Lorien Legacies is a series of young adult science fiction books, written by James Frey, Jobie Hughes, and formerly, Greg Boose, under the collective pseudonym Pittacus Lore.
The title of the series refers to the characters' home planet of Lorien, which itself is likely a reference to the Elf realm of Lórien in the Lord of the Rings book series by J. R. R. Tolkien, though this has never been confirmed.
Lorien Legacies
I am Number Four
The first book of The Lorien Legacies was released on August 3, 2010. The Loric are a nearly extinct race of extraterrestrials due to a deadly battle with another alien race, the Mogadorians. The only survivors are nine teenagers and their corresponding guardians, Cêpans, who escaped to Earth. Now the Mogadorians intend to finish the job. Numbers One, Two, and Three have already been killed, causing three circular brands to appear on the ankles of the remaining Loric. The book is told from the perspective of Number Four, also known as John Smith, who is the next target for the Mogadorians. He and his Cêpan, Henri, move from place to place, changing their identities to keep themselves hidden. John begins inheriting Legacies, the ancestral powers of special Loric known as Garde and must learn to keep his them hidden from his human friends.
The Power of Six
The second book of The Lorien Legacies was released on August 23, 2011. The story is told by two members of the Garde: Number Seven (Marina), who is hiding at a convent in Spain, and Number Four (John Smith), who is on the run with Sam, Number Six, and Bernie Kosar (John Smith's Chimæra). While John, Six and Sam try to stay ahead of the Mogadorians and search for the other surviving Loric, Marina searches for news of John after his battle at the school that came at the end of I Am Number Four. While at the convent, Marina also meets a young girl named Ella who is later revealed to be Number Ten, a younger Loric who came to earth on a separate aircraft than the other nine with her own Cêpan, Crayton. Marina is tracked down by Mogadorians at the end of the book, but she is helped to evade them by Crayton and Ella, along with Number Six, who travelled to Spain in search of Number Seven. Meanwhile, Sam and Number Four go to the Mogadorian base in West Virginia to find Number Four and Number Six's stolen Loric Chests. The two are successful in finding both the chests and another member of the Garde, Number Nine, but when escaping the base Sam is left behind, and Four, Nine, and Bernie Kosar leave alone.
The Rise of Nine
The third book of The Lorien Legacies was released on August 21, 2012. John and Nine escape from the Mogadorian base and head to Chicago, where Nine's penthouse is located. They meet up with Six, Eight, Marina and Ella, the tenth child who escaped on the only other ship to escape Lorien during the Mogadorian invasion with three others. While Six, Eight, Marina and Ella attempt to teleport to New Mexico, Six becomes stranded and gets kidnapped by the Mogadorians. The remaining Loric invade Dulce base to free Six, Sarah, and Sam, as well as fight Setrakus Ra, leader of the Mogadorians.
The Fall of Five The fourth book of The Lorien Legacies was released on August 27, 2013. This book is also told in the first person perspective, between Sam Goode, John Smith (Four), and Marina (Seven).
The Revenge of Seven
The fifth book of The Lorien Legacies was released on August 26, 2014. It is narrated in the first person, with Number Four (John), Number Six, and Ella as narrators.
The Fate of Ten
The sixth book of The Lorien Legacies was released on September 1, 2015. Its title was revealed via the Facebook page for the series. It was also revealed that there would be seven books in the series, rather than the previously believed six. The cover for the book was released on the 23rd of April 2015 in an interview with MTV. The book is primarily narrated in first person from the perspectives of Four (John), Six and, towards the end of the book, Ten (Ella). A prologue in third person briefly narrates the story of an unnamed human-turned-Garde (later known as Daniela) as she survives a Mogadorian attack on New York.
United As One
The seventh and final book of The Lorien Legacies. The title was revealed on October 26, 2015. It was released on June 28, 2016. United as One is told in first perspective of two characters, Number Four (John Smith) and Number Six.
The fact that Four (John) has Ximic may hint at the fact that he is Pittacus' descendant, as Ella is Setrákus'. Other clues include physical features, such as blonde hair, and Pittacus' Lumen.
Marina stands on the edge of a cliff in a dream, after she was left unconscious after a fight with Setrákus Ra. She sees Setrákus Ra taking the appearance of Eight, convincing her to let go and be with Eight, but she refuses and chooses to continue to fight. Five is in a padded cell, locked up by Nine and John. Setrákus Ra also comes to him in a dream to convince him to come back on his side. Five refuses. Mark walks the football field of his old school in Paradise, clutching a photo of Sarah. He is met by Setrákus Ra who tries to tell Mark he can bring Sarah back and they can fight together. It is unknown if Mark accepts the offer.
John is in Patience Creek with Sam and Daniella when Ella, Marina, Six, Mark, Adam, and Lexa arrive.
