tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44588559464099013922024-03-15T18:12:50.250-07:00Reader, Writer, FanboyThe musings of Ricky Pine, future bestselling author of the RED RAIN series and other Wattpad novels.Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.comBlogger1333125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-20740332407488853682024-03-13T15:49:00.001-07:002024-03-13T15:49:27.722-07:00Review: Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58303745" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1687719562l/58303745._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58303745">Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17649437">Amélie Wen Zhao</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4658222036">3 of 5 stars</a>
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It's such good fortune that despite the ridiculous Book Twitter attempts to cancel her career before it even got started (the North remembers, as does Pepperidge Farm, and so do I), Zhao now has two completed fantasy series under her belt. I was more than a bit surprised to see that she decided to go with the duology route in this one, but after reading this book, I can see where she made it work at that length of series rather than try to stretch things out into a trilogy. Though this series is unfortunately not my favorite of Zhao's, it's undeniably richly steeped in the stories and legends of China of old, and I'd say she does a great job of wrapping up the story in this one. As always, I can't wait to see what great new story Zhao's got in mind next, but for now, this series gets a well-earned 告别 from me.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-70469625340295328592024-03-10T16:06:00.001-07:002024-03-10T16:07:07.624-07:00Review: Fate Breaker
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166999534" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Fate Breaker" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1692223744l/166999534._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166999534">Fate Breaker</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7074943">Victoria Aveyard</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4003458027">5 of 5 stars</a>
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Aveyard has finished two series to date, but this one, for the first time, really and truly feels like it's all come to an end. To be fair, <i>War Storm</i> had a very open ending, and while <i>Broken Throne</i> had short story epilogues, I'm still dying for Aveyard to return to that story world with the promise of a new follow up series about the War of Red Thunder.<br /><br />But here, in the last of Aveyard's YA-in-marketing-only epic fantasy love letter to her Tolkien-loving teenage self who needed a little something more than what Tolkien and Lewis liked to write (especially from a gender and cultural standpoint), she brings the story to a strong conclusion that finally earns this series a place on my five-star "read this if it kills you!" shelf, and once again validates my status as a lifetime passenger on the Aveyardian hype train.<span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br />It's just over 600 pages, similar in length to <i>War Storm</i>, but feels so much shorter because of how fast-paced this book is just like its predecessors. (Also, the book itself was printed thinner, I'm pretty sure - I do remember buying <i>War Storm</i> at my old Stanford Bookstore job and it was a pretty thicc brick, very square in its construction...but I digress.) Over a year and a half in the real world after the massive cliffhanger on <i>Blade Breaker</i>, it's great to finally see it get resolved, and then to lead into one last battle to save the world from What Waits, a sinister and enigmatic elder god who really does feel like the second coming of Sauron despite being so the opposite of omnipresent up to now.<br /><br />Gotta say, what happens when the villains get what's coming to them...it has to be seen to be believed.<br /><br />To the <i>Realm Breaker</i> trilogy, I now declare a well deserved <i>ave atque vale</i>.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-6047239950103420582024-03-09T08:18:00.001-08:002024-03-09T08:18:42.390-08:00Review: The Spear Cuts Through Water
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55868456" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1622813641l/55868456._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Spear Cuts Through Water" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55868456">The Spear Cuts Through Water</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19118126">Simon Jimenez</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6320274032">1 of 5 stars</a>
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This one unfortunately is a classic case of not only "interesting premise but poor execution," but also "just not for me." I wanted to like this one, but when the book immediately launches into a long winded second person POV narrative (which is historically off putting for a reason; I'm still surprised to this day I managed to read N.K. Jemisin's entire <i>Broken Earth</i> trilogy, but then at least she didn't do second person POV the whole time like this book does - hell, I checked the acknowledgments in the back and Jimenez wrote <i>those</i> in second person too), it's just way too hard to get into all at once. Sorry to say this one is an official DNF for me.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-2462356919392342482024-03-06T15:49:00.001-08:002024-03-06T15:49:12.989-08:00Review: Most Ardently
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111673641" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684570364l/111673641._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Most Ardently" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111673641">Most Ardently</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9011987">Gabe Cole Novoa</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5436588050">3 of 5 stars</a>
