OK. So. One of my favourite characters in this series is not actually in this book. And still, this is my favourite so far.
'The Rise of Nine'. That in itself is probably the coolest title they've done so far; it's much more awesome than 'I am Number Four' and it's less trying-too-hard than 'The Power of Six'. The actual book itself is good as well, at least, as far as this series goes.
We have the book focussing on two particular storylines, mostly: John (Number Four), Nine and Bernie Kosar the shapeshifting dog thing being on the run from Mogadorians and federal agents, while simultaneously figuring out their next move, and Six, Marina (Number Seven), Ella (Number Ten) and Crayton (Ella's mentor thing) searching for another member of the Garde.
John's storyline is far easier to sum up than the other, so I'll do that first: He finds out Sarah may not have actually given him up to the FBI, argues with Nine, goes back to where Nine used to live, fights with him some more, they bond, then they work out where they need to go - by using a tablet he found in Paradise last book to locate the others.
Six and co.'s story is a little more involved. They first go to India, where they meet a bunch of soldiers who take them to someone they believe to be a god, Vishnu. This turns out to be Number Eight, who joins the group, finds his chest thanks to Marina, and takes them to a giant stone in the mountains. While there, Mogadorians attack, and Crayton is killed.
And I totally called it. Grown-ups are like the red shirts of the Lorien Legacy world.
Anyway, the stone allows Eight to teleport them (eventually) to New Mexico. For some reason, Six is separated from them in the teleport. Six manages to get into the Mogadorian base, where she finds Sarah who isn't actually Sarah, but Setrakus Ra, the leader of the Mogadorians shapeshifting into Sarah. Six gets caught and thrown into a cell with the real Sarah who reveals she definitely didn't rat John out. Six escapes and goes and fights Setrakus Ra. Naturally, she gets beaten pretty quickly since Ra is the ultimate boss fight at the end of the game, and our main characters aren't even halfway through the game. They're practically noobs in comparison. She gets turned to stone by a whip (you didn't know whips could do that? Yeah, me neither) and attached to the ceiling. As you do.
Fortunately, John and Nine have arrived in New Mexico and met up with Marina, Eight and Ella, where they proceed to free Sarah and go on to fight a bunch of Mogadorians, John finding he can make fireballs with his lumen powers. They find Six, who turns out to be Ra (you'd think Sarah might have warned them he can shape shift? It's heavily implied he used it to try and make her talk) and he stabs Eight through the chest, fulfilling his death prophesied by wall carving, that was shown in the cave where the big stone was. Because of course, prophecies of doom make a book cool, even when we have no idea where they came from and why they were carved.
Setrakus Ra takes their legacies away, and he and his men start to beat them pretty badly in the fight, until Ella is somehow able to reverse the process and allows them to get their legacies back. Yay, plot convenience! Maybe they'll explain in a later book. Marina heals Eight, John discovers his own powers of healing when Sarah and Ella are injured, and Setrakus Ra escapes. The group vow to win the war, or something, and the book ends.
I
have to be honest, I looking at that I wouldn't have expected to enjoy the book so much - particularly given the lack of Sam Goode, one of my (at the time I began reading this book) two favourite characters. He makes a brief appearance in a dream sequence John has, but that's about it. I think it helped that Nine is so predominant in this book, and his character is arguably the most interesting and dynamic of the Loric characters. He seems like the stereotypical tough-guy, but the author manages to balance that out with enough explanation on his part as to why he behaves that way, without doing it so often that he loses all credibility as a tough guy.
Marina's almost hero-worship of Six was kind of interesting, and has possibilities, but they seem to focus more on her feelings for Eight - who is himself a decent character in his own right, I guess, but I'd like to see Marina get past her feelings of inadequacy so she can stop going on about it, and having the only reprieve of that being her fancying Eight is not what I had in mind. I'd quite prefer her to move through it, show it develop rather than staying in the same place. Ella is a kid. That seems to be more or less her personality. Moving on. John is still fairly dull, but he seems to be maturing as a character at the very least, and the fact that Six seems to realise that Sarah really loves John hopefully puts an end to that stupid (and pointless) love triangle.
It's odd that I enjoyed the section with John and Nine more than I did the stuff with Six, Seven, Eight and Ten; I guess it's because there was less going on plot wise and fewer characters to take up page space that allowed for greater character development. I still enjoyed the other storyline, and when the two converged was probably the coolest thing I've seen so far in these books.
Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys anything to do with this series. The dialogue is still clunky, and the narration still lacking - but the action is till awesome, some of the concepts are cool, and a few characters are actually somewhat interesting. I definitely hold that it's the best so far, and while I hope we get to see Sam next book, as long as it keeps being on a similar level of quality as this, or higher, I should be happy.
