Scan barcode
A review by amandaventure
Generation One by Pittacus Lore
4.0
When I heard that there was going to be a spin off series to the Lorien Legacies series I freaked the eff out! I LOVED that series and John Smith is one of my favorite heroes. So knowing that more adventures were coming I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on it. For real… This was basically me:
Now… full honesty mode for a minute: This wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read but it was far from the worst thing I’ve read. I think my biggest problem was that the plot itself wasn’t much to write home about and the original garde weren’t really in this one at all. But Generation One does two things incredibly well: character development and world building. So for those reasons I was able to forgive a multitude of sins.
As always the character development in this series is phenomenal. All the characters have such distinct voices and their own personalities that we get to delve into. There’s not really a single character in here that I didn’t get a sense of. That’s right… ALL OF THE CHRACTERS ARE DEVELOPED! This is an incredibly rare feat in literature. I didn’t feel like any of the characters were just plot devices or that they’re personalities were only ever skimmed. Each character is unique and incredibly diverse and we hear from all of their perspectives at least a little bit. I loved getting to know them all. Generation One is the story of the new garde and I just felt disappointed that the original garde weren’t really around. I will admit that I’m missing all of my original garde friends something fierce and I almost wished this was still their story. But this may just be a case of bittersweet nostalgia and I need to learn to move on. I’ve got to get to know a brand new batch of garde and learn to love them too.
The world is a much different place after the Mogodorian invasion. Generation One sets the ground work for how the world is figuring out how to deal with the new normal. There’s a sense that the world is still settling after the war and no one government really knows exactly the best way to continue. One thing that seems to be true for everyone is a sense of unease about the new garde. All of a sudden all these kids have super powers and there’s real aliens living on Earth. When the human race feels threatened by a new species they will try to control and monitor them in order to get a sense of control back in their lives. If they can’t control what they fear, the only other option left is to destroy them. For the “destruction” option, a new religious zealot group (The Harvesters) has risen and they’ve made it their mission to destroy the “abominations.” The “controlling the garde” option is what is happening with the UN initiative “Earth Garde” and with the new shadowy enemy organization, “The Foundation.” Both parties seem determined to bend those with legacies to their will. Earth Garde is being made out to be the good guys and it’s the organization that the Lorien seem to be allied with. But are they really the good guys? The Foundation is basically a demented version of Earth Garde and even though I feel like they still have the same objective of bending those with legacies to their will, I definitely get the sense that The Foundation is the bad guys. I think I might be getting a little long winded here but to put what I’m trying to say simply: There aren’t really any good guys or bad guys yet. Everything is fully in the grey zone at the moment. The enemies aren’t coming from another planet any more. The enemy is coming from within.
The world building and the characters are amazing… as I’ve already explained. The only issue is the plot. It takes so long for anything to really happen in Generation One and when it finally did, it was over very quickly. I think this was meant to be an elaborate set up for the next books in the series. It’s setting the stage for the story to come. I would have liked for this one to have more of its own particular story rather than just set up. That’s the main issue I had with the book. However, everything else was so amazing that I can’t say this was “bad” at all. What it did accomplish was making me even more excited to get more stories from this universe and now I have to wait. WAITING IS THE WORST!!!!!
P.S. We are introduced to a new character named Einar from The Foundation. He is so freaking amoral and such an interesting villain. Is it just me or is anyone else getting some Five vibes from him? He seems to be forced to be with the bad guys and is doing their will because it’s the best option for him much like Five in the Lorien series. The difference is that Einar seems to enjoy the cruelty. I’m super interested in his character.
Now… full honesty mode for a minute: This wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever read but it was far from the worst thing I’ve read. I think my biggest problem was that the plot itself wasn’t much to write home about and the original garde weren’t really in this one at all. But Generation One does two things incredibly well: character development and world building. So for those reasons I was able to forgive a multitude of sins.
As always the character development in this series is phenomenal. All the characters have such distinct voices and their own personalities that we get to delve into. There’s not really a single character in here that I didn’t get a sense of. That’s right… ALL OF THE CHRACTERS ARE DEVELOPED! This is an incredibly rare feat in literature. I didn’t feel like any of the characters were just plot devices or that they’re personalities were only ever skimmed. Each character is unique and incredibly diverse and we hear from all of their perspectives at least a little bit. I loved getting to know them all. Generation One is the story of the new garde and I just felt disappointed that the original garde weren’t really around. I will admit that I’m missing all of my original garde friends something fierce and I almost wished this was still their story. But this may just be a case of bittersweet nostalgia and I need to learn to move on. I’ve got to get to know a brand new batch of garde and learn to love them too.
The world is a much different place after the Mogodorian invasion. Generation One sets the ground work for how the world is figuring out how to deal with the new normal. There’s a sense that the world is still settling after the war and no one government really knows exactly the best way to continue. One thing that seems to be true for everyone is a sense of unease about the new garde. All of a sudden all these kids have super powers and there’s real aliens living on Earth. When the human race feels threatened by a new species they will try to control and monitor them in order to get a sense of control back in their lives. If they can’t control what they fear, the only other option left is to destroy them. For the “destruction” option, a new religious zealot group (The Harvesters) has risen and they’ve made it their mission to destroy the “abominations.” The “controlling the garde” option is what is happening with the UN initiative “Earth Garde” and with the new shadowy enemy organization, “The Foundation.” Both parties seem determined to bend those with legacies to their will. Earth Garde is being made out to be the good guys and it’s the organization that the Lorien seem to be allied with. But are they really the good guys? The Foundation is basically a demented version of Earth Garde and even though I feel like they still have the same objective of bending those with legacies to their will, I definitely get the sense that The Foundation is the bad guys. I think I might be getting a little long winded here but to put what I’m trying to say simply: There aren’t really any good guys or bad guys yet. Everything is fully in the grey zone at the moment. The enemies aren’t coming from another planet any more. The enemy is coming from within.
The world building and the characters are amazing… as I’ve already explained. The only issue is the plot. It takes so long for anything to really happen in Generation One and when it finally did, it was over very quickly. I think this was meant to be an elaborate set up for the next books in the series. It’s setting the stage for the story to come. I would have liked for this one to have more of its own particular story rather than just set up. That’s the main issue I had with the book. However, everything else was so amazing that I can’t say this was “bad” at all. What it did accomplish was making me even more excited to get more stories from this universe and now I have to wait. WAITING IS THE WORST!!!!!
P.S. We are introduced to a new character named Einar from The Foundation. He is so freaking amoral and such an interesting villain. Is it just me or is anyone else getting some Five vibes from him? He seems to be forced to be with the bad guys and is doing their will because it’s the best option for him much like Five in the Lorien series. The difference is that Einar seems to enjoy the cruelty. I’m super interested in his character.