Ricky Pine's Blog, page 29

Review: Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies

Winston Chu vs. the Whimsies by Stacey Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I haven't been keeping up so well with the Rick Riordan Presents lineup of late, but when Stacey Lee puts out a book that's so different from all her others - middle grade with a boy protagonist in modern day San Francisco - you know I have to stop and read it. And when Lee weaves in Chinese creation myths which I remember from the books I used to assign students at the tutoring center where I worked in...

Review: Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy by Angie Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For a while now, after writing three unique and thought-provoking YA novels set in Garden Heights, Angie Thomas has been hinting that she would pivot to middle-grade fantasy. Now, that day has finally come, with the first in a planned trilogy of magical Black kids kicking monster butt in a world that exists at right angles to the America we know. Alongside Thomas's real hometo...

Review: Promises Stronger Than Darkness

Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlie Jane Anders sticks the landing in the third and final novel of the Unstoppable space opera trilogy, now with higher stakes than each of the first two books combined and an even wider variety of POV characters. Not only do we get Tina (at last, back in the spotlight!) and Elza and Rachael returning from previous installments, but also the likes of Kez (now openly genderfluid, so their ...

Review: Untethered Sky

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After several years and a few delays as she wrote the Green Bone Saga and assorted short stories thereof, Fonda Lee expressed relief, in her launch appearance this week at Powell’s in Beaverton, that she was pivoting to something much smaller. And yet, the worldbuilding must still be as detailed as that of her larger work, even if there’s much the reader doesn’t get to see. Set in an empire inspired by pre-Islamic Anci...

Review: Discordia

Discordia by Kristyn Merbeth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kristyn Merbeth’s synthwave packaged space opera trilogy ends with yet more neon bisexually lit cover love, and of course an ending about as good as can be expected. Corvus and Scorpia, our sibling protagonists, still have much to deal with thanks to the endless machinations of their family, but after two adventures and much havoc and destruction, here the story ends at last. Now, as I declare ave atque vale to Nova V...

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'...