Joseph Kaye, and a cockroach that doesn't exist. Sci-fi comedy.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 396 KB
  • Print Length: 240 pages
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0098UTP5E
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #39,222 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's David Quantick Page
David Quantick
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Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
15 reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Does exactly what it says on the tin 2 Oct 2012
By Chris Miller
Format:Kindle Edition
An impatient reader, I looked forward to this secure that it would be taut and get as much comically out of every paragraph as possible; more Fall Of The House Of Usher than Tess Of The Sodding D'Urbervilles. Sure enough it is, and does.

Beyond the cited Adamsesque(?) conversational and self-effacing tone (reminiscent also of Vonnegut, I suppose) he crafts images in the style Douglas Adams is most quoted for, ranging from the sublime ("the sun fighting its way over the clouds like a smoker climbing the stairs") to the ridiculous ("huge tower blocks, painted according to some ill-advised '70s scheme in black and yellow, like vertical wasps"). I guess that also reflects his form as someone having to describe music he didn't like in print. Cat being pulled out of a cutlery drawer by Vince Clarke, stuff like that. David's book is chocker with this. I grew up on Hitchhiker's, and laugh though I did I don't recall laughing out loud often, as I have with Sparks.

I'd like to have learned more about Alison, and explored the multiverse further - felt a little of the story was lost in the telling of it. But it's still a good yarn told brilliantly. Less than the cost of a Mail On Sunday and a packet of chewing gum, and unlike either you can consume it without a nagging emptiness emerging in the pit of your stomach.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars So good, it made me hurt my eyes 30 Sep 2012
By Geiger
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
A novel by uber media pundit David Quantick (he's been on telly a whole 12 times!) - surely a must-buy... but what is this? Only available on Kindle? Not in papery page-turnable, burnable version? Witchcraft, surely.

I don't own a Kindle. I fear new technology. I wrote an essay in 1994 stating that the Internet was a bit pants and would never catch on, and I stick by that. But I really, really wanted to read this book. I wasn't going to buy a Kindle to read it - that would have pushed the price up to £70.93, which even for the hallowed words of the great Quantick, would be a bit steep.

So, instead, I downloaded Kindle for iPhone (who knew?) and read it on there, in a teeny tiny font, like a really long Tweet. It was excellent. A little bit magicky, but not so much that you can't read it if you're not a geek. Or are female.

In summary: worth the eyestrain. And probably even more enjoyable if you've got a Kindle. Or an iPad. Or have printed it all out and stapled it together to make your own papery version, just like in the old days.

Sparks
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant 23 Sep 2012
By Hilbo
Format:Kindle Edition
If Sparks read this book he probably would have written the above review! As an anti-hero he's perfect. This reminded me of Douglas Adams. Normality meets unreality with humorous consequences. A great read for a great price!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky comic sci-fi type stuff, in a good way 26 Sep 2012
By Rob T
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
So having my ebook price expectations firmly set at 99p by Kindle Daily Deals, I initially wasn't sure how a book could possibly be worth £1.93. But the names David Quantick and Steven Appleby took me back to my teenage NME-buying days so I thought what the hell, I'll give it a go.

Sparks isn't, as I'd first imagined, a biography of the 70s alternative rock band, but more a light-hearted sci-fi-ish comedy about alternative universes. It's a pacey read, a bit reminiscent of the first couple of Hitchhiker's Guide books (before they got terrible) albeit more earthbound.

I can quite honestly say that it was well worth breaching my book budget by 94p (almost double!) and I recommend you do the same.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Very funny 10 Nov 2012
By Gary Marshall
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
David Quantick is a very funny man, and this is a very funny book. Any vaguely comic SF attracts Douglas Adams comparisons, but here they're justified: Sparks is a very English hero, a man who gets pummelled in fights and who reacts to enormous, improbable, astonishing events with all the enthusiasm you'd summon for a disappointing Cornish pasty. The worse his predicament becomes, the funnier things get. Imagine The Time Traveler's Wife or One Day, but with a hapless hero and angry bears.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and Fun 11 Oct 2012
By Sighdone
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm a sucker for comedy sci-fi novels, especially ones with a British anti-hero, and so Sparks was right up my street, as well as millions of other parallel streets. It was impossible to read it without hearing Quantick's own dulcet tones, which made it even more enjoyable.

Witty and well-written, lots of fun and well worth a look.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Quantick Mechanics for Dummies 5 Oct 2012
By S. R. Basso
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very enjoyable, humour and incident-rich. Douglas Adams comparisons inevitable in this genre but I felt more of a connection to Sparks than I ever did to Arthur Dent because Sparks' problems are more like mine. The current version of the novel needs a better proofing, even I spotted a good few errors and I'm quite dim. Well worth the price of a tiny espresso, or even a venti latte and one of those rock hard biscuits they sell for a quid, cheeky swine.
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5.0 out of 5 stars quirky 12 Feb 2013
By Ciaron
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
very funny and quirky, with an original idea and concept.

poor sparks, really does live in a wee world of his own, or does he?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Somebody dramatise this - PLEASE
I LOVED this.

We all know a Sparks - the unmotivated loser who can't grow up and makes most of his ill-judged decisions based on lust. Read more
Published 5 months ago by vriddoch
4.0 out of 5 stars Big ideas, unpretentiously and humorously explored
Sparks is the tale of a hapless lazybones hitting rock bottom - at which point, quite unwittingly, he finds himself at the cutting edge of modern physics. Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Funny and cheaper than chips
I follow David Quantick on Twitter and saw some tweets about the book launch.

I clicked through to Amazon and saw it was £1.93. What sort of a book costs that much? Read more
Published 7 months ago by Gooner
4.0 out of 5 stars Love comes in many dimensions
Every bloke has been there. You're lying on the couch, covered in crisps while your S.O. yells at you to say that if you don't straighten up, she's leaving. Read more
Published 8 months ago by eldink.co.uk
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny sci-fi. What's not to like?
This could have been a massively over-complicated, hard to follow story. The fact that it's not is down to David Quantick's skill as a writer. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Margo Milne
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth almost every penny.
Not a bad read for the money, although for £1.92 it would have been great value. Costs less than a pint, lasts longer than a pint (perhaps I'm just a slow reader? Read more
Published 8 months ago by Gary Sharp
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