Ricky Pine's Blog, page 20

Review: Defiant

Defiant by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This hasn't been my favorite Sanderson series - hell, it started off with one of my least favorite books of his, since Skyward felt so derivative of Ender's Game until a last minute twist or two. It did improve over time, with Cytonic in particular standing out for its sheer weirdness, but then this book comes along and returns to a more basic style and storyline. It's a bit like Cytonic was the Last Jedi of this univ...

Review: Divine Rivals

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Normally I'm leery as hell when it comes to BookTok hype - Fourth Wing, anyone? - but this book lives up to the level of attention it's been getting these last few months. A little less spicy than most romantasy offerings, enough that Fort Vancouver Regional Library shelves it pretty confidently as YA instead of adult (or even NA, which is where I'd really categorize it myself), but it's definitely a hell of a lot ...

Review: The Innocent Sleep

The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"'I hate prophecy,' muttered Ginevra. 'It's never a clear set of steps. It's like trying to assemble an IKEA bookshelf using an instruction booklet that's been translated from Swedish to Japanese to English without a human double-checking the translations.'

Reminding me of how Jim Butcher surprised the readers of The Dresden Files in 2020 with a double feature of novels, Peace Talks and Battle Ground, is the la...

Review: A Curse for True Love

A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Stephanie Garber brings another dark fairytale romance trilogy to its end, and this time, while the returns have steadily diminished on this series too, she sticks the landing far better than she did with the original Caraval trilogy. It helps, I think, that she ended the second book in this series on such a mind-bending cliffhanger, which she builds off of so magnificently with this book as it becomes ve...

Review: My Effin' Life

My Effin' Life by Geddy Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"We're only immortal for a limited time."
-Neil Peart

There are three reasons why Rush is one of my all time favorite bands. Pratt the Professor, quoted above with lines from the underrated 1991 classic song "Dreamline" (which I've sung acapella and karaoke for various audiences in my time), was one of them. Lerxst and his wackadoodle antics are another. But perhaps none make as great an impact as the Dirk, the Deke, Ged...

Review: Air Born

Air Born by J L Pawley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As good as I remember from the old Wattpad days, and better. With some minor updates here and there after so many different rereleases, but that’s no surprise, really. I just can’t wait to finally get all three books on my shelf - for the first time, no less, because the last time this book was rereleased was before I even had a shelf, just an overstuffed drawer or two or three. But I’ll be ordering each successive book in ...

Review: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

So this book tries to be the next Knives Out and make itself stand out on the basis of its tongue in cheek parody of the mystery genre, building on the Ten Commandments of the genre from Ronald Knox (well, nine, since one of them is redacted for racist language) and presenting a protagonist who's the black sheep of his criminal family, a mystery writer who's gotten at least one of t...

Review: System Collapse

System Collapse by Martha Wells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

At this point, after seven books of varying size, haven't the corporations of the future learned by now that Murderbot just wants to be left alone to stream intergalactic soap operas all day? Yeah, right. Corporations never learn, in the present or in the future, and in this story world, they're so dangerously close to stepping into Weyland-Yutani territory with their sheer disregard for life that they ought to jus...

Review: The Hurricane Wars

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In recent weeks, Reylo fandom (of which I used to be a minor member thanks to a couple of my friends being really into it) has become something of a headline and punchline with the revelation that upcoming debut novelist and Reylo shipper Cait Corrain had review bombed several of her fellow 2024 debut novelists with sock puppet accounts, targeting a lot of authors of color in particular. Not a good look, and a s...

Review: The Hunting Moon

The Hunting Moon by Susan Dennard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm gonna be honest, this one gets an extra star for cover love - seriously, that design with the hummingbird skeleton growing dangerous leaves and flowers has haunted me for months, ever since it was first unveiled. Helps that it reminds me a lot of the style of one of my old favorite 2000s YA series whose style Dennard has steadily emulated in this series - specifically, Lisa McMann's Wake trilogy.

But while De...