Review of 'Ashfall Legacy'

Pittacus Lore, the author of the best-selling Lorien Legacies series, is back in with Ashfall Legacy, an all-new adventure with -- you guessed it -- aliens.

Fun Storytelling

Ashfall Legacy was excellent. Lore is familiar territory for me. I read and enjoyed the Lorien Legacies series and even liked the first novel of the Lorien Legacies Reborn series. They were entertaining. However, I will admit, when I picked up this novel, I was worried it would feel the same as those novels, just another rehash of something they already did.

Thankfully it did not. The storytelling is different, the protagonist is different, and the evolution of the plot is different. It still feels like an alien story, but the stakes are different, and the characters’ problems are different. Those differences are why I enjoyed the novel so much.

Sydney is half-alien from his fathers’ side. When he was a child, his father went back into space on a science expedition and never came back. So when someone came after Syd, his human mother took him on the run, and together, for ten years, they have been on the run not from the human government but the alien one.

It turns out everything was just a misunderstanding, and when Syd and his mother reconnect with his fathers’ side and discover he may be alive, just lost, Syd agrees to head into the vastness to find him.

See? Entirely different from the Lorien Legacies. Syd has to deal with being half-alien and half-human, and on an alien planet where half the people look down at him, and the other half revere him, Syd is trying to figure out where he belongs.

However, more importantly, he is also trying to find his father and piece together this prophecy a gold space dragon gives him.

Good Characterization

Ashfall Legacy is also enjoyable because Syd’s voice is enjoyable. I should note that I went back and forth between listening to the audiobook to reading the actual novel here. Mother of two, have to make do. Nevertheless, I think this influences how interpreted the novel’s voice.

Syd has a great voice. However, I am so happy that he is different from John from Lorien Legacies. These two could not be more different. Sure, they were both on the run, but for very different reasons with very different upbringings.

Syd is a little snarky but down to earth, not some kid training to be a warrior. His internal narrative is more relatable because he lives in this world; he is part human, just a kid trying to find his place in the world. He is a kid trying to find his place in the universe, and then, bam, all at once, everything changes for him. Repeatedly.

He must face a lot of tension, prejudices, and even tough decisions throughout the novel, but they give him depth. We, as a reader, can connect to him as the story unfolds before him.

Final Thoughts

Ashfall Legacy is an excellent start to a new series. This feels like Lore’s writing, but it holds a new adventure that feels fresh for the reader. Besides, who does not love space dragons?

• Writing Quality : 9/10
• Character Development : 9/10
• "Couldn't Put It Down"-ness : 9/10
• Intellectual Depth: 9/10
• Originality: 9/10
• Overall Rating: 4 out of 5.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband, son and daughter and their two cats, Mr. J the Kitten and Nyx.