Ricky Pine's Blog, page 13

Review: Death and Glory

Death and Glory by Will Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fifteenth mystery in Will Thomas's decades-running Barker and Llewelyn series keeps things fresh and unexpected as Victorian London's top enquiry agents take on a mystery involving former Confederates, thirty years after the end of the Civil War. As well-known as it is that there were many who continued to believe in the "Lost Cause" even to the present day, this book also dwells on aspects of the Confederacy th...

Review: Kingdoms of Death

Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think Ruocchio was originally planning a trilogy for this series, but much like his fellow hella young science-fantastist Pierce Brown, his work really grew far beyond its original scope, and very quickly too. So it was first extended, as I remember, to five books, then six, and I believe a seventh is on the way as well. But for now, here's what looks to be the middle of the Sun Eater saga, a noticeably...

Review: The Trees

The Trees by Percival Everett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Working my way through Percival Everett's bibliography in reverse order, I've now found one that's very different from all the other books I've read from him, because it covers very dark subject matter indeed - confronting the history of White supremacy and lynching, with references to some of the most infamous such incidents in American history, and also some very long lists of historical lynching deaths. Not just B...

Review: An Echo of Things to Come

An Echo of Things to Come by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Licanius Trilogy continues with a 700-plus pager of an epic, including a much-appreciated recap of The Shadow of What Was Lost and the trilogy's expansive backstory. Now, the story continues with a lot more focus on Caeden, whose secret past has been revealed, at least to the reader - and yet there's a lot more pieces to the story than just that shocker of an ending on the first book. As with the ...

Review: Icon and Inferno

Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OLD PINECONE GENERAL'S WARNING: Any resemblance in this book to real life events is entirely coincidental, the book having come out several weeks before the real-world events that so eerily imitated it.

The two books of this latest series from Marie Lu, this YA/NA borderline action thriller with just a touch of sci-fi - now very clearly in the futuristic world of the Lu-niverse, with Emika Chen and Warcross getting som...

Review: Under Wildwood

Under Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second sprawling story of the world of Wildwood also demands a Laika-produced claymation film adaptation, so here's really hoping that the Wildwood movie next year does well enough to merit a franchise. For this book, we get a brief glimpse of Prue in the real world of slushy wintertime in St. Johns - if I'd been able to read this book when I was younger, I would be a lot more aware of Portland actually possibly ...

Review: The Vermilion Emporium

The Vermilion Emporium by Jamie Pacton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At first, after reading The Absinthe Underground, I didn't think I'd be able to find this earlier novel by Jamie Pacton at any of the local libraries. I guess I didn't look hard enough, because a few months later, after seeing The Vermilion Emporium on a Barnes & Noble shelf and checking the library website in Vancouver, I found it available to place on order, and so I did.

Just like Pacton's green fairy tal...

Review: Moonstorm

Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Yoon Ha Lee brings his signature style of gender diverse Korean space opera to YA, and it surprises me greatly that this book doesn't have a higher Goodreads average, because it deserves one. Well, maybe my review will help bring it up a couple points or so. Sure, it's a bit predictable in its story beats, being a mecha story with a protagonist infiltrating the ranks to take down the empire that subjugated her people. And...

Review: Demon in White

Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I almost was worried that this book, at nearly 800 pages, would prove too bloated to make me want to continue with this series. How wrong I was. Even with this great size of a book, Ruocchio is really hitting his storytelling stride again. With all sorts of lavish detail to bolster this series’ ever excellent world building…but by far my favorite scenes were in the library with the revelation of the history ...

Review: Dr. No

Dr. No by Percival Everett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As Finn from Adventure Time would say, "MATHEMATICAL!"

As Cosmo from The Fairly Oddparents would say, "It's a show about nothing!...how do we know when it's over?"

As John Cage would say, "4' 33"."

This book has a literal lot of nothing going on, it's a nothingburger in an organic nothing bun with a spread of nothing condiments. And while I've still experienced little of Percival Everett's expansive bibliography yet, it's ...