The Rise of Nine (Leaders of Religion) [Hardcover]

I write this on the authority of my 14 year old son, who plum centre of the key readership of these books!

It's a great book - as good as the others in the series, with gripping plot twists and page-turners. It could have been quite cheesy, but wasn't! The use of superpowers really works and is convincing. And there are lots of nice surprises.

I can't wait for the next one - this is a series that keeps you hooked!

Review
Rise of the Nine, book 3 of the Lorien Legacies series, quite simply as good as book one and book 2. Tight plot, clear and well defined characters, each with their own unique voice that comes across clearly all the way through the book. Not many people can pull off the multi narrator style but the author does it with style. What is essentially a film franchise is so much more in these books, great imagination, built on some very good writing.
The books pace is highly charged and driven by short (style) chapters, when reading it I could not put the book down because there was always another corner to look around, another chapter I could fit in before sleep. It builds to highly anticipated and exciting end.
It's a shame that there isn't any growth, being as good as the last book should be enough, but im looking for improvement, for more.
Given the volume of bad guys in this book I really expected the overall plot to move further, is the author spinning this out ?
Will I read the next one? Yes very much so, it's a fun book, its not taxing and its fast paced, that's what escapism is about.

Recommended
(Parm)

Description

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 to find the others ...

I went to Spain to find Seven, and I found even more, including a tenth member of the Garde who escaped from Lorien alive. Ella is younger than the rest of us, but just as brave. Now we're looking for the others - including John. But so are they. 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. They want to finish what they started. But they'll have to fight us first.

This is the third book in the Lorien Legacy series by Pittacus Lore. Pittacus Lore is a pen name and also a character in the story's history. It is a little icky how the other characters keep talking about him like he was the original superhero, but I have learned to deal with it through the three books in the series. This series is based around the idea that there are two races of aliens hiding out on Earth, fighting each other to the death. We have the Loriens, who are the goodies... there are not many of them at all, but those that there are are members of the Garde and all have awesome powers. The baddies are the Mogadorians, and just imagine something really ugly with big guns for them.

First thing's first: as much as I love this series, it needs wrapping up in the next book. There is only so long I can keep reading like this. What I am referring to is not the ridiculously fast, Mogadorian blasting pace. It's the Chests that almost all the Garde members carry about. I want to know what the stuff inside is (probably more than the Garde members do at this point!!) and I am starting to get a little annoyed when new things get pulled out and are suddenly super useful. It's convenient. Too convenient. I also feel really sorry for everyone that everywhere they go, they have to lug these ridiculous chests around with them; its like painting a sign over their heads that says "Alien from Lorien, come shoot me!"... and there are PLENTY of Mogadorians around who would love to do that. To be honest, there are so many Mogadorians about it is kind of surprising that they haven't won already; they must be super stupid.

That said, I freaking LOVE these books. They aren't deep, but they are exciting, page-turning and full of cool powers which I want to have. I want to be able to breathe underwater or stick to the ceiling and turn invisible! I love meeting the members of the Garde and finding out what awesome new powers they have, and I love it when they develop a new Legacy. This book really delivered on that front. I liked getting to know the Garde a little better, and I loved watching them work together as a team. This element is only going to get stronger as they race collectively towards the conclusion of the Legacy series, and hopefully kick Setracus Ra's butt into oblivion, taking all the rest of the Mogadorians with him.

The ending of The Rise of Nine left me in no doubt that there is at least one book more left to come, because of the nine members of the original Garde from Lorien, we still have not met number five. So One, Two and Three died before book one, Four, Six, Seven and Ten came along in book two; this time we get to meet Eight and Nine. I liked Nine a lot. He was flippant and very antagonistic, and I loved how he rubbed Four up the wrong way sometimes. He also turned out to be a total badass fighter, which I loved reading about! I think Six will go mad for him; they are a match made in Lorien! Eight was a little weird really. I won't say too much about him, but he did grow on me... and Marina. *wink* It was nice to see a tiny touch of romance thrown in this time. Bernie Kosar kind of stole the show again; he is such a fabulous character!

I expect the next (and hopefully final) book in the series will get going with a bang, just as this did. There isn't a lot of time between books and the action got going really quickly. In fact, it barely let up. There were just enough calm moments to give a "rise and fall" to the pacing, which helped me keep turning those pages.