I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Last Days of Lorien

Pittacus Lore

This novella is a continuation in the Lorien Legacies series. Set on Lorien before the invasion of the Mogs, we get a picture of what life is like and how complacent the Loric have become. The protagonist of this iteration is Sandor, who eventually becomes Cepan to Nine. He is basically a hacker in a world where no one would ever believe a hacker could exist. A few fun details, and since it is a novella, it takes about an hour to read.

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I am Number Four: The Lost Files: Nine's Legacy

Pittacus Lore

Great big spoiler alert!! This little novela gives some back story on Nine. Nine lives in Chicago with his Cepan and his legacies are just starting to develop. He gets anti-gravity. The Mogadorians catch up with him, he gets captured, his Cepan gets killed (along with his girlfriend) and then he is rescued by Four. This is a fun series (The Lorien Legacies) and I like this idea of novellas to keep us hooked. I did browse around the fansite on the web and in a little background page, Lore states that Lorien is over 300 million miles away. I hope that the emphasis is on "over" since 300 million miles puts the Lorien star system right between Mars and Jupiter in our solar system. Come on Pittacus Lore, pay attention to details.

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The Revenge of Seven

Pittacus Lore

Book 5 of the Lorien Legacies series

Having read these out of order (accidentally read book 6 before 5) it becomes so clear how much of a serial these are. That is, there are very few missing details that required book 5 to be read. Sure, I wondered what happened at the sanctuary, but it was not really essential to know exactly what happened. Very much like reading the comics every day in a serial comic, or reading only on Sunday. The dailies are pretty thin in plot content.

Even so, the light writing style makes for an enjoyable quick read. In this installment, the Mogs actually begin their invasion of Earth and the Loric discover the source of Lorien on Earth, hoping for some serious help in the war. Ella (10) is figuring out her role as prisoner/heir to Setrakus Ra, Adam is figuring out his role as Mog defector, and Five as Loric defector. So lots of everyone unsure about who to trust and how to proceed as the action forces them to trust and proceed anyway.

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I am Number Four

Pittacus Lore

Book 1 of the Lorien Legacies series

I first learned of this series by watching the film by the same name (which I liked by the way). It didn't get great reviews and didn't make any money, so we probably won't see the sequels. As always, the book allows us to go deeper and get more detail. The story places 9 young aliens on earth along with their 9 mentors. These 18 are refugees from the planet Lorian, which was conquered and destroyed by aliens from the planet Mogadore. Upon leaving Lorian, the 9 Guarde were protected with a spell that only allowed them to be killed in order. The book opens with Number 3 being found and killed by the Mogadorians and we follow Number 4 for the remainder of the story. We get a little bit of a love interest, we get so wacky alien, conspiracy nuts, and generic teen/high school drama. The emphasis here is to set up the story of these 9 young aliens as living in secret until their powers develop (as some sort of alien puberty). Once the Legacies develop, the guarde can join together to defeat the Modadorians and begin repopulation of Lorian. As a book that stands on its own, only moderately good. As the first book for a series, the series has promise. Will let you know with future installments.

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Next up: The Power of Six (Book 2 of the Lorien Legacies series)

The Power of Six

Pittacus Lore

Book 2 of the Lorien Legacies series

A little bit of a play on words here as the powerful Six is a main part of the story and we are starting to see how powerful the remaining six Garde will be when they are together. This book picks up where I am Number Four left off, at the destruction of the high school in Paradise, Ohio. Six, Four and Sam are now alone and on the run. Designated as terrorists, they must not only avoid the Mogs, but also the FBI. Their primary goal is to go find Six's chest, which she believes is locked up in a Mogadorian underground stronghold in West Virginia where she was once held captive. Of course, they are constantly sidetracked by attacks and other pressing matters. Suffice it to say, Six does not get her chest back, but there are plenty of other surprises along the way. We are also introduced to Seven, the Garde who lives in Spain and has been tracked by Mogs for quite some time. As her legacies develop, things there get interesting as well. 

I think what I like best about this series is the imagination of the legacies. Fireproof, invisible, weather controlling, anti-gravity, healing, breath under water. All the things I love about the X-men I suppose. Add in the fact that each Garde is discovering things about themselves and pulling strange things out of their chests that they don't know what they do and you have a right good time. Of course, I am starting to see some inconsistencies that are going to bug me if they don't get resolved. And I will always be bugged by how far away Lorien is (reinforced in this book as over 100 million miles away). But I am still enthralled. 

