Review: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore

The Rise of Nine

Lorien Legacies #3

Author: Pittacus Lore

Publication Date: August 21, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: Science Fiction

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Synopsis:

Until the day 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.

My Thoughts: I just want to start off by saying that I enjoy this series quite a bit. It is one of two series that my husband and I actually read together (the other one is Percy Jackson and the Olympians).  So, it is safe to say that I went into this book with fairly high expectations and anticipation.

The beginning was really slow, but that is a common theme throughout the whole series.  The first book (I am Number Four) was so slow I was wondering if I was going to make it through it - but I did.  Because, eventually, it picks up and it gets super good.  This book picked up, got a good pace, and then continued to be a little better than mediocre.  I don't know if it was my expectations or this particular novel just fell short in comparison to the previous two.

The book has three points of view (POV) - John Smith (Number Four), Six, and Marina (Number Seven).  If you follow my reviews, you'll know that I am not a huge fan of POV jumping.  Normally, I can get through it.  However, this book changes POV at the end of almost every chapter.  This makes the book super hard to get into mainly because once you are into it you are thrown into another situation - since half of the characters start in Europe and two of them are in the United States.  So, at the end of every chapter I kind of wanted to throw it.

The romance in this novel, as opposed to the previous, are pretty cut-and-dry.  It seems as though Pittacus Lore (LOVE the pen-name, by the way) shoved as much action as he could into the book and then everything else (plot, romance, etc...) fell a little to the wayside.  That and one of the characters that I love to hate returns.  I could just scream over that one.

However, this is a book in one of my beloved series and I enjoyed seeing all of the characters again (and meeting some new ones).  The plot progresses slowly, but it does progress the series at least a little bit.  Plus, the action -scenes are pretty amazing.  I liked it enough to continue.