Ricky Pine's Blog, page 19

Review: Ruthless Vows

Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did like the first book in this series well enough, but this sequel, the concluding entry in the series, was just a little bit of a letdown in comparison. Sure, the tension between Iris and Roman (the latter having a serious memory problem as a result of his abduction by a semi-sympathetic elder god who wants him to write propaganda opposing the even less sympathetic goddess who's been luring soldiers to fight fo...

Review: The Golem of Brooklyn

The Golem of Brooklyn by Adam Mansbach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"'If you think clay monster who just learn English yesterday understand all that, you giant dickhead,' said The Golem."

I didn't realize going into this that Mansbach was also the writer of those parody children's books that Bryan Cranston narrated, "Go the F**k to Sleep" and sequels, of which there appear to be at least three by now. But after reading this, I guess it makes sense, because this book is an ext...

Review: House of Flame and Shadow

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Last year was one of the few where Sarah J. Maas didn't release any new books, so the time was ripe for other authors like Rebecca Yarros to stake their claims to the romantasy throne. Hell, did anyone even start using the term "romantasy" until last year? I don't believe so. But in any case, SJM is now back to stake her own claim to retake the throne as the Queen of Romantasy that she's been for these l...

Review: Erasure

Erasure by Percival Everett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"'I make up shit for a living and I couldn't have come up with that.'"

Just over two decades have passed since Percival Everett's book was adapted into this year's five-time Oscar-nominee American Fiction, and the sharp satire of race in publishing still hits as hard today as it did then. Even more so, I'd say, now that a lot of writers in particular are more attuned to the systemic issues that plague the industry, an i...

Review: A Machine Divine

A Machine Divine by Derek Paul
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Derek Paul gives us one of the finest works of fantasy in quite a while, with more than a touch of sci fi in the DNA as well. Almost Miyazaki like in its setting, with zeppelins and genetic experimentation and World War style chemical weaponry, it’s a little bit steampunk, a little bit biopunk, and a lotta bit awesome indie storytelling. Asher is me and I am Asher (if I’d been fortunate enough to go to college out o...

Review: The Rot

The Rot by Siri Pettersen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first book in this trilogy promised a huge shakeup for Book 2 with its diabolical cliffhanger ending, and now here we are on that second book with a distinctly divided narrative. Rime's POV keeps one side of the story rooted in the ymish world where the series began, but Hirka is now stuck in modern day Europe - England, to be exact. Though Hirka does quickly adapt to the strange ways of the modern world, it was her ...

Review: The Faithless

The Faithless by C.L. Clark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book in this planned trilogy proves to be full of surprises, especially for a reader like me who had expected Clark to follow the Court of Fives fantasy-decolonial playbook pretty closely. But also, the way Clark wrote Luca harked back so much to Helene in An Ember in the Ashes, a very complex character ethnically linked to the colonizers but wanting to do better for her legacy, that I shouldn't have been so...

Review: The Unbroken

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

C.L. Clark at one point wrote an article for Tor.com challenging the trope of the "butch martyr" in SFF, citing specific examples of Gideon the Ninth and The Traitor Baru Cormorant. This, then, is her extended challenge to that trope, with lesbian leads and their complicated dynamics - but also adding to that complication, the colonial setting, heavily inspired by North Africa under French imperial rule (Touraine is Qaz...

Review: Odin's Child

Odin's Child by Siri Pettersen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found the second book in this series available for only one dollar at the Friends of the Library room in one of the libraries in Vancouver, and as it happened, the same library had the first book in the series available to request. But only the first book. Oh well, it looked interesting and different, so I bought that second book and put it aside while waiting to pick up and read the first book. This one is set in...

Review: The Legacy of Yangchen

The Legacy of Yangchen by F.C. Yee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall, it's pretty safe to say that for a legacy, Yangchen doesn't leave one nearly as iconic as many of the franchise's other Avatars - especially the likes of Kyoshi, Roku, and of course Aang and Korra. But with the conclusion to her duology, it's pretty clear that she's nobody's fool, although she has to put up with a lot more interpersonal conflict than Yee had previously depicted in the Kyoshi novels. Eve...