Ashfall Legacy
Pittacus Lore
This is the story of Syd Chambers, half alien. Syd finds a device proving his missing father is alive. Syd and his mother have been on the run for the last ten years. His father’s brother (also and alien) finds them, and Syd begins the search for his father. When Syd sets out to find his father. Along the way he discovers Denza and Earth are both in danger.
I tried to like this book but it lost me and was difficult to understand. I didn’t like the narrator. I found the whole book confusing. I was involved until Syd went looking for his father after that I was totally lost.

I don’t have a lot to say about this book. I had read all the Lorien Legacy books and loved them. I assumed I would enjoy this book as well and I was thrilled when I got the audiobook version on Netgalley. When I turned it on the voice was all distorted. It sounded robotic and far away. I thought it was a problem with my computers sound system so I turned it off and back on again. When the sound was still all distorted I tried another file and realized that my sound was fine it was the audiobook and it sounded that way on purpose. I barely got 15 minutes into the book when I decided I couldn’t take the sound anymore and I turned it off. So, basically, that’s all I have to say about this audiobook. I may give it another shot when it comes out in paperback but this has really turned me off so I may not. #AshfallLegacy #NetGalley

I loved the I am Number Four Series by this author. I liked the alien race that look like humans, but have special enhancements concept. I also like how this book and his previous series always have someone after the main character so it gives a mystery/element to the book. I instantly loved Four, while I didn’t dislike Syd, I didn’t love him either. One of the things I really liked about the I am NumberFour series is the lack of parents, whereas this book is different with Syd’s parents being main characters. I initially thought the story line of the I am Number Four series was better, but the more I read the more I came to like this plot. I am interested to see where it goes from here.

I loved this book. The characters were creative and engaging. The plot was easy to follow and fun. With out giving anything away I hope there are sequels. I would love to explore the characters more. I will definitely be purchasing this book for my school and myself when it comes out.

Ashfall Legacy
by Pittacus Lore

**I was given a free copy of the audiobook ARC in return for an honest review.

Ashfall Legacy is the first book in a new series by Pittacus Lore. If you are expecting more in the 'I am Number 4' series, then you will be disappointed. However, if you want a new Young Adult Science Fiction Fantasy with Aliens written by the amazing Pittacus Lore, then you are in for a real treat. It has the great writing style, fully developed characters, and rich alien history that is oddly only known in bits and pieces, but putting this puzzle together will help us get to know the most famous and fearsome aliens of all.
This was an audiobook with robotic narration, we were informed that this is not the final release narrator but only a voice galley (synthetic voice) used for the ARC (Advanced Reader Copy.) Even still, if you have trouble with audiobooks, then do not request one. This synthetic narrator was perfectly fine and actually made certain parts come to life given the lifeforms involved.

**Possible spoilers alert**

Syd is half human (mother) and half Denzan (father). We start with Syd being on the run from the human government across different continents with his mother. But this particular branch of the government is the one that actually knows about aliens and even has some helping to track them down. These aliens are merely visitors, but are in as much of a hurry to catch Syd and his mother and the local species. Eventually Syd's Denzan uncle catches up to them and they find out that only part of Syd's mom's theories are right about her husbands disappearance and assumed death. Now that Syd is reunited with his uncle, Syd is returned an artifact that his father had left to him (but was stolen which led to mom's theories.) In Syd's hands this artifact tells everyone that Syd's father is alive and it will lead them to him. So Syd leaves with the uncle to find the father in space.

I have to be really honest and say I struggled with this one. Everything about it had the potential, including its flawless intriguing cover, but it just fell short for me. It couldn’t get or hold my attention. I didn’t connect because there was nothing to connect with. The story just wasn’t that good for me. And the characters too fell flat. Just not the one for me. .

I absolutely loved the first part of this book. It had me fully engaged in the story and characters, but then it hit a point where I fully lost interest.

I kept pushing thought, but personally, I definitely lost motivation for a little while.

I’d recommend this to fans of science fiction!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this synthetic voice audio book ARC. I have reviewed four such ARCs and do not like the disjointed voice clip every chapter going "Harper Collins" randomly. If it had to be somewhere it could have been the beginning of a chapter or end, not mid sentence or amid a paragraph. It makes for disjointed reading.

I have read Pittacus Lore once before, with I Am Number Four and I haven't since, because it was a disappointment after I had watched the movie. I had read the summary provided by NewGalley and hadn't paid attention to the author.

