Pittacus Backtracks to Fill Some Plot Holes: "The Navigator"

I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Navigator - Pittacus Lore

Among all the tangled plotlines of the so-called Lorien Legacies series, there have always been open plot holes. Take, for instance, the sudden appearance – out of nowhere – of Crayton and Ella in… who knows which of the ‘leventy or so novellas so far? Or the dozens of chimerae [sic] held captive by the Mogadorians in their West Virginia base. Or the mysterious tall, dusky woman who shows up in… another book; or at the end of one tale, as the nine Garde flee their doomed home, there’s brief mention of a second ship. Well, Pittacus Lore (in reality the writing team of Jobie Hughes [maybe, or perhaps another ghostwriter] and James Frey ) are nothing if not inventive, once again doubling back in their plotline to fill in the holes. This time, it’s the startlingly out-of-sequence The Navigagtor.

Meet Lexa, disaffected, loner Lorien hacker. As the Mogadorian horde rains down its hellfire on the home world, she and her vague acquaintance Zophie escape from the doomed planet after stealing a museum-piece spaceship. They’re accompanied in their flight by the infant Ella, her late father’s employee, Crayton, and a whole bunch of chimerae.  Following the hints dropped by Zophie’s brother, Janus – he piloted the ship carrying the nine Garde and their Cêpans – the merry band head for Earth. Apparently, Loric culture has been helping earthlings advance, though whether giving DARPA the internet was “advancement” remains debatable.

In keeping with the LOTR trope, this secondary Loric “fellowship” sunders, followed by the predictable string of disasters. Lexa’s left on her own – luckily, her hacking skills were transferable to earthly computers.

And that’s how Pittacus fills those plot holes. It’s hard to figure out how many novellas and short stories and short novels there have been in the I Am Number Four franchise so far. There are somewhere well into the teens, maybe the twenties. Like all others in the series since the original novel, this is short – less than 70 pages, I think – and is followed by a teaser for the next book/novella/whatever in the series, in this case, The Revenge of Seven. Weird, though – that one came out the year before this one. Like I said, doubling back.

As are all the other bits and pieces of the Lorien Legacies series, The Navigator is fairly harmless YA fodder. It’s even more harmless than the ones with the Garde in them, because there’s nothing at all in its pages that could smack of sex, drugs, or rock ‘n’ roll. Unfortunately, it’s pretty clearly filler meant to answer some questions raised in earlier content, and not that great to begin with. Nevertheless, anyone devouring the entire series should make certain to read it, if only to be able to check it off their list.