Mogs Invade! Mogs Invade! The Garde Take the Fight to the Evil Aliens

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies) - Pittacus Lore

When we left the remaining Garde last time (The Fall of Five), everything was a mess. The traitorous Five had killed Eight, left three other numbers marooned in the Everglades, and tipped off his Mogadorian allies to the location of the stronghold in Chicago. In the aftermath of the resulting firefight; Ella’s been kidnapped by Mog soldiers and John, Sarah, Adam and the Goodes are on the run. Maybe it’s time to regroup…

Told from three viewpoints – those of Six, John and Ella – The Revenge of Seven finds the remaining Garde sundered even further, with three of them off in search of the fabled Sanctuary while John, the humans and their “good Mog” ally Adam fight a rear-action on the east coast. Meanwhile, Ella is imprisoned on Setrákus Ra’s flagship in interplanetary space as the Mogadorians prepare to invade Earth. And that’s not Ellas’ only heart-rending surprise, as the evil Mog overlord reveals his true face to her while laying out his plans for our planet.
 

As one might expect from a saga based on the classic LOTR pattern, the Fellowship… err, Garde splits even further, with Sarah off to see the B-est of BMOCs from Paradise HS, reborn as the webmaster of TheyWalkAmongUs.com. Though she and John continue to make kissy-face on the phone, you can tell he’s a little jealous. Happily, John and company make some human allies (the Riders of Rohan are here!) even as the first Mog ships appear, Independence Day style, above the world’s major cities. Meanwhile, Marina (never Seven, always Marina) discovers a new Legacy just in time for her sub-fellowship to meet up with the nastiest of nasty Mogs and begin the process of protecting Earth from the invading fleet. It’s all a bit of a jumble…

The fifth and penultimate installment (or so we’re told) of the Lorien Legacies series, The Revenge of Seven marks about the jillionth release overall from the word processor or Pittacus Lore (aka Jobie Hughes and James Frey). As expected, it’s novella-length and padded with a couple of chapters from what is supposed to be the final installment (though oddly enough, there are already two more releases in the series…) As is the case in most of the recent novellas in the series, the action is told from several viewpoints. Also as in most of the recent installments, it takes the reader a while to catch on to which narrator is talking, since there’s no visual cue about which is which – not even the chapter headings. Perhaps most disappointing, however, is that the “revenge” promised in the title is never realized: Seven and the others simply continue to fight to save Earth – and in doing so, perhaps bring a version of Lorien back.

The Revenge of Seven moves the story toward its inevitable conclusion, which – one presumes – is on its way, and soon. As is the case throughout the series, the characters don’t swear or have sex (though they apparently want to), and only kill aliens who deserve it: making the book pretty tame stuff suitable for most YA readers.