Ricky Pine's Blog, page 35

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...

Review: Fevered Star

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rebecca Roanhorse returns to the Meridian and picks up pretty quickly after where Black Sun fell off, with Serapio and Naranpa now extra pitted against each other as rival godly avatars, Xiala rather heartbroken by the loss (and naturally, losing herself in a new lover for a few nights - I'm really starting to wonder whether or not Roanhorse took inspiration from Clarke Griffin for Xiala's characterization, and as a ...

Review: Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak

Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charlie Jane Anders returns with the second of her admittedly weird YA sci-fi trilogy, and as she promised in a recent series of tweets about the ways that middle entries of trilogies tend too often to be More of the Same (I'll forgive her for naming one of my favorite middle entries, Catching Fire, as an example), this second book is pretty well different from its predecessor. For one thing, Tina ...

Review: Youngbloods

Youngbloods by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I...guess that this fourth and final novel of Westerfeld's second cycle of the Uglies world is taking things full circle back to the original? After all, it gets its name from original protagonist Tally, who makes a return as the leader of an ongoing rebel faction roping Frey into the mission to eliminate the last vestiges of the old families...or something like that. One thing I thought was sad about the first book of...

Review: Crimson Reign

Crimson Reign by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three years ago, it seemed like, thanks to one of the most ludicrous cancellation campaigns in YA Twitter history, this book would never even be published, and neither would its two predecessors. Ironic, then, that Zhao has gotten the glorious chance to finish her debut trilogy, while I've noticed a few of those who spoke out against her and her first novel have had their own careers sidelined in recent years. No new ...

Review: Gallant

Gallant by V.E. Schwab
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

V.E. Schwab returns, and this time, with her initialism previously used only for adult novels, this time for YA. Well, partly because she's looking to unify her brand under that one umbrella. But also because didn't she re-release The Near Witch as V.E. Schwab? But still, though, this latest book of hers, her latest haunting piece and most gothic one yet by far, is technically YA but really feels like it can cross over into the...