Ricky Pine's Blog, page 27
July 26, 2023
Review: Dark Objects
Dark Objects by Simon ToyneMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
With each series he’s worked on in the last decade, Simon Toyne has shifted more towards realism than the intense modern fantasy thrillers of the Sanctus trilogy, a series that I’ll not soon forget. This book is the first of a new series with protagonist Laughton Rees, a young profiler with a terribly troubled past - like Barry Allen, she saw her mum’s murder, but unlike Barry Allen, she wound up so traumatized that sh...
July 25, 2023
Review: Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon SandersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sanderson's third of his 2023 Secret Projects was also by far the quickest to reach me when the new quarter began. I guess the ongoing production and fulfillment issues at the Dragonsteel warehouse in Utah must have resolved themselves pretty well, and third time's the charm for the project which Sanderson has indicated to be his favorite of the Secret Projects. It's certainly my favorite from a...
July 19, 2023
Review: The Book Eaters
The Book Eaters by Sunyi DeanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If I hadn't been aware that author Sunyi Dean was autistic, I'd have been very suspicious of her for writing a book where the main character's son, a rare monster among monsters, comes off like a grim allegory of how neurotypical people see autistic people as inherently creepy. That Cai, the mind eater character in question, is only able to adhere to what is typical for his people when dosed with a drug curiously kno...
July 18, 2023
Review: Fractal Noise
Fractal Noise by Christopher PaoliniMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
A lot of one star reviews for this book are flat out review bombing. I don't engage in such a practice myself. But while I did give this book a fair shake, I was absolutely not impressed. Even leaving aside the utter ridiculousness of Tor being caught using AI to create the cover art (allegedly by accident, since they simply took from a normally reputable stock photo source, so they said) and Paolini defending...
July 13, 2023
Review: Sufficiently Advanced Magic
Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew RoweMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
My coworker recommended me this big old self-pubbed piece of fantasy, a sprawling litRPG kind of novel that makes me think of the time a certain fantasy author - mostly YA, but dipping his toes into adult fantasy these days - once asked me to try my hand at writing that subgenre with him, but I had to say no because I didn't think I could do it justice. Seeing this example of litRPG live and in person, I...
July 9, 2023
Review: Age of Vice
Age of Vice by Deepti KapoorMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I’m sorry to say that while I did go into this book with good expectations, I should’ve heeded Jaroda’s not so dazzling rating. This book, in addition to getting plaudits and blurbs from Marlon James and Lee Child both (when was the last time that happened? Or will it ever happen again?), also manages to be both compulsively readable and yet so unrelentingly downbeat and vicious to its own protagonist that after a whi...
July 3, 2023
Review: The Sun and the Star
The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark OshiroMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If I'd finished this book a few days earlier, I'd have been able to cap off Pride Month with this review. But alas, time was not on my side, so we'll have to settle for, as the citizens of cyberspace may say, Gay Wrath Month instead. Lol.
It's not that it doesn't happen, but it is very rare for me to come across a Rick Riordan book that I read and don't super enjoy. Then again, I'm definitely we...
June 21, 2023
Review: Dragonfall
Dragonfall by L.R. LamMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
L.R. Lam's long awaited return to the fantasy genre gives a lot of similar vibes to their debut trilogy with Micah Grey, but also a lot more of the epic fantasy influence of one of their favorite authors, Robin Hobb, to whom this book is dedicated. There's also a fair amount of N.K. Jemisin influence with the wide variety of POV styles: Arcady gets a first person POV, Everen gets second person (with "you" in this instance ...
June 20, 2023
Review: My Heart Is a Chainsaw
My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham JonesMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I hadn't read any Stephen Graham Jones books before, but this one had a mildly longer wait time at the library than I expected, and I still have The Only Good Indians waiting a little further down my to-read pile from the library. But for this one, I'm afraid I'm definitely not continuing the trilogy.
I guess I'm a sucker for foresty mountain settings - it's part of the reason I moved up to the Pacifi...
June 14, 2023
Review: Silver in the Bone
Silver in the Bone by Alexandra BrackenMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was honestly ready to give up as an Alexandra Bracken reader entirely after Lore - for me, that book was such a misfire, a coalescence of all of Bracken's biggest faults (stories bloated with dead air, characters with shockingly little appeal) - that I gave it a rare one star that wasn't a DNF. For this book, the first in a planned trilogy rooted in Arthurian legend, I'm going to be generous with an extra...
