Ricky Pine's Blog, page 142

Review: Queen of Shadows

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

UNOFFICIAL PLAYLIST:

"You don't have long, I am on to you
The time, it has come, to destroy your supremacy!"
- Muse

"Don't take my heart, don't break my heart
Don't, don't throw it away..."
- Tears For Fears, "Head Over Heels"

"When we are young
Wandering the face of the earth
Wondering what our dreams might be worth
Learning that we're only immortal for a limited time..."
- Rush, "Dreamline"

"Hey, there's a whole lotta people
Wonderin' who you a...

Review: The Fate of Ten

The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS***

Again, I had to wonder going into this - why is this the second-to-last book? The apocalypse has already begun, and there's no way it can take them until Book 7 to finally take down Setrakus Ra...right?

Apparently, it can. However, he's left very weak and with a spear in his chest last we see him - which can only be a good sign. With luck, he's finally dying, and they won't need to kill Ella first to get to h...

Review: The Necromancer

The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Feeling like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus by way of Jim Butcher (or perhaps Jasper Fforde, based on the semi-frequent use of comedic footnotes), this book is just as "fiendishly funny" as its GR blurb promises. Not to mention the dust jacket, which provides a fictional bio for its title character and ends on this gem of a line: "Where he lives is none of your verdammt business." Maybe I've seen National Treasure one too ma...

Review: Pocket Apocalypse

Pocket Apocalypse by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

True story - my dad saw me reading this one and asked, based on his brief glimpse of the cover, why I was reading a romance novel. I was sorely tempted to read directly from the book and prove him wrong, but then I decided, what does it matter? I don't have to prove anything, because I'm enjoying this book too much. :)

It's actually a shame that now that I'm finally used to having Alex as narrator, we're gonna switch back to Verity...

Review: Half-Off Ragnarok

Half-Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I knew this book was gonna switch POVs to Alex instead of Verity, so I was expecting a little bit of tone change to happen. I just wish it didn't feel so serious. For some reason, the humorous moments didn't come nearly as often as in the previous two books. Fewer pop-culture references per page may have had something to do with that. Not to mention fewer Aeslin mice per chapter - although they were there, thank God.

So, while the s...

Review: Armada

Armada by Ernest Cline
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't think I've ever seen a book so wall-to-wall with pop culture references - and, being largely of the sci-fi and classic-rock varieties, these references go very much appreciated by me. The story seems like a very familiar one, but that's done completely on purpose, with total self-awareness of the tropes and cliches involved. Take the 21 Jump Street movies, dial down the raunchy comedy, dial up the nerd factor and Holy Shit Quotient, and...

Review: An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can definitely see why this one's getting so much hype - it's essentially The Hunger Games in a setting that's closer in appearance, military, and technology to the ancient Roman Empire on which Panem was loosely based. This book has just about everything you can expect in a dystopian - an oppressed young woman, a young man who's stuck in the system, evil overlords, an evil Commandant (ugh, the Commandant.) It's pretty high up t...

Review: Lights Out

Lights Out by James Patterson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Three years we've had to wait for the conclusion to Daniel X, and I think it's safe to say that wait was too long. Although the book was wild and action-packed and pulled no punches, so it's almost worth it. I was at least glad I was able to remember just about everything necessary from the previous books, even though I haven't picked one up in a few years now.

I think the best part of the book for me was the numerous Night At The Museum...

Review: The Badlings

The Badlings by Ksenia Anske
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, Ksenia Anske, how you and your imagination continue to be inspired like nothing else. This is my second book of hers I've found on Wattpad, and it's every bit as gothic and disturbing as Rosehead. Here, however, it's a little less Alice in Wonderland and a little more Grimm meets Jasper Fforde (or Neil Gaiman - I've seen a few other commenters on Wattpad who support this comparison.) But there's definitely more than a bit of Fforde in...

Review: Rapture

Rapture by Lauren Kate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Fallen series concludes with considerable style. Here, we get a wide variety of exotic foreign locales - in the present day this time, not just in the past like in the previous book. Here, we get so many answers about the origins of the Luce/Daniel curse - and boy, those answers are real doozies. Especially the biggest reveal of all, the whole reason why Lucifer went bad to begin with. It's ironic that God went and created the angels as suc...