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Gabe Cole Novoa's been hyping up this book for a while, and it's a pretty sharp departure from his past work because it's the first non-speculative fiction book he's published. No sci-fi, no fantasy, and by his own admission, no magic...but definitely he's still got his usual gifts of unexpectedly twisty romance well in hand as he contributes to Feiwel & Friends's lineup of Remixed Classics. This gender-bending take on <i>Pride & Prejudice</i> gives us Oliver Bennet, a gay transmasculine protagonist struggling to live authentically in Regency England while all manner of suitors court him and his sisters. Including, of course, Darcy, who is gay as well in the modern sense. <br /><br />Novoa's author's note at the end of this book talks about how the Regency had more of a thriving gay scene, even if it was pretty well underground, though nowhere near as much as the Victorian era and its repression of all sexualities. That said, Novoa doesn't paint this setting as an LGBTQ+ paradise either - Oliver and Darcy, as well as Charlotte and her lady love Lu (an original character) all have to stay closeted as far as wider society is concerned, and threats of outing are pretty common a tactic among the book's villains. <br /><br />While this book is definitely not my usual cup of tea - I think I may have read the original <i>Pride & Prejudice</i> some time ago, but I had to look up a lot of details again to compare to this book - and it's not a happily ever after for everyone who deserves it the most, Novoa still shines brightest when it comes to the love story, as well as the constant twists of who's trying to court whom, and props to him for transforming Austen's comedy of manners and errors into some serious narrative tension. Hopefully soon I'll be able to read Novoa's next, even more eagerly awaited new book, going back to his new universe of Caribbean pirate fantasy with <i>The Diablo's Curse.</i>
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-8037079534256693792024-03-05T17:33:00.003-08:002024-03-05T17:33:52.095-08:00Review: All This Twisted Glory
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127823371" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="All This Twisted Glory" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1690577593l/127823371._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127823371">All This Twisted Glory</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4637539">Tahereh Mafi</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5567832254">3 of 5 stars</a>
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Last year, when I read the second book of Tahereh Mafi's current series, I expected that that book was the middle of a trilogy - hadn't it been announced as such at first? But since then, Mafi not only announced that this new book would not be the end of the series after all, but that she's planning as many as five books total in the series. Now, as much as I love Mafi's work, and she's never losing her position as one of the prettiest prose stylists in the business...I have to say, this series has been unusually hard for me to get into compared to her earlier work.<span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br />I really think it's down to the characters - even though Alizeh is the star of the show, this book really places a lot of emphasis on Cyrus and his emotions, enough that I actually came to dislike him somewhat because he started reminding me uncomfortably of Adam's negative character development in <i>Ignite Me</i>. But then it's not entirely his fault he's so heartsick, not when that capering little devil Iblees keeps mocking him with ridiculous rhymes like he's Rumpelstiltskin on <i>Once Upon a Time</i>. And meanwhile, Kamran becomes nebulous as hell as a character in this book, with a retinue of increasingly annoying hangers-on following him around. Needless to say, I kept really hoping to jump back to Alizeh or even Cyrus chapters every time it was Kamran's POV instead.<br /><br />But despite the surprisingly little character development and the narrative showing just how much it's spinning its wheels, Mafi is nowhere close to losing me as a consistent reader, and I really hope she has some great work in mind for Books 4 and 5...
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-39391637111593972822024-03-04T14:07:00.001-08:002024-03-04T14:07:39.752-08:00Review: Sky's End
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60770260" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1685542272l/60770260._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Sky's End" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60770260">Sky's End</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22343971">Marc J. Gregson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6302213454">4 of 5 stars</a>
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For this hella hyped new series opener, I'm going to give it a 3.5 rounded up to a 4. Other reviewers have pointed out how much this book is a throwback to the YA dystopian boom of the 2010s, combining a lot of well known stylistic hallmarks - a protagonist joining one of a large number of postapocalyptic factions, a certain fascination with the number twelve in the structure, first person present tense narrative, and a high dose of action punctuated by minced oaths from a Utah writer...yeah, it's safe to say that while <i>The Maze Runner</i> has lost its luster in part because of its author's awful behavior behind the scenes, here at last is a strong spiritual successor to rival Brandon Sanderson's <i>Steelheart</i> and <i>Skyward</i> YA sci-fi series. Already they've announced the remaining titles in the trilogy, and I'd say the confidence is well earned.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6302213454">View all my reviews</a>
Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-48988716287915812342024-03-02T10:13:00.001-08:002024-03-02T10:14:39.810-08:00Review: The Atlas Maneuver
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173403990" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Atlas Maneuver" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1686361016l/173403990._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/173403990">The Atlas Maneuver</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3621">Steve Berry</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5769023718">3 of 5 stars</a>
