Review: Passenger

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maybe because I read this one right on the heels of finishing the wild and crazy Illuminae, I found this book really slow and plodding in comparison. Makes sense, given that this book is lighter on the action, not only compared to Illuminae but also to Bracken's previous Darkest Minds dystopian trilogy. This one's more about creating complicated sci-fi rules and building a nice little romance - which is Bracken's best yet, that's for sure. Unfortunately, along the way, she ends up stuck in most of the same pitfalls that The Darkest Minds and Never Fade suffered from - primarily, issues with pacing. Even taking into account the decreased action, this book gets really slow and, dare I say, dead from time to time.

However, the wartime settings of most of the first half of the book - the American Revolution, and London during the Blitz - help make up for the slow pacing. The best part of the book, however, is its final 150 pages or so, set in 16th-century Damascus. This is where the story really picks up steam, and captures a bit of the intensity and urgency we know Bracken's capable of delivering. Naturally, there's a nasty little ending, but the story isn't over just yet. (No spoilers on the nature of the cliffhanger, though.)

So, while this might not be my favorite 2016 book, it's still good enough to warrant the long, hard slog through the staticky dead air spots that plague its first three-fifths or so. And hopefully next year, Bracken will deliver an improved sequel.

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One Year Of Blogging, Etc.

Hard to believe it's been a whole year since I started my blog. You might remember that day better, though, because of the news that started it all - the news that motivated me to become a blogger. I'm talking, of course, of the announcement that Spider-Man was joining the MCU without Andrew Garfield. I hoped to get a trend going, hoped to spread the hashtag #Garfield4Spidey to support the un-cancellation of The Amazing Spider-Man 3. I failed, but I still keep that hashtag on pretty much all my profiles because as much as I've come to eagerly await Tom Holland's performance as Spidey, all my Pinecones know Garfield is still my favorite.

Try and resist that face. Go on. I dare you.

In the year I've been blogging, I've continued writing my ongoing series of Spider-Man fanfics, and attracted a number of readers who, like me, share this belief and happily have gone along with the ongoing spiraling plot threads of the Deadpool Syndrome trilogy, in particular, which deal with our heroes' new goal of preventing the recasting of Peter Parker and all his friends and enemies. Wattpad user Sierra Daniels (@yourmybeautifulsoul) is just such an example.

And there are others whom I've connected with online who believe in the power of Andrew Garfield. One such example - More Happy Than Not writer Adam Silvera, one of many authors I've discovered in the past year whom I would love to see, one day, write short but sweet words of praise to appear on the back cover of a hardcover printing of Red Rain. Also on that list are tons upon tons of other writers, some of whom I've also had the chance to interact with on a semi-regular basis on Twitter. I'm looking at you, Zac Brewer and Taran Matharu and Zoraida Córdova!

I probably wouldn't have joined Twitter, however, without the delightfully pernicious influence of the amazing people at Wattpad's Corner Booth. I distinctly remember them talking about the importance of social media one day, and next thing I knew, I was signing myself up for a Twitter account @WriterRickyPine. This, of course, is just one of many effects of their amazing videos. For a taste of what they're like for the uninitiated, I have here in my hand their very first video, all 59 minutes of it:

And after joining Twitter, I found myself taking part in all sorts of writerly activities that I hadn't been able to find on Wattpad. Like, for instance, #1LineWed, and #PitMad and #WhyIWriteYA. And, from there, I was able to connect with more writers than ever. Not only the aforementioned published authors and the best Wattpad has to offer, but other indie writers and/or writers seeking representation like me. (On another note, I still have yet to get an agent, but I've sent a few more queries lately, so...fingers crossed.) In this category, we have the likes of Brett Michael Orr, whose Bureau of Time is the very first e-book I checked out at the library, and very much deserves that honor. Through Brett, I also found some more cool bloggers, among them Brianna da Silva, with whom Brett and I recently had a nice long chat about the Red Queen series and how to improve it. I also have a great friend in @SpeedyElite, who one day will share shelf space with me - and wouldn't it be something if we could sign books together? :D Let's not forget Briana Mae Morgan, a Wattpadder and published writer whose Blood and Water, I'm currently reading, slowly but surely. Speaking of cool Wattpadders, might I mention @SkiesAfterRain and her amazing sense of comedy and tragedy both? And then we have @YaezaTheCasualReader, also on Wattpad, and also on his Daily Life of a Teenage Aspie blog, which needs more viewers like most humans need water. (Seriously, if you are now or have ever been a teenager, pay his blog a visit.) Last but not least, Dakoda Bigelow. His book Lykaon isn't officially published in the real world, but my characters know and love his work already.

