Scott Nichols

Scott Nichols

The Rise of Nine

Pittacus Lore

Fantasy
Just Right

Just Finished, 360

 

1. I just finished The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore. The ending to the book was a great chain of events. It starts with Number Six having a battle with the leader of the Mogadorians, a group of aliens who destroyed Lorien, the home planet of the Garde and are now planning to pulverize Earth, Setrakus Ra. After a few minutes of intense combat, Setrakus Ra manges to strike Six with his sword, which made her slowly get covered in black rock and immobilize her. Ra then changed himself into a mirror image of Six, and sent her flying up to the ceiling of the compound that they are in. At the same time, Four, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten/Ella are fighting a massive group of U.S forces, and during the fight, manage to get inside the Mogadorian compound. The Garde then fight their way through to a cell where they find Fours' girlfriend, Sarah. They free her and advance to the sounds of Six and Ra's battle. Once there, the Garde find Agent Walker, the FBI agent who arrested Four and None earlier. Sarah guards Walker after they knock her out, and push into the chamber where Setrakus Ra has just beaten Six. When they enter, they see Ra, who looks like Six, who lies and tells them that Six killed Setrakus Ra. Six/Ra approaches the group, picks up a sword, and stabs Eight. Fifty elite Mogadorian commandos suddenly appear and the Garde are stuck in a gigantic battle with the Mogadorians. They hold their own, but then Ra disables their Legacies. Seven, who was healing Eight with her Legacies, or Loric powers, suddenly is unable to help Eight. Four and Seven push for the door to get Eight to safety while Nine distracts Ra. Sarah suddenly bursts in to help Four and Seven, but is immediately struck down by Ra, along with Ten. Six however then drops and the rock smashes, freeing her, and she, along with Nine manage to surprise Ra. Setrakus Ra then uses explosives and escapes before being struck down, along with his troops. Ella and Sarah are on the verge of death when the book finally ends. 

 

2. I really liked this book and the two books before it. The characters seem realistic, and it's not the basic, stereotypical characters. They are really well developed, and when any one of them dies it has a profound effect and I felt genuinely upset when anything bad happened to anybody. The author uses this to make the Mogadorians seem that much more evil and, especially at the end, I really despised the Mogadorians. On top of that, the story of Lorien is heartbreaking, and I wholeheartedly supported the Garde and their mission. Plus, the novel is a well balanced, unique and engaging combination of Science Fiction and Fantasy, two of my favorite genres. There is also a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter and I would find myself peeking at the next page, desperate to know what happened next. Furthermore, this book would be liked by nearly everyone, and had a bit of everything. There was a ton of action and combat, but also many tender moments, sad moments, suspenseful moments, and a lot of interaction  not only between the Garde, but also with humans and Mogadorians alike.

 

3. A theme for this book would probably be bravery. Throughout the entire story the protagonists have to do incredibly daring things barely knowing anything about where they are going and what might be there once they arrive, yet they do it anyway. An example of this would be when Six, Seven, Ella and Crayton go to India to find Eight. The only info they have is that a boy is said to have supernatural powers and has a following of people who call him Vishnu reincarnate. They aren't even sure if the boy is Eight, but they do it because of their boldness and necessity to have another Garde. The situation they are in also shows how brave they are. The Garde are fighting an enemy that has vastly superior numbers, incredible technology and that's not even to mention the U.S government is against them as well. The book is pushed along by the Garde's brash decisions, and every choice puts them in more danger, yet they know what's at stake and do it anyway.
 

4. My favorite character is probably Eight. Even though he appears later in the book, he becomes an integral part of the group and is one of the most powerful Garde. However, he is also very playful and most of the time will be messing around and having fun. For example, before the battle with Setrakus Ra, Eight stopped the whole operation so he could take a swim. Plus, he has powers that I really would want if I could have Legacies, like teleportation and shapeshifting. Adding on to that, he can be serious and a force to be reckoned with, given his powers and physical ability. Eight is also incredibly loyal, and nearly died multiple times for the other Garde, not to mention his goal was to become friends with all the Garde, even Nine, who is openly hostile. When he needs to be, Eight can be the leader of the group, and pull them together and get them out of sticky situation. Eight seems like a normal, facetious person, but if necessary can rise to the task, which, in my eyes, makes him pretty cool and an overall great guy.

 

5. My least favorite character is most likely Nine. He has a superior attitude, and treated Four like a sidekick and made all the decisions without listening to Four, even though he had the better ideas. In the beginning of the book he also treated Four horribly, even though he was recovering from getting poisoned by the Mogadorians and could barely think straight, barely feeding him and laughing at his attempts to even walk. Nine is also arrogant, and will do anything to show off, to the point that he would bring attention to himself for no reason other than impressing regular humans and put the entire mission in jeopardy. For example, knowing he had a $500,000 bounty on his head, he walked straight up to armed thugs and beat them up, using his powers in plain sight, which eventually led to him and Four being captured, which he blamed Four for. Plus, Nine had no regard for any non-Garde, or their well-being, including even Cepans, other Loric, calling them "the expendable ones". Nine is a cruel, arrogant, and selfish person, who only looks out for himself and his personal gain.

 

6. The ending to the novel was great, but left something to be desired. It suffered from not having Number Five present, even though it talked about the Garde being reunited completely. The book didn't really come full circle because of Five's absence in New Mexico. The battle in New Mexico with Setrakus Ra was expected, but was still incredible. The book really led to New Mexico, and if you paid extra attention you could tell pretty early, which was slightly disappointing. The ending also left me with a feeling that the entire book happened for nothing. This is because, it lacked a real outcome. None of the Garde were lost and none of the antagonists were stopped. No headway was made for either of the opposing groups. I felt like it wasn't the ending of the book, but more the middle of one. However, the ending had terrific action scenes, and the fight with Setrakus Ra was satisfactory in the sense that it was what the whole book was leading up to and was very hectic and exhilarating. It was also good because the two groups of Garde the book follows, Four and Nine, and Six, Seven, Eight and Ten, came together. Plus, it lacked a real outcome. None of the Garde were lost and none of the antagonists were stopped. The ending was satisfactory, but not much else and could have been much better, like the endings of the other two books.