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Not my favorite, but still a far better <i>Atlas</i>-titled book than any of Olivie Blake's BookTok overhype. <br /><br />(There, I said it.)<br /><br />Cotton Malone's back again, and this time, taking on a bizarre multipronged conspiracy to hack the world's economy with a combination of lost Japanese World War II gold and conning numerous countries around the world into adopting bitcoin as legal tender. Sure, this book already feels a bit dated since bitcoin was more of a household name in the last decade, and Berry's usually impeccable research falls flat a couple of times - like, why the hell is Malta the only EU nation listed among those in the plan for bitcoin adoption?<span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br />(And what is it with spy fictionists and their consistent misrepresenting of Malta as some sort of tax haven or otherwise economically libertarian microstate? Tess Gerritsen was a lot more accurate in <i>The Spy Coast</i>, but then there's <i>Agents of SHIELD</i> still making me laugh with how much their writers screwed up on the third episode of Season 1...) <br /><br />Also, I imagine a lot of actual Armenians would want Berry's blood after he gave an Armenian villain character the name "Samvel Yerevan," like...does anyone in Armenia have the same surname as the name of their capital? Especially when it's so well known that most Armenian surnames end in "-ian," and "Yerevanian" is a perfectly accurate Armenian surname - just Google it, the first result is UCLA neurologist Alexan I. Yerevanian, M.D.<br /><br />But while Berry's been phoning it in a lot in recent years, at least this book brings back Cassiopeia Vitt for her signature sexpionage, and he's definitely taught me more about bitcoin than any crypto bro ever could. While Berry himself says in his author's note that he likes bitcoin and thinks it's a marvel, he's also smart and pragmatic enough with this book to point out a serious flaw that makes it untenable as worldwide legal tender. <br /><br />That, I think, is the reason I come back to Berry again and again even when I don't love his books every time. He's always smart enough to point out serious flaws in economics and politics alike, and I always sincerely hope his books never land in the hands of our enemies.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-4006277817386076702024-03-01T15:13:00.001-08:002024-03-01T15:13:36.900-08:00Review: The Tainted Cup
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150247395" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689268335l/150247395._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Tainted Cup" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150247395">The Tainted Cup</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2916869">Robert Jackson Bennett</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5853118201">4 of 5 stars</a>
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Robert Jackson Bennett returns with the start of a brand new series, although this book is pretty standalone in its unique new world. Imagine if Rian Johnson in the midst of his <i>Knives Out</i> era collaborated with Jasper Fforde in the midst of his <i>Shades of Grey</i> era, and you'd have something approximating this book - biopunk fantasy murder mystery with creeping vines and spores out to kill everyone (so a bit of <i>Tress of the Emerald Sea</i>), rampaging leviathans out to sea (so a bit of <i>Attack on Titan</i>, and infrastructure is a constant imperial investment), quirky investigators with various sensory improvements leading to neurodivergence that makes them almost impossible to live normally among their peers, and a unique imperial setting mashing up aspects of other historical places and times that you wouldn't normally expect to work (kind of Greco-Roman, kind of Japanese, and kind of Ottoman - the latter especially since Turkish appears to be the basis of the imperial language.) Bennett's done it again with another home run of a book, and now that I've learned he wrote a few others before he really started making a name for himself with <i>City of Stairs</i> and sequels, I'll have to go back and read some of his earlier works at long last. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if any of them hold up as much as this under the radar masterpiece does.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-1448350516109547782024-02-28T12:57:00.001-08:002024-02-28T12:57:06.365-08:00Review: Lucero
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60323101" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1692290734l/60323101._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Lucero" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60323101">Lucero</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16994094">Maya Motayne</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6003690991">4 of 5 stars</a>
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It's been over two full years since Motayne published the second book of this trilogy, but I'm very glad that she got the chance to publish the whole series, because it's truly one of the most underrated in the YA sphere. While the first book and especially the second book dealt a lot with colonialism and its effects on linguistically attuned magic in universe, the diabolical cliffhanger ending of <i>Oculta</i> ensured that this book would have a wider focus on saving the world - and especially the diabolical first chapter of near instantaneous mass murder on Sombra's part. In order to defeat Sombra, Finn and Alfie and even Luka and James have to figure out a way to travel to all the other countries in Mundo - the Scandinavian inspired Uppskala, Nigerian inspired Ygosi, and Chinese inspired Weilai (named Mirai in earlier books, but I see Motayne decided to change that since the original name was more Japanese) - to recover all the missing parts of Sombra. Because the biggest challenge is that in order to defeat Sombra, Sombra's gotta be made whole. Not gonna be easy, is it? But our heroes are as up to the challenge as you might expect, and while I can imagine the epilogue pisses a few fans off (Motayne said she wrote it very early in her process for this whole trilogy), I'd say it's as excellent an adiós as this series deserves.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-9667629988941760702024-02-26T07:25:00.001-08:002024-02-26T07:25:31.236-08:00Review: The Might
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57536717" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1634487635l/57536717._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Might" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57536717">The Might</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7152908">Siri Pettersen</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6286710585">2 of 5 stars</a>
