Epinions Recent Reviews for Greatpilgrim

The Iron Dragon’s Daughter: proof that The Matrix could have been cool…

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:17:44 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Picture this: a human girl, a “changeling” who’s been brought into a strange dark universe, is a drudge for the monstrous industrial factory where sentient iron dragons are churned out by a cross-section of enslaved magickal beings: shifters, dwarves,...

Guilt-free brownies exist!!!!!!

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:10:00 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Brownies delight my heart, especially when married to their soul mate vanilla ice cream, but they’re not exactly good for you…unless they’re No Pudge Fudge Brownies that is! I might just have to make this the fifth food group…...

You've GOT to go on this bear hunt - it's practically 3D!

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:35:05 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - When I pulled out my latest children’s book discovery and showed it to my almost-three-year-old niece for the first time, you could just see her eyes light up. This is a little girl who LOVES books, but this book – now, this one is special...

Heteromorphic is the new normal

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:49:17 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Do you think a story can be both fast-paced and boring? You only have to check out “new weird” fantasy author China Mieville’s first novel for children, Un Lun Dun, to see proof of this paradox in action. He starts...

I think C.S. Lewis would approve of this venture Into the Wardrobe

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 09:19:34 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Around the time that the first Chronicles of Narnia movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out a couple years ago, there was a whole flood of tie-in “companion” literature being produced, reprinted, and marketed as Lewis fever...

Wherein I commit authorial infidelity (and Diana Wynne Jones does too)

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 22:14:52 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - I never thought I’d be giving a Diana Wynne Jones book a two-star rating. A less-than-impressive work from one of my favorite authors just never crossed my mind. So this whole review is gonna feel like major, major cheating to me. Betrayal...

A legacy sprung from delicate Beguilement

Sun, 6 Apr 2008 20:59:23 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - As I continue to explore the novels of noted sci-fi/fantasy writer Lois McMaster Bujold, her new series The Sharing Knife (my first introduction to Bujold) seems more and more of an odd child out – but not in a bad way. This is an unabashedly...

Nine-lived enchanters vs. crazy witch clans…yep, another day in the life of a Chrestomanci!

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 17:14:59 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Have you tried Diana Wynne Jones’s lively YA fantasy Chrestomanci books yet? You haven’t? Well guess what, you’re missing out on one of the funnest magical romps this side of Harry Potter, and the latest addition to the series,...

Teen vampires and mohawked elves are just some of de Lint's Waifs and Strays

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 19:08:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Charles de Lint is an author who enjoys a plethora of labels for his fiction – urban fantasy, urban folklore, contemporary fantasy, mythic fiction, however you want to spin it. This genre didn’t seem like something that would appeal to me,...

Stop Loss: Stop Loss: Sometimes you have to fight to not fight

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 10:48:56 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - I got to see not just one but TWO free movies thanks to several foiled attempts to see U2 in 3D at Imax (never did work out, unfortunately). One of the showings I saw instead was Stop Loss, a film I wouldn’t normally have gone to...

I'd like to make Red Seas Under Red Skies walk the plank

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 20:03:13 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Hype hype hype. That’s the name of the game for Scott Lynch’s “Gentlemen Bastard” series, which premiered in the U.S. in 2006 with The
Lies of Locke Lamora and...

Sexy flat abs are just a book away: The Abs Diet for Women

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:58:12 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Except for the supermodels among us, we ALL secretly crave a flatter sexier stomach with rippled abs that aren’t afraid to see the light of day. That’s what author David Zinczenko is banking on in this “lifestyle change” handbook...

Where to go when you need some new tunes? Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire!

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:38:50 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Maurice Hinson is one of the biggest names in piano reference books, authoring such titles as The Pianist’s Dictionary and The Pianist’s Bookshelf. But none are as essential to a performer or educator as his incomparable Guide...

Hear that? That’s the sound of sweet exploitation

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:11:08 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Okay, so there’s something a tiny bit fishy about Christopher Tolkien taking 12 volumes to publish his father’s notes on all things Lord-of-the-Ring-related into a huge History of Middle-earth. It smacks slightly of...

Beyond the Burning Lands: Beyond the sci-fi cliches: this is one sequel that delivers

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:28:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Beyond the Burning Lands brings us to the middle of a futuristic sci-fi/fantasy series from John Christopher's long-neglected Sword of the Spirits Trilogy. When it opens, we find Luke, our brooding teenaged hero, more than ready to...

Aussie Sprunch Spray: for all your spr(ay)(scr)unching needs

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:46:12 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - While I’m still
looking for the perfect hair gel, I have found my holy grail of finishing products, and it’s on your local friendly Walmart shelf. Yep, Aussie Sprunch...

Slimy things right outside the window...just part of the Charmed Life of a Chrestomanci

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:09:43 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - Young Eric Chant, known as Cat, may have a spark of magic behind his meek demeanor, but he has always been eclipsed by his brilliantly devious older sister Gwendolen, whose powers (mostly for evil, it seems) are extensive. Rescued from the greedy...

I'm a curly girl in a curly woo-orrld: Physique's Spiral Gel/Curl Creating Gel

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:26:03 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - I’m not one who subscribes to the theory that you have to buy an entire line of hair products in order for one to work. So I only bought Physique’s Curl Creating Gel, one of the products in their drugstore line of Curl Defining...

Are you going up or down? I prefer to Ascend.

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:32:25 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - I wasn’t smart – I read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn

the year it came out, when there were no sequels in sight, so I had to wait a year and half to read the second book in this...

Ain't no Sunshine when she's gone

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:14:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - I’ll admit, I didn’t expect Robin McKinley to go the vampire route. You see, this is an author I remember discovering at the age of 11 on the shelves of the local country library, where quiet dusty reading areas were the perfect backdrop to...

"People shouldn't call for demons unless they really mean what they say."

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:03:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - At last, the one book in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series that holds its place in the order no matter how you slice it: the seventh and final book, The Last Battle. The one book in the series my dad wouldn’t read to...

Slip slidin' away

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:55:15 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - When it comes to makeup, the one thing I can’t live without is my black eyeliner. I feel naked without it, so I definitely don’t want my smokey eyes melting when confronted with liquid of any type. New York Color (N.Y.C.) Waterproof...

Mark J. Ferrari - The Book of Joby: I laughed. I cried. Then I laughed some more.

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:59:58 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - There once was a boy who worshiped King Arthur. Joby, being a modern boy, was popular but considered more than a little weird for his secret deeds of justice and kindness. But this made him the perfect Candidate in the latest cosmic bet between the...

The best fantasy novel of 2008. Yeah, I said it!

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:12:11 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - When I found Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost on the library’s bookshelf of new arrivals, I was expecting a decent start to a conventional fantasy series, as that seems to be the best one can reasonably hope for these days. Needless to...

Clara Schumann, my Romantic pianist goddess (Women's Art: Women Vision write-off)

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:44:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Greatpilgrim - When I was invited to participate in pestyside’s “Women’s Art: Women’s Vision” write-off in honor of March 2008 National Women’s History Month, the woman who sprang...