Ricky Pine's Blog, page 109

Review: Bad Boy

Bad Boy by Elliot Wake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Lie awake in bed at night
And think about your life
Do you want to be different?"
-30 Seconds To Mars, "A Beautiful Lie"

Let's face it. This is the book Elliot Wake was born to write.

It's barely 250 pages, but in those 250 pages, Wake gives us his most psychologically raw and intense material yet. He gives us his best protagonist yet, too, in Renard Grant - a vlogger documenting his gender transition (some of his vlogs form interludes in the story...

Review: The Obsidian Chamber

The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love how the latest Pendergast books have gone for a color scheme not unlike my own Red Rain series, although with the first three colors being in the opposite order from what Preston and Child are doing. The fourth, however, is a black-themed title just like my fourth Red Rain book. After the ending of Crimson Shore, this book, I expected to be the darkest and most horrifying Pendergast yet.

Turns out it was a bit damaged by...

Review: The Prisoner of Cell 25

The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember reading this book a few years ago and initially dismissing it as a Percy Jackson knockoff. Recently, however, a kid started coming to the tutoring center where I work, and he has very similar tics to those of Michael Vey - blinking, gulping, etc. Though I can't say for certain whether or not this new kid has Tourette's, I had that in mind when I decided it was time I took another stab at this book.

Safe to say a...

Review: Boy Robot

Boy Robot by Simon Curtis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"I have this human heart
My mother told me so
She said, 'This shit can go to pieces, boy, be careful...'"
-OneRepublic, "Lift Me Up"

Enough book bloggers were raving about this book that after months of my library not ordering it, I finally special-ordered it from Sacramento. Worth it.

It's a commanding read, completely unputdownable, even when the story shifts into horrifying violence - which it often does, especially when digging into the backs...

Review: The Wall of Storms

The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's amazing how Ken Liu was able to first put out his debut last year, then grace us with a collection of short stories (which I haven't read yet) and this brick of a sequel only a year later. Unlike a few other fantasy stalwarts I can name, Liu appears to be quite the workhorse, delivering high-quality reading material in a short amount of time.

I'm not sure if they invented the term "silkpunk" just for Liu's story, but it seems like ju...

Review: Ghost Story

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While Changes brought pretty much the highest stakes Harry Dresden ever faced, bouncing back from that book's infamous cliffhanger is a whole other challenge, one to which Harry rises magnificently...even without his powers for a good chunk of this book. It's a bit bigger than any of the previous Dresden Files books, and foreshadows Butcher's days of making his books so big he can barely put one out every two years, and he's become so slow...

Review: The Lovely Reckless

The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It's a little hard to believe that this is from the same author as Beautiful Creatures and the rest of the Caster Chronicles 'verse, and the still-unfinished Legion trilogy. It's a little something completely different for Kami Garcia, and it carries a similar "I want to keep going" addictive prose...but unfortunately, it fails to deliver characters I can care about to go along for the ride. I'm at a loss to see what possessed Garci...

Review: Hellfighters

Hellfighters by Alexander Gordon Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first book in Alexander Gordon Smith's devilish little trilogy got off to a pretty good start, but the sequel improves on its predecessor so very much. While the first book was brought down a bit for me by the romantic elements not eliciting so much interest, this book is all action, all the time. It's a rip-roaring, pure-hellfire adrenaline rush on the level of Fury Road, with the usual Darren Shan-esque levels of horror we...

Review: The Diabolic

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Here we have something a little different from S.J. Kincaid - another futuristic sci-fi tale, but with a bit of a fantasy twist, centering on imperial court dealings and backstabbings in a space-opera setting. It's not as quick and easy to get into as Insignia and its sequels, but The Diabolic does live up to the Kincaid hype with its compelling lead character, the titular engineered assassin, and the pulse-pounding action and suspense al...

Rogue One: The Dark Side Of The Rebellion

***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Ever wonder how, exactly, the Alliance was able to steal the Death Star plans that Princess Leia uploaded into R2-D2, thus setting in motion the events of A New Hope?

Now you have your answer, and it's a surprisingly dark, gritty answer.

Welcome, Rebels, to the first Star Wars Anthology movie: Rogue One.

"I am one with the Force, the Force is with me."
The title alone has so many meanings - referring to the...