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The third book of <i>The Raven Rings</i> took a little while to arrive for me at the library after reading the first two in relatively quick succession, but unfortunately it did keep the series' downward trend going. While the first two books had constant action over their hundreds and hundreds of pages and led to some wild cliffhangers on each one, this time, the story manages to move super fast and still take forever to wrap up at the same time. I do feel like the ending is pretty unexpectedly abrupt and unlike the endings of most similar fantasy series, but I'm still thinking about whether that was a good or a bad thing. I'm gonna go with neutral in the end, though, I'm thinking. To this series, I now declare a good old Norwegian <i>farvel.</i>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6286710585">View all my reviews</a>
Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-2972717112870476102024-02-20T16:43:00.001-08:002024-02-20T16:43:53.520-08:00Review: The Spy Coast
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/131060960" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1686036279l/131060960._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Spy Coast" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/131060960">The Spy Coast</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18149">Tess Gerritsen</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6276668189">4 of 5 stars</a>
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Ahh, finally, a breath of fresh air to take me out of my current reading slump. Gerritsen says that this book, the start of a promising new series, took some inspiration from the fact that apparently the small town in Maine where she moved in her golden years is also full of golden-years people...and many of them have some secrets in their pasts that they can't talk about even to their doctors. Thus was the genesis of <i>The Spy Coast</i>, where spies may retire in peace...until someone comes along with an agenda rooted in a past mission gone wrong. Though that mission in Malta is undeniably a tragic one when its details are revealed in an extended flashback in the third act, it's still a well earned mention of the land of my mother's mothers, one that makes me really want to see the movie adaptation happen sooner rather than later. Seeing as Amazon published this book through one of their imprints, I would hope they also get to produce the film adaptation in house for Prime Video as well. As long as they film on location properly, and give it the theatrical release it deserves as well...
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-61148278078984760392024-02-19T10:45:00.001-08:002024-02-19T10:45:26.331-08:00Review: A Plague of Giants
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931029" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486064089l/33931029._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="A Plague of Giants" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931029">A Plague of Giants</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4414255">Kevin Hearne</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6264856932">2 of 5 stars</a>
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I thought I might have attempted to read this book once when it first came out, but I guess this is my first time leaving a review here for it. Oh well. Unfortunately, if I did read it back then, I must not have remembered it well at all. And this time, I'm remembering it for the wrong reasons. Normally, I would have expected I'd love a fantasy novel with a bard in the center of it all, but the disjointed narratives of several characters, only a small handful of whom are memorable and most of whom are difficult to tell apart...it's a recipe for disaster, reminding me unpleasantly of <i>The Witcher</i>, especially the TV series adaptation which I gave up on because of how much the writers bungled the job on that one. Hearne's earned his laurels years ago for <i>The Iron Druid Chronicles</i>, but recapturing that magic? I'm still waiting for that day to come.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6264856932">View all my reviews</a>
Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-75205627754506349332024-02-11T08:34:00.001-08:002024-02-11T08:34:28.251-08:00Review: Ruthless Vows
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127280062" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684911482l/127280062._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Ruthless Vows" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127280062">Ruthless Vows</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14926516">Rebecca Ross</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6243795402">3 of 5 stars</a>
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I did like the first book in this series well enough, but this sequel, the concluding entry in the series, was just a little bit of a letdown in comparison. Sure, the tension between Iris and Roman (the latter having a serious memory problem as a result of his abduction by a semi-sympathetic elder god who wants him to write propaganda opposing the even less sympathetic goddess who's been luring soldiers to fight for her thousands of miles from home) is still as strong as it ever was, and keeps the book compulsively readable. But seriously...I feel like I'm going to be complaining about this for the rest of my life, but why has the publishing industry, especially in YA, really been pushing duologies in recent years? Other than Marie Lu, most authors struggle to pull it off. I seriously think Ross should've made this one a trilogy, because as it is, she had to really rush the ending to make it another duology. But for now, I declare <i>ave atque vale</i> to this series as I've done with so many others before it.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-18534971645785272662024-02-07T10:45:00.001-08:002024-02-07T10:45:59.738-08:00Review: The Golem of Brooklyn
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124019742" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684816855l/124019742._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Golem of Brooklyn" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/124019742">The Golem of Brooklyn</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17595">Adam Mansbach</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6241303064">4 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
