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.

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 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

This was my first downloaded audio book from NetGalley. I’m normally not a fan of audiobooks because the voices just never seem to meet my expectations. This one was no different. The audiobook itself was very robotic and I think a lot of the book’s charm and adventure got disturbed by the robotic, automated reading of the narrator (who I’m sure is actually a robot!).

The story line was really intriguing and I was pulled in by the general world building that the author did. The author developed some really interesting characters, like the creatures who inhabit dead corpses—super cool take on the whole zombie creature thing!

Honestly, I wish I would have just read the story. I had to go back and listen again to chapters at a few different points in the story because I just couldn’t focus enough on the audio. While that could just be me not being a good listener, I did try to do it during activity that wasn’t totally distracting (i.e. driving, running, or working out) so I don’t think it was my lack of attention.

Of course, the novel ends at a cliffhanger and I’m curious to see where the story takes us next, but I’ll probably grab an ebook copy for book 2, because there was too much going on for me to focus enough on the weird robotic narrator to be able to get through it that way.

Overall, the adventure was great, the world building was fun — I wish we had a bit more relationship development between the crew—but if you’re down for a space odyssey adventure and are heading out for a long road trip this could be a fun audiobook to keep you company on the road!

Sydney and his mother were constantly moving from place to place and in hiding from authority. At first he thought his mother was a conspiracy nut, but it turns out she has good reason after all: he's a half alien hybrid, and she fears his abduction. His father had gone missing some time ago, and some part of Sydney had always felt like he needed more than being on the run. While on a mission to find his father, Sydney discovers a deeper mystery that could tear the known universe apart.

I started listening to this as a very early audiobook in January, so early that it had only a digital voice as a recording. That made it incredibly weird to hear teenage slang like "my dude" or curse words intermittently sprinkled through Sydney's perspective, but didn't detract from the story at all. It starts as most YA novels do, with our sixteen year old hero discovering that what he knew about himself is incomplete. He and his mother weren't on the run from his own government or an alien one as his mother thought, but by his uncle. His father was missing and not dead, and Sydney could be admitted to the special academy for training. He leaps at the chance with his mother's blessing, meeting other hybrids, other aliens, and the invitable stumbling blocks along the way.
I really enjoyed the look into the different cultures of the aliens, and thought the cultural sensitivity training sequences were well done.

Syd Chambers is an easy kid to like. He's living his life on the run - with his mom. They change names, don't stay anywhere too long - and he can't make many friends because of this. But he knows it's for the best. Because he's seen the things that chase him and his mom - Aliens.

Because Syd is not fully human. He's half human, half alien - and his alien father hasn't been around for years after disappearing on a mission to an alien planet. So Syd is pretty okay when he's invited to come find out about the other citizens of the universe and how this all works. This is his chance to find out more abut himself and, in turn, know more about his father.

At first, there's a lot of information coming at you. You're learning just a fast as Syd, about which aliens are which, which planets, and what all that they do. Thankfully, you don't have to memorize it - the author does a great job of reminding you gently each time you bump in to them which is which. I did this as an audio and didn't have a problem keeping the names or species straight.

But this is a very fast paced, funny and action packed story. Syd is constantly on the move, learning new species and techniques but also about himself and his alien side. I liked the humor and jokes that were thrown in and the friendships that were formed. The story definitely ended in a way that leaves it open for a book 2 and I'm looking forward to it!

<i>A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.</i>