Ricky Pine's Blog, page 21

Review: The Tainted Cup

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robert Jackson Bennett returns with the start of a brand new series, although this book is pretty standalone in its unique new world. Imagine if Rian Johnson in the midst of his Knives Out era collaborated with Jasper Fforde in the midst of his Shades of Grey era, and you'd have something approximating this book - biopunk fantasy murder mystery with creeping vines and spores out to kill everyone (so a bit...

Review: Lucero

Lucero by Maya Motayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been over two full years since Motayne published the second book of this trilogy, but I'm very glad that she got the chance to publish the whole series, because it's truly one of the most underrated in the YA sphere. While the first book and especially the second book dealt a lot with colonialism and its effects on linguistically attuned magic in universe, the diabolical cliffhanger ending of Oculta ensured that this b...

Review: The Might

The Might by Siri Pettersen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The third book of The Raven Rings took a little while to arrive for me at the library after reading the first two in relatively quick succession, but unfortunately it did keep the series' downward trend going. While the first two books had constant action over their hundreds and hundreds of pages and led to some wild cliffhangers on each one, this time, the story manages to move super fast and still take forever to wra...

Review: The Spy Coast

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ahh, finally, a breath of fresh air to take me out of my current reading slump. Gerritsen says that this book, the start of a promising new series, took some inspiration from the fact that apparently the small town in Maine where she moved in her golden years is also full of golden-years people...and many of them have some secrets in their pasts that they can't talk about even to their doctors. Thus was the genesis...

Review: A Plague of Giants

A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I thought I might have attempted to read this book once when it first came out, but I guess this is my first time leaving a review here for it. Oh well. Unfortunately, if I did read it back then, I must not have remembered it well at all. And this time, I'm remembering it for the wrong reasons. Normally, I would have expected I'd love a fantasy novel with a bard in the center of it all, but the disjointed narrat...

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...