Bottom line - this last orbit around the sun has changed my life. Because I've got a healthy streak of paranoia, I take steps to keep my online presence hidden from my parents (which is why I use an alias on the interwebs), so I'm sure they'll be plenty surprised when I finally get published and they learn that I've been slowly but surely spreading word about Red Rain and other projects born in my brain across social media. I'm sure, like Jay's mom in the latest chapter of The Normals, they'll want me to talk them through the process of building their own Twitters just so they can follow me and keep a creepy-ass electronic eye on me (and probably be all weirded out by my uncontrollable fanboying as I relentlessly live-tweet my viewings of The Flash, Supergirl, Teen Wolf, iZombie, etc.)

But until that day comes, I'll keep on building my Pinecone Army, one new online friend at a time. Maybe in another year I'll still be seeking an agent, or maybe decide to go into self-publishing like some of my fellow writers (B.R. Myers and Jess Pawley come to mind.) Or, God willing, I'll finally have an agent, and my dreams of seeing Red Rain on store shelves and with a film adaptation being made in Hollywood (or Vancouver, the landscape of which is, I think, a closer match to Coldfire Creek) will be that much closer to coming true.

And as I stay up till midnight so I can put up this link-heavy post (please do follow the links, they lead to cool places!) on the actual day of my "blogoversary" (sorry-not-sorry, but I had to use that term, don't shoot me!), I just have a couple more things to say, Pinecones.

#FeedTheRightWolf

Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always.

Review: Illuminae

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

MY OFFICIAL ILLUMINAE PLAYLIST:

"No chance for fate, it's unnatural selection
I want the truth!"
-Muse

"Here we go, vertigo
Video vertigo, test for echo
Touch and go, in slow mo
Video vertigo, test for echo..."
-Rush

"Higher, don't let 'em know we're coming
Higher, tiptoe higher..."
-Imagine Dragons

"I don't wanna feel sorry for you
You don't have to make believe it's you..."
-The Cars, "You're All I've Got Tonight"

"Falling down can feel strange
No one remembers your name
You're losing the game
That's the thing about trust..."
-Neon Trees

"Last night, I had a dream about you
In this dream, I'm dancing right beside you..."
-Daft Punk, Digital Love

"How could something so fair be so cruel
When this black sun revolved around you..."
-Death Cab For Cutie

"Shake it like a ladder to the sun
Makes me feel like a madman on the run
Find me never, never far gone
So get your leather, leather, leather on..."
-Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"

"The world is spinning fast tonight
You can hurt yourself trying to hold on..."
-U2, "Volcano"

"One of these days
Letters are gonna fall from the sky
Telling us all to go free
But until that day I'll find a way
To let everybody know
That you're coming back
You're coming back for me..."
-Civil Twilight, "Letters From The Sky"

"And I still love the way you hurt me
It's irresistible..."
-Fall Out Boy

"Zooropa, better by design
Zooropa, fly the friendly skies
Through appliance of science
We've got that ring of confidence..."
-U2

"We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone..."
-The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again"

"Hello, how are you?
It's so typical of me to talk about myself
I'm sorry..."
-Adele

"How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl
Year after year..."
-Pink Floyd

"Who knows how long I've been awake now?
The shadows on my wall don't sleep
They keep calling me
Beckoning, beckoning..."
-Imagine Dragons, "Nothing Left To Say"

"So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters..."
-Metallica

"Well, the lampshade's on fire when the lights go out
This is what I really call a party now
Well, fear makes us really, really run around
This one's done so where to now?"
-Modest Mouse

"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
This ain't no fooling around
This ain't no Mudd Club or CBGB
I ain't got time for that now..."
-Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime"

"I was caught in the crossfire of a silent scream
Where one man's nightmare is another man's dream
Pull the covers up high and pray for the morning light
Cause you're living alone in the heat of the night..."
-Bryan Adams

Bonus Track: Daft Punk, "Contact"

REVIEW:

Well, that was a long, long playlist, but this is a long, long book, and it deserves an awesomely eclectic kick-ass soundtrack to match.

