Ricky Pine's Blog, page 14

Review: Mirrored Heavens

Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse brings her biggest story yet to its long awaited conclusion in 600 pages or less - well, technically, yes, a little bit less than 600. But it does take its time to reach that conclusion for our cast of (sometimes anti) heroes - to the point where I almost wondered if Roanhorse was waiting to make a surprise announcement that this wouldn't be the end of the series after all. Nope. It's the en...

Review: Wildwood

Wildwood by Colin Meloy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've had this one on my radar for a little while ever since Laika Studios announced that it would be the source material for their next stop-motion movie, expected in theaters next year. Being that this book came out a couple of years after Laika's breakthrough hit Coraline, I can imagine that Meloy and Ellis took some inspiration from that movie with the dynamic between Prue and Curtis - something like Coraline and Wybie,...

Review: Blood at the Root

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I was still working at the Stanford Bookstore, I'd be hand-selling this book to the best of my ability. Unapologetically by and for Black boys who believe they have no magic in this life, LaDarrion Williams takes us to Caiman University, an HBCU for magic, and many types of magic as practiced in Black cultures throughout history. Malik, the protagonist, has known he's had magic for years, but due to a be...

Review: The Shadow of What Was Lost

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So this is where Islington got his start. I knew about the later books of Licanius from them being on the shelves at the Stanford Bookstore when I worked there, but for some reason the first book was never on sale there and I don't think my library in California had it at the time either. Now that I've picked this book up after reading my first Islington book with The Will of the Many, it's nice to ...

Review: Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"It's been 84 years..."

And it's been worth one of the longest waits in YA history for this, the end of the Legacy of Orïsha, picking up on the dreadful and horrifying cliffhanger of Children of Virtue and Vengeance four and a half years ago.

I haven't been a bookseller since before Covid, but when this book arrived in my mailbox, I was able to set it aside just long enough to take it to work for lunc...

Review: Howling Dark

Howling Dark by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On to the second book of Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series, now with a little less gladiating and a lot more interstellar intrigue, with dashes of interesting action and promises of more of the reason behind Hadrian Marlowe’s massive in universe infamy. Sadly this one is a definite step down from the first book, because much of this one is a whole lot of words that don’t say much, with relatively little plot progres...

Review: Red Side Story

Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been waiting for about a decade now for Jasper Fforde to finally give us the sequel to Shades of Grey, and while he's been dabbling in some really oddball experiments the last few years - most of which have never worked out for me as a reader - I'm happy to report that his long-delayed return to Chromatacia is also the return to form, reminding me of exactly why Fforde became one of my favorite writers in my c...

Review: The Last Devil to Die

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Osman comes to a natural stopping point of sorts with this latest entry in the Thursday Murder Club series, promising that while there will be more stories to come, he'll be taking a brief hiatus and concentrating on another kind of mystery project in the meantime. For now, though, this book starts with some lighthearted Boxing Day dramedy - the club is trying to make a new friend in the community, but Mervy...

Review: The Bullet That Missed

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Now for the third mystery of the Thursday Murder Club, which I was able to read pretty quickly after finishing the second book in the series. Unfortunately, this one is definitely a step down from its two predecessors, because while I really loved the personal aspects of the individual club members' stories in those books, they just didn't shine as much in this one. (Instead, we get Donna and Chris really d...

Review: Empire of Silence

Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been kinda sleeping on these books by Christopher Ruocchio for a while, even though they're very frequently recommended, especially for Red Rising fans. I can also see why it gets a blurb from James S.A. Corey, because in a lot of ways, these books are cut from similar cloth to The Expanse - sprawling, epic visions of diverse humanity vs. a weird, sinister alien species, with the author being prolifi...