<i>"'If you think clay monster who just learn English yesterday understand all that, you giant dickhead,' said The Golem."</i><br /><br />I didn't realize going into this that Mansbach was also the writer of those parody children's books that Bryan Cranston narrated, "Go the F**k to Sleep" and sequels, of which there appear to be at least three by now. But after reading this, I guess it makes sense, because this book is an extraordinarily dark comedy that's totally tailor made for a race between Seth Rogen and the Coen Brothers to nab the film rights. Or why not both? They could put their heads together and adapt this into a gnarly little movie, although I do suspect Rogen (he who loves getting the VFX dept. on <i>The Boys</i> to shell out for giant phallic models on set) might balk at the fact that the poor Golem comes back into this world missing his precious shmok. <br /><br />But that's just the tip of the iceberg of how bonkers as hell this book really is - I suspect Mansbach took some inspo from the <i>Venom</i> movies with Tom Hardy as well, because The Golem sounds like Venom by way of Larry David with a generous helping of lethally potent drugs. The contrast between ethnic and cultural Judaism among the human characters is also a very important theme, and relatable even for some of us goyim (like my raised Catholic ass.) I'm just surprised this book isn't bigger on the scene than it is...although that, too, is probably Mansbach's point, when antisemitism is so shamefully on the rise all over the world. Again.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-37342132755327692752024-02-06T13:28:00.001-08:002024-02-06T13:31:04.998-08:00Review: House of Flame and Shadow
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123211531" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="House of Flame and Shadow" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1689843639l/123211531._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123211531">House of Flame and Shadow</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3433047">Sarah J. Maas</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5997792187">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
Last year was one of the few where Sarah J. Maas didn't release any new books, so the time was ripe for other authors like Rebecca Yarros to stake their claims to the romantasy throne. Hell, did anyone even start using the term "romantasy" until last year? I don't believe so. But in any case, SJM is now back to stake her own claim to retake the throne as the Queen of Romantasy that she's been for these last few years, and of course she does so with 800-plus new pages of not only the <i>Crescent City</i> saga, but also, as promised, a crossover into the world of <i>ACOTAR.<span><a name='more'></a></span></i> <br /><br />Now, while the infamous ending of <i>House of Sky and Breath</i> royally pissed me off, it was actually the whole Under the Mountain kind of nonsense that interested me the most in this book, with Bryce going off and doing her Indiana Jones thing as she learned even more about the tangled histories of the Fae and the Asteri. Everyone else...meh, sorry, I just wasn't here for any of them. This is Bryce's book, and everyone else is just a distraction to pump up the page count.<br /><br />But SJM actually does a great job concluding Bryce's story in this book, though with hints that there will be further <i>Crescent City</i> adventures down the line. For now, though, I think she'll be focusing on bringing her current extended <i>ACOTAR</i> series to a new conclusion for Nesta and Cassian, which is what I'm looking forward to most of all from her. And while I was afraid that this book would try to pull the same kind of twist that SJM previously pulled in both <i>Kingdom of Ash</i> and <i>Wings and Ruin</i>, I was actually stunned to see that SJM pulled, of all things, that same twist but inverted. You'll know it when you see it.<br /><br />Bryce Quinlan may not be for everyone, but I'll be damned if I don't love her as much as I do SJM's other leading ladies. To her, I now declare <i>ave atque vale</i>.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-1835680380201054772024-02-03T17:09:00.001-08:002024-02-03T17:10:23.751-08:00Review: Erasure
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10889783" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Erasure" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317793903l/10889783._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10889783">Erasure</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/31723">Percival Everett</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6216560591">4 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
"'<i>I make up shit for a living and I couldn't have come up with that.</i>'"<br /><br />Just over two decades have passed since Percival Everett's book was adapted into this year's five-time Oscar-nominee <i>American Fiction</i>, and the sharp satire of race in publishing still hits as hard today as it did then. Even more so, I'd say, now that a lot of writers in particular are more attuned to the systemic issues that plague the industry, an industry that isn't exactly sending its best to the table if this book and the movie are anything to go by. I mean, between this book and R.F. Kuang's <i>Yellowface</i>, you can't imagine that there are people in publishing so monumentally boneheaded as to completely fail to understand when they're being punked. But when Thelonious "Monk" Ellison polishes off a satirical parody of the sort of ghetto fiction that white influencers hold up as the paragon of the Black literary experience, is it really any surprise that the same influencers bend over backwards to give him all the money for it? And with his mother's illness requiring constant care, and his brother Bill unable or unwilling to lend a hand, there lies the source of the conflict that drives Monk.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><br />The movie does place a greater emphasis on the family drama aspect, which isn't all that surprising since the book is prone to experimental tangents of the sort of stories which Monk would no doubt rather be writing. They're all pretty spot on satires in and of themselves, especially the segment that plays out like a weird game show in a proto-"Harrison Bergeron" universe, and the book does portray the entire text of Stagg R. Leigh's <i>My Pafology</i> as Monk writes it. But most of these would, let's be honest, not translate well into film (the movie's version of showing Monk in the process of writing <i>My Pafology</i> is simply him imagining two characters having a fight, and the characters ask him what their motivations are, and one of them is played by Keith David in a memorable cameo.)