The Garde regroup and John has a moment with the deceased Sarah, and Mark is disgusted at his lack of emotion and blames him for her death. The Garde talk tactics with Lawson, the acting general. John becomes increasingly cold and distant, no longer content with playing defense. A plan is hatched to hijack one of the warships and to strip the skimmers of their cloaking devices to coordinate a united strike against the other Mogadorian warships.
Some new Human-Garde post a video on the internet to attract John's attention to have him pick them up as they stand by a Loralite stone in Niagara Falls. The team splits, with half going to rescue the human Garde, while John and Nine meet with Five, who is locked away in a cell. John wants Five to teach him how to fly so he can board the warship. However, he struggles to pick up the legacy, so Five attacks him, hoping the battle rush would help him learn the skill, which he does. However, Marina wakes up and levitates an icicle in front of Five's face, threatening to kill him.
The other team, en route to Niagara Falls, encounter turbulence when Sam uses his technopathic legacy to accidentally turn off the ship's engines. With some help from Ella, Sam can visualize the workings of the ship and turn them back on. When they arrive on the scene they see fresh signs of a battle, with Skimmers destroyed and fire and ash swirling. The human Garde managed to hold their own and fought off the Mogadorians. However, there is some disagreement if the teens are ready for war. To avoid any further people teleporting to Niagara Falls, Ella turns off the Loralite stone. As a neighboring warship makes its way there to check in, the team leaves for the base.
Adam instigates dissension in the Mogadorian ranks. A warship fires on Sydney while another captain in Moscow declares himself the beloved leader, which leads to the captain in Berlin making an assassination attempt on the usurper. In Kazakhstan, another 2 warships meet and began to blow each other apart.
Sam attempts to use his techno legacy to copy the cloaking device codes into everyday electronics, he builds a prototype that he asks the team to test when they attack the warship.
John, Six, and Adam board the warship. John begins killing all the Mogadorians in a cold ruthless manner, while Adam and Six strip the skimmers of their cloaking devices. Before the day is done the Garde have stolen a warship. They meet a Mogadorian named Rex, whom Adam recognizes and saves from John's attack. Sam's tech is found to be successful.
John, not wanting to sacrifice any more friends, takes off to finish Setrákus without the others knowing. He realizes he needs a cloaking device and heads back to Patience Creek. However, the base is overrun by Mogadorians, who found the place through a mind-controlled Mark James. Some of the true-borns have augmentations, twisted forms of legacies. Phiri dun Ra is there, whose arm has been replaced with black ooze-like tendrils, then she impales John and begins to drain his legacies while he's helpless. While helpless, Mark James slips the Voron noose around John's neck. The damage from this weapon cannot be healed.
The others find out about John's suicide mission and argue among themselves over his chosen course of action. Six calls Sam to tell him about his prototype's success when she hears firing in the background. Sam tells Six he thinks they are under attack.
Back at the base, John is helpless as he's dragged along the inside of the base, with Phiri mocking his failure at being a hero and his delusional idea of being able to save everyone. To prove a point she kills Mark. Phiri, John and the mind-controlling Mogadorians run into resistance. The mind-controlling Mogadorian releases a swarm of seemingly black flies that force half the marines to open fire on the others. The human garde make an appearance and are shocked to see John crawling on all fours with a noose around his neck. He screams at them to run but Phiri manages to kill 2 while the other 2 manage to escape. Sam shouts at the lights to turn off and frees Five who immediately attacks Phiri, however, the mind-controlling Mogadorian manages to overtake Five, but is quickly killed by Sam. Phiri screams for extraction and loses her grip on John as Five slams into her. The shadow Mogadorian makes an appearance and teleports both Phiri and Five. The shadow Mogadorian tries to finish them off, but Sam tells the lights to turn on while he's mid-teleport, which slices him in half.
The others have no time to mourn the dead and set their plan in motion. The Garde use the loralite stone to teleport across the world arming the governments with cloaking tech.
The Garde, aboard their stolen warship, make their way to the West Virginia base where Setrákus waits. Six summons the biggest storm she has ever created to damage the Anubis, destroying it. Five flies Six and Adam into the base to deactivate the shield, once that's done, Marina, John, Five, and Nine make their way underground to find Setrákus.
They find a mass grave of Mogadorians and Garde Humans, which repulses them all and steels their drives to end this. Setrákus emerges from a pool of black ooze covered in black slime that has given him a youthful appearance and effective immortality. They try to fight against him, however, their legacies are ineffective against him. Setrákus grabs Five and drowns him in the black puddle. He maims Nine, taking off his arm. While trying to heal him, Marina attacks Setrákus with her healing legacy, to which he recoils in pain. John, picking up on this, continues the healing assault and urges Marina to run with Nine, who is in no shape to fight, she protests but John insists. Nine transfers his strength and anti-gravity legacy to her and she slings him over her shoulder and runs. John is locked in battle with Setrákus with both of them taking heavy damage, while John pours his healing legacy into him, while also using it on himself in small bursts to keep him going. He establishes telepathic contact with Sam and tells him to blow up the mountain.