The Rise of Nine (Lorien Legacies #3)

In this book, we learn that the FBI is bad and likes working with evil aliens, the Mogadorians are flippin' everywhere all the time, and Cepans are not the sturdiest of guardians. Seriously...Cepans need more battle training. And maybe invincibility.

There is a lot going on in this book, so much so that the story gets a little lost in all of the action and mentions of alien objects. Oh, and very few of the objects have names, so you sort of just have to keep up with what the red bracelet, the nubby yellow ball, the stick, the glasses and various other random items do. And I agree with the kids, it would be much simpler if the Chests were backpacks instead of wooden boxes...I guess the only things on hand when Lorien was being destroyed was bulky wooden boxes!

The Bad Bad Mog is on Earth now, and it seems like he’s even more powerful than all of the Guarde put together. However, they think they have a chance at beating him in the future, after they learn about their legacies, which is rather optimistic of them since this guy and all his buddies wiped out a WHOLE PLANET that had its own super-powered population. But these kids are just going to be so amazing one day that this will be plausible. Got it…

There are too many POVs in this book, and I don’t like how the writer switches font types to signify that a new voice has taken over. It’s aggravating, and I would rather that the same font was kept and the POV was signified by writing the character’s name in front of each chapter.

I like Nine. He was sort of bonkers, volatile and unstable, but there is something intriguing about him and his craziness. Eight is also nice addition to the team, what with his jovial, playful personality and his incredibly useful powers. Marina’s crush on him is random but cute.

This book was decent but scattered; I just wasn’t really caught up in the story or the characters. I’ll probably read the next book in this series out of curiosity.

What I expected when I opened this book that it will be written mainly in Six's view, but it wasn't. I have no idea why the blurb says that this book is about number Six, because it contains all of the numbers except for Five, and is written in three points of view.

I had to flick back a few times when the POVs changed rapidly without warning, and it took a few re-readings to actually figure out who was actually talking. Near the end, when they were all together, and the POV changed so fast that it was impossible to keep up with the characters. So I didn't, by the end, I didn't really care who was talking as long as I found out what happened in the end. I think that the least that the author could of done is change the font with each character swapping.

I found it really funny how the author names a lot of things after himself. When I read the first book, I thought the author was trying to make himself look awesome, but as the chapters wore on and I discovered that the greatest Elder was called Pittacus Lore. Maybe Pittacus Lore is trying to make it look like the dead Elder is writing about the next Elders, and recounting their stories. I dunno, maybe, maybe not....

The Rise of Nine has fun new characters, like number Eight and Nine, who both have crazy personalties to mix in with the more glum characters.

I reckon that this book is just as great as the other books before it, and is totally worth reading. It is fun and full of action as well as those emotional character times that everyone just loves. Jam-packed with new Legacies, more members of the Garde, and tonnes of explosions. This book is just pure awesome!

Although the synopsis is written from the POV of Number Six, The Rise of Nine actually shifts between three POVs: John Smith (Number Four), Number Six, and Marina (Number Seven). I’m wondering if this is going to become a thing with this series. Book #1 had one POV, Book #2 had two, and now Book #3 has three. But because all of the POVs are written in the first-person and the voices really aren’t that different, it can start to get confusing. I kind of hope Book #4 reins it in and doesn’t add yet another POV to the mix.

Speaking of which, I totally thought this was a trilogy until I realized I was at the last chapter and there was no way things were going to resolve by the end of the book. Which is mostly fine, but there’s a couple plot points I can’t believe are still dangling, including the whereabouts of my favorite character. In case anyone wonders, apparently there are going to be six books. Which you probably already knew, but I didn’t.

But anyway, moving away from that, let’s talk about the book. So as I said, there are three POVs. And I’m not entirely sure they were necessary. Marina and Number Six’s voices were kind of interchangeable, until they get split up and you can tell who’s speaking based on the setting. However, that’s a pretty late-stage development, and I don’t think we needed to stick with Marina through it. Probably just John and Six’s voices would have sufficed and been less confusing. It wasn’t really a bad thing, just sometimes hard to figure out who was talking. I had to back up a page on several occasions to double-check the narrator.

As for the plot, it had all the crazy action I’ve come to expect from this series. I loved the addition of Number Nine and Number Eight to the mix. They provided some fun new powers and personalities, and I got excited every time another member of the Garde joined the group. We didn’t really learn much more about Lorien’s history in this book, which was kind of sad (I love learning about Lorien), but the increased action made up for it for the most part. I am a sucker for awesome new superpowers and gadgets and giant explosions, and there are plenty of all of the above. The best thing about this series is the action, and this book really played to its strengths.

Getting to the writing, even on the sliding scale that I use to judge writing (I’m not going to hold an action book about teen aliens to the same standard as high fantasy), I had one major gripe about the writing. Actually, it’s not major. In the grand scheme of things, it’s minor. But it irked the heck out of me. And that is the phrase “with my telekinesis” and all its variations.

“I used my telekinesis to push the plane”

“I’m able to deflect [the sticks] with my telekinesis”

“I use my telekinesis to pull on the tail of one of the helicopters”

And about a thousand other mentions of the Garde using their telekinesis to move, lift, throw, tear, float, and otherwise manipulate their surroundings.

I have absolutely no problem with the fact that all of the members of the Garde have telekinetic powers and that they use them all the time. I would too, if I had telekinesis. But since this is a thing that all of them can do, and they all use it like another extension of their body, constantly reminding us that they’re doing it with their telekinesis is redundant. If you’re ripping a helicopter from the sky, and I know you have telekinesis, I’m pretty sure you’re not doing it with your nose. It’s like saying “I kicked the ball with my foot” or “I picked up the book with my hand.” You don’t need to tell us what part of your body you used to do something. It’s assumed. Stop telling me that you are doing things in the only practical way you could do them.

Okay. Rant about telekinesis over.

Aside from that, the writing flows well, the pacing is good, and the action scenes (which are a good chunk of the book) were exciting. I enjoy this series with the same part of my brain that enjoys Michael Bay movies (admit it. Transformers was super fun). I still don’t really understand the title (we found out in Power of Six that there are actually ten Garde members, three of which died at the beginning of I am Number Four, and we met Number Nine at the end of the last book and he doesn’t do much “rising” in this one. It’s a mystery), but I don’t care too much. This isn’t a big “thinking” series. It’s about superpowers and explosions and adrenaline, and I highly enjoy it.