<br /><br />It's also fun to spot a lot of the small changes in the book as opposed to the movie. For instance, Monk's brother, the recently out of the closet plastic surgeon who's become a major league hedonist enticing younger men to trade cocaine for ass, is Bill from Scottsdale in the book, and Cliff from Tucson in the movie (writer-director Cord Jefferson being originally from Tucson, I suspect that was a deliberate in-joke). Monk's mama lives in DC in the book, instead of Boston in the movie, and so there's a lot less opportunity for beach house misadventures in the book. Monk's on again, off again girlfriend Linda becomes Coraline, a more or less steady girlfriend who gets a meet cute with him outside her own Boston beach house. Real life publishing houses like Random House are name dropped in the book, while the movie uses the fictional publishing house "Thompson Watt" instead. <i>We's Lives in da Ghetto</i> author Juanita Mae Jenkins becomes Sintara Golden in the movie, and she's also on the Literary Award judging panel with Monk, so her movie self is more fleshed out (and also helps highlight the hypocrisy of their fellow white panelists even more when they ignore both Golden and Monk to give plaudits to Stagg R. Leigh.)<br /><br />Everett deliberately writes this one with a dense and inaccessible style, as Monk himself is described in the course of the book. Normally that's an immediate no for me, but as one of this book's many thematic and humorous layers, it absolutely works well. This book is timeless, and thanks to the movie adaptation's acclaim, I really hope that more people read it now like I did.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-62959497171477470432024-01-25T14:47:00.001-08:002024-01-25T14:47:02.630-08:00Review: A Machine Divine
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122975651" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677626071l/122975651._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="A Machine Divine" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122975651">A Machine Divine</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/725301">Derek Paul</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6197901574">5 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
Derek Paul gives us one of the finest works of fantasy in quite a while, with more than a touch of sci fi in the DNA as well. Almost Miyazaki like in its setting, with zeppelins and genetic experimentation and World War style chemical weaponry, it’s a little bit steampunk, a little bit biopunk, and a lotta bit awesome indie storytelling. Asher is me and I am Asher (if I’d been fortunate enough to go to college out of town, that is.) So far this one looks to be standalone, but I really do hope to see more stories in this universe - it’s just too good an opportunity to waste.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-81174322546931676902024-01-23T09:30:00.001-08:002024-01-23T09:30:29.786-08:00Review: The Rot
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56980643" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616337020l/56980643._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Rot" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56980643">The Rot</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7152908">Siri Pettersen</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6175459261">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
The first book in this trilogy promised a huge shakeup for Book 2 with its diabolical cliffhanger ending, and now here we are on that second book with a distinctly divided narrative. Rime's POV keeps one side of the story rooted in the ymish world where the series began, but Hirka is now stuck in modern day Europe - England, to be exact. Though Hirka does quickly adapt to the strange ways of the modern world, it was her story that was the most interesting part of this book, because it plays out so differently from most other fantasy stories (there's a reason why I still have a soft spot for the 2013 <i>Sleepy Hollow</i> TV series, despite how off the rails the show became in the worst ways as it went on.) Whereas Rime's story in Ym is...quite honestly, boring in comparison, and distracting from the freshness of what's happened to Hirka. And with Urd all but gone from the picture, there's not even a villain to love to hate. But I'll be generous and give this one a 2.5 rounded up to 3, if only for Hirka's storyline...and for yet another terrifying cliffhanger guaranteeing that I'll be seeing this trilogy through.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6175459261">View all my reviews</a>
Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-51025221451202607232024-01-20T10:16:00.001-08:002024-01-20T10:16:13.456-08:00Review: The Faithless
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59007314" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1669836384l/59007314._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Faithless" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59007314">The Faithless</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8573525">C.L. Clark</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6181632561">4 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
The second book in this planned trilogy proves to be full of surprises, especially for a reader like me who had expected Clark to follow the <i>Court of Fives</i> fantasy-decolonial playbook pretty closely. But also, the way Clark wrote Luca harked back so much to Helene in <i>An Ember in the Ashes</i>, a very complex character ethnically linked to the colonizers but wanting to do better for her legacy, that I shouldn't have been so surprised by how this book progressed after all. No one ever said decolonization was easy, especially for people like Luca and Touraine, representing both sides and doing their damnedest to push for peace, no matter how difficult it is. Adding to those difficulties, of course, are Luca's uncle, the Balladairan regent who refuses to step aside, and the constant wicked machinations of assorted Balladairan nobles, and the book's general emphasis on the price of magic and how that differs between nations. Touraine has already had to know some of that cost in terms of Qazāli magic, and Balladairan magic, long banned because of its barbaric side, is starting to make a pretty sinister comeback...but perhaps there's no more sinister comeback than the force that rears its ugly head at the very end of this book. So now to wait even longer for Clark to finally come out with Book 3...
