Review: POWER OF SIX

The Power Of Six by Pittacus Lore
Book 2 of Lorien Legacies series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback

About The Power Of Six:

I’ve seen him on the news. Followed the stories about what happened in Ohio. John Smith, out there, on the run. To the world, he’s a mystery. But to me . . . he’s one of us.

Nine of us came here, but sometimes I wonder if time has changed us—if we all still believe in our mission. How can I know? There are six of us left. We’re hiding, blending in, avoiding contact with one another . . . but our Legacies are developing, and soon we’ll be equipped to fight. Is John Number Four, and is his appearance the sign I’ve been waiting for? And what about Number Five and Six? Could one of them be the raven-haired girl with the stormy eyes from my dreams? The girl with powers that are beyond anything I could ever imagine? The girl who may be strong enough to bring the six of us together?

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They tried to catch Number Four in Ohio—and failed.

I am Number Seven. One of six still alive.

And I'm ready to fight.

Source: Info in the About The Power Of Six was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13310805-the-power-of-six on 04/06/2012.

Review:

It took me a long time to get into this book. Convent politics is just not that riveting. So this book was a slow start. However it did pick up halfway through. It's action-packed and emotion-laden that leaves you breathless!! It might be a quicker read for readers more tolerant than me perhaps. But me, I gotta have breaks from the too stupid to live (TSTL) characters. But they are not all TSTL though. Six is beautiful and kick-ass! And most importantly, sensible!! Unfortunately she is only a side character, which is funny seeing that this book seems to be titled after her.

I didn't read the first book in this series, I watched the movie version instead. And this book picked up where the movie left off and I found that freaking cool! I was very happy to see what happened next to our heroes after the battle with the Mogadorians in the movie. They were pretty battered then and what happened to them afterwards was left hanging... Guess they were still battered in the book too.

The story is not that original. It's very similar to Superman. Alien baby lands on earth to grow up and have old alien enemies to fight on Earth instead of in their alien world. But this time around there isn't just one baby as in the case of Superman but a few more babies and a few more aliens. Okey, not very original. However, they did a good job with it in the I Am Number Four movie and John (the main protagonist) was not in spandex tights. I would still give the Lorien Legacies series kudos for the wonderful story that it is on it's own right even though it's not very original. And hopefully they will do a movie of this book (and do a good job of it too) like they did with book 1, I Am Number Four.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 2
Plot = 3

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries


Other Books In The Lorien Legacies series:


Thank you to Penguin for the review copy received.

FTC Disclosure:
This book was received for free from Penguin.

Review: ANGELOLOGY

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
Book 1 of Angelology series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: hardback

About Angelology:

1943: The preserved corpse of an Angel is discovered in the Devil's Throat Gorge in the Bulgarian mountains. Only a select few are party to this discovery, including a young nun who is later taken in a state of distress to a Convent in upstate New York and never speaks about it again. Until now.

The present: When Sister Evangeline finds mysterious correspondence between Mother Innocenta of the Saint Rose Convent and legendary philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller, it confirms that Angels once walked among us - and their descendants, the cruel Nephilim, still do.

Indeed, the Nephilim are hunting for artefacts concealed by Abigail Rockefeller during the Second World War - objects that will ultimately allow them to enslave mankind - and have so far been prevented from reaching their apocalyptic goal by one clandestine organisation: the Angelology Society.

And if the Angelologists are to stand any chance of winning this new battle in the ages-old war, they must find the artefacts first. But their fate rests in the hands of innocent Sister Evangeline, who holds the key to unlocking Abigail Rockefeller's hiding places ... and whose destiny may yet find her prey to the terrifying Nephilim army, with horrifying consequences for humanity.

Angelology moves with electifying sweep from the icy mountains of Bulgaria to Nazi-occupied Paris, to twentieth century New York, as the greatest conspiracy of them all is finally brought to light.

Source: Info in the About Angelology was taken from the publishers' press release.

[Image Credit: Wes-Talbott]

Review:

It took me a very long time indeed to read this book so pace-wise this book was not very fast at all. That tells us that while the story might be good, the story telling quality is not that compelling. And then when I got to the end, it was a cliffhanger. Now, cliffhangers drive me up the wall. Safe to say, I was more than a bit miffed. The thing I learned about reviewing books is that it is not good for me to review books when I am feeling miffed because I tend to be very sarcastically sharp-tongued and that is so not fair to do to this book because Danielle Trussoni obviously poured a lot of time and effort into this book which is evident in the substantial amount of researched facts that I could glean in the book. Although the idea of angels living among us in our contemporary world is not unique, Trussoni created an interesting world of Angels in this book beefed up by already established ideas of mythology, religion, geographical and historical facts that makes this urban fantasy world so very plausible. And because this world played with known facts, it made it very easy to connect with the world of Angelology. It also brought the suspension of disbelief up a notch. And, I also like the way Trussoni woved the Christian "War In Heaven" mythology into modern day living, creating a fresh new urban fantasy world. So I am kinda hoping that the next book in the series, Angelopolis (to come out in January March 2013), would improve on the pace and the ending while continuing with the beautiful premise that this series has!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2.5
Character development = 2.5
Story itself = 2.5
Ending = 0.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = 1
Plot = 1.5

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries

Thank you to Penguin for the review copy of Angelology by Danielle Trussoni received.

