Ricky Pine's Blog, page 142

Spidey In His First Life - A No-Budget Cosplay

Disclaimer: I'm not actually Spider-Man, nor am I Andrew Garfield. Either that, or I'm his split personality who thinks he's an American YA writer struggling to get published. XD

Lacking money or talent for designing cosplays, I went the no-budget route on this one - easy, considering Peter and I are geekboys with fairly similar wardrobes. Using this pic from TASM 2 as inspiration...



...I simply took clothes I already had and put them together in the right combination. Only one person IRL...

Review: The Rose Society

The Rose Society by Marie Lu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***SPOILER ALERT***

Since I imagine Chloe Bennet to be Adelina, I'll start with a quote from Agents of SHIELD which I think could accurately apply to Adelina:



And apply it does after the ending of this book, which is not only Marie Lu's self-admitted darkest one yet, but also her most balls-to-the-wall insane. Respect to Ransom Riggs, but The Young Elites is quickly rising up in the ranks to become my new favorite YA series.

Most of the credit...

Review: Career of Evil

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Seeing the blurb for this book made me have this reaction:



Reading this book made me have this reaction:



In some ways, this book was less intense than the impossibly disgusting, Hannibal-level grossness of The Silkworm. On the other hand, Galbraith's third benefits from taking a look into the dark personal histories of both Strike and Robin - specifically, the fact that they both have violent crime in their pasts - because it helps us...

Starling City Storm: Metahuman Therapy Session

Right now I'm again working on my pettest of pet projects, White Shadows - but today, I spent most of my waking hours thinking about the future of Starling City Storm, because it seems, based on my most dedicated Spidey & Speedy fan's responses, that the story's getting better. And in the future of SCS is a scene where Barry and Peter finally get a chance to talk about their pasts and learn how much they have in common. Especially when it comes to certain childhood tragedie...

Review: More Happy Than Not

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So this guy Adam Silvera's an up-and-coming debut writer? If so, he's definitely one to watch out for.

Contemporary YA is usually natural anathema to geekboys like me, and like Aaron Soto. Of course, when it's a Darker and Edgier contemporary with a sci-fi twist, packed with glorious pop-culture references, that's the exception to the rule. That's this book.

But it's not all about the glorious pop-culture references, from X-Men to Ha...

Review: The Detective

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

The first book in this series read like Doctor Parnassus in book form. This book, whose blurb compares it to Murder On The Orient Express for good reason, is instead what would happen if The Grand Budapest Hotel were a collaboration between Jim Butcher and Quentin Tarantino. Maybe with a bit of Spielberg thrown in - just look at the hilariously grossgusting Mirkarvian dinner served aboard the Princess Hortense, right down to that s...

Review: The Aeronaut's Windlass

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How long has it been since Butcher first announced this book? Two years? Three? Well, his long-promised steampunk story is finally here, and I've finally gotten through the entire first book. It's a little more in the vein of Codex Alera than The Dresden Files, just with a different alternate-world fantasy setting. There's a little less magic and a little more science - other than, of course, the etherealists, the Spires, the ta...

Review: Stand-Off

Stand-Off by Andrew Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A couple of years ago, Cory Doctorow put out the sequel to Little Brother and delivered a Lighter and Softer story that read a bit more like a string of loosely connected personal vignettes for the main character. Now, old Marbury Jack does something similar for the sequel to Winger.

This book actually isn't just Lighter and Softer than Winger, though. It's Lighter and Softer than any Andrew Smith book I've ever read, especially The Alex Crow...

Crimson Peak: The Writer's Horror Movie

***SPOILER ALERT***

"Ghosts are real...that much I know."

So far, most of the top contenders on my list of Best 2015 Movies (So Far) are action movies. Among them: Kingsman: The Secret Service.


"Manners. Maketh. Man."
And Chappie.


"Indestructible Gangsta Number One, Son!"
And Age of Ultron.


"SHIT!"
"Language!"
And Fury Road.


ALL HAIL IMPERATOR FURIOSA!
And Ant-Man.


Trippy, even by Marvel standards. :)
And, of course, The Scorch Trials, which is still my favorite movie of the year.


I'm still waiting on...

Cold Fire: Rachel And Alex's First Date

***SPOILER ALERT***

In another burst of creativity, I've finally thought of the best possible first date for Rachel and Alex, which is now an extension of Red Rain's new Chapter 24, "Beautiful Child," which I posted earlier this month. The chief inspiration, believe it or not, comes not from Teen Wolf, despite this new scene featuring yet another well-placed reference to that show. Instead, it comes from this funny Twitter feed, aptly called Brooding YA Hero. More specifically, it comes from t...