Sydney (named for Sydney, Australia) has been on the run from someone with his human mother since his alien father disappeared. Going from place to place has made making friends all but impossible. When one day that someone catches up to them, he finds himself face to face with his uncle, who wants Syd to use his Denza abilities to look into tech that will show a map of space and find his father at the end of a tether. Syd's mother confesses that her father, Syd's grandfather was recruited by the Denza among 12 humans to fight a mysterious planet renewing energy being that looks like a dragon and creeps through universes and dimensions.

They were successful but can never go home because of a sickness that kills returning humans who had once they left Earth being superpowered. Syd's father was on the hunt for a lost people who'd visited multiple worlds without any sideffects.

Syd agrees to go with his uncle. His mother shares with him a secret plan to cure what kills superpowered humans and have them come back to Earth to force people to shape up with Denza tech to back then up.

So confusingly without any talk of it Syd is apparently enrolled in a Denza school as a cadet in the meantime?

But he does try one time while one the ship to find his father and one of those dangerous energy dragons decides to have a chat, calling him "world killer" and showing him a glimpse of the future. Then it's off to Denza where Syd takes a few classes and encounters the two sides of Denza, those who regard humans in heroic awe and those who would like them (now numbering 200 on Denza) to go back to Earth until humans prove they're no longer primitive in the way they treat Earth, each other, and have the technology to join the seven space worthy races.

Things escalate to a near kidnapping and a unexpected rescue. Denza is left behind again as Syd and his friends, and uncle, race to get to Syd's father's location first. There they find heartbreaking and mind-bending truths of the origin story that they must try to set free upon worlds. Or else see history repeat.

I was amazed at the quality of the narrator, knowing it was TTS. Can't wait to hear the final version with a human Narrator. The story was very engaging and exciting. I found the exploration of ideas around making hard choices fascinating.

I just want it known that I couldn't thoroughly enjoy the audiobook due to the robotic narrator that took away from the character who is supposed to be telling the story. It's an artificial voice reading the story. I've listened to a few audiobooks with robotic voice, but this one was just bad. I found myself getting lost and not following along because the voice wasn't genuine enough

Aside from the robotic narrator, the plot was pretty interesting of 'Ashfall Legacy'. The plot follows a male character named Sydney. Sydney is actually a half-human, half-alien hybrid on the run with his mother. After ten years of staying one step ahead of their pursuers, Sydney is found by his alien uncle. He then journeys into space to attend an academy and search for his missing father.

That was the gist of the story that I followed along. There were a lot of different species of aliens that I couldn't keep straight and hope that in the book there may be a glossary - because that would be really helpful to follow along. One thing that was weird to me was what the point of the school was the Sydney's Uncle sent him to. I didn't really get what the school was doing for Syd.

I think that when the robotic narrator is replaced with a human narrator it would help me like this better and I will definitely be looking for that in the future. One other thing that I wanted to note was that it seemed like the events in this plot were a bit confusing and some things were just thrown in that didn't have any footing within the overall plot.

I am a HUGE fan of the 'I Am Number Four' series, so that was the big reason I wanted to give this book a shot. I will definitely be coming back to this when the book releases to get more into the headspace of the physical book and adjust my review as needed. Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC!

Unfortunately, I was unable to get past the robotic voice to actually read this. However, after the first two chapter I was very intrigued and would love to read or hear the actual audiobook!

I really struggled and tried hard to get into this story but in the end I believe my imagination bandwidth was too low with the chaos of end of the year teaching. Aliens are not my thing but the concept is quite interesting, will definitely give it a go again this summer when my brain is so full.

I didn't have super high hopes for this book; while I did enjoy I Am Number Four by this author, it was a few years ago that I read it and I knew that my reading tastes may have changed. It turns out: they did. This book seemed cool, and I was excited to see where it went, but it just fell flat. While the concept, world, and characters are all interesting, they never grab my attention, and I couldn't form any meaningful connection to the story. It was a mediocre book, and I don't think I'll be reading any more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Audio for the opportunity to listen to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Ever since the Lorien Legacies, Pittacus Lore is an auto-buy author for me. I jumped at the ability to read something new.

I have to say the hardest part was getting used to the robotic narrator. Once I got past that, it was an interesting story about a boy named Syd who was on the run with his mom. We find out that he is half human and half alien (Denzen). We think Syd's father is dead and his uncle has come to help him find out the truth. The following journey takes Syd to his father's home world of Denza, where he meets other alien species and other humans. He also learns that humans have different abilities when not on Earth. There is a nice twist at the end that I was definitely not expecting. However, I wish the ending hadn't been so quick. I am hoping that is because this will be the first book in a series.

