Ricky Pine's Blog, page 29

Review: Fortuna

Fortuna by Kristyn Merbeth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Five star reads have become pretty rare for me in recent years. But this book, which I vaguely remember having a place on the shelf at Stanford Bookstore when it first came out…how the hell didn’t I read it sooner? At least now I know I have sequels to pick up soon, continuing the story of these two trouble twins, Scorpia and Corvus. Thanks to Merbeth’s editor for convincing her to add Corvus’s POV, because she does a damn ...

Review: Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe

Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By now it's been about three years since Shusterman concluded the original trilogy of Arc of a Scythe, but he clearly had some more stories to tell, and he did so with a little help from his friends and family. This far future world, being so far out from our own, had a lot of hidden potential as the original trilogy barely scratched the surface. Highlights for me include the secret origi...

Review: The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy

The River of Silver: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, the only reason it took me this long to read this book (aside from the fact that audiobooks came out months before ebook or physical versions) is because while I did order a signed copy from Chakraborty’s hometown indie, Thunder Road Books in New Jersey, my apartment complex is absolute garbage at taking deliveries at, y’know, my actual building. And no one told me there w...

Review: Tress of the Emerald Sea

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You can imagine my excitement last spring when Brandon Sanderson made the surprise announcement of no less than four new novels, with special quarterly releases as part of the Kickstarter-funded Year of Sanderson in 2023. You can imagine that I contributed to the tune of...well, it escapes me how many dollars exactly, but I contributed enough to get the physical copies of each of the four books in their s...

Review: The World We Make

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Even YA isn't immune to the ongoing strange trend of duologies being all the rage, as N.K. Jemisin indicates with her latest novel, her first in almost three full years. This series was initially announced as a trilogy, but it became clear this year that Jemisin was going to end it with the second book, which makes a lot of sense once you've read the acknowledgments at the end of the book. Jemisin was understandably ...

Review: Cursed

Cursed by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’d been hoping last year that when I read Gilded that it would prove to just be so much Prolonged Prologue, but this duology conclusion instead just comes across as…plain old Prolonged. I’ve said it many times that I really don’t understand why duologies are such a thing, and they’ve been so absurdly common in YA SFF especially the last five years or so. Credit to Meyer for following g that trend, though, while also sticking ...

Review: The Lost Metal

The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was late to the party with all the previous Mistborn novels of both eras for a variety of reasons, but I do still appreciate that it was a particularly long wait for this conclusion to Era Two, Wax & Wayne (and Marasi too!) A particularly long wait by any standard, but especially Sanderson’s, given his incredibly prolific nature. But now, as Mistborn reaches its tentative halfway point and we await Era Three to p...

Review: Dead Man's Hand

Dead Man's Hand by James J. Butcher
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I hate to come almost to the end of the year with a terrible review, but I feel like I have no choice with this one. The first in a new urban fantasy series from the son of one of the genre’s most successful authors, this book makes it clear that sadly, James J. Butcher doesn’t come close to shining beyond his father’s shadow. There’s a glimmer of Jim Butcher-style humor and worldbuilding in this book, to ge fair, ...

Review: Mistborn: Secret History

Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this story a while back as part of Arcanum Unbounded, but rereading it now while I'm waiting for The Lost Metal at the library, it's become clear to me that I'm seriously overdue for a complete reread of this section of the Cosmere, right from the beginning. I'm very glad Sanderson got to give this book its own binding, though, because it's got so many key concepts of not only Mistborn to go over, ...

Review: The Kingdom of Liars

The Kingdom of Liars by Nick Martell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this one on the basis of Brandon Sanderson’s recommendation, and especially after seeing Martell himself getting his own table at this year’s Dragonsteel convention in Utah. Mad jelly I am of Mr. Martell getting to go there, and I really, really hope I could get a table of my own there in a future year. Maybe in 2024 or whichever year happens to be the year of Stormlight 5…but I digress.

As for this book, th...