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Monday 18 November 2013
Pretentious reviews: The Power of Six
Having been through the high school drama crossed with a sci-fi adventure crossed again with a superhero story that was I Am Number Four, we move on to its sequel, The Power of Six, written by Pittacus Lore, the same guy who wrote the last book.
A note on the author: Pittacus Lore, like several authors of children and teen fantasy books, is a fictional character that exists within the universe of the story (much like such names as Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, of the How to Train Your Dragon series). The actual writers, James Frey and Jobie Hughes, wrote this and the previous book together; however this was the last they both worked on as Hughes left the project and left Frey to continue with the series, apparently due to creative differences in how they wished to continue the series.
The book itself begins with a new character, Marina - Number Seven - as the narrator. Her story is really quite forgettable up until the end, but there are a few things of importance that are shown early on. First, her mentor - or Cepan thing - seems to have somehow forgotten, or blocked Lorien from her mind, won't talk of it and has hidden her chest (full of stuff from Lorien that each of the Nine are given) from her. Instead, she chooses to fully embrace life as a nun or something - since they are staying at a monastery of sorts in Spain. Secondly, Marina seems to have worked out John Smith - now considered a terrorist for blowing school in the battle at the end of the last book - is one of the Garde, and is trying to follow him via internet. Genius planning, right there. Third, we learn that she has the powers of healing, breathing underwater and the standard super strength, super speed and telekinesis. And she has a friend called Hector, who contributes basically nothing to the plot, and a friend called Ella, who contributes a great deal to the plot.
I think the contrast was unintentional.
On John's end, we see him, Six, Sam and Bernie Kosar (who John can speak to thanks to his animal telepathy gained at the end of the last book) running from Homeland Security and the Mogadorians, training in fighting and developing a love triangle. Or square. See, John "loves" Sarah, as established in about half of the first book. Sam likes Six, and Six seems to like Sam. And then for some reason, Six and John start to like each other too. And unnecessary drama ensues, particularly since John is the narrator and feels the need to go on and on about his conflicted feelings. It's particularly annoying, since I prefer Sam as a character to John and Six as a character to Sarah, and think it would just be better if they got together and left Blandy McBlandness with Boring McBoringness in a field somewhere to do bland boring stuff together. And yes, I am fully aware that's a childish way to put it, but frankly it annoys me and it makes me go all infantile when I think about it, so there. Blame the writers, not me. Anyway, John reads a letter from Henri given from him at the end of the last book and learns that Sam's dad was actually helping the Loric, and that's why they went to Paradise in the first place - to find him. John thinks they need to go back to Paradise and find some stuff, which they do. They find a huge skeleton and some stuff in an old well. Then John goes to Sarah, drama ensues when she finds out about Six, and then Homeland Security arrives and takes John and Sam into custody, the implication being that Sarah ratted them out.
John and Sam are pretty quickly broken out by Six, after learning that the feds are working with the Mogs. Typical government, always trying to help aliens take over the planet. And people say an Anarchist society is a bad idea...
Actually, it isn't a bad idea. It's just a paradox and would never work practically, or even theoretically. So it isn't a bad idea, since it isn't a real idea in the first place. But I digress.
John then goes after the Mogadorian hideout in order to get back his chest, which Six lost when Mogadoians attacked while John was being arrested, along with Sam.
Oh, sure, take the human kid with no super powers into the middle of enemy territory, that plan's never gonna backfire on you.
Six, meanwhile, through some convenience of the stuff in John's chest earlier, discovers the location of Marina, who herself has located her own chest at a highly convenient moment that gives her location to the three, and goes off to find her and meet with the other two at a predetermined location.
Marina, meanwhile, is found by the Mogadorians, who kill her Cepan (and I really didn't care) and chase her and Ella to some bloke who she had seen talking to her friend Hector and had assumed was a Mogadorian. But he isn't a Mogadorian, he's actually Loric, and Ella's Cepan. 'But wait,' I don't hear you ask, 'Isn't Ella a bit young to be one of the Nine?' To which I respond. 'How the heck do you know that? I never mentioned her age!' Yeah, she's actually not even in her teens yet. She's actually Number Ten, the Garde who was missing from the ship and arrived with a bunch of chimaera on another, different ship that left after the first. This... was kind of a surprise to me, but well done, I guess. At the very least, I did think nine was an odd number of Garde to send down, so knowing there were meant to be ten instead makes a lot more sense.
Anyway, Six arrives and helps Marina, Ella, and Ella's Garde Crayton fight off the Mogadorians; Hector is killed (after doing pretty much nothing worth mentioning until he kicked the bucket; honestly, sometimes it feels like the adults here are only around to die) and so is a random chimaera that, again, I do not care about. Look, writers, if you want to kill off a bunch of characters, make us actually care about them before you go about it. Don't just kill them off by the bucketload and expect us to get emotional; it's a real case of quality over quantity.