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The Fall of Five

Pittacus Lore

Book 4 of the Lorien Legacies series

This is becoming my favorite serial series. It is lightweight enough that I don't mind waiting a year between installments (the plot doesn't required that I know the ending), but intriguing enough to pull be back for each installment. In this episode, we have 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 all hanging out, having just survived a battle with the enemy. They are trying to plan their next move when they find 5. With the group all together (including the humans), individual personalities, histories and loyalties begin to rise to the surface. In the end, we get story altering information about 5, 8, 10 and even BK. Fun, Fun, Fun, bring on the next...

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Generation One

Pittacus Lore

Starting a new series in the Lorien Legacies world. We are post war with the Mogadorians and the Garde have won, with the help of the new human garde of course. With Loric energy infusing a new generation, we of course need to start a Professor Xavier like school in order to train the newly powerful humans how to be safe... and to control and use these powers. So we go to school, meet a few of the new human garde, not all of whom are excited to be chosen. They get restless, get into trouble, uncover a vast conspiracy, and learn a lot about themselves in the process of fighting crime and corruption. This is as entertaining as the X-files, and about as deep. In fact, I am increasingly aware of the fact that this could easily have been written by an AI trained in formulaic YA sci-fi.

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The Unity of One

Pittacus Lore

Book 7 of the Lorien Legacies series

The final book in the series, I have really enjoyed these. The read is super fast, low level reading so there is not a huge investment. And yet, the story held together pretty much throughout. In this installment, the final battle is presented. The Mogs have openly attacked all the major cities on earth and the Guarde are looking for a way to defeat them. Throughout the series, I will say that the setup has been as follows: a bunch of Guarde (9 of them) were put on earth and distributed for protection, but they would need to come together at the right moment to defeat the Mogs. And then the title of this installment, and I am thinking some sort of Transformers, everybody come together and a larger power/new combo legacy is revealed. Sadly, the battle (spoiler alert) is won. But won by basically a bunch of individual actions. Yes, every member of the team has a role in the victory, but essentially, nothing of unity or necessity of gathering was really offered. Don't get me wrong, this is but a minor disappointment in a largely entertaining series. Looking for some quick sci-fi reading this summer, this could be your series.

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I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Search for Sam

Pittacus Lore

This novella is a followup to Lost Legacies novella in the Lorien Legacies series. It continues from the perspective of Adam, the Mog general's wayward son. Adam has, as the result of a memory retrieval experiment, gained some of the consciousness of One. This results in new sympathies and in this novella, we find out how he is able to help out with Sam and his Father, intersecting with the storyline of The Rise of Nine. This is a great serial and Lore can't write them fast enough.
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I am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Fallen Legacies

Pittacus Lore

Another novela with some back story on the Lorien Legacy series. This time we are in the point of view of a Mogadorian. And not just any Mogadorian, but the son of the General of the expansion force on earth. And the story gives us the history of the demise of the first three Guarde. Good cultural detail (trueborn vs vat-born) and diversity (hawks vs doves) makes for a fascinating story keeps me wanting more. Exactly what a mid-series novela is supposed to do.

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The Rise of Nine

Pittacus Lore

Book 3 of the Lorien Legacies series

The Garde are meeting up. Six, Seven, Ten (yes, Ten) and Ten's Cepan are now on their way to India to meet Eight. Four and Nine are still in the US, recovering from their battle with Mogadorian supreme leader Setrakus Ra. Five is still out there somewhere. At least Four, Eight and Nine are having frequent visions about Ra and each other, Four still feels guilty about his human friends, and who drew the mural in India predicting all the outcomes that we already know about. This is still a very cheesy series, but I like it. In fact, I am a bit sad that I now am in the "wait several years" category until Lore can write the next segments. It looks like a couple more backstory novellas are in store for next year.

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The Fate of Ten

Pittacus Lore

Book 6 of the Lorien Legacies series

So I missed book 5, and will have to pick it up later. This installment finds 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 & 10 remaining. We open with 5 & 9 fighting each other in NY, but barely noticed as the Mog warships hover over the city and are destroying Manhattan. Warships are over DC, Tokyo, Beijing, LA, London, etc. The war is officially on and there is no more hiding. 4 and Sam are battling in NY, 6 and 7 are in Mexico at "The Sanctuary" with Adam (major plot development in book 5 I presume) and 10 is captured by Setrakus Ra and in on the invading flagship. So the crew is still trying to figure out what Ra's endgame is, as well as finding out who they can/cannot trust. Along the way, they continue to discover new allies in surprising ways.  Of all the books, this seems like the most in the vein of a "plot setup" as any. Not really any seriously new or exciting alien stuff or battle technique, but finally moving the plot around to allow for a conclusion to the series. So not quite as good as prior episodes, but worth continuing none-the-less.

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