Ricky Pine's Blog, page 10

Review: Onyx Storm

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The long awaited third book of Rebecca Yarros's smash hit Empyrean series may be the very middle point of the planned five book saga, and the point where every bookstore of every size is doing midnight release parties probably for the first time since the original Hunger Games trilogy ended, if not the original Twilight Saga, but it's definitely at a point where Yarros can absolutely afford to throw all the chaotic dr...

Review: Among Serpents

Among Serpents by Marc J. Gregson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book of Marc J. Gregson’s dystopian throwback trilogy is not only a fast paced and bleak Empire Strikes Back, but also reminiscent of Thunderhead and Wind and Truth in its sobering reminder of how deeply fascists can entrench their insurmountability. Amping up the family drama between Conrad and Ella and Uncle (dear God but Uncle is a bastard and birdshit artist par excellence), this book sets the stag...

Review: Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks

Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book came out when I used to work at the Stanford Bookstore, but for some reason, I never properly read it till now. Having seen it used as a source for the recent Christine McVie biography Songbird, however, I had to pick it up at last. Diving deep into the majesty of Stevie’s best songs, including her solo career, it’s a wonder to see just how many of hers lay dormant on the s...

Review: A Monsoon Rising

A Monsoon Rising by Thea Guanzon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thea Guanzon returns with the second part of her projected trilogy of some of the best romantasy in the business, earning her status once again for me as the genre’s true queen. Not SJM, not Yarros - I said what I said, Guanzon gets right what so many others haven’t. Inspired by both Southeast Asia and Reylo (and hell, there’s even a few characters who resemble other First Order villains, namely a rat-faced Hux an...

Review: Voyage of the Damned

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Sorry to say that this book, after all its immense hype from the BookTok machine among others, was a very quick DNF for me. I could only get about 30-40 pages in before I figured out I wasn’t gonna vibe with it, especially thanks to Ganymedes as the protagonist. I get that this is a society full of privileged little shits, and he’s the least privileged, from the least of the twelve lands, dealing wuth a fat...

Review: Spell of the Sinister: A Fairy Godmother Novel

Spell of the Sinister: A Fairy Godmother Novel by Danielle Paige
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Though the fairytale retelling trend in YA has largely died out since its 2010s heyday, leave it to Danielle Paige to keep it alive. And it'll probably have a resurgence in the coming years thanks to the success of Wicked (though let's be real, Dorothy Must Die should've had a movie adaptation first.) But here, Paige brings her latest fairytale retelling to its conclusion with a fas...

Review: Gardens of the Moon

Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A coworker at my new job recommended this one after he saw me reading some Brandon Sanderson. I'd heard of Steven Erikson before, but never really paid attention to his work up till now. Here, I can see that he's sort of the missing link between Guy Gavriel Kay's parallel worlds, inspired by real history, and the diverse but grimdark fantasy settings of the new millennium. Thankfully, this book isn't really a...

Review: Patriot: A Memoir

Patriot: A Memoir by Alexei Navalny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finishing off a year that should’ve been a banner one for America and the world with some inspiration from a man who laid it all on the line and lost his life, but may his cause continue, in all the oppressive nations that need to see the light of justice and peace. In addition to the standard memoir prose, Navalny’s prison diaries form half the book, but the whole thing is rife with a classically wicked Russia...

Review: Songbird: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie

Songbird: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie by Lesley-Ann Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I took a freshly purchased copy of this biography with me on my recent visit back home to California, and left it sitting on a tabletop at SFO for some other reader to find, should they be interested in a free book. My family always loved the late Christine McVie most of any of the three vocalists of the great Buckingham/Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac, but this biography covers he...

Review: Wind and Truth

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dear Brandon Sanderson:

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU STORMING DID.

You took ten days of intense in universe buildup to a contest for the ages, for the world, for the Cosmere…and because it’s you, the man who wrote Mistborn as a targeted subversion of fantasy and chosen one tropes all along, you gave us your Infinity War. And unlike that infamous ending, we won’t be waiting a year for it to be resolved. It’ll be at least sev...