I'll definitely have to check out the solo efforts Kaufman and Kristoff have put out in the past, just based on this book. But I'm sure they'll be nothing like what I've just finished reading, because this book is without a doubt the most unconventional and unique I've ever read and enjoyed this much. It's wild, and every bit as high-octane as the dust-jacket blurb suggests (for once it doesn't lie!)

And as for our main characters...I love Kady and Ezra so much. They're both so dangerous, and so human. Sure, they seem like a bit of a cliché sometimes - especially in terms of size and appearance, because she's a petite waif with pink hair (can you say, Manic Pixie Dream Girl?) and he's tall and studly and athletic - but personality-wise? They're beyond adorable. Kady's got some serious hacking skills and is quite the survivor. And Ezra is complicated in a very good way. For Kady, he's a hopeless romantic, sending her such sweet ASCII artwork. And with people like McNulty...well, some of those exchanges ("sweet...sweet...lurrrrrve," for instance, and "a pair of slightly sweatysomethings tickling your prettyboy chin") had me ROFLing like there was no tomorrow. Of course, there has to be some level of tragedy to balance out the comedy, and this book delivers on that front too in remarkable - and remarkably bloody - fashion, especially ramping up to an ending that would be the envy of old Ridley Scott (I know I can't be the only one who was reminded of the original Alien.)

And as for the story...like I said, it feels a tad bit clichéd at times, except for when it's not. And there are some seriously, seriously original plot threads to go around. At first, you think, "oh yeah, the AI's evil, he's gonna kill everyone." Or, "Wait, where else did they invent a weaponized fear virus?" (Although I have to admit, the nature of the Phobos virus, I did not see it coming.) And then when those plot threads are put into action, and things start going against the tropes...



If you haven't yet read Illuminae, please, stop doing yourself such a disservice. Read it, and join me as we fans eagerly await next fall's sequel, Gemina - because we need to continue following Kady and Ezra's story ASAP.

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Review: The Scions of Shannara

The Scions of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just based on the original trilogy, plus this book, it feels like it just wouldn't be a Shannara book if Allanon and an Ohmsford or two weren't majorly involved in the action. This long-distant start to a new series is no exception.

On the one hand, it's a little more-of-the-same with the hunt for the artifact that started it all, the Sword of Shannara, all over again. But like The Force Awakens, this is a situation of everything being the same, except not. Sure, there's monsters and action and adventure, but the stakes are pretty different. This time, the threat to the world isn't so much from demonic miscreations, but from the ruling Federation. All of this leads up to the most devastating Shannara ending since Elfstones, and that's saying something.

Next up, I'll be detouring back to before the beginning, with First King of Shannara.

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Review: UnBound

UnBound by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And I thought this little Dystology was over and done with - but nope. Shusterman's got a few more surprises in store for us as he (and a team of co-writers) explore, in greater detail, the horrors of the Unwind world. In addition to showing some downright nasty stuff involving the deadly Burmese Dah Zey parts pirates, we also learn some of the backstories of characters like Risa (whose unwind order, we discover, was not an accident), and Roland (now we know the secret origins of his signature shark tattoo.)

It's a nice little supplement to the Unwind world in this book, and if you haven't picked it up, you should. (Although, given that I stumbled on it by accident, I'm thinking either I'm missing the advertising, or there just isn't enough of it.)

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Review: The Pharaoh's Secret

The Pharaoh's Secret by Clive Cussler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of Cussler's best books in quite a long time, for many reasons. Chief among them, for me at least, is the inclusion of Malta as a primary setting for what might be the first time ever in a Cussler book. And then there's the downright nasty threat from a freaky, freaky ancient Egyptian weapon that's designed to put its victims into seemingly incurable comas...don't ask. Those ancient Egyptians meddled in things that really ought not to be meddled in.

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Review: Every Crooked Path

Every Crooked Path by Steven James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The original Bowers Files series may have ended with Checkmate, but now, Mr. James is giving us a new series of prequels set between Opening Moves and The Pawn. And what a way to start this promised "new chapter" - with SVU-level suspense and disturbing storytelling. It's supposed to be in the past, and yet much of the technology involved appears to still be in use today, giving this new Bowers book an oddly timeless feel. And on a lighter note, it's really nice to see Bowers start bonding with Tessa and her mom.

I know there'll be more in this new prequel series just from that stinger of an ending, though. Bring it on.

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