Ricky Pine's Blog, page 141

Review: Library of Souls

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my reaction when I found out this was the final novel of the Miss Peregrine series.



This was my reaction when I opened the book and found it intensely action-packed with all of zero breathing room:



And this was my reaction when I got to the end:



Along the way, Ransom Riggs more than outdid himself. He's taken Jacob, Emma, Addison, and us readers further back in time than we've seen before - to the slums of Victorian London. He's...

Review: Stone Rider

Stone Rider by David Hofmeyr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

High promise helps propel this seriously action-packed dystopian story - high promise, and high action, and high intensity. The author-acknowledged shades of Mad Max and old westerns help - and, thankfully, this story also doesn't overdo it on the bizarre prose that ruined Blood Red Road (the closest match to this book I can think off the top of my head) for me. My favorite part by far was the revelation of Kane's true identity - which se...

Beautiful Child: A Newly Edited Sample Of Red Rain

***SPOILER ALERT***

Inspired by Ashlyn from Wattpad and a little something she said during tonight's #tcbwatt webcast, this post will be largely devoted to sharing the majority of a short new chapter from Red Rain which remains unreleased, as it does not go into the edit currently available on Wattpad or Write On. This is a new Chapter 24 (the previous Chapter 24, "Oh Love," will now be numbered 25, but its title will remain intact), entitled "Beautiful Child" after a lovely son...

The Scorch Trials Movie: Or, Mad Thomas And His Army Of BAMFs

Before you read this post, I have a bit of mood music for you to enjoy. It's a sample from the soundtrack for the movie I just saw in theaters today, and it's one of the best pieces of movie music I've heard since the theme from Pacific Rim. It's fast-paced, intense, and perfectly exemplifies the panic-inducing Holy Shit Quotient of its movie, especially around the two-minute mark with a sound effect that's best described thusly: "It's quiet. Too quiet...wait, that's a goddamn countdown...

Review: All Fall Down

All Fall Down by Ally Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've never read Ally Carter before, but I've heard a lot about her, and I figured this would be a great place to start. I wasn't disappointed.

It's an unusual setting - a fictional Mediterranean nation called Adria, which has been occupied by about every historical empire or army under the sun, from the Mongols to the Romans. It sounds a lot like Malta, in fact.

The characters are cool - starting with protagonist Grace, who comes across as...

Review: The Young World

The Young World by Chris Weitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw a lot of negative reviews for this book, with most of them being complaints that the story isn't really anything new or original. Dystopian, New York, teenagers in the apocalypse, fighting and banging and even eating other people's thighs, Hannibal-style. Yeah, not very original - but the likable dual narrators (smart Jeff and sassy Donna, who sounds way more beautiful than her self-description) and high action made up enough for...

Something You Didn't Know You Needed

...and it's to drop everything and listen to Muse's "Reapers," no matter how many times you've heard it before!

Haha, just kidding. Or am I?

Well, that's not why I'm here. Today, I'm here to present the world something I never thought I'd ever get the chance to do - take a video of myself reading from Red Rain and doing impressions of Nat Bradford, Andrew Garfield, and River Song.

But, because my brain's been addled by the rising heat in the Bay Area today, I've gone and done exactly that.

S...

Review: Devil's Pocket

Devil's Pocket by John Dixon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The first book in this series read like Matthew Reilly did The Maze Runner. This one reads more like James Rollins doing James Dashner doing The Hunger Games. That might just be the best way to describe this epic mashup of Roman-esque gladiator fights in the modern day (at least one of which required Carl to fight with a broken arm - dear God) and numerous references to Greek gods, Viking funerals, and Dante, and impending apocalyptic doo...

Review: Irkadura

Irkadura by Ksenia Anske
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And now for something completely different from the ever-popular, ever-undiscovered Ksenia Anske. There are a few of her usual trappings - strong female lead, talking dogs, bizarro fantasy - but overall, this book is so very much not Rosehead or The Badlings. It's a million times Darker and Edgier, with the Lisbeth Salander-like horrors the protagonist has to face. No wonder she slips into a fantasy world where everyone and their mother (lite...

Review: The Girl in the Spider's Web

The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I first heard this was happeneing, I was overjoyed. Never mind the fact that this was based on a new manuscript, not linked to the partials left on Larsson's laptop - more Lisbeth Salander? More Mikael Blomkvist? More Lisbeth Effing Salander? This felt like just what the doctor ordered.

It's not as good as any of the three original Millennium books, largely because it feels like this one has much less of our (anti...