Showing posts with label Pittacus Lore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pittacus Lore. Show all posts

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Review: THE RISE OF NINE

The Rise Of Nine by Pittacus Lore
Book 3 of Lorien Legacies series
Read by Neil Kaplan, Marisol Ramirez and Devon Sorvari. Genre: urban fantasy
Format: paperback & audiobook

About The Rise Of Nine:
In the beginning we were a group of nine.

Nine aliens who left our home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack from the deadly Mogodorians.

We scattered on earth and went into hiding.
We look like ordinary teenagers.
We are not.
Until I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive. Together we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate.

They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They caught me in New York - but I escaped.

I am Number Six. The Mogodorians want to finish what they started.

But they'll have to fight us first.
Source: Info in the About The Rise Of Nine was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15820848-the-rise-of-nine on 26/12/2012.

This book is chuck full of too stupid to live characters with a weak plot.
Review:
I know from Book 2 that some of the protagonists are too stupid to live (TSTL) but I'm kinda hoping that the TSTL would dumb down in this book. No such luck! Your in a cell with Setrákus Ra so you point your Morgadorian cannon somewhere else and kill foot soldiers in order to give Setrákus Ra all the chance in the world to choke hold you to death. Non-realistic scenes like that brought the suspension of disbelief to rock bottom! And this is not the only TSTL scene in this book. Annoying!! This book might be a quicker read for those readers more tolerant than me. But because I had to have breaks from the stupids, this book took a long while to read. Another thing which I find annoying is that Pittacus Lore is so very fond of cliffhangers. This author duo almost always ends a chapter in a cliffhanger. They might think that cliffhanger is a brilliant writing tactic, and it probably is, but in this series I just find it supremely annoying!

James Frey aka Pittacus Lore (with this book) obviously has great imagination! His world of the Lorien Legacies is beautiful and intricate! But he needs to learn how to build-up plot better because the plot is pretty weak, specially in this book. The character developement could sure use a lot of improvement, like giving them consistency for one. A few lessons with a fight scene expert would also do a world of good. Might make the fight scenes more realistic.

I have to say that the narrators are all professionals! They read in clear distinct words with appropriate tone and diction. I can't hear any slurring from any of them all throughout the audiobook. This tugged the rating of this book up a bit.

At the end of it, this book has a lot of promise which were not all brought out to it's full potential. And no matter how good the narrators were, there are just too many annoying qualities in this book for me to read further in this series. After the third book, I think I now have a firm grasp of this series and sad to say that this one is not for me. However if they make further movies based on this series, I will most likely watch it in the hopes that the annoying qualities would disappear in the movie version.
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 2
Character development = 1
Story itself = 1.5
Ending = 1.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 1.5
Pace = 1 [paperback] / [audiobook: 10 hrs and 8 mins listening time]
Plot = 1
Narrators = 4.5

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Lorien Legacies series:

Thursday, 10 January 2013

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.

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

WW28: THE POWER OF SIX

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!
  • First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
  • Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
  • Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.
WW28 book offering: The Power Of Six by Pittacus Lore

Maybe they'll find a bit of hope in it.

I say, "hopeful" line... :)

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.