John Smith is back in this palm flashing, mind moving, out of this world installment of the Lorien Legacies: The Rise of Nine. Boy, do these people love their numbers!

For those of you who have not read the two books prior to this, I Am Number Four and the Power of Six, John Smith, or Number Four, is an alien from a planet by the name of Lorien with eight other children and their mentors. The Mogadorians destroyed Lorien and plan on decimating Earth and the last hope for Lorien, which would be the Nine children. A scar of the symbol of the dead Lorien is burned on the leg of the remaining Garde members.  But numbers One through Three are dead, and the charm that protects them from being killed out of order no longer protects them. But they do have their Legacies. Legacies are powers that are different to each member of the Garde, or the Lorien children. They range from teleportation to flight to shape shifting to super speed.

The second book ends with a pretty good cliff hanger, so if you don’t want to find out what happens at the end of the second, I don’t advise you to read ahead.

In this incredibly written installment of the Lorien Legacies, it starts out with John and Number Nine in an abandoned house waiting while John recuperates from sickness caused by a force field he ran into. They have left a Mogadorian cave where Nine was held captive, and Sam (John’s best friend,) was taken prisoner. Four and Nine are trying to plan out what to do because they have to meet up with Number Six who is on the other side of the world, looking for the other members of the Garde, and Sam had the directions on where to meet up and when.

Meanwhile, in Spain, Six found and helped Seven, and Crayton, (Ten’s unofficial Cepan) fight off a hoard of Mogadorians. Ten doesn’t have Legacies yet because she is too young. They then leave for India to look for Number Eight, who may be the key to defeating the Mogadorians once and for all.

I really liked this book, for a lot of reasons. I enjoyed the way it is written from the three different perspectives of Number Four, Six, and Seven. It shows the different emotions and the way they handle the situation based on their powers. Since they don’t have the same Legacies, or training, and were raised by their Cepans differently, they react and fight differently in each situation.

I liked the Legacies a lot! I’m total nerd, and the idea of super powers is very appealing to me. The way the Legacies form and are developed was awesome because they generally developed when the member of the Garde needed it. This isn’t seen as much in this book, but a few Legacies do develop, like telepathy between certain members, and an unnamed Legacy that John develops. It isn’t known what it is, but he somehow heals Sarah and Ten. One of my favorite Legacies is Lumen, which John has. He has the ability to light up his palms and start himself on fire with it, this ability has also rendered him fireproof.

I would give the Rise of Nine a ten out of ten.

AH! My leg is burning and I just lifted the teacher out of the classroom with my mind!!