Ricky Pine's Blog, page 82

Review: Madness

Madness by Zac Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Does Uncle Z ever fail? I say no, and this latest, perhaps his darkest novel to date, is no exception. Take all the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book seriously, and if you have issues with depression and/or suicidal ideation, take all the caution if you decide to go forth and read this book. Me, I do have such issues, though perhaps more mildly than most (and my depression is only self-diagnosed, but there's really no diagnosis to ma...

Review: Monster

Monster by Michael Grant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A follow-up to Gone at last?

YES. PLEASE.

Four years after Michael Grant seemingly ended the series with the sixth and final novel Light, here beginneth a new trilogy that takes the FAYZ and its alien virus and all its ramifications and brings them to a more global stage. Well, so far a lot of the action is confined to the US, and especially to California (there's a lot of Bay Area action scenes, including one of the most inventive spins yet on...

Review: The Wise Man's Fear

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This middle book of The Kingkiller Chronicle is, for me, really more of a 3.5, but I'll round it up to four in the hope that such good karma will hasten the long-delayed release of the third and final novel. Though The Wise Man's Fear rather suffers from considerable overlength and a slightly scattered string of plotlines, Kvothe is no less fun to follow in his exploits. Hell, we get quite a few looks at some of the more outlan...

Thor: Ragnarok - The Thunderous Apotheosis Of Taika Waititi

"We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow..."
-Led Zeppelin, "Immigrant Song"

***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***

It says a lot that of all the Phase 3 films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, the weakest link is Doctor Strange and, for once, neither a Thor nor a Hulk film. (Well, aside from the perpetually annoying timeline error of Spider-Man: Homecoming, but that's neither here nor there.) Thor: Ragnarok not only bucks that...

Review: Godsgrave

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gentlefriends, it's now been exactly a year since I read and reviewed Nevernight, so I now return with my review of Godsgrave. Since I read the first book, it's been called out for its highly unflattering portrayal of the Maori-coded Dweymeri people, as well as Mister Kristoff's waffling on whether or not the Dweymeri are meant to represent the Maori to begin with (the original, #ownvoices review is no longer available from what I've heard, ha...

Review: Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thus beginneth the best "let's-take-a-fairy-tale-and-fracture-it" story since Once Upon a Time, easily. In fact, it's actually pretty easy to see certain characters from the Once-verse as their counterparts here, but none more so than Levana:



I also liked the way Meyer kept throwing in little details that allowed me to guess where the story would go next, but not actually act on those details until much later. My favorite character by far, thou...

Review: Poisoned Blade

Poisoned Blade by Kate Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first book of Elliott's Court of Fives series presented an interesting look at a class-driven fantasy society combining elements of Victorian England and ancient Greece, but as action-packed as it was, the story just didn't cut as deep as it could have, I don't think. But here, in Poisoned Blade, Elliott really ups the ante with a stronger social-commentary game in particular. Here, more than ever, it's clear that colonialism helps...

Review: Thirteen Rising

Thirteen Rising by Romina Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another case, in this series, of a 3.5 which I'm generously going to round up to a 4 - and 4 is quite appropriate considering this is the fourth, and final, book. Thirteen Rising finally wraps up Romina Russell's epic blend of sci-fi and fantasy with maybe not all the loose ends tied up, but definitely a fairly neat bow. The book begins with a long Mind Screw that resolves the diabolical cliffhanger of Black Moon, courtesy of a nasty...

Review: Not Your Sidekick

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've seen some hype for this book floating around, being a very diverse YA superhero story, so on that knowledge alone, I picked this one up after finally spotting it in the wild at my library. Inside, though the book was a little dragged down by a slow pace in its early pages, I was still very pleasantly surprised by a lot of what I found inside. Not the diversity so much - I went in knowing there'd be some good PoC and LGBT+ rep, and t...

Review: The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wasn't quite as impressed with The Girl in the Spider's Web as I was with Stieg Larsson's original Millennium series, but David Lagercrantz's second entry, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, raises his game considerably and becomes my favorite book of his yet, as well as my favorite Lisbeth Salander story since perhaps The Girl Who Played With Fire, if not Dragon Tattoo. Though a lot of the story threads...