I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Mar 11, 2012 Andrew rated it liked it

This was another one of those titles where I knew more about the name that the author or the story. Yes I think the open strap lines must be some of the most famous of the genre and yet I knew so little of the story.

Add to this mix the fact that I had stumbled across the film before picking up the book I will admit I wasnt sure what I was letting myself in for when I started reading it.

Now I will make a point here - first of all no spoilers or reviews, there are far better reviewers here than m This was another one of those titles where I knew more about the name that the author or the story. Yes I think the open strap lines must be some of the most famous of the genre and yet I knew so little of the story.

Add to this mix the fact that I had stumbled across the film before picking up the book I will admit I wasnt sure what I was letting myself in for when I started reading it.

Now I will make a point here - first of all no spoilers or reviews, there are far better reviewers here than myself and I defer to their skills. Also it wasn't until I had finished reading this book did I discover how many others books there are in the series (I believe there will be 7 in total although that could always change) as well as numerous lost tales and short stories. In short there is a lot of material out there- demonstrating both the stories popularity and the amount of material the author has he wants to share with us.

So what about the book - well reading the book there was incredible sense of familiarity from the film however rather than plot twists or characters being different or being missed out completely - here there was more of a different feel or bias. I felt there as more a magical, fantastical feel to the book where as the film took a more science fiction approach to the story. The events and characters stay more or less the same but what they did or what happened had a different feel. So for once Liked both book and film for this reason.

But I am here for the book, so what did I think. Well I enjoyed it - it was familiar yet different enough for me to want to turn the page and read what happened next and how. Yes there were scenes I felt a little over played and others far too brief but I think that is me projecting my expectations on to the story rather poor writing. Would I read the others in the series - I think so although I am rather reluctant simply because if I did I would end up having to read them all simply to find out how the title of the book reflected to the events in the book. ...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Izlinda rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, science-fiction

I got recommended this book through...either Amazon.com or another site because I liked Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy.

The author, Pittacus Lore is the pseudonym for the writing duo James Frey (author of "A Million Little Pieces") and Jobie Hughes. A Million Little Pieces which turned out to be a fake memoir. I don't know who Jobie Hughes is. In the story, Pittacus Lore is the Head Elder on the planet Lorien.

This book is badly written. I can't write fiction to save my life (and probably r I got recommended this book through...either Amazon.com or another site because I liked Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games trilogy.

The author, Pittacus Lore is the pseudonym for the writing duo James Frey (author of "A Million Little Pieces") and Jobie Hughes. A Million Little Pieces which turned out to be a fake memoir. I don't know who Jobie Hughes is. In the story, Pittacus Lore is the Head Elder on the planet Lorien.

This book is badly written. I can't write fiction to save my life (and probably research papers, too), but I could definitely see the whole "telling" writing style here instead of "showing" style most authors reach/reach for. Oh, and there's a big fat typo on the fifth page, which is the first chapter. (The previous is a prologue.) "It was warm, a soft wind bxlew in from off the water." Bxlew? On the fifth page? C'mon, editors.

Premise of the story is a group of 9 children and their guardians (Cepan) are sent to Earth 10 years ago because their planet, Lorien, was being defeated by the Mogadarians, who are the requisite, stereotypical evil bad guys who go around in trench coats. The children can only be killed in chronological order, unless two or more of them get in each other's presence and, bam, the charm breaks. And how do the nine children know when the others are killed? A circular scar forms around their right ankle whenever one of them in killed. It's hot enough to cause Number Four's sock to catch fire the second time, and water to boil the 3rd time, and yet somehow not catch his blankets or bed on fire the first time? Inconsistent.

I actually burst out laughing during the prologue. The entire book is written in present tense, which is a tense I admittedly have a hard time adjusting to. The entire book is written in first person, except for the prologue. Here it's in 3rd person, but it feels so conversational I wouldn't be surprised if he would have dropped a "you" to refer to the audience if it had gone on longer. You have a fourteen-year-old boy and a fifty-year-old man under attack. You have cliche statements. Jerky action sentences.

"[The Mogadarian] raises the sword, the only weapon in the universe that can break the charm that until today protected the boys, and still protects the others. The blade ignites in a silver flame as it points to the sky, as if it's coming alive, sensing its mission and grimacing in anticipation. And as it falls, an arc of light speeding through the blackness of the jungle, the boy still believes that some part of him will survive, and some part of him will make it home. He closes his eyes just before the sword strikes. And then it is over." - pg. 4

What? Oh my God.

The chaptered part of the book begins with John Smith feeling his third scar form during a boat party. He and his Cepan, Henri, run away to another town, under new identities. They wait for John to form his Legacies - supernatural powers - that will enable him to fight the Mogadarians and also help rule the planet. See, their planet is much like ours and they almost killed it through pollution until they discovered better and made it aaallll better. In fact, they also helped Earth develop, gave us fire, and the Greek Gods were actual half-Loric, half-human, as well as, of course, the intellectual and artistic geniuses in human history. There are no humans responsible for pivotal moments in our history. That's giving too much credit to humans. Or, to quote Henri, "Some of the greatest figures in Earth's history were actually the product of humans and the Loric, including Buddha, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." - pg. 275. I see they didn't take credit for Adolf Hitler and his charisma for oration he's usually given. ARGH. I wonder if Martin Luther King Jr. is also half-human, half-Loric, and Henri forgot it off his list, or the humans (Americans) can take credit for him. But anyway, John and Henri move to Paradise, Ohio, a small rural town and there John falls in love with Sarah, who can do no wrong, (also, the romance was so poorly developed), and befriends Sam, an alien-believer. Of course chaos ensues, he is being hunted because HE IS NUMBER FOUR and the next in line.

