I Am Number Four – Pittacus Lore

A book caught my eye the other day in Tesco. A fairly impressive looking hardback just released entitled “I Am Number Four” by an unusually named author. A quick scan of the dust jacket piqued my interest:

John Smith is not your average teenager. He regularly moves from small town to small town. He changes his name and identity. He does not put down roots. He cannot tell anyone who or what he really is. If he stops moving those who hunt him will find and kill him. But you can’t run forever. So when he stops in Paradise, Ohio, John decides to try and settle down. To fit in. And for the first time he makes some real friends. People he cares about – and who care about him. Never in John’s short life has there been space for friendship, or even love. But it’s just a matter of time before John’s secret is revealed. He was once one of nine. Three of them have been killed. John is Number Four. He knows that he is next . . .

When I got home, I purchased it on my iPhone’s “iBooks”. I wanted to share a few thought about the book and about reading books on your iPhone 4.

First off, the book. It’s the first in a series called “The Lorien Legacies”. It’s already been snapped up for a movie adaption and one wonders if the screenplay didn’t come first as it’s written like a novelisation of a film.
The premise of the book is somewhat imaginative. There are 18 life sustaining planets in the universe. The nearest to us is a planet called Lorien which is ten times smaller than Earth. It’s people are much like humans although much more advanced. Their planet is destroyed in an invasion by the Mogadorians; a cruel race who have sucked their own planet of resources. During the destruction, nine Lorien infants and their guardians are put in a ship and sent to Earth. The infants develop “Legacies” super powers (ability to become invisible, great strength, telekinesis, etc) and their guardians help train them. The nine infants are protected by a Lorien “charm” which means they cannot be killed out of sequence.

The Mogadorians follow them to Earth and set about killing them. The book follows “John Smith” (Number 4) and his guardian Henri. The Mogadorians have dispatched three children and are eager to tackle the rest before their Legacies develop.

The book hooks into the typical teen themes. Our protagonist is 15 and at high school. He is alien; an outsider developing super powers and falls in love. It channels Twilight and Harry Potter although it does have a few twists of its own. It’s pacey enough and the climatic scene is well executed.

I found the book to be a little lazy. As mentioned previously, it feels like a novelisation in that it isn’t very descriptive and doesn’t give much insight into internal monologues beyond some flashback sequences. It is very obviously trying to start a new franchise. The universe created is rich and the Lorien mythology is quite extensive and not everything is explained in the book which leads much unexplained. The Mogadorians are especially well formed and quite intimidating.

I finished it in a few days and it’s very much bubble-gum fiction but enjoyable nonetheless.

I have read a few books on iBooks now and I’m quite comfortable with it. The iPhone 4′s retina screen makes it perfectly clear and the adjustable brightness is a nice feature to have at night when you don’t want to broadcast a floodlight across the room.

My only complaint is a lack of a tilt lock like the Kindle app has. This prevents the app from going into horizontal mode as you lay back with the phone. I find myself having to hold the phone at an unnatural angle to prevent it from tilting. I’d also like the ability to “gesture” with the phone to turn pages. You can either slide the page (with a cool page turning effect) or tap on the left or right hand side to move backwards and forwards through the pages. It would be great to just shake it to turn pages to save having to tap the screen every 30 seconds or so.