Ricky Pine's Blog, page 48

Review: Ali Cross

Ali Cross by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After nearly thirty years writing mystery novels with Alex Cross, James Patterson now gives us a spinoff for the kids, centering on Alex's precocious son, Ali - already shaping up to be a great junior detective in his own right. And for his first case, it's naturally pretty personal - one of his best friends, Gabe Qualls, for whom Ali is one of his few friends both IRL and in the popular video game Outpost (a kind of mashup of Minecraft...

Review: Starsight

Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second book of Sanderson's latest YA series moves a lot more slowly than its predecessor, but that's because this time around, we're still working to process the big reveals at the end of Skyward. With all the knowledge of this particular fictional universe turned upside down, and bursting open with the inclusion of yet more aliens, Spensa and M-Bot have their work cut out for them if they're to survive in a universe determined to...

Review: The Conference of the Birds

The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hard to believe that five years ago, the year began with me looking forward to what I was expecting to be the final book of the Miss Peregrine series. But of course Ransom Riggs had more adventures in store. Picking up from the terrifying cliffhanger of A Map of Days, Riggs brings us back into the peculiar world in fine, fine form as always - a much shorter book than its predecessor, but no less powerful or high-stakes for...

Review: The Impossible Contract

The Impossible Contract by K.A. Doore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Doore's second book of The Chronicles of Ghadid diverts away from the story of Amastan, making him a supporting character while the spotlight instead goes to a new queer assassin par excellence: Thana. She's got her own unique challenges to face as Ghadid is under threat from not only the usual undead nonsense from The Perfect Assassin, but also an Empress from a distant land threatening to colonize the great city in the sky -...

Review: The Perfect Assassin

The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's been a bit since I first saw the first two books of K.A. Doore's debut trilogy - the last one not being out yet - on the fantasy shelves at work, and for a while I've been wanting to read them based almost entirely on S.A. Chakraborty's recommendation. Chakraborty is one of the biggest genii in the biz, so her rec is always a golden one, and The Perfect Assassin is no exception. Set in a wonderfully rendered Arabian-style city...

Review: Chosen Ones

Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, my loyal Pinecones, the time has come for me to review another Veronica Roth book, one which I was lucky to read as an ARC this time. And unlike her last series, Carve the Mark and The Fates Divide, I am very happy to say that I was not at all disappointed. Though it's not quite at the high-water mark the Divergent series left for me, the platinum standard that made Roth one of my all-time faves, it's a damn sight better than that...

My 2019 Faves: The Fifth Annual Pinecone Awards!

Well, it's the end of a decade. And the end of a year which has seen me radically shift gears creatively, moving more towards screenwriting and adapting the Red Rain series into a new meta-fictional piece of science-fantasy, geared more for all ages and less towards YA...but I'm not about to leave those worlds of storytelling by a long shot. Not when I'm still consuming them and helping sell them to future generations too. And for this special end-of-decade Pinecone Awards - possibly the...

The Rise Of Skywalker: So Close To Perfection...

...if only Mr. Abrams had taken just a few more cues from Mr. Johnson.

***NO SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, BUT SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS FILMS OF THE STAR WARS SEQUEL TRILOGY ABOUND HEREIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***

So yeah. The Force Awakens stays Mr. Abrams' Magnum Opus. And The Last Jedi, while Knives Out appeals to take over as Mr. Johnson's Magnum Opus, remains the Magnum Opus of the sequel trilogy for sure. This could've been so good, and I'm not saying it...

Review: Hero

Hero by Michael Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think Michael Grant said as far back as 2017, when the first of this sequel trilogy to Gone finally came out, that he was all but done with the YA business going forward. At least he finished this trilogy first...and what a finale it was, bringing us some apocalyptic destruction of New York that reminded me a lot of a certain scene at the start of Remnants in which San Francisco was destroyed. This, of course, being the cue for Dekka and Cruz...

Review: Girls of Storm and Shadow

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trigger warnings for this book (paraphrased from the content note at the start of the book itself): violence, self-harm, allusions to sexual assault, trauma recovery.

Natasha Ngan says this is going to be the middle of a trilogy, but Sophomore Slump? What's that? Nah, she averts it but good in Girls of Storm and Shadow. Not only does this owe to increased world-building - very helpfully, a full-page spread of a map of Ikhara...