Ricky Pine's Blog, page 110

Review: Gemina

Gemina by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

MY OFFICIAL GEMINA PLAYLIST:

"Words are very unnecessary
They can only do harm."
-Depeche Mode, "Enjoy The Silence"

"Look at me with daggers
It won't do you any good
All the looks that you've used on me
Don't work now that you've fallen
Fallen, fallen..."
-Fleetwood Mac, "Freedom"

"I'm not giving in to security under pressure
I'm not missing out on the promise of adventure
I'm not giving up on implausible dreams
Experience to extremes
Experience to extremes....

Review: The Death Cure

The Death Cure by James Dashner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And so I complete my reread of the Maze Runner trilogy with The Death Cure, and now I can recognize how elements of this book slipped into the Scorch Trials movie in 2015. Launchers, breakouts from a WICKED facility, Janson the Rat Man being, well, Janson the Rat Man...that sort of thing.

I'm really dying to see how Wes Ball adapts this book for the upcoming 2018 movie - can't wait to see that one! Although there's one character death i...

Review: Executive Power

Executive Power by Vince Flynn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This (chronologically) sixth Mitch Rapp thriller is a quick and easy read, but it doesn't really amount to much compared to the two prequel novels, or to its immediate predecessor, which are the series' high points so far for me. This one, on the other hand, has a bit of a "more of the same" vibe like one of the weaker Brad Thor or Lee Child books - and in the wake of our recent travesty of a presidential election, reading this book, th...

Review: The Scorch Trials

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't read this book in five years, but when I saw the movie in theaters last year, I remember thinking it was the weakest of the trilogy. Rereading it now, I think I was right - and that while this book was the weakest, the movie adaptation is so much stronger because it took the creative risk of changing the story so much. Not to mention adapting in elements of The Death Cure as well. But compared to the movie, the book feels...

Review: Frost Like Night

Frost Like Night by Sara Raasch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world...
-Tears for Fears

Recently, I read The Midnight Star and, while I loved the book, I was a little bit disappointed in that it wasn't quite the epic finale I was expecting. Frost Like Night, however, is every bit as epic in scale and story as The Midnight Star should have been, and has earned itself a well-placed spot in my Top 5...

Review: The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quite fitting, isn't it, that the first book I read after Trump's victory is a dystopian? Because as this tweet says:

I foresee dystopian novels enjoying a sudden resurgence in popularity.

— Xen Sanders/C McCade (@thisblackmagic) November 9, 2016

Legit fear for the future aside, though, rereading The Maze Runner allowed me to turn the clock back not fifty or a hundred years, but more like five. Back to a time when Obama was in the Wh...

Review: The Star-Touched Queen

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I guess this book just isn't for me...which is a shame, because it sure looks pretty and fantastical, and at least it doesn't suffer from a bad case of purple prose. More like lilac. Unfortunately, The Star-Touched Queen proves to be seriously hard to follow, and the characters feel a little half-baked, mostly because dialogue is something of a weak point for Chokshi. Her characters talk so formally that it gets distracting,...

Review: The Revival

The Revival by Chris Weitz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was expecting better for this conclusion to the Young World trilogy, but I confess myself a bit disappointed with the final result. It's shorter than I expected, which isn't really to the book's benefit. There are simply too many POV's to keep track of, which makes the story feel pretty disjointed, and there isn't much of a resolution. But at the very least, Weitz keeps things interesting with an always-moving plot, and at least we get to...

Review: Ahsoka

Ahsoka by E.K. Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll admit, I don't know as much about Ahsoka as I should. I haven't seen any of the animated Star Wars movies or TV series, whether because of the off-putting animation style of The Clone Wars or the Rebels ads playing up bizarrely Phantom Menace-esque humor, I'm not sure. But at least E.K. Johnston's book provides enough backstory for people like me who aren't so well-acquainted with Ahsoka. Not to mention glimpses into the lives of other ma...

Review: Labyrinth Lost

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Labyrinth, like Pan? A little bit, to be sure.

Labyrinth Lost is a little something completely different from The Vicious Deep - although it still carries a lot of Zoraida Córdova's trademark style, darkly fantastical and often darkly humorous too. Alex, our bruja heroine, is a powerful young woman with so much potential, and yet she's every teenager that's ever been in that she wants to forge her own path, turn her back on what her f...