I was so looking forward to reading about Five's POV during what went down in the Fall of Five, BUT IT JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN! I was so sad from what he had been spoonfed by the Mogs about Nine, because they would have the potential to be friends. Or at least not a burning hatred of each other. They are so similar to one another, excluding their childhood.
If only Rey wasn't so weak. If only Rey didn't die. If only Five didn't escape his little island. If only he knew how to use a compass correctly. If only he didn't meet Emma. If only...
There are so many events that could have put Five on a different path and didn't end as messed up as he is today. I don't hate him, because I understand him. He just wants to survive, but years of anger just built up to... now. He is young, naive, and just wants to fit in. That ending with Ethan....
At first, I wasn't remotely interested in Mark's story, but I ended up enjoying it as it progressed. I just want of the original Garde.
Rating: 3.2 (averaged from individual ratings) ***Minor spoilers, spoilers for the Lorien Legacies books 1-4***
Five's Legacy - 2 stars: This novella follows Five up to the point where he decides to join the Mogadorians. This includes the events leading up to his Cepan's death, how he struggled to survive after, and then how the Mogs made contact with him. I found that this one was the worst in the novella collection, since it dragged so much. It didn't help that I don't like Five all that much. It's hard to like someone when they betray people you're rooting for. It was interesting knowing how he came to know the Mogs, but until that point I was quite bored.
Return to Paradise - 4 stars: This novella is from the perspective of Mark James, immediately following the events at the end of I Am Number Four when the school gets destroyed and Four and Sam run away. We learn how the police/FBI handled the whole situation, and how Mark and Sarah reacted to what was happening. Until reading this, all we really knew was that they left, and when they returned Four got trapped by Sarah. I didn't know all that much about Mark so it was interesting learning about how he felt about everything, and I liked catching up with Sarah since I remember liking her. This one had a lot more action than Five's Legacy - not necessarily fighting scenes type action, but in the way that there was always something going on.
Five's Betrayal - 3.5 stars: This novella continues Five's story after he joins the Mogadorians. It tells of his studies, his training, and how he must prove himself to the Mogs before he's able to take a position of power. The most interesting part of this one was that we got to see into a Mogadorian base and see how it's run. It's the same base that Four and Nine broke out of, so we got to see that action as well. It's cool being able to see the Mog way of things, like how their hierarchy works and how they deal with casualties. It wasn't as good as Return to Paradise, but it kept my interest well enough.
very good insight into what fives life was before he meet the others and i was also happy to read what happened to mark after the aftermath of the first book
the 2 novellas about five are really interesting, it helps you a lot to understand better his character and what is really going on in his mind. it kinda breaks my heart to see how he thinks and his vision of the whole conflict. i hated him for whatever he’s doing in the fall of five (spoiler) but now i like him and i feel sorry for him. 4 stars bc i didn’t like the novella about mark, i thought it was really annoying + i don’t really like his character and that didn’t change.
Five's Legacy: 5/5 stars. I have been dying to find out more about Five since I read FoF. And let me say it quickly, I still really don't like him. He's whiny and paranoid and incredibly arrogant and stupid. He goes on and on about worrying if the other Garde are teaming up without him, but he never tries to find out for sure or to find them. He is more interested in doing whatever he wants just to pass time and be a victim, the "poor left out Garde". So really this is why I give the novella 5 stars, despite me not liking him and everything I read on and I wanted to know what would happen next. That's powerful.
Return to Paradise: 4/5. I have serious issues with Mark and his obsession with Sarah. But his actions in this novella, after Sarah disappears, does redeem him a bit in my eyes. He might be an arse and he might be doing it all for Sarah, but he does it. He evades the FBI and the Mogs and goes off on what can only be described as a suicide mission. My only question is: when does Mark get to Dulce? Before or after the fighting? I want to know what happened to him.
Five's Betrayal: 5/5 stars. I still don't like Five and as before this is why I give it 5 stars. Despitehow much I dislike him, I wanted to read on, I wanted to know what happened to him. And oh my, he really has gone mad hasn't he? He's still arrogant and stupid, in addition to being brainwashed. I sincerely hope the Garde will be able to knock some sense into him as I would hate to see him actually get killed. I can't believe he's still so caught up in his whole "poor Five the left out Garde" vitim role. He left the island and out on this own before IANF, as far as I can deduce from the time frames, and despite his constant fear that he has been left out, he has never tried to find another Garde or make contact with them. I strongly dislike him, yet I want to know what happens to him. That's a good novella.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Holy shit, these stories...I can't believe I'm saying this, but it actually looks like there's room for Five to redeem himself! And I so totally need another Mark James-centric Lost File.
Yay! I love the Lost Files novellas! Probably almost as much, if not more, than the actual books themselves.