See, Game of Thrones manages to make this work both ways. Know why the Red Wedding was so shocking to fans? Because we actually cared about the characters being butchered in front of us! We spent time with them, got to know them, learnt their flaws and strengths, laughed and maybe got emotional over some of their moments... If you're into that. Not that I am. So yeah, when they died? Pretty horrific. Killing a bunch of minor characters we have no reason to care about except being told our main characters care about them will not provide the emotional impact I'm sure you want to achieve.
Bet this Crayton bloke dies next book. Adults don't seem to be allowed to last a full storyline in this franchise, unless they have pretty much no connection to the plot whatsoever.
Around this time, John and Sam are infiltrating the Mogadorian lair, where they find John's chest and another Loric's chest - but not Six's. Turns out the Mogadorians have captured Nine - who John and Sam rescue. Nine turns out to be friggin' awesome, completely whaling on the Mogadorians as they make their way out. On the downside, Sam gets captured and John is incapacitated when he tries to go back for him. Oh, and the leader of the Mogadorians, some Setrakus Ra chap, arrives on Earth.
The end.
Yeah, this book is a step up from the first, in my opinion. While I am not pleased about the development of the love whatsit stuff, and Marina's storyline feels like a regression back to Four's story in the previous instalment except it drags even more, the other stuff with John, Sam and Six is quite good, and I do like the characters of Six and Sam a lot. I also like Nine, the brief appearance he made in this story sets him higher than everyone bar Six from Marina's storyline, and John's storyline bar Six and Sam. Looking forward to seeing more of this guy, though I'm not happy about them leaving Sam behind. Poor kid didn't even get a proper kiss goodbye from Six - but John did. Yeah, wasn't impressed by that either. It happens just before Sam and John are about to split ways with Six, and it felt completely forced and unnecessary, particularly since she was actually angrier with John than Sam at that point, and claimed to like both of them... Yeah, hated it. Sam's a better character, you blind, crazy lady. Get with the kid and be done with it! Goodness knows, the guy needs something good to happen to him.
Still, highschool drama crap is in the background more than it was last book which is a definite plus, the action is more plentiful and still pretty cool and we get more insight into the lore of this universe (pun unintentional). Overall, I'd rate this one reasonably high, and I'm so far enjoying the series well enough to keep going with these reviews.
I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.
A note on the author: Pittacus Lore, like several authors of children and teen fantasy books, is a fictional character that exists within the universe of the story (much like such names as Lemony Snicket of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, of the How to Train Your Dragon series). The actual writers, James Frey and Jobie Hughes, wrote this and the previous book together; however this was the last they both worked on as Hughes left the project and left Frey to continue with the series, apparently due to creative differences in how they wished to continue the series.
The book itself begins with a new character, Marina - Number Seven - as the narrator. Her story is really quite forgettable up until the end, but there are a few things of importance that are shown early on. First, her mentor - or Cepan thing - seems to have somehow forgotten, or blocked Lorien from her mind, won't talk of it and has hidden her chest (full of stuff from Lorien that each of the Nine are given) from her. Instead, she chooses to fully embrace life as a nun or something - since they are staying at a monastery of sorts in Spain. Secondly, Marina seems to have worked out John Smith - now considered a terrorist for blowing school in the battle at the end of the last book - is one of the Garde, and is trying to follow him via internet. Genius planning, right there. Third, we learn that she has the powers of healing, breathing underwater and the standard super strength, super speed and telekinesis. And she has a friend called Hector, who contributes basically nothing to the plot, and a friend called Ella, who contributes a great deal to the plot.
I think the contrast was unintentional.
On John's end, we see him, Six, Sam and Bernie Kosar (who John can speak to thanks to his animal telepathy gained at the end of the last book) running from Homeland Security and the Mogadorians, training in fighting and developing a love triangle. Or square. See, John "loves" Sarah, as established in about half of the first book. Sam likes Six, and Six seems to like Sam. And then for some reason, Six and John start to like each other too. And unnecessary drama ensues, particularly since John is the narrator and feels the need to go on and on about his conflicted feelings. It's particularly annoying, since I prefer Sam as a character to John and Six as a character to Sarah, and think it would just be better if they got together and left Blandy McBlandness with Boring McBoringness in a field somewhere to do bland boring stuff together. And yes, I am fully aware that's a childish way to put it, but frankly it annoys me and it makes me go all infantile when I think about it, so there. Blame the writers, not me. Anyway, John reads a letter from Henri given from him at the end of the last book and learns that Sam's dad was actually helping the Loric, and that's why they went to Paradise in the first place - to find him. John thinks they need to go back to Paradise and find some stuff, which they do. They find a huge skeleton and some stuff in an old well. Then John goes to Sarah, drama ensues when she finds out about Six, and then Homeland Security arrives and takes John and Sam into custody, the implication being that Sarah ratted them out.
