Ricky Pine's Blog, page 118

Review: Death Masks

Death Masks by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The best way to describe this is with the original working title of the novel: "Holy Sheet." Naturally, of course, that proved to be a little too on-the-nose for the publishers, and in any case, it didn't exactly gel with the "same number of letters in each word" naming convention Butcher usually uses for the Dresden Files books. But hey, when the fabled Shroud of Turin is involved, let's just say it might interfere with Harry's usual polic...

Review: The Liberator

The Liberator by Victoria Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second Dante Walker book took a little longer to read than I would have liked, and in the middle, it started to feel a little bit slow, with the plot not going places like I was hoping it would.

But then a favorite character of mine came back from the dead. And that was just the beginning of The Liberator starting to find its footing again. Dante may have a new job, and he may have love in his heart now, but he's no less dangerous f...

Review: Summer Knight

Summer Knight by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even more misadventures in Faerie abound in this fourth Dresden Files book, with Harry learning that his fairy godmother has essentially sold his debt to another powerful Sidhe, the infamous Winter Queen, Mab. Ostensibly, she just wants Harry to help clear her name after a murder rocks the Summer Court...but of course, it's a Dresden book, so nothing is what it seems, and for all 400-plus pages, you'll be left guessing what the hell is co...

Marvel Monday: Grading What I've Seen

As a reader, writer, and fanboy, Marvel movies and TV shows are required viewing for me. I've not seen them all, but I will damn well do my best if it kills me. So, in honor of this Marvel Monday (unofficial and declared pretty much only by me though it may be), I'm going to give a long list of (mostly mini) reviews for all the Marvel stuff I've seen in my time.

Ready? Strap in.

Blade (1998) - B

The earliest Marvel movie that I've seen, to my knowledge, is also one of their most stylish and eye-...

Review: Tales of the Peculiar

Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Folklore and folktales have been a little ruined for me lately, on account of my having taken a particularly dreadful folklore class last spring that promised an interesting anthropological look at the genre, only to turn into so much of the professor relying on crappy PowerPoints, creepy NPR podcasts with Fred Armisen or someone talking about how calamari is really pork bung (of course he'd have you believe that, so I don't), an...

Review: Salt & Stone

Salt & Stone by Victoria Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first, I went into this book thinking it would be the end of a duology. But with that cliffhanger? Nope nope nope. And what a cliffhanger it is, too, bringing the main plot of the first two books mostly to an end (with a ton of feels to go with it, of course), while clearly setting up for the next story arc - which of course is even more straight out of The Hunger Games than anything in even these first two books.

Let's just say that...

Review: Grave Peril

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wizards vs. Vampires vs. Ghosts from the Nevernever.

It might sound overdone to you, but then again, it is a Dresden Files book. It pulls the job off nicely, and then some. The usual high action helps, of course - and also the interplay between Harry and his friend Michael, who's more than just a Token Religious Teammate. Being Catholic (or so I'm picking up vibes), he's a pretty good foil to Harry's cheerful agnosticism (at best), and still...

Review: The Collector

The Collector by Victoria Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And now for something a little different from Victoria Scott - not a story about a young woman going into a deadly near-future competition to save her family, but a story about a self-centered, sin-happy demon who goes around marking souls for collection. His new job - collect the soul of a girl who does so much good in the world that the world, of course, treats her like crap in return.

Dante Walker may be an assbutt, as Castiel might...

The Battlemage: Cover Reveal

The cover to Taran Matharu's third (and apparently NOT final) Summoner book is here. Repeat, the glorious red cover is here!

Is that Ignatius flying in the background too?
Welcome to Mars, I guess...with Fletcher looking very, very dangerous. :D

MUST.

HAVE.

THIS.

NOW. *getting grabby*

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Review: Fire & Flood

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Titans, I've had to go back and start reading Victoria Scott's other work...and this was the first one I chose to go with. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the similarities between Fire & Flood and Titans - chiefly, the young protagonist engaging in a dangerous competition to help her family, as well as a Twenty Minutes Into The Future sci-fi kind of setting that feels like modern day America, except not quite. This...