The Rise of Nine

I picked up The Rise of Nine because book two ended on a split that bothered me all week. John was running with Six and a freed Nine. Sam was taken. Marina had found Ella. Everyone was headed in different directions. This is book three in the Lorien Legacies series, first published in 2012 by HarperCollins, and the standard hardcover runs 360 pages. I read it fast, mostly in two long sittings, because the chapters are short and every section ends mid chase. It is louder and stranger than the first two books, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a messy way.

What follows gives away the whole plot, including who lives and what Eight can do. If you want surprises intact, stop here.

After the cave

John Smith, Number Four, starts the book exhausted. He has the Lumen in his hands, telekinesis, enhanced strength and speed, and a habit of apologizing while running. Six is with him, fierce and practical, able to turn invisible and stir storms. They have just broken into a Mogadorian base in West Virginia and pulled out Number Nine, who spent months locked in a cell. Nine is tall, loud, scarred, funny in a mean way, and immediately useful in a fight. He can hear over long distances and move objects with his mind, and he likes using both at full volume.

Sam Goode is gone. The Mogs grabbed him during the breakout. John feels responsible because Sam followed him into this war with no powers and a missing father. That guilt drives half of John's choices here. He wants to go back for Sam right away. Six and Nine argue for regrouping first. They are outnumbered, low on supplies, and hunted by both Mog patrols and federal agents who think John is a domestic terrorist after the school battle in Ohio.

Bernie Kosar travels with them, shifting shape when fighting starts and checking windows without being told.

The other thread picks up in Spain. Marina, Number Seven, spent years in a convent under a guardian who refused to train her. She can heal wounds, breathe underwater, and move things with thought. She is traveling now with Ella, who is small, sharp, and far older than she looks. Ella is Number Ten, from a second ship, able to shift her apparent age. Their guardian Crayton died helping them escape, and Marina carries that loss with anger at her old guardian Adelina for wasting years.

Marina and Ella are headed to India because Marina dreamed about Number Eight. Dreams matter for Garde. They signal connection through the charm that protects them in order. Eight is alive, hidden in the Himalayas, and the Mogs are closing in. Six and John see the same pattern from intercepted chatter and from Ella's warnings. Everyone converges on India. The structure is simple: two groups racing to reach Eight before Setrakus Ra does.

I liked the momentum of these opening chapters. Short scenes. Motel rooms. Stolen cars. False IDs. Nine stealing snacks and picking fights. Six shutting him down with a look. John trying to keep the peace while checking his hands for new Legacy burns. The banter between Nine and John is juvenile and fun after the gloom of book two. Nine calls John soft. John calls Nine reckless. Both are right.

Nine out of the cell

Nine needs a section to himself because he changes the group chemistry. He grew up mostly in Chicago under a guardian named Sandor, who trained him hard and died when the Mogs found them. Unlike John, who was raised to hide, Nine was raised to fight. He knows Mog weapons. He knows how to pick locks, hotwire cars, and read patrol patterns. He is arrogant about it, and the book lets him be wrong just often enough to stay likable.

His cell time left marks. He flinches at certain sounds. He sleeps badly. He covers it with jokes about food and girls and smashing Mogs. When he spars with John, he goes too hard and then apologizes too fast. When Six gives orders, he obeys but complains. I found him entertaining even when he hogged scenes. The series needed someone who enjoys battle, because John worries through every punch and Marina prays through hers.

Nine's hearing Legacy gets a good showcase early. He tracks patrols through motel walls. He hears drones before the others see them. He uses telekinesis with brute force, throwing trucks and tearing doors where John would try to finesse a lock. The contrast helps in action scenes. John burns and pushes. Six vanishes and strikes from above with weather. Nine listens, charges, and breaks things. Bernie Kosar fills gaps, shifting to larger forms to block alleys or carry packs.

Nine talks constantly, and after a hundred pages I wanted Six to tell him to sleep, which she does with a look.

Marina and Ella on the move

Marina's chapters are quieter and, for me, stronger. She spent book two trapped by obedience. Now she is making choices with Ella, who is brave and secretive in equal measure. They fly with false papers, change trains, sleep in hostels, and argue about trust. Ella knows more about Lorien history and about Setrakus Ra than she admits. Marina senses the gaps and presses gently, then not so gently.

Marina's healing Legacy gets specific work here. She closes cuts, eases burns, steadies a sick child on a train without drawing attention. She practices telekinesis in bathroom mirrors. She swims when she can, testing her ability to stay down long and move fast in water. These small training scenes do more for her character than any speech about destiny. She is catching up on years Adelina stole, and she is angry in a focused way that feels earned.

Ella is the puzzle. She claims to be Ten but remembers things from before the first ships left. She has nightmares about Mogadorian labs. She can look six or sixty depending on need, which helps at checkpoints. She is kind to strangers and ruthless about the mission. When Marina asks direct questions, Ella deflects with jokes or sleep. I liked that tension. It gives their travel chapters a mystery the John chapters lack.

Their journey to India includes a helpful human ally who shelters them and asks few questions at first, then too many. Marina has to decide how much to reveal. She chooses honesty in pieces, which felt right for someone raised by nuns to confess but trained by loss to withhold. The scenes in crowded markets and night trains are vivid without slowing the race. Food smells, ticket lines, curious children, soldiers checking IDs. The Mogs hide inside that normal machinery, using human police and cameras to track Garde heat signatures.

When Marina finally has to heal under fire, those years of suppression pay off. She acts fast because she waited too long before.

