Rise of Nine

“I know what I'm capable of; I am a soldier now, a warrior. I am someone to fear, not hunt.” Fear is a powerful theme in Pittacus Lore’s Rise of Nine. It’s not that fear is a bad thing, but that fear can be powerful. The action-adventure book Rise of Nine is the third in the Lorien Legacies series. 9 garde and 9 cepan escaped from the planet Lorien in an attempt to save their race. If you’ve never read the series, that sentence meant nothing to you. The 9 garde are 9 warriors, with the cepan as their teachers. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 have been killed, leaving the remaining 6 to finish their mission. In the first 2 books of the series, the garde are slowly finding each other and preparing themselves to fight the Mogadorians. The Mogadorians are the other alien race that destroyed their home planet. Now all of the warriors are training to defeat their enemies, and they are all trying to find the Mogadorian leader, Setrakus Ra.

In Rise of Nine, the cepan have split into 2 groups. In one is number 4 and number 9, and in the other group, numbers 6, 7, 8 and 10. Yes, there were only supposed to be 9 warriors, but a tenth garde escaped on a separate ship and made it to Earth. 4, or John, and 9 are in America, training on their own. They get sidetracked a few times, often by the police. Mortals are chasing them, as they have caused mass destruction in many places. John is consumed with thoughts of his friend Sam, who the Mogadorians captured in the end of Power of Six. He is afraid of what Sam is going through, if he is even alive. Nine and John get in many arguments over this. During the course of all their arguments, they stay on the move. In the end, they go to New Mexico because they believe that either their ship to return to Lorien is there, or another Loric is there.

Six, Seven, or Marina, and Ten go to India in hopes of finding number Eight. They succeed, and Eight is able to show them a doorway that can lead them to different spots around the globe. After attempting this a few times, Six is separated from the rest in a teleportation attempt gone wrong. She is stranded in New Mexico, outside of the Mogadorian base. This is exactly where John and Nine are headed. She is captured by the Mogadorians, and meets Setrakus Ra. She quickly learns that he is able to draw out their powers, making her defenseless against him. Marina, Ten and Eight are able to locate Six, and they go to New Mexico to rescue her. When they arrive, they are able to meet up with John and Nine, and those 5 are able to storm the fort together.

This book is very interesting, because it has so many different points of view. John is the only one out of him and Nine that narrate, but in the other group, Marina and Six both narrate, giving you two different points of view. It gets somewhat boring in parts, because it seems like it lags more then it should. Although you do need a lot of information for things to make sense, it seems as though Lore included too much background information.

The author often brings up points of friendship and betrayal, not only in this book but also throughout the series. He seems to say that you should have friends, but you can’t trust everyone. You often see people in the gardes’ lives betraying them when they thought they could be trusted. In Rise of Nine this is true with the entire US Government. They side with the Mogadorians, making the fight for Lorien that much harder. I disagree with how he portrays friendship. He makes it seem hard and painful, no matter what situation it is in. To me, friendship is funny and playful. Although I’m not a warrior from a distant planet, I still think that they (the garde) could be nicer to each other, and to others. Pittacus Lore tried too hard to make the Loric’s life difficult, and it shows in the book.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I liked the previous ones. I Am Number 4 is definitely the best in the series. I do recommend this book if you have read the series, or if you are interested in aliens or sci-fi books like that. This book isn’t for everyone; so make sure you like I Am Number 4 and Power of Six before you get to this one. This book is a B+.