Ricky Pine's Blog, page 32

Review: The Reyes Incident

The Reyes Incident by Briana Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Briana Morgan's latest horrorshow takes readers to the small town of Dawsonville, Georgia, which wouldn't be out of place in the HBO adaptation of Stephen King's The Outsider. Of the three Morgan novellas I have on my bookshelf at the time of this writing, it's easily the shortest page wise, but also the most adult, focusing this time on a young woman who may know a little something about some murders and mermaids ...

Review: Blade Breaker

Blade Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I guess I loved this book enough to want to order two copies? Well, not intentionally, but when I got this book, not only was it sent to my old address by mistake, but I'd somehow managed to place orders for both a signed and an un-signed copy. The un-signed copy, I've sent to an old friend from my Wattpad days. The other, I read and savored over the course of several days - and while I could only read a few chapters...

Thor: Love and Thunder - Taika's Still Bloody Got It.

 **NO SPOILERS FOR LOVE AND THUNDER, BUT SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS THOR AND AVENGERS MOVIES ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

Sounds like Marvel fatigue is setting in for a fair few fans, to the point where even when the apotheotic maestro of Ragnarok, Taika Waititi, returns with his latest Asgardian adventure, it's become a little too popular to rag on the movie just to rag on it.

I have to say, to the fans who've been dumping on this movie, kindly go eat a hammer. Taika Waititi's back and better...

Review: The Omega Factor

The Omega Factor by Steve Berry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Steve Berry's taking a break from Cotton Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt this year, but his latest is absolutely still part and parcel of that same story 'verse. For one thing, the protagonists in this book are still linked to the Magellan Billet. For another, it delves into similar historical threads about the medieval world - in this case, focusing on Jan Van Eyck and his creation of the Ghent Altarpiece, plus the Cathars...

Review: Tiger Honor

Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I suspected almost from the get go that Yoon Ha Lee wasn't about to have a one and done presence in the world of Rick Riordan Presents, so you can imagine the smile on my face when I saw a second book in the Thousand Worlds gracing the shelves at...I think it was Powell's? And now that I've finally read through this latest fast-paced sci-fi Korean-fantastic adventure, I'm happy to report that Lee hasn't lost an ounce of his...

Review: Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality

Aru Shah and the Nectar of Immortality by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first official series of Rick Riordan Presents now reaches its long-awaited conclusion, though of course it's only the first taste of many in this whole wide 'verse of multicultural mythology. Building on the last book's stunning betrayals and cliffhangers (rivaling the grand master and executive producer of this whole imprint, and that's saying something), Chokshi brings the story of Aru ...

Review: Book of Night

Book of Night by Holly Black
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I'm sorry but I really should just give up on trying to find a Holly Black book that I actually like. Even the ones I kinda somewhat enjoy at first, I end up souring on them over time, and a lot of them, I just can't get into, period. For me, with this one (Black's much-hyped adult debut), it was more of the same deal, really. About fifty pages in, at least it was recognizably a Holly Black book, with a world that's prett...

Review: You've Reached Sam

You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book has been bubbling on the periphery of my vision for a while, in part because of how much the internet seems to love it - wasn't it kind of a BookTok viral smash for a minute there? In an era where I'm starting to shift away from YA just a bit (while still writing some YA stories, whether on my own or together with my buddy Koda), along comes a book that makes me wish I could still be working in a bookstore ...

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: So Many Maestri, So Little Time

***NO SPOILERS FOR MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, BUT SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS MARVEL MOVIES AND TV SHOWS - ESPECIALLY WANDAVISION, NO WAY HOME, INFINITY WAR, AND THE ORIGINAL DOCTOR STRANGE ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

Maybe in an alternate section of our multiverse, this Doctor Strange sequel would've dropped in May 2021 like nature intended. And maybe Scott Derrickson would've still been able to direct?

But no, the version we got comes to us from another horror maestro, one who also has well-esta...

Review: Kingdom of Bones

Kingdom of Bones by James Rollins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For the 16th time, James Rollins gifts the world with a stunning new novel about Sigma Force, and this time, he acknowledges from the very first page, with his author's intro, that it may be a bit of bad form on his part to release a novel about a viral threat so soon after Covid became a thing (and yes, Covid is acknowledged in the book, though more as a past event than anything else.) No, but this latest book is le...