Ricky Pine's Blog, page 19

Review: The Watchers

The Watchers by A.M. Shine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one is getting a 2.5 rounded generously up to 3 in large part because of the promise of the upcoming film adaptation this summer, written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night. But also because of the creepy af incorporation of Irish faerie mythology - these Fair Folk have teeth in all the ways. Unfortunately, this book suffers from a preponderance of characters I can't bring myself to care f...

Review: Base Notes

Base Notes by Lara Elena Donnelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can see why this, the only novel Lara Elena Donnelly's come out with since her well-crafted Art Deco war story that wasn't a war story, the Amberlough Dossier, is so much lower rated here. It could've been a much better story, and it's certainly darkly fascinating for its depiction of a depraved perfume maker in New York. After all, if you really think about it, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few e...

Review: Aftermarket Afterlife

Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As much as I've been a fan of Seanan McGuire for many years, and of this series in particular, I'm sorry to say that McGuire has been slowly losing me with this series, and it's never been more apparent than with this latest novel. The unlucky thirteenth in the series, it shifts gears to yet another POV protagonist, the sixth one so far by my count. Props to McGuire for seeking to keep things fresh with ano...

Review: An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors

An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors by Curtis Craddock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somewhere in the ether between Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn and Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires lies this unique spin on gaslamp airship steampunk fantasy, heavily inspired by days gone by in France and Spain in particular. It's a world that uses religion as an excuse to punch down on the other - as Isabelle, one of our protagonists, finds out the hard way, being a woman with a disability, and no m...

Review: The Weavers of Alamaxa

The Weavers of Alamaxa by Hadeer Elsbai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hadeer Elsbai picks right up where The Daughters of Izdihar left off with that weapons-grade cliffhanger, starting off first with Giorgina on the run underground in the city of Alamaxa while Nehal is stuck in a prison cell at the behest of the sinister Zirani queen, Ralisa, who will stop at nothing to eliminate weavers from the world. Just as the previous book drew a lot of Avatar parallels to Avatar Kyoshi...

Review: Infinity Kings

Infinity Kings by Adam Silvera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I used to be such a big fan of Adam Silvera like 5-10 years ago, but more recently I'm afraid he's been losing his luster for me. He used to be so good at writing stories about glorious gay geekboys who made me laugh and cry in equal measure, but it says a lot that this book included one particularly major character death and I didn't cry reading it. I should have, but I didn't, and I blame that on this book's massi...

Review: The Diablo's Curse

The Diablo's Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though I'll always be a fan of Beyond the Red and sequels first and foremost, I'm very happy to see that Gabe Cole Novoa has been carving himself a nice new niche in the YA publishing world, now with his second book in a loosely connected series of pirate fantasy novels. Trading in the sunny Caribbean for the more forbidding waters off Massachusetts (albeit with a misplaced tropical island or two, because dia...

Review: A Tempest of Tea

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a few years since Hafsah Faizal wrote a new fantasy novel, but it's definitely been worth the wait for this one. Coming pretty close to the same trajectory as Leigh Bardugo took with the Grishaverse, Faizal follows up on her initial series, the Sands of Arawiya, with the start of a new series focusing on a highly diverse ensemble cast carrying out a heist. A lot like Six of Crows this story becomes, set...

Review: The Familiar

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Bardugo's got a pretty extensive contract to write as many as 12 new books now, and I'm thinking this standalone fantasy novel was just the first of them. It's very definitely a Bardugo book in a lot of ways - dark, moody atmosphere, strange magic, Jewish protagonist struggling to hold on to her tenuous links to her culture, a mysterious bad-boy kind of love interest? All of the above, represented.

I'm actually very s...

Review: The Enchanted Hacienda

The Enchanted Hacienda by J.C. Cervantes
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book when I picked it up at the library - it looked like a sort of darker, more mature take on Disney's Encanto, but Mexican, with a flower based magic system - and maybe, just maybe, the protagonist getting to discover her magic after all. (Spoilers for Encanto, but I'm still salty that Mirabel never got a gift.) Be careful what you wish for and all that, though - because in this boo...