Summary of the Story
While Reading
What I Thought
I always hope I'll get more Adam stories with these in-between books, but I guess since he's basically caught up to the present, there wouldn't have been much choice. Oh well. I liked seeing Five's story so that we know why he is how he is. I feel KIND OF bad for him, but not enough to forgive him for being such a dick. And not nearly enough to forgive him for Eight.
And I felt like Mark's story was kind of random, unless he actually manages to join up with the Garde and Sarah in the end. I also feel like they're trying to set him back up with Sarah, so that Four and Six can get together. I'm not sure how I feel about this...
I was sure I could not hate Five more than I did but I guess I can!
The first part, was quite boring. Getting a 2.5 from me. It's just Five being himself. Learning his powers and then joining the Mogs. It just showed me how selfish and self-centered he was. I mean yes, he wanted to survive but the way he thought about it, it was wrong.
Second part with Mark James. Return to Paradise- gets a 4.5 I loved seeing Sarah and what was life for her and Mark James after the battle. It was nice getting all the parallels from the 2nd book just from another perspective. He is actually not that bad. He actually redeemed himself for all the shit he did to John in I Am Number Four but he didn't actually seem regret. He said he was a fool, not understanding what was going on. And how he was just teen messing around with his friends most of the time. So he got a slight character development, for not staying put.
The third part and my personal favourite. Even tho I still hate Five. This part made me understand some plotholes the 2nd book had. Ex, why Setrakus Ra went to the base in West Virginia (apparently for crowning Five and seeing Nine get murdered) and now all of Five's hatred to Nine seems .. logical? He was negative with him from the beggining (not that Nine is a polite dude himself, but anyway, he was cruel to Five either way) but now .. it makes sense why he wanted to kill him so badly. He wanted to prove himself worthy. To improve Setrakus Ra. And by killing Eight- he did as well. 3.5 stars by me for the whole part.
I kind of hoped we also got his POV during his last appearance in the 4th book when he killed Eight and Marina like a badass stabbed his eye.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I am a huge fan of the novellas. I love reading the insight behind every storyline. It adds so much more to the Novel Editions and creates a better understanding of the events and even then Character.
Five's Legacy: It was ok. It gave me an understanding of where he came from and why he turned out the way he is, but it wasn't exciting enough for me. 3 Stars!
Return to Paradise: This was better! I loved seeing in the eyes of Mark! It was a great view of what the guy was really thinking about all that happened to his small town and the people he knew from there. 4 Stars!
Five's Betrayal: What a little ass he turned into! I LOVED THIS!!! LIKE WHOA!!! Action all the way though, with a couple twists and emotions that I loved! I really hate the little shit but I wish it kept going. 5 Stars!
I love learning more about the history of the characters and the things in their lives that have a major impact on how they move forward. This book had two short stories featuring Five. I understand him a bit better now but it's pretty hard to get over what you know of him from previous books. All I can say is, he was certainly an easy mark. Young like all of them, but gullible, angry, full of hate, and with an incredibly misplaced sense of entitlement. None of the redeeming qualities that the other Lorien have.
The other short story took us back to Paradise and focused on Mark, Sarah's ex (John's girlfriend). I imagine he will be playing a larger role in the future and a more positive one at that.
I will start The Revenge of Seven today. Can't wait!
I like these short stories of what is happening with other characters in this series. I didn't enjoy the "Return to Paradise" story as much because Mark James is telling his story and he uses bad language. I got sick of hearing that. I probably would've liked the book better if it weren't for that. I thought it was helpful to hear Five's story in order to understand his character better and why he has done some of the things he has.
(My computer freaked so this perhaps a little shorter and different than my original post).
(#7) Five's Legacy:
This story is to catch us up on what Five has been up to since he and his Cepan Rey came to Earth. After a few location changes, Rey is starting to get sick and decides that the best place for him to get better and to hide are the islands off of Florida. There it is warm and remote, very very remote. Five is lazy, like LAAAAAZZZZZYYYYY. He lies to Rey about his training but little does he know, Rey is on to him. One night Five is woken by Rey with the command to RUN, the Mogs were there! Five runs, doesn't take his chest, doesn't take a weapon and just sits in a tree waiting for Rey. Rey comes along, not too pleased with Five's performance and demands that he work harder. Five is upset he was caught and along with his immature self he concocts this idea that the other Garde are out there doing stuff without him and deliberately left him out of the loop. In his anger he realizes that he has developed his new legacy of telekinesis. He tries to get better at it before telling Rey, but just a few days later, Rey's sickness gets to him and he passes. With no other choice, Five sets sail with no other plans except to get off the island. After nearly dying at sea he finds himself in Miami and no way to feed, clothe or take care of himself in any way. Until he learns to control his powers and begins to pick pocket his way to a full belly. A girl befriends him and they begin doing this together until they are approached by a man named Ethan. Ethan eventually takes Five under his wing and cares for the lazy selfish Garde who doesn't consider that this could be dangerous.
