Ricky Pine's Blog, page 125

Review: Curtsies & Conspiracies

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Okay, I guess this series just isn't for me after all. Interesting though it appears, for some reason it absolutely defies all attempts for me to really, truly enjoy it like I should. Maybe I'm just a little confused by the way Carriger just throws a bunch of fantasy and steampunk elements into a blender and hits "chop." It worked for Cassie Clare, but for this author, not so much, for some reason. I'm not getting the jokes, t...

Best And Worst Of The 2015-16 TV Season

This TV season may not be quite over yet (the party don't end till The Flash walks out, and even then there's still gonna be quite a few stragglers still keeping on going!) But now, in the wake of a truly epic season finale for one of my favorite shows, I think it's high time I put my thoughts out there on the shows I loved the most this season - and those that didn't impress me so much, for whatever reason.

So, let's get my Five Worst out of the way first.

5. Castle

Well, it pains me to st...

Review: Bitterblue

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was a bit reluctant to read this book given that I wasn't quite so impressed with Fire, so I ended up taking a very long time before I got around to it. Sadly, it was not worth the wait for me, because Bitterblue proved to be overlong and meandering and dull for most of its length. The central mystery takes far too long to come forth, and while there's a bit of good intrigue (especially with the cryptography element, which was unexpect...

Review: The Talismans of Shannara

The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

At this point, I think I might be done with the Shannara books. Not the MTV series, not by a long shot - and certainly not after that cliffhanger! But as for the books, I think I either need to give up now or just take a long break, because they're burning me out at this point. I feel like they're just too more-of-the-same, and they're really not bringing anything new to the table, not like the ways the show gets a little mor...

Review: A Dream of Ice

A Dream of Ice by Gillian Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can see where this book gets its frequent Preston and Child comparisons, being a nice little fun-sized piece of epic sci-fi. Still, I can't quite shake the feeling that this book's a little been-there-done-that-got-the-T-shirt-and-kooky-hat (to quote a reader's comment on one of my fanfics), like one of P&C's lesser (and less Pendergast-y) efforts. Still, though, for its faults, this second Earthend book knows how to deliver t...

Review: Half Lost

Half Lost by Sally Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Damn. I mean...bloodydamn.

Going into this, I was kind of wondering, why exactly are we supposed to hate Annelise again? I never had a problem with her, really, aside from her being quite underdeveloped as a character. But for what personality she had, I didn't think she was anywhere near the Hate Sink that the fandom (and, as of this book, Nathan) makes her out to be. So I found a copy of Half Wild and looked at the ending again to refresh my...

Review: Extreme Prey

Extreme Prey by John Sandford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The 2016 election season has been absolutely dreadful, and all we need to make it worse would be a team of radicals attempting to assassinate one of the candidates. That, I think, was the primary (no pun intended) inspiration for Sandford's latest Lucas Davenport thriller - in which right-wing racist radicals (exactly the sort who would vote for Der Fuehrer Drumpf) conspire to assassinate a fictional Democratic candidate loosely based (t...

Review: The 14th Colony

The 14th Colony by Steve Berry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of Berry's most thrilling books in years, this one encompasses American history from very close to its beginning (the War of 1812) to very close to the modern day (the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union), and manages to link them together in entirely unexpected ways. It's another one of those great stories that reveals a surprising and horribly plausible flaw in US politics - one even worse than the ones that have allowed thi...

The Flash: Dude Tears And Speed Force Feels

***SPOILER ALERT***

The Flash is my favorite show on TV because it knows how to balance all the best parts of all the best fiction - thrills, laughs, and feels. This week's powerful episode, "The Runaway Dinosaur," was no exception - because it provided us with proof positive, once again, that when Grant Gustin cries, angels' wings shrivel all across the universe.

Also, his tears are highly contagious.
The CDC's got a warning out.
Before last night, my favorite Flash episode was 1x15, "...

Novel Newcomers Interview

As part of a series of "Novel Newcomers" interviews for book bloggers who began in 2015, I've been selected for the latest pair of interviews. Naturally, I managed to slip in a couple of Red Rain references, as well as some of my usual Andrew Garfield jokes. And I may have said a little too much compared to my fellow interviewee on this one...but that's okay.

Come check it out here at ReadWriteLove28! :D