Ricky Pine's Blog, page 22

Review: Family Lore

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Acevedo’s adult debut is a sprawling multigenerational drama rife with magical realism and lots of interesting dynamics between the ladies of this Dominican family, both on the island and in New York. Shifting between the late 20th century (post Trujillo years, but with a few references to the old dictator and his propensity for forcing himself on women) and the present day, we get to see all sorts of mysterious m...

Review: The Sunlit Man

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fourth and final Secret Project of the Year of Sanderson is the most clearly Cosmere connected of them all, with a Worldhopper protagonist who views everything around him in terms of Rosharan culture first...and it's definitely appropriate when he's on a planet in the Cosmere that, like Roshar, is uniquely difficult to habitate. Unlike Roshar, where the people have to hunker down against highstorms that rav...

Review: Sword Catcher

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cassandra Clare's first fantasy series for adults has, naturally, already made the bestseller lists, and also gotten a lot of flack from those who think she hasn't put her old plagiarizing ways behind her. Namely, they look at the fact that one of the protagonists is a boy named Kel with a strong connection to a crown prince in a realm where red and gold are the royal colors, and think that he's a ripoff of Kell f...

Review: The Girl in the Eagle's Talons

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Stieg Larsson allegedly had plans for as many as ten novels with Lisbeth Salander, but ever since his death, and now with a second Swedish publisher taking over rights to this series and handing the reins to yet another author, it's become more clear than ever that this series really should never have continued without its original creator. The trilogy that David Lagercrantz wrote from 2015-19 at l...

Review: The Chalice of the Gods

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The much-hyped return of Percy Jackson, more than ten years since the last official Percy Jackson and the Olympians adventure and with tons of other stories from Rick Riordan in between, is proof that Riordan is at his best form when he's got the original Persassy Jackson (and his signature silly chapter titles) fully in command of the storytelling. And luckily, this bite-sized little book isn't actually th...

Review: Holly

Holly by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

King said he was welcoming one star reviews from the many MAGA types he freely insulted through Holly’s perspective in this book, and while I do enjoy a few digs at Der Orangeführer and his many supporters in Holly’s unspecified red state home (okay, a lot of digs, but that’s nothing new from Stephen King anyway), it was really the constant Covid content that made me round my 3.5 down instead of up. I mean, it does make sens...

Review: Fourth Wing

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm being generous with the extra star for this one, and it's mostly because I can relate to Violet wanting to be a scribe, rather than a soldier. It's too bad she had to have a mother who comes off like a watered down version of the Commandant from An Ember in the Ashes who wouldn't allow her to pursue a path she really wanted at Basgiath War College.

I say "watered down" because unfortunately, for a book full of dra...

Review: The Fragile Threads of Power

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Six years and change since Schwab last wrote and published a full length novel in the world of the Shades of Magic, six years since I first bid that trilogy vas ir...anoshe, and now we're back with the long-awaited, long-hyped first book of the sequel trilogy. Just like the first book of the original trilogy, though, I do have to say that it doesn't quite live fully up to the hype for me. For this one, ...

Review: Of Thieves and Shadows

Of Thieves and Shadows by B.S.H. Garcia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found this one on the shelf at the library in Gresham. It sure looked interesting, and I was especially intrigued when I picked it up and saw that it was from an Oregon-based author. Self-published epic fantasy? Yes please. But while the book had some interesting ideas, especially from a world building standpoint - a movie adaptation of this one would be very eye-catching with its cast of human and variou...

Review: The Jasad Heir

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first of a promising new fantasy series in an Egyptian-inspired desert setting is a great showcase of debut author Sara Hashem's talents. Centering on the lost heiress to a kingdom thought destroyed and the terrible debt she finds herself in to a leader from the enemy nation that led the crusade to destroy hers, it's been billed as "enemies to lovers" but it most definitely isn't that simple. Normally, that tren...