Ricky Pine's Blog, page 21

Review: Murtagh

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was never the biggest fan of Paolini or the Inheritance Cycle. Hell, I didn't even finish the first book when I was in grade school, and my sister enjoyed the video game a hell of a lot more than I did when I got it as a Christmas present. (I didn't watch the movie, because as I understand it, there is no Eragon movie in Ba Sing Se.)

The only reason I read the books was because my roommate a couple of years ago wa...

Review: Silver Nitrate

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Silvia Moreno-Garcia definitely gets a lot of Guillermo del Toro vibes in some of her many Mexican-set period spec-fic stories, but never more than in her latest novel, which incorporates a lot of the same kind of elements that GDT loves to work with. Film history and Nazi occult scares, set in late 20th century Mexico City - in 1993, no less, the same year when GDT first came onto the scene with his auspici...

Review: Wish of the Wicked

Wish of the Wicked by Danielle Paige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Danielle Paige made herself one of my favorite authors almost ten years ago when she debuted with Dorothy Must Die, and now, after a few years dabbling in the worlds of graphic novels and modern-day paranormal sisterhood, she now returns to the Fractured Fairytale style that made her name. She rose up during the heyday of the YA fairytale retelling craze, and while a lot of titans of that genre (Marissa Meyer...

Review: Foul Heart Huntsman

Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one goes out to all the people hopping on a ton of Chloe Gong hate bandwagons these last several years:

Sit there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it.

Yes, still.

"without the monster, there is no madness. without the madness, he goes out of business."
These Violent Delights

"nothing was ever as simple as 'my people' or 'your people...'"
Our Violent Ends

"don’t upset me in the future and it will be sw...

Review: The Art of Destiny

The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“‘Goramh’s second Tenet of Humility. The mind should starve in victory and be ravenous in defeat,’ recited the duchess.

“‘Goramh must have lost a lot of wars,’ Qisami quipped.”

For me, this latest from Wesley Chu is more of a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 - the 3.5 owing to how long the book goes on and on and on even compared to its predecessor, but the rounding up because it doesn't lose its predecessor's delightfully sa...

Review: Iron Flame

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I said about six weeks ago or so, when I finally read Fourth Wing after months of hype, that I wasn't gonna continue with the series. But thanks to several friends in one particular Discord chat (#the-void in Z Brewer's Minion Horde server), as well as one of the doctors I'm in a book club with (and her assistant), I was convinced to give Iron Flame a shot when a copy showed up on the Lucky Day shelf at the library up...

Review: Bookshops & Bonedust

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After Legends & Lattes took the fantasy world by storm last year, it seems only fitting that Travis Baldree would return with a new book in that same universe. According to his note at the back of this one, it began as a fantasy takeoff on the cozy mystery genre in the style of Murder, She Wrote, but evolved into something completely different as he realized that particular story wasn't working (though I do...

Review: The Olympian Affair

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eight years have passed since the first book in Butcher's steampunk series, and I thought for a while it would be utterly forgotten while he concentrated on very slowly advancing the plot of The Dresden Files. I didn't realize for a while that Butcher had had quite a lot going on in his personal life these last few years, and that's the main explanation for why he's only released three books since 2015, and two ...

Review: Shutter

Shutter by Ramona Emerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Longlisted for the National Book Award, but it would've been nice to see this one win something too, because it came across my radar at the perfect time for me to really get into it. The Fort Vancouver Library branch up the street from my workplace was promoting this one for Native American Heritage Month, along with many other titles by Native American writers, and this one stands out for its uniquely thrilling blend of...

Review: Nettle & Bone

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I ordered this one at the library after it won Best Novel at this year’s Hugo Awards, and while Gresham Library has been remarkably quick at getting my orders fulfilled, I would’ve expected a longer wait for the winner of a prestigious genre award. But now I can see why the wait list wasn’t so long for this book - and still isn’t, in fact, with only 16 people waiting for a physical copy at this time, in contrast to ...