By “Pittacus Lore”
In Spain, Number Seven is hiding in an orphanage, as States-side Numbers Four and Six continue their quest…
There’s something slightly off about the first few chapters of this sequel to I Am Number Four. It doesn’t help that the narrator keeps switching from Number Seven to Number Six (although it becomes easy enough to keep track of after a while) – it’s more the tone that has shifted from the first novel.
It puts me in mind of watching Batman Begins: in the first hour of that movie, Christian Bale is fighting without benefit of the Batman costume, and somehow the fights seem much dirtier and nastier than they do once he’s donned the cowl, even though the moves are the same. In this book, Numbers Four and Six, as well as their human friend Sam, take on their enemies with a great deal of relish: the problem is, for the first part of the story, those “enemies” are in fact police officers. The fantasy element returns when it’s Loriens vs. Mogadorians – these are bad guys who deserve everything they get – but when they’re simply human beings doing their jobs who are thrown into the air towards helicopter blades (even if our hero fully intends them not actually being killed), there’s a nastiness that wasn’t present before.
However, the story does settle down, and we learn quite a bit more about the backstory to the Nine who were sent to Earth, who they’re meant to be, and what their purpose is. Number Seven’s tale is a little less predictable than Number Four’s was, and it was a good call not to devote an entire book to her adventures, as the counterpoint with Four and Six’s tale works well.
Verdict: Clearly written with one eye to the screenplay, particularly with its James Bond villain’s headquarters at the end, this feels rather more manufactured than its predecessor. 5/10
Paul Simpson
Click here for our review of the first Lorien Legacies novel, I Am Number Four
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