(#8) Return to Paradise:
This one is told by Mark James, the football jock who ends up helping Four when their high school was attacked by the Mogs. He and Sarah have to attend a rival school until the investigation of what actually happened is completed and the FBI get out of town. So far, the FBI has only tried to get information from everyone but will not share anything of what they know or what is going on. Mark soon makes an internet friend out of a blogger who goes by "Garde". This guy is a computer whiz and seems to be able to get into any computer program and get the information that Mark needs. During this time Four and Sam come back and are attacked by Mogs and FBI alike while trying to retrieve information that Sam's dad may have had hidden in their backyard. Sarah is under deep suspicion since it was she that Four went to see while they were in town and wonder if Four will go back to her now that he escaped police custody with Sam and Six. Mark keeps trying to find out and confirm that the FBI is actually involved with the Mogs, and manages to steal a FBI laptop. Now he knows that he has to go on the run, especially when his searching reveals that the now missing Sarah was taken to the base in New Mexico.
(#9) Five's Betrayal:
Five has been with Ethan for some time now when he happens upon Ethan while he is on a video call with.......A MOG! He immediately goes into flight mode and wants to escape but Ethan isn't even attacking him, he's reasoning with him. Ethan explains to Five that the Mogs are not the bad guys and they he would benefit in the long run if he joined forces with the Mog army and tried to help locate and destroy the other Garde. As mentioned before, it doesn't take much convincing because Five has already created this (unlikely) story that the Garde are purposefully leaving him out of the look and have all but forgotten him. He joins in at the Mog base camp in West Virginia and begins to learn their ways and fall into their beliefs. He is told that to show his true loyalties with the Mogs, he must kill Nine, who they have had in custody for some time now. They give him a file of what was reported on Nine and Sandor his Cepan. They show the video of Nine killing Sandor, except they do not share that they had already been torturing Sandor for days before Nine killed him out of mercy not murder. There are also fake transcripts that build up Five's fear of the other Garde thinking they are more superior than Five and he lets anger cloud reality. Soon, he is ready to kill Nine based on lies. When the time comes something happens in the base, Four is there! He has broken in and helped Nine escape! They now have the human that got left behind in the chaos. During the attack Ethan almost dies falling towards the green fire pit, but Five saves him. This act of mercy will be their doom. Strakus Ra is there and orders Five to kill Ethan to show his loyalty since he allowed Four and Five to escape and showed weakness saving Ethan's life. After he kills Ethan, he is given a mission to go out and let his location be known to the Garde so he can get into their group and learn all the information they can and perhaps show them that the Mogs are the good guys like he believes.
PERSONAL NOTE:
Already knowing that Five is a bad guy, I still hate his character. His immaturity is at the level of annoyance, just like a typical child who believes everyone is out to get him.
I love this series, I've given most of the novels and novellas 5 stars, so I'm a little conflicted as to why I'm only giving this novella collection 4 stars. 'Hidden Enemy' contains three novellas, 7. Five's Legacy, 8. Return To Paradise, and 9. Five's Betrayal. I didn't enjoy this one QUITE as much as the other novellas, it was still amazingly written, but it may be because two of the stories are focused on Garde number Five. It's hard to like Five! I did appreciate reading his backstory though and finding out what happened to make him do the things that he's been doing in the main books. The other story in this particular collection is focused on Mark James, Sarahs ex, and his work behind the scenes as well as his feelings towards Sarah and the Garde. This was a really good refresher in between Fives two stories! So why only 4 stars? Well the other reason I may possibly not have liked it so much is simply because it's one of the last two novella collections standing between me and reading the final main book! I am determined to finish all of the novellas though and save the final book for the very end. Don't get me wrong, the novallas are fantastic and are DEFINITELY a must read, it's just that I'm just getting really excited for the final book now! Still very easily 4 stars. My impatience aside, Five is one twisted character, although I do understand him a lot better now, even if I still don't particularly like him.
Bad! Start with a character you don't like and add whinyness plus hipocracy, then add a flat storyline that takes an odd detour in the middle, mix in a tell but don't show type of writing style, voila, you have I Am Number Four. I am terrible at writing, clearly demonstrated by my reviews, yet I was consitantly trying to fill in parts where Lore could have made a twist or added some drama or made me care about the MC. He never did. Probably 50% of the story was #5 wailing about how the world was against him and everything was someone else's fault, 25% of the story was based in the head of a football jock whose girlfried left him for an alien. Very limited dialog, very limited interest in the internal dialog of the characters.
This is disappointing on another level because my 12 year old really wanted to continue listening to The Rangers Apprentice series but after 6 books I needed a change, now because of this clunker I might have to listen to one more to appease him.
I am clearly not going to read the next ones.
The book is still bad but a bit of a mea-culpa is in order. I thought I was reading the first one since that was the title on the audio with a tiny subtitle underneath. This was in actuality novelas of the legacy or something like that 5-7.
I am still not going to read any of the others, the writing was horrible.