This book was due last Wednesday, and I couldn't renew it because it has holds on it. I didn't even start it until Tuesday night, where I burst out laughing from the prologue, and had to put it aside to finish all my schoolwork. I completed it Friday night and it was so bad. That said, I can see middle schoolers enjoying this book. It's action packed and the logic/rationale is so surface-like there's nothing really deeper about it. They (the authors) didn't go deep into the whole "hey, pollution is bad" premise. The Mogadarians killed their own planet through pollution. *sage nod*

It's the first in a series of I don't know how many. Maybe 6 for each remaining Loric child? Anyway, at the end there's a unread letter John can't be bothered to read just yet - that's the tantalizing hook meant to make us wanna read/buy the next book. And finding the other children. Yay! Such an obvious plot device! Man, I am so glad that I didn't buy this book. This is less than a 3 star, meaning I wouldn't recommend it to anybody in my age group or contemporaries. Yeah, it firmly belongs with the middle schoolers. It's filed in the library as "young adult" but I usually think of young adult as high school? This is not high school level. ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 John rated it it was ok

I picked this up because our local library's adult summer reading program asks us to read books that meet certain criteria. This fit both "a book set in your home state" (Ohio) and "a YA bestseller," but even being set in the Buckeye State wasn't enough to make I Am Number Four awesome.

There were two things I didn't like about the YA aspect of the book: first, I felt like the stereotypical portrayal of high school (even an Ohio high school) as football-obsessed, where the jocks rule the school I picked this up because our local library's adult summer reading program asks us to read books that meet certain criteria. This fit both "a book set in your home state" (Ohio) and "a YA bestseller," but even being set in the Buckeye State wasn't enough to make I Am Number Four awesome.

There were two things I didn't like about the YA aspect of the book: first, I felt like the stereotypical portrayal of high school (even an Ohio high school) as football-obsessed, where the jocks rule the school and act like bullies, was just lazy writing. Even [spoiler]having the main football player eventually help our protagonist[/spoiler] wasn't enough for me to feel like this writing choice didn't suck. And that lack of nuance spilled over into the rest of the YA portion of the plot, centered as it was around falling in love. Which isn't to say that a book about high school shouldn't include a romantic plot line, but come on. There really is more to high school than jocks-as-bullies and falling in love with a beautiful, smart, nice girl who used to be a shallow cheerleader but now saves puppies.

There were also several plot points that bugged me, things that just didn't seem realistic. [spoiler]Like when John uses his super powers to save Sarah and the two dogs and the local reporter is doggedly trying to get him to admit that he's actually got supernatural powers? Top to bottom stupid. First, a reporter should understand the inherent unreliability of eye-witness accounts, especially when your sources are drunk teenagers under the stress of a house burning down, and therefore be particularly skeptical about a supernatural explanation. Second, if the reporter did think he had supernatural powers, wouldn't he be a little more cautious about pissing this young man off? And the whole thing was largely unnecessary because of the video that the plot introduced soon after: if the reporter had the video when he was questioning John, why not bring it up? And since there was the video being posted, why did the writers even need this unbelievable side plot with the reporter? Just to make him anxious about being discovered, so that he can be relieved, and then the hammer falls? Um, okay.[/spoiler]

There's also nothing terribly interesting about the fantasy (with a window dressing of sci fi) plot here: there were some cool elements to it, but it didn't really grab me. ...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Tani rated it it was ok

Shelves: male-author, youngadult, 2012

Finally finished! If I wasn't so OCD about finishing books, this is one I would have dropped after the first hundred or so pages. I liked the premise of this book, but that's pretty much all I liked. I didn't particularly care for the characters. The writing was bad, to put it quite simply. The storyline is based on a lot of stupid decisions that someone who's been desperately running from bloodthirsty aliens for the past ten years simply shouldn't be making. The romance was boring. In fact, all ...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Daniel rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, scifi-fantasy

There's a style to most YA novels that involves a lot of pathos and all emotions are elevated to extreme levels. And of course there's 'true love' and death. This novel fits all the stock needs of a YA novel, along with plenty of action and a decent sci-fi plot.

I'm not a big fan of this genre of fiction, though I've tried reading more than a few books of this sort. However, this one stands out as being quite readable ... mostly thanks to the plot and action. Any time the characters had a moment ...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Tracey rated it liked it

Shelves: ya, e-text, libraryread-idm

Mixed reviews - Osho gave 1 star, Cranky gave 4 and Tracey G gave 3

Am about 70% through the library e-book copy of this novel, which reminds me a bit of The Da Vinci Code in that it felt as if it were written to become a movie (and yes, it WAS made into a film).

It's YA sci-fi by the numbers -- mentor & apprentice on the run from an alien Evil - apprentice grows into his Powers, picks a nerd as a sidekick and falls in love with a pretty girl -- but the plot flows well enough, for what it is. The ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Lorena rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy

Pretty terrible. The writing is stilted, the plot is full of holes. It's insanely derivative and unoriginal. There's so much better stuff out there - no one should be forced to resort to reading this. ...more

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Dec 01, 2013 Bryan457 rated it did not like it

Shelves: alien-invasion, fugitive, juv-ya, animal-companions, sci-fi-fantasy-mixed, superhuman

Is there anything more pitiful than a lovesick teenage boy?

By the time I got to the end, I was kinda hoping John would get killed.

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Jan 04, 2011 Robert rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-reading-list

I can see the qualities that make this book an excellent candidate to be a movie. I enjoyed the ideas in the book, and I enjoyed the story, but it's not a particularly mature work. That is to say that's it's really more of a young adult type read, and should be accessible to a wide range of readers for enjoyment.

...more

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