Ricky Pine's Blog, page 34

Review: The Dawn of Yangchen

The Dawn of Yangchen by F.C. Yee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

F.C. Yee already gifted us Avatar fans with two novels about young Kyoshi, and now he's back with the first of a promising new duology - at the very least - about Avatar Yangchen, the most recent Air Nomad Avatar before Aang in the cycle. I admit, there's not a lot to know about Yangchen because she gets so little attention in the main series - certainly compared to Kyoshi and Roku, Aang's two nearest predecessors, or...

Review: Flamefall

Flamefall by Rosaria Munda
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Okay, so I said that this book was an improvement over its predecessor while I wrote my review of that one, but in the end, I have to say that this one still ended up being a pretty solid three star piece. Introducing a new POV character who stood out from Lee and Annie, Griff, was pretty nice to see (as was his pretty sweet, if stressful, romance with Delo), as well as the fact that individual chapters in this book tend to...

Review: Fireborne

Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this book up on Piéra Forde’s recommendation, because of how much she loved the trilogy - even if the third book broke her heart so much that she couldn’t finish. Reading my way through this book, I had a few moments where I was starting to wonder if I’d gotten a dud recommendation, a true rarity from her. Or maybe I’m just not as good at keeping up on YA anymore? In any case, while this book does suffer from a wei...

Review: The Art of Prophecy

The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wesley Chu, in a recent tweet, promised that this book, his epic fantasy debut, is a blend of the wuxia action of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the self aware humor of The Princess Bride. On that level, you will not be disappointed - hell, it’s a most apt description of this book, so steeped in Chinese inspiration from several periods in its medieval history, but also a sense of humor that wryly walks the line o...

Review: Upgrade

Upgrade by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blake Crouch returns with his latest terrifyingly fast-paced (helped, of course, by his trademark single-line paragraphs of sentence fragments) sci-fi thriller. This one is slightly less space-time continuum mind-bending than Dark Matter and Recursion before it, but makes up for it with its near-future post-apocalypse and its use of genetic warfare to a level worthy of Michael Crichton. Crouch also puts his protagonist in a pr...

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...