Ricky Pine's Blog, page 93

Review: The Four Legendary Kingdoms

The Four Legendary Kingdoms by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a while since Matthew Reilly put out anything this good. Maybe not since the last full-length Jack West, Jr. book - and now, after so many years, he's given us the fourth book, and it's peak classic Reilly in all the ways. Ancient conspiracies, interstellar threats, wall-to-wall action like you simply wouldn't believe, gods and monsters...I mean, seriously, why the hell haven't any of his books become movies yet...

Review: 16th Seduction

16th Seduction by James Patterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Funny that this book has the word "seduction" in the title, and yet there's pretty much none of that to be had in the book itself. What it does have, however, is the Women's Murder Club taking on a terrorist who bombs a San Francisco museum that's the Exploratorium in all but name (and especially considering that last year's Women's Murder Club outing included a plane crash on the ground of Mills High School in Millbrae, it's so weir...

Review: The Adjustment

The Adjustment by Suzanne Young
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Suzanne Young only gets better and better with the world of The Program - and by that, I mean that she makes the Program ever more sinister, especially in the books that both precede and succeed the original duology. Even with the Program gone, the world in this latest novel still suffers from having ever had it in the first place - especially the teenagers who are still too afraid to not only express their emotions, but to emote, peri...

Review: Shadowshaper

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been seeing tons of buzz for this book lately - and for the author himself, because Older always has something topical and intelligent to say. Reading the book, I'm not disappointed by said buzz. Shadowshaper gets a lot of comparisons to The Mortal Instruments, which aren't that far off, and for me, the Columbia University scenes made me think of Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy too. But what this book really made me think it was, was...

Review: Waking Gods

Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really, Neuvel's an author you have to watch out for - and thankfully, my library is doing exactly that. Though they were very late to the party with Sleeping Giants - I recall having had to special-order that one from Sacramento - they were much more on top of things getting ahold of Waking Gods. And thank God - pun intended - for that, because while the first book was a little bit of a World War Z-The Martian hybrid (of the books, that...

Review: High Heat

High Heat by Richard Castle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to pick up this Castle book, mostly because I almost forgot it was coming out until about six months after it did. And that, I think, owes a lot to the fact that the show closed out its eighth and final season last year on a pretty sour note, with an annoying storyline of Castle and Beckett being forced to stay apart most of the time, not to mention the fact that, had a ninth season been ordered, it would've been without...

Review: Unplugged

Unplugged by Donna Freitas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I decided to give this one a try because I saw its sequel sitting on the "New Books" shelf at the library a few weeks back and decided to go back to the beginning. What I found in this book was a sort of YA version of The Matrix, but with far less agonizing philosophy and far more cheesy, cornball teen love. Oh, and the occasional bit of thrills and chills and action, but even that feels surprisingly lacking over the course of this surprisi...

Review: City of Heavenly Fire

City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

QUOTES FROM MY UNOFFICIAL CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE PLAYLIST:

"Strangelove, strange highs and strange lows
Strangelove, that's how my love goes
Strangelove, will you give it to me?
Will you take the pain?"
- Depeche Mode

"Tonight I feel my heart begin to fail me
And my head begin to fall
Like two ships crossing their paths
I see you like a new dawn

My perfect stranger, don't sail away
It was meant to be
We met this way
We met this way..."...

Review: Abaddon's Gate

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the first two books of The Expanse well enough, but compared to Leviathan Wakes and Caliban's War, Abbadon's Gate had a certain something lacking. No, it wasn't the action - that was pretty much all there like expected. The problems lay mostly in two things: A) the lack of Bobbi and Avarasala, two of my favorite characters from Caliban's War, and B) the general sense that this book was mostly filler, a whole lotta nothin' pl...

Review: Mars One

Mars One by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When it comes to Jonathan Maberry, I usually expect tons of action and tons of horror. This book lacks the latter and features less of the former, being much more focused on characters and feelings. It's different for him, but maybe sometimes, a little different is a lot good. Although the story does suffer from some slow pacing - especially in its first 100 pages or so - and frequently drops hints of a greater conspiracy but leaves them...