(Lorien Legacies)Author: Pittacus Lore
Format: ebook
Pages: 448
Genre: Science fiction
Published: 3rd August 2010
Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real.
Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. we have lived among you without you knowing.
But they know.
They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.
I am Number Four.
I am next.
John is from the planet Lorien. He arrived on Earth as a small child, having been sent with eight others when his home planet was invaded by the Mogadorians. The nine, and their guardians, are the only survivors of Lorian and they have scattered on Earth, waiting for their legacies (powers) to develop. In the mean time, the Mogadorians have followed them to Earth, trying to track them down and kill them. To give them a better chance of one day making it back home, the Lorian children can only be killed in a certain order. John is number Four. One, Two and Three are already dead. John knows it's his turn next.
Essentially, John's life is all about blending in and not getting noticed (and so not suspected of being different). He and his guardian Henri spend a lot of time moving towns to keep the Mogadorian's off their tail. All John wants to do is stay in one place and have some friends. At his new school, he meets Sam, who's a big alien geek, and Sarah,who soon becomes John's first girlfriend.
Before reading I Am Number Four, I was really excited about the concept as it sounded like something completely different to a lot of the books out there. Unfortunately, I found myself a little disappointed. For me the characters weren't developed enough, or at least I felt I didn't get to know them all that well. While the writing was fair enough, I did find myself at times wondering what the point of certain scenes were and there were parts that seemed a little unbelievable. Okay, so the story is about aliens from another planet, it's not going to all one hundred percent true to live but things like when John and Sam drove a car on a two hour trip despite being too young to have a license, without being noticed, seemed a little bit silly to me - especially when there was no need for the place they were going to be that far away. Plus it kind of bugged me that although John had spent most of his life coving up who he was, he was kind of rubbish at it.
Overall the story was good though, it was the details that let it down for me. I'm sure I'll still be reading the sequels to find out what happens.
