Ricky Pine's Blog, page 27

Review: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes Blake, I believe you’re right. Sanderson did, in fact, do an isekai.

The second of four Secret Projects in the Year of Sanderson is, by Brandon Sanderson’s own admission, the odd man out for a number of reasons. It’s fantasy like all the others, albeit sci fi in disguise with its use of historically semi accurate at best pocket dimensions for its setting. It’s no...

Review: A Day of Fallen Night

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Say, has Shannon established a pattern? I’d say so. A couple of them, in fact: releasing new novels each odd numbered calendar year, and now, alternating between novels of The Bone Season and the novels of The Priory of the Orange Tree, or, as we now call this series, Roots of Chaos. Here, Shannon gives us an epic standalone prequel, as much of an 800 page brick as Priory was, and equally full of world...

Review: The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Steve Berry returns to his signature character Cotton Malone after a brief hiatus (he took last year off) with a new story that takes a very unique spin on US history, but also world history this time around once again. It's pretty clear from the start of the book, a prologue set in the royal halls of Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, what other historical kingdom is going to be involved in the story this time - after all, h...

Review: The Wicked Bargain

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gabe Cole Novoa was one of my favorite authors whose works I could sell at the Stanford Bookstore, back when he'd first come out with the Beyond the Red trilogy under his former pseudonym. If I were still there, I'd be happy to keep the tradition alive, selling this book as well. Though I've recently seen it grace a table full of books by trans and nonbinary authors at the newly remodeled Waucoma Bookstore in Hoo...

Review: Arch-Conspirator

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I saw Veronica Roth at Powell's in Beaverton last fall, all copies of Poster Girl in stock included a bookmark advertising this, Roth's next book, a dystopian sci-fi novella retelling of the ancient Greek play Antigone. Something else I have in common with Roth, in addition to having written my first manuscripts while I was supposed to be doing college work - we both read the old play in high school. For me, it'...

Review: Chain of Thorns

Chain of Thorns by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hey, there are actually some peeps who do want more Shadowhunters stories. This boy included. Bring it on, Cassie! Don't let the negativity and teh angryzorz get you down.

By writing these words, Clearly I Have Made Some Bad Decisions.

And those words helped, for years and years as Clare kept steadily working her way through the world of Shadowhunters up to this point, to make my pre review of Chain of Thorns one of m...

Review: The One Impossible Labyrinth

The One Impossible Labyrinth by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The biggest series Matthew Reilly has written yet comes to its long awaited Grand Finale. Even as the first three books formed a Two Part Trilogy, it was still pretty clear that there would be more to come given the countdown nature of the books' titles, and when Reilly began work on the middle entry in the series, the fourth novel, he made it clear that that would be merely the first of a four-part narr...

Review: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shannon Chakraborty returns with a new series set in the Indian Ocean of the 11th century, and in the same universe as her star-making Daevabad Trilogy - unsurprisingly, a Daeva or two makes a cameo appearance in this story. But here, we focus instead on a more unconventional heroine than Nahri ever was: Amina Al-Sirafi, once a pirate, now a mother, and once again called to action, this time to he...

Review: The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

The Cabinet of Dr. Leng by Douglas Preston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Only now, after reading the whole thing, is it clear that this latest Cabinet from Preston & Child, The Cabinet of Dr. Leng, is part of an official new sub-series of the Pendergast novels, now to dubbed the Leng Quartet. It began in The Cabinet of Curiosities and continued quite subtly in Bloodline, whose surprise cliffhanger led to this book and its peculiar story in Four Lines, All Waiting format. Constanc...

Review: The Cradle of Ice

The Cradle of Ice by James Rollins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rollins has big, big plans for his high fantasy MoonFall series for sure. When the first book came out, and a bookseller at Klindt's in The Dalles told me that there were already plans for four books in the series, I did wonder at the time how Rollins would stretch out an apocalyptic scenario that long. With this book, it's pretty clear that Rollins is playing a long game on the level of A Song of Ice & Fire, but un...