Ricky Pine's Blog, page 40
June 26, 2021
June 18, 2021
June 10, 2021
Review: Mister Impossible
Mister Impossible by Maggie StiefvaterMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Yeah, I'm sorry to say that Maggie Stiefvater's insistence on sticking to the world of The Raven Boys is, for me, coming up with diminishing returns. I mean, at least this book is perhaps her fastest read yet, and the cast of characters - Ronan, Hennessey, and Farooq-Lane especially - feel a little more fleshed out, especially given that it's been a couple of years almost since Stiefvater last published a book i...
June 9, 2021
Review: Hurricane Summer
Hurricane Summer by Asha BromfieldMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I picked this up just because of...was it in Jaroda's book haul? I think it was, and on that level I reached out to my local library to pick it up. They delivered it pretty quickly too - Fort Vancouver has some of the most efficient library service I've ever seen! And then of course I only realized after I picked the book up that its author was one of the stars of Riverdale - though, having never even finished the f...
June 8, 2021
Review: Oculta
Oculta by Maya MotayneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's been a couple of years since Maya Motayne debuted with her tale of linguistic magic and thievery and royal intrigue, but I'd like to think she took that time to really serve up a sweet sequel to the best of her ability. Long like its predecessor, but not as fast-paced this time, because here we get into a hell of a lot more royal intrigue now that Alfie's got to host the incoming monarchy of Englass. The former colonizers'...
June 4, 2021
Review: Goldilocks
Goldilocks by Laura LamMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Due in part to the real-world horrors that marred the real-world release cycle for this book, it took me a little over a year to finally get ahold of it and read it (though it's absolutely one of the highlights of me having moved to Oregon so far, having found it in Klindt's Books in The Dalles, where the bookseller raved about it as I expected.)
It absolutely owes a lot to the likes of Mary Robinette Kowal in particular, a ble...
June 2, 2021
Review: I Come with Knives
I Come with Knives by S.A. HuntMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Happy Pride Month, and to start it off with my first June review this year, some pretty slick and scary horror from S.A. Hunt - which I didn't get to read until almost a year after it finally came out, and soooooooo many years after Hunt made a name for herself on Wattpad with Malus Domestica, aka the future Burn the Dark...and now we're finally getting to see more of the world she's built, and more of the secret histo...
May 23, 2021
May 17, 2021
Review: Unconquerable Sun
Unconquerable Sun by Kate ElliottMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I started this book thinking it was going to be a damn good one - a lavishly designed space opera in a pseudo-Asian setting, with the main character's nation being pretty clearly China-inspired (Elliott apparently got a lot of early readers across numerous Asian cultures, if the acknowledgments are anything to go by), and a lot of promising comparisons to Princess Leia, Alexander the Great, etc. But then, as the book...
May 16, 2021
Review: Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary by Andy WeirMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Andy Weir returns with his first novel in four years, his third overall, and to my mind, his best one yet. Long and sprawling and immense in its scope, Weir here channels a lot of Blake Crouch's penchant for twisty, nonlinear sci-fi adventure, as well as elements of The Expanse, Interstellar, and Arrival. And, of course, he keeps things light with protagonist Ryland Grace managing to be both a genius engineer who knows ...
