Ricky Pine's Blog, page 116

Review: Cursor's Fury

Cursor's Fury by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third book in the Codex Alera, I didn't remember it as well as its two predecessors. It's a zip-fast read like Furies of Calderon and Academ's Fury both, but it also feels, undeniably, like a bit of filler. However, it does introduce a few pretty important new details - like the formation of the Knights Pisces, and also the final twist, the one that I'd expected pretty much from the beginning.

I can't believe I'm halfway through this a...

Review: Separation of Power

Separation of Power by Vince Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I was considering giving up on this series after Book 4, but thank God I went in for Book 5. Separation of Power brings the series up to the standard Flynn would later achieve in the two prequel novels, with a storyline that doesn't feel too over the top or too bogged down in politics. This book manages to bridge the gap between high intrigue and high action, and if the publication date of October 2001 is real, I'm surprised this...

Review: Separation of Power

Separation of Power by Vince Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I was considering giving up on this series after Book 4, but thank God I went in for Book 5. Separation of Power brings the series up to the standard Flynn would later achieve in the two prequel novels, with a storyline that doesn't feel too over the top or too bogged down in politics. This book manages to bridge the gap between high intrigue and high action, and if the publication date of October 2001 is real, I'm surprised this boo...

Review: Dead Beat

Dead Beat by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So I guess I must have forgotten that there was a scene in this book where Harry Dresden animates a T. rex skeleton.

Well, that was bloody awesome!

And of course the whole necromantic (yes, that's a word, so I have decreed it!) ride up to that point makes this one of the better books of Mr. Butcher's fine Dresden Files. Not for nothing was this the first in the series to receive its original printing in hardcover as opposed to paperback.

All the...

Review: The Wrath & the Dawn

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this Arabian Nights retelling with most of my Arabian Nights knowledge being my many viewings of Disney's Aladdin when I was a kid. I do, at least, know the general framing device - a princess telling stories to her husband every night to stave off the death that's befallen all his previous wives, and deliberately not giving him the ending, so he'll have to keep her alive to know what happens next...

Curiously, this boo...

Review: Blood Rites

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first time I read this particular Dresden story, I gave it four stars. I guess I must have forgotten how madcap it was, even by Butcher's usual standards. All the blood, sugar, sex, magik...wait, isn't that a Chili Peppers reference? If so, you may shoot me.

Just kidding.

But seriously, this is definitely one of the better Dresden Files books out there, and I'm not just saying that because of the greater inclusion of vampires - and especi...

Review: Furthermore

Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tahereh Mafi's Alice in Wonderland-reimagining middle-grade debut is markedly different from Shatter Me, which can only be a good thing. It's, surprisingly, a little slow to get started, and after about 100 pages, I was really starting to wonder when things would happen.

Then the adventure really kicks off in earnest, making for a seriously page-turning read. Page-turning, and aggressively surreal, though not in the same "is this even a sto...

#StayPeculiar: The Miss Peregrine Movie

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

I didn't realize Tim Burton was capable of so much awesome...oh wait, it's Tim Burton, of course he's capable. But put him in the director's chair for a movie based on a Ransom Riggs novel, and made with an as-always seriously on-point screenplay by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass, Kingsman), and it's easy to say one of the most gifted cinematic visionaries of our time has outdone himself. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is not only Burton's best mo...

Review: Nil on Fire

Nil on Fire by Lynne Matson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't quite as jazzed with this book as I was with its predecessors, but I can tell you that it's not because there's any less action to go around. Far from it. My real issue, however, lies in the interjection of chapters that are meant to be from "Nil's" POV, focusing both on a number of new arrivals on the island and the island itself, who proves to be quite the diabolical genius loci. (That's the proper plural of that expression, rig...

Review: Academ's Fury

Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Continuing the Codex Alera series, Academ's Fury showcases even more of the rising tensions in Alera as certain Lords (and Ladies) conspire to overthrow the First Lord and plunge the land into civil war...and meanwhile, Tavi's studying, and proving that just because he's got no furycrafting powers doesn't make him any less of a man. In fact, because he has no furies to rely on, he's more in the eyes of some...and more dangerous for sure.

F...