Eight in the Himalayas

Number Eight is worth the wait. He is lean, cheerful, playful, living high in the mountains above a village that reveres him as a local saint. He can teleport from place to place and take new shapes, appearing as different people and animals. He also has a prophetic ability tied to his dreams and to carvings he leaves on cave walls. The villagers bring him food. The monks tolerate him. He greets the Garde with jokes and instant warmth, which is disarming after Nine's swagger and Marina's wariness.

Eight's home is a cave system full of paintings and tunnels, with a lake and hidden exits. He shows Marina his murals of the other Garde, including faces he never met in person. He spars lightly with Nine and laughs when knocked down. He flirts a little with Marina, kindly and without pressure. He bonds fastest with Ella, who seems to recognize parts of his visions. Those calm chapters before the battle are my favorite in the book. For once the Garde eat well, sleep, train together, and compare Legacies like kids trading skills.

The training montage works because each power has limits. John's Lumen burns out if pushed too long. Six can vanish but still tires. Nine hears too much in crowds. Marina heals but takes on pain. Ella shifts age but cannot hold it under stress. Eight teleports but must visualize clearly or land badly. They drill in pairs. Six teaches John to shield during storms. Nine teaches Ella to fall. Eight teaches Marina to breathe through panic. Bernie Kosar watches like a coach, barking when someone cheats.

Eight refuses to abandon villagers who sheltered him, which forces the big fight. If they run, the village pays.

The temple battle

The battle at the mountain temple runs long and bloody. Mogs come in waves with blasters, swords, and armored beasts. Human soldiers under Mog influence block the lower paths. Six calls lightning until her nose bleeds. John burns through barricades and shields Marina while she works on the wounded. Nine fights in the open, shouting, drawing fire, breaking lines with thrown rocks and wrecked trucks. Eight blinks around the field, pulling allies from danger and dropping enemies off ledges. Ella stays near the cave mouth, shifting appearance to confuse snipers and dragging injured villagers inside.

Marina heals under fire, which is the emotional core. She kneels in dust, hands glowing faintly, closing a leg wound while blasts shake the walls. She runs out of strength, drinks water, goes back. She saves someone she barely knows and fails to save someone else. The book does not let healing feel clean. It costs time and leaves her shaking. That honesty lifts the scene above standard laser fights.

Losses land. A villager who fed them dies holding a door. A Mog commander nearly kills John before Six intervenes. Sam is not there to save, which John notes bitterly mid fight. The charm order matters here. The Mogs must kill in sequence, which shapes who they target and when. Eight is the current focus, and everyone else bleeds protecting him. The tactics are clearer than in the West Virginia cave, and I could follow positions without rereading. Short paragraphs help. Rubble. Smoke. A bell tower cracking. A lake reflecting fire.

He wants Ella especially, for reasons the book teases but does not fully explain. That holding back feels like setup for book four rather than a choice the characters would make.

Where this leaves the Garde

By the end, the group is finally together in one place but more fractured in purpose. John wants Sam back and wants Eight safe and wants Six close, and those wants pull different ways. Six wants to strike the Mogs before they regroup, and she is tired of running. Nine wants a straight fight and resents any plan that smells like hiding. Marina wants to protect Ella and honor Crayton by finishing training, not rushing. Ella wants answers about herself and fears what Setrakus Ra knows. Eight wants to stay with his village even as the mountain burns.

That spread is the best thing about the book. The first novel was one boy hiding. The second was two groups running. This one puts five Garde plus Ella and Bernie Kosar in the same valley and lets them disagree. The arguments about next steps feel like real coalition politics among tired teenagers with powers. No one is entirely right. John's loyalty to Sam is noble and strategically costly. Six's aggression is smart and risky. Nine's confidence inspires and blinds. Marina's caution protects and delays. The book earns its title because the Nine, or those left of them, finally feel like a unit that must choose together.

The prose is serviceable but repetitive. Federal agents appear just enough to remind you the government exists, then vanish when convenient. Ella's secrecy crosses from intriguing to annoying. Withholding vital intel during war gets people killed, and the book barely calls her on it.

The gender dynamics also wobble. Six and Marina do enormous work yet get framed through John's admiration and Eight's warmth more than through their own goals. Nine gets to be loud and wrong and still central. John gets to brood and still lead. Marina's healing codes as caretaking even when the book shows its cost. Six's storm codes as temper even when she is the most disciplined fighter present. I do not think this is intentional dismissal. The authors clearly respect both women. But page time and point of view tilt toward the boys, and in a book about unity that tilt shows.

Should you read it? If you finished book two, yes, without hesitation. The Rise of Nine pays off the race to Eight, gives Nine a proper introduction, lets Marina act instead of wait, and stages the biggest battle so far with clear geography. It moves fast, it cares about Sam even while sidelining him, and it sets up a darker next volume with Setrakus Ra focused on Ella. If you bounced off the second book's repetition, know this one repeats too, just at higher speed with better powers. The teleportation and storm work alone justify the price for action fans.

I finished feeling fond and irritated in equal measure. Fond because Eight's cave supper, Nine's terrible jokes, Six refusing to flinch, Marina healing with shaking hands, Ella watching everything, and Bernie Kosar snoring after battle form a found family I want to follow. Irritated because the book keeps underlining its themes about unity instead of trusting the scenes. Read it for the valley fight and the team finally sharing oxygen. Forgive the repeated guilt monologues and the delayed answers about Ella. Book four will have to explain her, rescue Sam, and decide what the Garde actually stand for beyond survival. This one gets them into the same room, breathing hard, ready to argue about that question. That is enough to keep me turning pages.