John and Sam are pretty quickly broken out by Six, after learning that the feds are working with the Mogs. Typical government, always trying to help aliens take over the planet. And people say an Anarchist society is a bad idea...
Actually, it isn't a bad idea. It's just a paradox and would never work practically, or even theoretically. So it isn't a bad idea, since it isn't a real idea in the first place. But I digress.
John then goes after the Mogadorian hideout in order to get back his chest, which Six lost when Mogadoians attacked while John was being arrested, along with Sam.
Oh, sure, take the human kid with no super powers into the middle of enemy territory, that plan's never gonna backfire on you.
Six, meanwhile, through some convenience of the stuff in John's chest earlier, discovers the location of Marina, who herself has located her own chest at a highly convenient moment that gives her location to the three, and goes off to find her and meet with the other two at a predetermined location.
Marina, meanwhile, is found by the Mogadorians, who kill her Cepan (and I really didn't care) and chase her and Ella to some bloke who she had seen talking to her friend Hector and had assumed was a Mogadorian. But he isn't a Mogadorian, he's actually Loric, and Ella's Cepan. 'But wait,' I don't hear you ask, 'Isn't Ella a bit young to be one of the Nine?' To which I respond. 'How the heck do you know that? I never mentioned her age!' Yeah, she's actually not even in her teens yet. She's actually Number Ten, the Garde who was missing from the ship and arrived with a bunch of chimaera on another, different ship that left after the first. This... was kind of a surprise to me, but well done, I guess. At the very least, I did think nine was an odd number of Garde to send down, so knowing there were meant to be ten instead makes a lot more sense.
Anyway, Six arrives and helps Marina, Ella, and Ella's Garde Crayton fight off the Mogadorians; Hector is killed (after doing pretty much nothing worth mentioning until he kicked the bucket; honestly, sometimes it feels like the adults here are only around to die) and so is a random chimaera that, again, I do not care about. Look, writers, if you want to kill off a bunch of characters, make us actually care about them before you go about it. Don't just kill them off by the bucketload and expect us to get emotional; it's a real case of quality over quantity.
See, Game of Thrones manages to make this work both ways. Know why the Red Wedding was so shocking to fans? Because we actually cared about the characters being butchered in front of us! We spent time with them, got to know them, learnt their flaws and strengths, laughed and maybe got emotional over some of their moments... If you're into that. Not that I am. So yeah, when they died? Pretty horrific. Killing a bunch of minor characters we have no reason to care about except being told our main characters care about them will not provide the emotional impact I'm sure you want to achieve.
Bet this Crayton bloke dies next book. Adults don't seem to be allowed to last a full storyline in this franchise, unless they have pretty much no connection to the plot whatsoever.
Around this time, John and Sam are infiltrating the Mogadorian lair, where they find John's chest and another Loric's chest - but not Six's. Turns out the Mogadorians have captured Nine - who John and Sam rescue. Nine turns out to be friggin' awesome, completely whaling on the Mogadorians as they make their way out. On the downside, Sam gets captured and John is incapacitated when he tries to go back for him. Oh, and the leader of the Mogadorians, some Setrakus Ra chap, arrives on Earth.
The end.
Yeah, this book is a step up from the first, in my opinion. While I am not pleased about the development of the love whatsit stuff, and Marina's storyline feels like a regression back to Four's story in the previous instalment except it drags even more, the other stuff with John, Sam and Six is quite good, and I do like the characters of Six and Sam a lot. I also like Nine, the brief appearance he made in this story sets him higher than everyone bar Six from Marina's storyline, and John's storyline bar Six and Sam. Looking forward to seeing more of this guy, though I'm not happy about them leaving Sam behind. Poor kid didn't even get a proper kiss goodbye from Six - but John did. Yeah, wasn't impressed by that either. It happens just before Sam and John are about to split ways with Six, and it felt completely forced and unnecessary, particularly since she was actually angrier with John than Sam at that point, and claimed to like both of them... Yeah, hated it. Sam's a better character, you blind, crazy lady. Get with the kid and be done with it! Goodness knows, the guy needs something good to happen to him.
Still, highschool drama crap is in the background more than it was last book which is a definite plus, the action is more plentiful and still pretty cool and we get more insight into the lore of this universe (pun unintentional). Overall, I'd rate this one reasonably high, and I'm so far enjoying the series well enough to keep going with these reviews.
I'm a Smith in the Attic, and these are my stories.
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