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-39651174810282532582024-01-18T09:55:00.001-08:002024-01-18T09:55:59.822-08:00Review: The Unbroken
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54467051" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595284077l/54467051._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Unbroken" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54467051">The Unbroken</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8573525">C.L. Clark</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6172619833">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
C.L. Clark at one point wrote an article for Tor.com challenging the trope of the "butch martyr" in SFF, citing specific examples of <i>Gideon the Ninth</i> and <i>The Traitor Baru Cormorant</i>. This, then, is her extended challenge to that trope, with lesbian leads and their complicated dynamics - but also adding to that complication, the colonial setting, heavily inspired by North Africa under French imperial rule (Touraine is Qazāli, analogous to Moroccan or Algerian but forced to deny her true nationality in the colonial armed forces, while Luca is Balladairan, which is all but straight up French just like Aquitaine in Heidi Heilig's <i>For a Muse of Fire</i>.) Based on the acknowledgments section, Clark really did her research with French and Moroccan institutions alike, and the setting and themes remain as urgent and timely as ever today. I wasn't as invested in the characters, though. I could suspect that there'd be a certain <i>Court of Fives</i> playbook of decolonization for them to follow...but the ending was a huge surprise, setting up some twists to lead into a second book that I'm hoping will play out a little more in the style of <i>An Ember in the Ashes</i>, with characters whose complexities makes them even more worth rooting for.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-64669887514745053962024-01-16T13:33:00.001-08:002024-01-16T13:33:18.458-08:00Review: Odin's Child
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54303436" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602419144l/54303436._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Odin's Child" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54303436">Odin's Child</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7152908">Siri Pettersen</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6153472624">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
I found the second book in this series available for only one dollar at the Friends of the Library room in one of the libraries in Vancouver, and as it happened, the same library had the first book in the series available to request. But only the first book. Oh well, it looked interesting and different, so I bought that second book and put it aside while waiting to pick up and read the first book. This one is set in a distant fantasy world heavily inspired by the Norse legends and lands of old - a grim, cold land with unrelenting chills natural and supernatural alike, and everybody loves to swear by blind bats and crones. It switches back and forth between a set of three distinct POV's, some heroic, some villainous - Urd, the primary villain, actually proves the most entertaining because of his love-to-hate factor. While this book is a real slog to get through at over 600 pages of constant darkness, it's the majorly surprising ending that really changes everything, and validates the (one) dollar I spent to purchase that second book for sure.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-20772743715526353292024-01-15T09:23:00.001-08:002024-01-15T09:23:22.419-08:00Review: The Legacy of Yangchen
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62996947" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1680108852l/62996947._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="The Legacy of Yangchen" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62996947">The Legacy of Yangchen</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15235727">F.C. Yee</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6150560149">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
Overall, it's pretty safe to say that for a legacy, Yangchen doesn't leave one nearly as iconic as many of the franchise's other Avatars - especially the likes of Kyoshi, Roku, and of course Aang and Korra. But with the conclusion to her duology, it's pretty clear that she's nobody's fool, although she has to put up with a lot more interpersonal conflict than Yee had previously depicted in the Kyoshi novels. Even after a nasty betrayal, she has no choice but to realign with an old friend. But as an Air Nomad and a woman, she still has to really fight to show her strength - tellingly, even though this is well before the point in time where the Fire Nation committed genocide against the Air Nomads, the action scenes in this book still feature much more of the other types of benders, and disproportionately few airbenders. I guess that's a point Yee is looking to make throughout the history of these Chronicles - because hell, the Kyoshi novels were light on airbending too now that I think about it. Hard to say where Yee will go next, but maybe we'll get young Avatar Szeto? Or even Avatar Kuruk, though I imagine any books about him would be tragic as hell...
