Ricky Pine's Blog, page 9

Review: The Adventures of Tim & Fluff

The Adventures of Tim & Fluff by Firdaus Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one is for the kids, and for the animal lovers of all ages. Another reviewer compared it to Studio Ghibli, but I’d say if another animation studio could adapt this book, it’d be Aardman. (I may or may not have just gotten around to watching the new Wallace and Gromit movie last weekend in honor of its Oscar nomination…) But this book of animals learning to work together in the face of adversity ...

Review: The Sicilian Inheritance

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a tale of two Sicilian ladies, one a modern day American visiting her ancestral homeland, while the other is one of her ancestors, who found herself in a serious series of unfortunate events. Teen pregnancy, a patriarchy that flat out disrespected her, and a mafia murder whose truths are only now about to come to light…truth is stranger than fiction, and to hear Piazza say it, this book was inspired a lo...

Review: Play On: Now, Then, And Fleetwood Mac

Play On: Now, Then, And Fleetwood Mac by Mick Fleetwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To hear Mick Fleetwood tell it in his memoir, the first of the many Fleetwood Mac biographies that I've found to be in the first person, if there was one unifying theme about the band and its many members, it's that none of them were classically trained...but especially not the blockbuster Buckingham Nicks incarnation of the band. Even Fleetwood himself, being dyslexic, came to learn the dru...

Review: All Better Now

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Neal Shusterman returns with his latest thought-provoking YA SFF thriller, this one a standalone piece set in a near future with a new pandemic, a bit deadlier than Covid at a 4% mortality rate, one in twenty-five...but those who recover from the Crown Royale virus lose all negative emotion and live in a state of blissful contentment. Happiness might be the perfect antidote to the endless negativity and division ...

Review: Death of the Author

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It somehow escaped my notice all these years that Nnedi Okorafor is disabled, in a similar way to Zelu, the protagonist of her latest novel. With that in mind, however, it makes this book feel like not only a reflection of Okorafor herself, but also an exercise in how to make a protagonist who is in so many ways not her creator.

The book presents itself as a novel within a novel with a similar structure to Sco...

Review: Platirius: Infiltration

Platirius: Infiltration by D.L. Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first of a planned trilogy of indie sci fi novellas, with the second and third books coming out in April and July of this year (and I preordered them already at the same time as when I ordered the first book in paperback.) I’ve been attempting to get back into Apple TV’s Foundation lately, helped by the fact that I wasn’t nearly as impressed as I was hoping for with Dune: Prophecy. I have to say, this bi...

Review: Breath of the Dragon

Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee (no relation) team up to make an action packed new YA fantasy series, meant to honor the ways of Shannon Lee’s father, the late Bruce Lee. And Fonda Lee, while it’s been quite some time since she wrote a fighting boy in YA (her debut Zeroboxer being a sci fi take on MMA), it’s like riding a bike. She never forgot. And on this book, set in a fantasy world modeled on China with sharp pol...

Review: The Dagger and the Flame

The Dagger and the Flame by Catherine Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can see why this one had a fairly long wait list at the library - it was almost two months after I ordered it there that I finally got to read it. Though this French inspired fantasy is marketed as YA, it definitely aims for more of an NA readership, with its dark tone (particularly when Ransom takes in more Shade, it’s very opium-like in nature), and especially its spicy moments. Not to the level of ...

Review: The Whispering Night

The Whispering Night by Susan Dennard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

In which a less brooding Wednesday than Addams goes to the Rave’N…sorry, the Nightmare Masquerade. I said I wasn’t likely to continue this series after The Hunting Moon, but after more cover love with this gloriously creepy image, Dennard suckered me in for one last visit to Winnie Wednesday’s hometown…or is it? For being the end of a trilogy, it feels like there’s a lot of loose plot threads left hanging. Un...

Review: Goddess of the River

Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A couple of years after her first foray into Hindu legendary fantasy with Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel returns to retell aspects of the Mahabharata from another woman’s perspective. In this case, it’s the goddess of the river that she focuses on, a goddess after whom India’s greatest river took its name. Granted, I ought to read the old stories at some point, especially if I’m to truly understand where Patel is...