(This looks really long, but please stick with it)
Don't worry, this isn't going to be some lengthy book review, written as if I know everything and anything that was running through the author's mind as he was creating the story, as some out there do write. It won't be as formal as a book review, that's all saved for the review I have yet to write and hand up to my teacher next week, but it will be a rant of some sort. Please don't hate me..
Okay, this being the fourth installment in a particular series, The Lorien Legacies or 'I Am Number Four' series, it's immediately obvious that I had taken a liking to it, and was already heavily invested in the characters (you'll read why that was a mistake soon), and their various storylines.
Just a short summary of the happenings up to this book.
In the first book, we follow the life of Number Four, one of the supposed nine Garde who was fortunate enough to escape their falling planet, post being attacked by another alien race, or the Mogadoriens. The nine garde, from Lorien, were burdened with the daunting task of taking down the Mogs on Earth, and rebooting their race and planet, but first they had to train and harness their powers, or 'legacies' as they call them. Anyway, back to Number Four. The foundation of his character building begins in Florida, when the readers are given insight to his surprisingly nice life on the beach, with his Cepan, or protector, Henri. So one night, while serenading a girl and all that shizz dat we boyz do.. his leg suddenly begins to heat up and it appears that a loric symbol is being burned on his leg. He flees the scene and we soon find out that this is the third time this sort of thing has happened, signifying the death of the third garde, or 'Number Three', and being number four, he is next in line to be slaughtered by the Mogs, because they can only kill in the order of Garde numbers, whilst the garde are still separated. Number Four and Henri quickly move to Paradise, Ohio (ironic yeah I know) and he becomes 'John Smith'. Long story short, because this is taking far too long, he befriends a guy called Sam, who's Dad was, coincidentally, among the few who helped the garde and their cepans get their lives up and running upon arriving on Earth, and had been abducted by Mogs years back. Sam plays a big part in the later books, and so does Sarah, the typical popular girl, but admirably 'ex-cheerleader', who ends up becoming John's girlfriend he just can't live without. At the end of book one, the trio have their first encounter with the Mogs, Henri dies and Number Six comes into the picture.
I won't take up a big paragraph going through the next to books, because I've probably lost half you readers already, but over the course of the next two books, John, Sam, Sarah and Number Six...
1) Train a lot
2) Meet up with Number Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten, who supposed escaped on another ship after the initial one.
3) Train even more because Nine is a training junky
4) Lose Sarah
5) Get Sarah back
6) Lose Sam
7) Discover Eight is destined to die by a blade passing through his heart
8) Lose Six
9) Get six back
10) Fight Setrakus Ra, the all powerful Mogadorian leader
And the book ends with Setrakus fleeing.
Okay, the real reason I decided to write this blog post. The Fall of Five. The fourth book and the one that almost tore me apart from the inside out.
I don't have the time to go on and on about how I was thoroughly entertained but disappointed all the same, but it seems I have no control over that most of the time.
With the starting of this book, Sam is being held prisoner by the Mogs (if you were listening to my very detailed synopsis of the second and third books, you'd know he was captured). He is busted out, though, not by the garde, who were literally on the floor above him fighting Setrakus Ra, but HIS FATHER! The man he hadn't seen in like ten years! Anyway, he and his Dad escape, and the point of view changes to John, which is another thing I love/hate about the series. The changing of POVs that is. John, the unspoken leader, takes the team back to Nine's loft in Chicago, where they train and exchange experiences and just get caught up. The POV alternates between Marina, Number Seven, and John whilst in the loft, before John, Six and Sarah go to meet up with Number Five, who gave away his location by burning the Loric symbol for the number five onto a field, which was picked up by the news, obviously. They meet five, and instantly there's dramatic irony. The readers, and maybe even the characters, know that there's something off about Five. We put this to the back of our heads, however, after he, John, Six, Sarah and the newly arrived Sam and Malcom, fight off a small army of Mogs.
They all go back to the loft and it feels so nice, you know, them all being reunited. It's almost as if you, the reader, are part of their family and therefore, share in the joy of being complete again. The team trains, and efficiently makes battle strategies, pondering how they'll actually take down Setrakus, and Five brings it up, that he left his chest in the Everglades, because he thought it'd be safer there. By the way, I forgot to tell you that each garde received a packed chest of various different Loric items and weapons, and they decide that they'll go and get the chest. Oh and another 'by the way', they have this pet thing, called a Chimaera, from Lorien obviously, who's able to take the shape of any animal, Loric or otherwise, and they call him Bernie Kosar (BK). During all this time, Ella (Number Ten and the youngest of the group), has been having recurring nightmares, in which Setrakus Ra is trying to coax her into joining the Mogs, for some reason. One night, the nightmares get bad enough, that Ella is unable to escape them, and after trying to awake her, John is also trapped inside this nightmare. The two fall under a deep slumber and the other garde, Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine, decide on rushing to get Five's chest because they feel helpless in the loft, and this is where things start to get effin twisted!
The five garde get to the Everglade (a mountain range I guessed), and have just obtained Five's chest, when.. he surprises everyone! He knocks Six clean out, holds Nine under the surface of the murky waters, all in order to talk to Seven and Eight, for he deems them the only two, who are fit to JOIN THE MOGS! It turns out he has been working for them since his Cepan died eight months after arriving on Earth! A fight breaks out between Five and the others, but since Five was trained by the Mogs all his life, he surprises everyone, even the readers, by maintaining the upper hand. He goes to end Nine's life, but Eight teleports into the way of the blade, and it runs straight through his heart, just like the image said he would die in this strange cave they visited a while back. The irony is, that this also happened when the group was fighting Setrakus Ra, but back then Marina was able to heal him. This time the fresh scar, signifying Eight's death, burns itself onto the legs of the remaining garde, and he's gone forever.
It's devastating really. For some strange reason, I particularly liked Eight, from the moment the readers were introduced to him. I love his legacies, and his abilities, so reading the lines leading up to his death was somewhat of a surreal experience.
Anyway, Marina, since she and Eight had really connected, became enraged, and, to put it short, Five loses an eye because of her, before Six, Seven and Nine flee.
Back at the loft, Sarah, Sam, Malcom and BK are overwhelmed by the wave upon wave of Mogs that flood into the apartment. John finally wakes up, having seen the future in Ella's nightmare. Ella, however, remains asleep and is taken by the Mogs. Sarah, Sam and Malcom, escape the apartment, while John gets the remaining chests. Out of nowhere, he runs into Adamus, a pure Mog who was tested upon and now has the legacies and personality (I think) of Number One, still in the loft, and the two agree that Adam will help the Garde "Win this war".
Then the books ends..
Just imagine how annoyed I am. Cliffhanger endings are not a good thing for me, and they happen with every book I read!
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