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-27859024447601867512024-01-09T14:48:00.001-08:002024-01-09T14:48:05.928-08:00Review: Defiant
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43606308" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677354665l/43606308._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Defiant" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43606308">Defiant</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/38550">Brandon Sanderson</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2680407403">3 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
This hasn't been my favorite Sanderson series - hell, it started off with one of my least favorite books of his, since <i>Skyward</i> felt so derivative of <i>Ender's Game</i> until a last minute twist or two. It did improve over time, with <i>Cytonic</i> in particular standing out for its sheer weirdness, but then this book comes along and returns to a more basic style and storyline. It's a bit like <i>Cytonic</i> was the <i>Last Jedi</i> of this universe...but thankfully this book isn't a <i>Rise of Skywalker</i> situation. It's not my favorite Sanderson book, and this will never be my favorite Sanderson series, but I'd say he does a pretty good job of sticking the landing and wrapping up all the story threads for Spensa, M-Bot, Jorgen, and the like. I imagine he'll want to focus a lot more going forward on his epic fantasy bread and butter with <i>Mistborn</i> and <i>The Stormlight Archive</i>, but Sanderson isn't quite done with this world yet - it looks, though, like Janci Patterson will really take over the reins on the sequel, <i>Skyward Legacy</i>. To which I say - sorry, <i>Star Trek</i>, Dragonsteel promised a space-themed <i>Legacy</i> series first.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-57697137020741327132024-01-07T11:43:00.001-08:002024-01-07T11:43:18.372-08:00Review: Divine Rivals
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60784546" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1655928079l/60784546._SX98_.jpg" border="0" alt="Divine Rivals" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60784546">Divine Rivals</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14926516">Rebecca Ross</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6133532456">4 of 5 stars</a>
<br /><br />
Normally I'm leery as hell when it comes to BookTok hype - <i>Fourth Wing</i>, anyone? - but this book lives up to the level of attention it's been getting these last few months. A little less spicy than most romantasy offerings, enough that Fort Vancouver Regional Library shelves it pretty confidently as YA instead of adult (or even NA, which is where I'd really categorize it myself), but it's definitely a hell of a lot more inky and smoky, befitting its setting in a steampunk-like world where our main characters work in an old-timey newsroom and wind up covering the distant wars fought between human proxies for a couple of feuding gods. This book is billed as <i>Shadow & Bone</i> meets <i>Lore</i>, but I'd consider it much less <i>Lore</i> and much more <i>Howl's Moving Castle</i>, with a dash of <i>Legend of Korra</i> as well due to the feuding gods being oddly reminiscent of Raava and Vaatu. And while the enemies-to-lovers trope (so common these days, as we all know) makes Iris and Roman have a certain Reylo-like feel to them at times, their story progression feels a lot more grounded and realistic - and again, less spicy, though even Ross does highlight a certain chapter in her dedication, and for good reason. Now to wait on the long waitlist again to finally get around to the sequel...
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4458855946409901392.post-35273767532555896892024-01-03T17:45:00.001-08:002024-01-03T17:46:30.376-08:00Review: The Innocent Sleep
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123165486" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Innocent Sleep" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1684818493l/123165486._SX98_.jpg" /></a>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123165486">The Innocent Sleep</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2860219">Seanan McGuire</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6104567411">4 of 5 stars</a>
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<i>"'I hate prophecy,' muttered Ginevra. 'It's never a clear set of steps. It's like trying to assemble an IKEA bookshelf using an instruction booklet that's been translated from Swedish to Japanese to English without a human double-checking the translations.'</i><br /><br />Reminding me of how Jim Butcher surprised the readers of <i>The Dresden Files</i> in 2020 with a double feature of novels, <i>Peace Talks</i> and <i>Battle Ground</i>, is the latest pair of novels in Seanan McGuire's signature <i>October Daye</i> series. This time, though, she takes a leaf out of her <i>InCryptid</i> books instead by switching to an all new POV, a first for a full-length <i>October Daye</i> novel.<span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br />While the previous novel <i>Sleep No More</i> followed October being stuck in the alternate Mirror-type universe where Titania rules the roost, here we get the POV of our favorite princely Cait Sidhe, Tybalt, as he gathers forces in the real world to lay waste to Titania and set things to rights once again. A plan which, naturally, won't come together without a few break-ins at several Bay Area Costco warehouses. As inventive and shocking as <i>Sleep No More</i> was, <i>The Innocent Sleep</i> brings its own freshness to the table, a throwback to the style of the earliest books in this series from a new POV, and some seriously good quote - see above, of course. <br /><br />It's hard to say where McGuire will go from here, but I wouldn't be surprised if she took a bit of a hiatus after this one. <br /><br />She's earned it.
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Ricky Pinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00561149307326925936noreply@blogger.com0