Epinions Recent Reviews for bgardner

Bean's shadow grows in second novel about baby Napoleon

Tue, 23 Jan 2001 14:05:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - The story of Bean continues with SHADOW OF THE HEGEMON, the second novel in the companion series to Orson Scott Card’s 5-volume set about the life of Ender Wiggin. (NOTE: If you have not read any of the Ender novels, most especially ENDER’S GAME, or have...

Nearly 400 years of tradition isn't wrong

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 14:10:25 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - The monks of Bavaria brought us this beer 467 years ago as an alternative to food during Lent. Paulaner, the best of the Bavarian breweries, continues the tradition, offering us today an alternative to tasteless mass-market beers.

Salvator is...

Compaq delivers solid mid-price laptop

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 13:41:36 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - When I went shopping for a laptop, I looked at every brand available. Compaq was on the bottom of my list based on the mediocre functionality of previous incarnations. After considerable research at epinions, PC sites and magazines, I bought the brand I...

The best Koontz novel yet

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:53:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Throughout Dean R. Koontz’s career, several themes repeat. FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE represents the successful merger of two of his long-standing explorations: the spiritual search for the meaning of God and life and the ability of man to overcome...

The King of Scotland

Fri, 5 Jan 2001 20:53:08 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Over the years, I have sampled a variety of Scotch, from rotgut to royalty. Never, though, had I tasted Lagavulin. A fellow Scotch fan said it was his favorite and I nodded politely, sort of like you do when the nice missionaries from the Jehovah's...

The Rat's back, but his funny bone is missing

Fri, 5 Jan 2001 20:33:11 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Once upon a time, there was a writer who made science fiction funny. His early novels were riotously funny and possessed a magic few have captured before or since. His name was Ron Goulart, and by the 90s he was no longer funny; he was a tired joke on...

Big Guitars, Monster Melodies: Head Banger's Paradise

Tue, 19 Sep 2000 13:05:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - For the most part, head banging has been on hiatus in the musical world. We've got teen pop clones, Latin music marvels, pseudo blues, true blues, country rock, alt-country, moody alternative rock and classic rock clogging the radio waves. But, what ever...

Red Storm Rising 2001?

Fri, 8 Sep 2000 15:04:28 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Well over 1,000 pages of prose can be boiled down to this: When the Dragon (China) decides to take a chunk out of the Bear (Russia), the Eagle (U.S.) is there is prevent it.

Jack Ryan is back in this multinational zoo, filled with plotters,...

What a wonderful mistake

Mon, 31 Jul 2000 15:07:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - I ordered a Dos Equis, my beer of choice with Mexican food, one day at my favorite cantina and didn't pay attention when the waiter asked if I wanted the lager.

There's only one Dos Equis, right. Wrong-o. There are dos, and they are very...

Who's the sick puppy here?

Mon, 31 Jul 2000 14:53:58 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Let's play a game. Please identify for me who the sick puppy of the title is. The contestants.

Twilly Spree, a multi-millionaire environmental activist with a very bad temper. He blew up his uncle's bank because he loaned money to rainforest...

The story isn't dead, but it's in ICU

Mon, 31 Jul 2000 14:25:51 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - In BRINGING OUT THE DEAD, paramedic Nicolas Cage brings a man back from the dead who really doesn't want to be alive. After the old man is hospitalized, they have to apply the defibrilators to him time and time again. Dozens of time. There are more...

Fourth Harry Potter novel unsurprisingly wonderful

Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:54:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - It’s summer, just before Harry is due back at school. Life around the Dursley household is miserable for our pubescent wizard, what with his oversized cousin on a diet because he can’t fit into his public school knickers anymore and his good ole’ aunt...

Stop watching before you go blind

Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:12:34 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Let's keep this short. (OK, I know, I know I'm never short, except at the end of the month, and I can write 500 words on repressed teen angst as the primary motivating force in Gilligan's Island, but this movie isn't worth much ink.)

