Ricky Pine's Blog, page 76
February 14, 2018
Review: Runebinder
Runebinder by Alex R. KahlerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Happy Valentine's Day from the world of YA, I suppose, with this book that packs a postapocalyptic punch of fantasy and paranormal and elementals and romance. Alex R. Kahler is going on my list of authors I need to read more of, just based on the promise I'm seeing here. Combining the heat level of Shatter Me and the heart-in-throat action of The 100, this, the story of a young man named Tenn who fights monsters and doesn't make an effort...
February 11, 2018
Review: The Last Colony
The Last Colony by John ScalziMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Really more of a 3.5, but I'll round this one up to a 4 mostly because it brings back John Perry, that super-relatable and funny narrator of the original Old Man's War, and while it doesn't totally require reading the slightly inferior Ghost Brigades first, The Last Colony does benefit from continuing that book's storylines as well. This time around, though, the real enjoyment lies in the way Scalzi really pokes at the reader's brain, t...
Review: The Belles
The Belles by Dhonielle ClaytonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I've been looking forward to this, Dhonielle Clayton's solo debut, for quite a while, and while The Belles wasn't quite perfect for me, it was damn good at doing its job - exploring beauty standards in a world where the beauty standards are outlandish and disturbing and cruel - not only to the people who agonize over how difficult it is to meet them, but also to the very Belles who are the people's only source of beauty, and yet cannot...
February 10, 2018
Three Years Of Blogging, Etc.
Hard to believe it's been three years since we found out Marvel and Sony decided to shit-can Andrew Garfield. Dick move, studios, and I still, to this day, hope that if my books are ever published, Sony is the one major studio that doesn't get the film rights, between this shenanigans and their tendency to spoil almost the entire movie in all their trailers.
In the meantime, though, my books still aren't published, or even picked up by any literary agents. And I still can't be an out...
In the meantime, though, my books still aren't published, or even picked up by any literary agents. And I still can't be an out...
February 7, 2018
Review: The Sandman
The Sandman by Lars KeplerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I'll probably get back to this book eventually, as I did with the first three Joona Linna stories from the Kepler team, but The Sandman, which I found an ARC for behind the scenes at the Stanford bookstore, was a major disappointment for me. I wanted to really like this one, I did, but I feel like this book played up so many of the usual annoying aspects of the previous Kepler books - considerable length and excessively short chapters - tha...
February 4, 2018
Review: Lost Stars
Lost Stars by Claudia GrayMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Claudia Gray, I think, does the best Star Wars books of the sequel-trilogy era EU, and while this one might not be as good as her Leia-centric novels, it's still a most unique piece of stellar fantasy. Maybe it's a little too long for its own good, but then again that kinda comes with the territory when we get this little study of two characters, star-crossed lovers crossing back and forth with each other across both sides of the war agains...
February 3, 2018
The Death Cure Movie: "I Know It's Hard, But Try To Look Like You've Seen It Before."
***NO SPOILERS FOR THE DEATH CURE, BUT SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS MAZE RUNNER FILMS ABOUND WITHIN. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.***
Well, actually, you kinda have seen it before. All of it, in some form or another. But still, this third and final entry in the Maze Runner trilogy feels no less fresh and powerful than any of its predecessors - and, in quite a few ways, outdoes its predecessors pretty neatly. Almost two and a half hours go by fast in this movie that resembles the lo...
Well, actually, you kinda have seen it before. All of it, in some form or another. But still, this third and final entry in the Maze Runner trilogy feels no less fresh and powerful than any of its predecessors - and, in quite a few ways, outdoes its predecessors pretty neatly. Almost two and a half hours go by fast in this movie that resembles the lo...
January 31, 2018
Review: Iron Gold
Iron Gold by Pierce BrownMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
As always when I read a Pierce Brown book...bloodydamn goryhell.
Maybe Iron Gold was more of a 4.5 for me, but I'll round it up to a full-on five-star because A) it's by one of my all-time favorite authors and he deserves all the raves; and B) Brown's style evolves so much compared to the original trilogy, expanding the scope steadily as he always does with each successive book he writes.
I was already thankful when I read Morning Star for th...
January 28, 2018
Review: Persepolis Rising
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. CoreyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I think I can thank Blake the Book Eater for popping in and commenting on my reading status for helping raise my appreciation of this seventh Expanse book a little. Sure, it's more of a 3.5, but because it's a noticeable improvement on the previous two books (both of which I found too long and oddly pedestrian at times), I'll give it an official 4. Persepolis Rising feels like a welcome return to the quality level I came to expec...
January 26, 2018
Review: The Boy Who Saw
The Boy Who Saw by Simon ToyneMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The second Solomon Creed novel, like its predecessor, is a pretty marked shift in tone from previous Simon Toyne works. While The Searcher had a very Jack Reacher-esque contemporary Western style, The Boy Who Saw, though continuing the light speculative elements from Book 1, is about as different from Book 1 as it gets, a little more like Steve Berry did a collaboration with Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Taking we the readers to Fr...
