Ricky Pine's Blog, page 108

Review: Rebellion

Rebellion by Kass Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Behold, another book of The 100!

I think I was just as surprised as anyone else in this fandom when I learned that Kass Morgan was giving us a fourth book - because it came almost a full two years after Homecoming, and I think we were all under the impression Morgan was ending things with the trilogy (even if it was pretty open-ended.) Turns out she wasn't out of ideas - and this latest idea of hers, while a little more divergent from the CW s...

Review: The Secret History of Twin Peaks

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a few years since I first saw the original Twin Peaks series on DVD, and after reading this book (a much-needed tie-in to tide the fans over until the long-awaited, long-delayed revival debuts on Showtime later this year), I think I'll have to go back and check out the original thirty episodes again. When I do so, however, I'll have a lot more in mind than just Black Lodge, White Lodge, general surreal creepine...

Review: Scythe

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A new book from the author of Unwind? Of course I'm in.

Scythe proves to be another interesting little look at an apocalyptic future that could very easily come to pass. When death no longer occurs naturally, thanks to a number of technological advances (some of which have something to do with the Thunderhead, an all-powerful ASI descended from today's Apple products, unless I miss my guess), there needs to be an agency devoted to ensuring th...

My 2016 Favorites: The Second Annual Pinecone Awards!

In general, we all know 2016 was a sucky, sucky year. America shot itself in the foot, and the head, and the heart, and every vital organ. As did Britain. And who knows how many other countries will follow suit? David Bowie died and the universe started to unravel, to the point where every idol who followed him into the unknown was probably invited to a Tomorrowland-style alternate universe where deserving people could live peacefully.

But in the worlds of pop culture, even as the real world d...

Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes, contemporary YA really isn't my thing (The Lovely Reckless), and sometimes, it's more my thing than I ever knew (More Happy Than Not, although it helps that that one dips more than just a toe into sci-fi as well). I rarely find any middle ground. Well, there was The Great American Whatever...and now there's Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.

Don't get me wrong, Becky Albertalli weaves a nice little story...

Review: The Hammer of Thor

The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Magnus Chase returns in his second adventurous trip through Rick Riordan's madcap vision of Norse mythology. While the first book had a few certain similarities to The Lightning Thief with its depiction of a boy discovering his connection to a supernatural world of gods and monsters, The Hammer of Thor feels a little more similar to TLF in its focus on the hunt for a lightning-themed MacGuffin - in this case, the signature weapon of...

Review: A Torch Against the Night

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, it's about time I get to read this one...for whatever reason, my library is always A) really slow to acquire copies of Sabaa Tahir's books, and B) never picks up more than three or four of each, which means the waiting list can get super-duper long, super-duper fast.

Like a few other fantasy sequels I've read in my time, A Torch Against The Night has a tendency to focus more on travel to the next important setting than on...

Coming Soon: Orange Crush

Going to church again, even if it was just for Christmas Eve, made me feel depressed and stuck in Hell for another hour I could have spent writing instead. So I made the most of it and thought about what else to write for the Red Rain series. My brainstorming continued into Christmas Day, while my parents drove us to my grandparents' house, and the hellish visions continued. Hellish visions that wouldn't fit into Black Mirror or Peppermint.
So I've decided to extend the series, again...

Review: Cold Days

Cold Days by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A perfectly timed read in this winter season, the follow-up to Ghost Story gets absolutely frigid as Harry Dresden is forced into yet more faerie work as the Winter Knight. Freshly-revived beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

Once again, it's an example of Butcher delivering a massive 500-page-plus piece of fantasy awesomeness. And it's an example of how he can take forever to give us new material in a timely fashion...but it's Butcher, so once...

Review: Dark Matter

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In the almost three years I've been building my own science-fantasy multiverse in my writing, I've written a couple of characters named Jason and Daniela (though they go by Jay and Dani, respectively), who paired up together before the events of the series begin. Sheer coincidence, then, that I discover this book by Blake Crouch and find a couple named Jason and Daniela in it - though Crouch writes adults and I write teenagers. Given the q...