Ricky Pine's Blog, page 71

Deadpool 2: A Filthy, Foul-Mouthed Family

***WARNING: NO SPOILERS FOR DEADPOOL 2, BUT NSFW LANGUAGE ABOUNDS. IT'S DEADPOOL, AFTER ALL.***

So, Ricks, it's been two years and some since we last talked. In that time, you've expanded your four-part fantasy series to seven books - holy Harry Potter, Batman! - and come out of the closet - bully for you, my brave bi boi! 

Review: The Flash: Johnny Quick

The Flash: Johnny Quick by Barry Lyga
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved the first Flash adventure Barry Lyga wrote, Hocus Pocus, because of how much Lyga gave us better characters than their equivalents on the CW TV series. Here, in Johnny Quick, Lyga not only writes these characters super-well, but also gives us an even more thrilling story very much worthy of the TV series at its best: loaded with action and Fringe-grade multiverse-hopping, tons of favorite characters making little appearance...

Review: Fawkes

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More of a 3.5, this ARC, but I'll give it a nice, generous 4. It's a little hard to follow this book sometimes because of the weird color-based magic system, which feels a lot like Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey but even more enigmatic, and with no plans for sequels (not that Fforde's much better in that regard, since he's pretty well stalled out on all his series), it's a little maddening that there's not much explanation for the mechanics o...

Review: Lost Crow Conspiracy

Lost Crow Conspiracy by Rosalyn Eves
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Like its predecessor, Lost Crow Conspiracy doesn't hold up very well on the first read. Maybe at some point I'll pick it up a second time and appreciate it better, but for now, this one's getting a measly two stars from me. It's a very strange mixed bag, really. The social commentary game is stronger than ever, especially now that there's another oppressed group in the mix, members of which really want to turn the tables on their...

Review: War Storm

War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rise, red as the dawn.

I've finally finished Aveyard's fourth and final Red Queen tale, which I expected to be an epic, electric bloodbath.

Maybe it wasn't a bloodbath per se, but it was still quite epic and electric, once again validating my status as a passenger on the Aveyardian Hype Train.



Yeah, that Amazing Spider-Man 2-level electric. You read it here first, Pinecones.

Up till now, Iron Gold and the Talon Saga held the record for the m...

Review: The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily

The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A neurodivergent YA romance with autistic and #ownvoices ADHD rep? Sign me up. And though I picked this one up a lot later than I should have, I'm glad I eventually did all the same.

Okay, so my feelings about this book are a tad bit mixed, and a lot of that owes to how the book diverges from my own neurodivergent #ownvoices experience. Especially on the autistic side, because Abelard doesn't quite match me as an a...

Review: A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After seeing this book on the shelves at the bookstore - and on one of the front tables as well - for quite some time, I finally picked it up and found myself surprised by what I found within. I'd read the first chapter in the store already, and it was pretty funny, even if a lot of the humor came from Ove's political incorrectness and utter lack of patience for the poor guy trying to sell him an iPad. So I thought the book would b...

Review: A Court of Frost and Starlight

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I mean, it's pretty much official that I'm no longer a dues-paying member of the SJM fandom, but I still lowkey expect to pick up one of her books and like it.

This little diversion in the ACOTAR series, supposedly meant as a bridge between the original trilogy and the forthcoming new trilogy, was by far my least favorite SJM book yet. Not that it was a total piece of crap, but it almost felt like Maas pushed it out to e...

Review: Who Fears Death

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every so often, I find myself picking up another Nnedi Okorafor book, and I feel like I'm going to go through them all way too slowly. But this one, it's my favorite of hers yet, precisely because of how hard-hitting it is. Not unlike the current talk of the town in the YA world, The Poppy War, here we have an #ownvoices fantasy novel that features a young protagonist, but is most definitely not a YA novel. Not when such horrors as r...

Best And Worst Of The 2017-18 TV Season

As another TV season ends, I've got some Netflix involvement in the rankings of my Best and Worst shows of the year, thanks to having finally joined that streaming service after such a long time of not being on it like everyone else. So, while the party typically don't stop till The Flash or the Agents of SHIELD walk out, it's time I put up the rankings and their reasonings, as has become my annual tradition.

As always, we're starting with the Bottom 5.

5. Jessica Jones

I admit, it's a...