Synopsis:...

Catherine Keener and Diaz make this movie work

Sun, 2 Jul 2000 00:25:17 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Prior to watching BEING JOHN MALKOVICH tonight, I'd never heard of Catherine Keener. After it, I'm thinking Angeline Jolie stole the Oscar.

Now. BEING JOHN MALKOVICH is one of those outlandish movies that works only if you can totally suspend...

Hits hide Del Amitri's true talent

Fri, 30 Jun 2000 11:22:00 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - It's easy to dismiss Del Amitri as just another hit-making machine. On each album from this Scottish group there is an irresistible pop song, the sort that one-hit wonders churn out then vanish.

That Del Amitri keeps doing it album after...

Styx's "World" both brave and new

Wed, 28 Jun 2000 13:47:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - With the first notes of this CD, you know it: Tommy Shaw is back. And Styx is the better for it. (OK, OK, he was back for RETURN TO PARADISE a couple years ago, but that was a mishmash rehash and really doesn't count.)

Styx B.S. and A.S. was a...

The true gold of Cuervo

Tue, 6 Jun 2000 12:29:12 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Sure, Steely Dan sings about Cuervo Gold, and Jimmy Buffett almost surely was mixing his margaritas with Cuervo Gold. Ask almost anyone, and they'll think the gold standard is the best.

Then serve 'em a shot of Tradicional. It's not a deep...

Little annoyances hamper BJC-5100

Thu, 1 Jun 2000 13:38:03 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - I bought my first Canon printer on a friend's recommendation when the cheap HP connected to my Windows machine finally gave out. I wish I had bought an Epson instead.

The BJC-5100 is fast and has very good print quality, but has some quirks...

How do you top No. 1?

Wed, 31 May 2000 14:23:20 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Anyone expecting Matchbox 20 to top the last time Rob Thomas fronted for a song needs to learn to cope with disillusionment. Following up "Yourself or Someone Like You" and Rob Thomas' record-smashing collaboration with Carlos Santana is a very...

Who are these guys, and what have they done with Dan

Fri, 19 May 2000 18:29:33 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - I know I shouldn't say this, but I am reviewing something I haven't finished listening to. (Hold those NRs for a sec, though!)

I just can't continue. I'm too disappointed. I bought the album on Day 1 and eagerly inserted it in the CD. I...

Minnesotans die by the droves!

Fri, 19 May 2000 12:04:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - Lucas Davenport is perhaps the quirkiest cop in detective fiction. He has a taste for fine clothes, fast cars and loose women and indulges all of them. Hard, fast and repeatedly.

OK, maybe those tastes are normal for men and cops, but Lucas...

A new version of the old locked room mystery

Thu, 18 May 2000 17:17:16 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - They've got the murderer dead to rights. Fingerprints, blood samples, everything but a confession.

Only thing is, the killer is innocent.

Peter F. Hamilton comes up with a wildly innovative twist on the locked room murder in this,...

Search no further for comedy

Sun, 7 May 2000 21:55:43 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - We rented two movies last night, one a big-budget, special effects filled star-laden hyped to the gills "hit." It even had a Y2K tie-in. The other was a much smaller movie, filled with special effects and stars, but minus the hype.

...

Sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, mystery and SF all in one

Thu, 4 May 2000 13:47:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - I got hooked on Peter F. Hamilton reading the Night's DAWN trilogy. So, I bought his back catalog and read the first book on the list, a mystery/suspense/SF novel called MINDSTAR RISING.

Sometimes, reading an author's latest novel, then...

If this isn't rotgut, I don't want to find it

Wed, 3 May 2000 12:58:10 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author bgardner - With a rebel yell, I cry more more more ... sorry, wrong Rebel Yell. The Billy Idol song is pretty good. This stuff is rotgut, and if it's not, I never want to meet real rotgut in a dark bar. You've seen the westerns where the cowboy goes into a saloon...