Ricky Pine's Blog, page 127

Lady Smith

For the umpteenth time in my life, I've found myself crushed out on a beautiful and unattainable woman. (Well, maybe not so unattainable, but given my perfect undateability...) And in this case, I've felt the need to express myself about it through poetry. Though this may be an angsty practice, I still hope you Pinecones, at least, approve of my latest piece of work, the title of which is not meant to reflect any real names. I hereby present my latest lovesick geekboy poem: "Lady Smith."



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Review: Etiquette & Espionage

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Steampunk and killer ladies? I've been meaning to check this series out for a while, but only now was I able to find and pick up the first book at the library. Etiquette and Espionage didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it did find some good ways to subvert them. I didn't really think the school would be a big, cumbersome airship like it was in this book, but it sure keeps things interesting, knowing just how far the te...

Cage

It's been a couple of years since I wrote this poem - which got me extra credit in my poetry class way back in spring 2014. That's a time I just wanna remember so much (especially 'cause it's when the world was first graced with the presence of the Ghost Stories album from Coldplay and The Amazing Spider-Man 2), even if I was in a bit of a dark place at the time. And because I'm feeling like I'm in a dark place tonight (even with the aid of The Peanuts Movie), I've decided to share my ol...

Review: Yellow Brick War

Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thank the Lord we didn't have to wait till 2017 for this one...

A year ago, I thought we were awaiting the end of a trilogy with Yellow Brick War. No longer is that the case - there's to be at least one more book after this one, so yes, Paige does end this threequel on a cliffhanger.

It's a short book - even shorter than The Wicked Will Rise, I think - so it was no problem for me to read the entire thing in only about half an hour in...

Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, for now I'm officially caught up on this series - but that'll change soon as The Raven King makes its way to library and bookstore shelves.

Like its immediate predecessor, the book is brought down by a mostly-wandering first half where nothing much happens. What does happen, however, is a good string of character moments - like Noah's spectral hissy fit in the counselor's office while Blue discusses her future and her co...

Supergirl Season 1: All Love To The Angel Of Krypton

It's been no secret for the last six months that I'm hugely into the one and only superhero show on CBS - Supergirl.

It's been no secret that I'm hugely, hopelessly crushed out on Supergirl herself. Like all my favorite superhero actors of recent years (Andrew Garfield on The Amazing Spider-Man, Grant Gustin on The Flash, Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man, etc.), Melissa Benoist owns the role of Supergirl so much, she is Supergirl. And what better heroine to be, amirite or amirite?...

Review: The Steel Kiss

The Steel Kiss by Jeffery Deaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice to see Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs back in action...and speaking of action, this book has quite the eye-popping opening, which oddly echoes a recent episode of Damien in its deadly escalator-induced damage to a poor guy's meat suit. This is just the beginning to a diabolical plot that would have felt quite at home on CSI: Cyber - involving death by technology, which in this case has crept into so many different objects just wa...

Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The prologue to this book gives it a magnificent start as it describes Ronan's power, which gives the book its title. It reminds me very strongly of Inception, one of my favorite movies ever...



...but unlike Dom Cobb, Ronan can take more than just ideas from dreams. He can take solid objects, and solid objects he does take. Plenty of them.

The rest of the book's first half feels a little more aimless after that, and at first I was...

Review: The Elf Queen of Shannara

The Elf Queen of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was afraid the previous Shannara book would be the start of a serious decline in quality, because I remember more of its cons than its pros. Thankfully, however, Elf Queen reverses course and improves on its predecessor by shying away from some of those cons - the most notable of which, I think, was the simply bizarre names of certain characters (I still have a laugh every time I remember that one of the most important char...

Review: The Insider Threat

The Insider Threat by Brad Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of Taylor's most memorable books in quite a while, largely because of its combination of a currently topical threat (ISIS) with a few international settings that come straight out of James Rollins (no spoilers, but the bad guys in this book attempt to pull off a scarily believable, if simultaneously so out-there you can't think they'd possibly do the job, terrorist attack.) Also helping to make this book memorable - Shoshana, who...