FTC Disclosure:
No money payment received for this review.

Review: SPECTYR

Spectyr by Philippa Ballantine
Book 2 of the Order of the Deacons

Genre: fantasy

About Spectyr:

Though one of the most powerful Deacons, Sorcha Faris has a tarnished reputation to overcome. She and her partner, Deacon Merrick Chambers, find themselves chasing down rumors of geists, but long for a return to real action. So they jump at the chance to escort a delegation sent to negotiate the terms of the Emperor’s engagement. Their destination: the exotic city of Orinthal.

But a string of murders has Orinthal on edge, and Sorcha and Merrick are asked to investigate. Meanwhile the Emperor’s sister has unwittingly released a cruel and vengeful goddess, one who it bent on destroying her enemies, including the geistlord who resides inside the shapeshifting rival to the throne—Sorcha’s lover…

Source: Info in the About Spectyr was taken from the author's website at http://www.booksoftheorder.com/?page_id=124 on 11/06/2011.

Review:

I was looking forward to this book after I finished Geist, but this book is even a slower starter than Geist was!It took me longer to get into this book than it did with Geist. Somehow the story telling quality felt like it wasn't as good as it did with Geist... Anyhow, one thing remains certain, the story and world building is beautiful and vivid, if not even more intricate! I could easily imagine myself in that world... It's a frontier world of magic on the brink of discoveries... A lot of unknowns to explore... I think it's actually grown on me. And by the way, it's skimming very closely to steampunkery... it got dirigibles. I bet steampunk fans will love this! This book showed the same wonderful "story building skills" that I saw in Geist. The story has a cohesive and coherent structure with a central dilemma and an ending with good resolution! And that won lots of brownie points with me. The ending also pointed to a lot of things going on with the next book enough to keep a reader hooked to the series, so am looking forward to the next book...

Though, I think the best part about this book is it's cover art. It's even better than book 1! My fantasy buff eyes just fell in love with the cover!!

Overall, this book has a good story structure but the story telling quality has slightly fallen so I would give this book a 3 out of 5.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story Telling Quality = 3
World Building = 4.5
Character Development = 4
Pace = 2
Plot = 4
Story Itself = 3
Ending = 3

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Order Of Deacons series:


Thank you to Penguin for the review copy of Spectyr by Philippa Ballantine received.

Review: GEIST

Geist by Philippa Ballantine
Book 1 of the Order of the Deacons

Genre: fantasy, for 18s or older only

About Geist:

Geists don’t always play by the rules.

Between the living and the dead is the Order of the Deacons, protectors of the Empire, guardians against possession, sentinels enlisted to ward off the malevolent haunting of the geists…

Among the most powerful of the Order is Sorcha, now thrust into partnership with the novice Deacon, Merrick Chambers. They have been dispatched to the isolated village of Ulrich to aide the Priory with a surge of violent geist activity. With them is Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne that Sorcha is sworn to protect, and bearer of a terrible curse.

But what greets them in the strange settlement is something far more predatory and more horrifying than any mere haunting. And as she uncovers a tradition of twisted rituals passed down through the dark reaches of history, Sorcha will be forced to reconsider everything she thinks she knows.

And if she makes it out of Ulrich alive, what in Hell is she returning to?

Source: Info in the About Geist was taken from the author's website at http://www.booksoftheorder.com/?page_id=4 on 11/06/2011.

Review:

This book started off slow but once past a couple of chapters it started to pick up... then it's action after action until the very end! So pace-wise, it wasn't too bad. The story telling quality was just a tiny, itsy-bitsy shade from being a masterpice. I find myself needing little short breaks while reading this book. But during my breaks, the story would pull me back as the characters prance around my head and I imagine alternative plots to the story. And then when I read on, I get surprised by the unexpected turn the plot went instead! Ahhh... this author is good at inventing stories indeed!! The other thing I really liked about this book is that it has a well-structured story. I like stories with cohesive structure because it is easier to wrap my mind around it if it does, therefore, really ranks right high up with me as a reader. I like it when I can wrap my head around a story as oppose to one where I struggle to do so. Authors of books without a well-structured story, I tend not to buy again.

Look at that cover! The art department deserves a bloody raise!! If I was on one of my retail therapy sessions and browsing the shelves of a bookstore, this cover would trigger my book buying radar with an irristible pull!

I didn't like the inconsistent rules of magic in this world of the geists though. In the scene where we first witnessed Raed's change, he lost his clothes. But in The Melding scene, they did not loose their clothes. They came off it presumed to be fully clothed. Now, that is not consistent. But because of the wonderful "story building skills" that this author displayed and the enjoyment I got out of this book, I would still give it a high rating.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story Telling Quality = 4
World Building = 5
Character Development = 5
Pace = 4
Plot = 5
Story Itself = 4.5
Ending = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Order Of The Deacons Series:


Thank you to Penguin for the review copy of Geist by Philippa Ballantine received.