I really enjoyed this book. It has fun and unique world building and lovable characters. I got a bit confused a few times because there where so many characters, but I still liked them. There was a lot of crazy plot twist as well. The ending was insane, I’m not sure if we will get a sequel but if not it’s kind of open ended.

I loved Pitticus Lore’s Lorien None series. My husband and I would buy each book and have them finished in a matter of days and sometimes hours.

Going into this book I was hoping for the same lure. A story rich with culture from other worlds and sprinkled with angst and romance that didn’t over power. I was expecting the suspenseful action that was packed into the previous series.

In the beginning of this book I was not disappointed. With it taking turns unexpectedly and making me feel I was in for a truly great book that would remind me why I love aliens so much.

About a third of the way through I found the plot taking a nosedive and the story going nowhere. This could be due to the droning and ever so boring narrator never changing his tone regardless of scene. But, I don’t know.

I only finished this book because it was a NetGalley ALC and I do not want to lower my already too low percentage. Hopefully others will find the love of this book I was wanting from it. Maybe I will even try it in physical copy and edit this review later. I wish this review could be better.

A huge thanks to Harper Audio, NetGalley, and of course Pittacus Lore for the audio eARC of this book. I am leaving a review voluntarily- all opinions are my own.

This took me a little longer to get through than most audio books because it's a synthesized voice (for now) and not a real person reading, so I could only do smaller chunks at a time. That aside though, I feel like this is such a cool direction for this word to be headed now after everything that happened over the course of the Lorien Legacy series.

This was such a fun adventure- like anything else I've come to know and expect from Lore as a writer, it was great! Very fast paced, with an interesting storyline and I was very engaged in the story itself.

It was a little juvenile for me in parts, but that's understandable. I just had to see where this series was headed and can't wait' to get my hands on a physical copy.

It’s been ages since I’ve read, or rather in this case listened to, one of Pittacus Lore’s pieces. This one has a slow start with a lot of emotion and teenage angst packed into it. It’s about a half human half Denzan that is on the run with his mother until another Denzan finally catches up to them. As he returns to his father’s home planet, he starts to learn more about his species and the truth of why his father never returned from searching for this mysterious cure for the “withering” that humans who return to Earth from the deep space experience.

I started to enjoy it more when Syd arrives on Denza and starts to put the pieces of the past back together. The scene in the temple was rushed compared to the first ½ of the book but the ending was a great cliff hanger to set up the sequel.

There were parts of this story I liked. The concept was good, and the characters were creative. I liked the twist at the end of the story.

But I write for a kidlit writing blog. From this perspective, I can't recommend a book that disregards basic tenants of good writing the way this one does. At writing conferences, having your main character stand in front of a mirror and describe herself is the first example of a character description "don''t." The scene at the diner was an info dump not well disguised by dialogue tags. It takes at least 1/4 of the way through the book to get the story going.

I get that these guys are NYT bestsellers, but I don't think that should be used to short-change the reader. I won't be posting a review.

Thanks for the opportunity to check the book out.

All the best,
Rebecca

I want to thank the publishing company first and foremost for allowing me the opportunity of listening to this ARC before the release.

Ashfall Legacy follows the main character Syd Chambers. Syd has lived most of his life on the run from a government agency not only chasing him but his mother. He's lived this constant cycle of moving from place to place in order to flee potential capture. The difference with Syd Chambers is that he's no ordinary teenager, he's a cross hybrid breed of a half-human, half-alien from a planet called Denza. While he's on the run for his life, he gets the opportunity to embark in a new space filled journey with one sole purpose: finding his lost father.

Review: I rate this book 2.5 stars. The synopsis of the book was very entertaining for me and I truly enjoyed it. Many other reviewers complained about the robotic narrator and I have to say that the narrator did not irritate or bother me as much as it did other individuals, but throughout random chapters a female robotic narrator would randomly say a name while the male robotic narrator was saying the story. It kept sounding like "Proper Collins"

In addition to this, the beginning of the story was action packed and then the plot seemed to have simmered down all the way until the last 15% of the book. There were moments in the book where the storyline seems to have flattened out and lost interest in continuing. The middle-end of this story began to get quite confusing because new creatures were being introduced without explanations. I also want to add that the ending of the book seemed almost inaudible so as listeners we never get to find out what was said in the end. As the reader I would have liked to know more about certain characters, I don't think that there was enough information on the characters that allowed the reader to form an attachment to these characters. I think that the physical copy will hopefully be better.