Epinions Recent Reviews for panguitch

I'm asking you to marry me, you little Earthie-squaw!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:09:59 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - My favorite line from a Hitchcock film comes from Rebecca, when Laurence Olivier, playing a sophisticated and commanding older man, says to Joan Fontaine's vulnerable ingénue, "I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool!" The absurdity of...

Russia: Unwrapping the Riddle

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:46:56 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Based on its primary role as a text in political science courses I did not have high expectations for Understanding Contemporary Russia as a standalone book. While some chapters do suffer from the list-making that introductory overviews...

"Excuse me, Doctor; I did not mean to criticize your planet": Heinlein's Harsh Mistress

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:11:16 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - It's a simple formula really, and Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress embodies it perfectly: Science (political, social, and physical) -plus- Story (fascinating characters and spaceships blowing up)...

Sanderson's Mistborn: Not Enough to Satisfy Me

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:55:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Brandon Sanderson loves to play with his readers' expectations, leading them to believe they understand his world, then forcing them to rethink all that's gone before. In The Final Empire, the first of the...

Bester's Demolished Man: Panguitch reads a police procedural.

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 18:28:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - The Preamble Broad reading habits are essential for a well-rounded mind. The mark of an inquisitive intelligence is its willingness to cross new thresholds and experience new perspectives. Recognizing this I try to be eclectic when I peruse...

The Atheist's Garden of Eden: Science Fiction Edition

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:19:43 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Note: Attentive readers will find vague spoilers in this review. Atheist ex Machina Much of Arthur C. Clarke's work follows the same basic plotline, and Childhood's End (1953) sets the first precedent: First, something...

"Thou art God": Heinlein's Sexual Revolution

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:40:20 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A. Heinlein, 1961 (1991) I learned from Wikipedia (the ultimate arbiter of Truth and Right) that Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land has been called "the most famous Science Fiction...

Revisiting Violence: Scalzi's Old Man's War

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 17:05:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Old Man's War, by John Scalzi, 2005 John Perry visits his wife's grave on his 75th birthday. Then he joins the army. Enlisting is a mysterious process. Old people are taken by the Colonial Defense Forces and never seen...

Compulsory Violence: Haldeman's The Forever War

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:13:01 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, 1974The collapsar network has opened the wide reaches of the galaxy to humanity, but when colonist ships are destroyed by aliens it becomes necessary for mankind to defend itself. The most...

The Legitimacy of Violence: Heinlein's Starship Troopers

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:11:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein, 1959 Juan Rico just went with his friend to the recruiting office to offer moral support. He didn't plan on enlisting. But a pretty girl from school is there, signing up to be a starship...

Sally Warner - Twilight Child: Panguitch Gets in Touch with His Inner Girl

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:46:52 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Since I'm not a teenage girl I'm not exactly in the target demographic for Sally Warner's Twilight Child. But while this young adult novel is positioned as a historical romance, the protagonist does see and speak with an array of creatures from...

"Death came to me in the form of a man."

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:13:38 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - The seduction of a princess has never been done so well as it was in Ridley Scott's Legend, where, with the Lord of Darkness looking on, Mia Sara reluctantly dances with her own black wedding dress until it overcomes her. It's Lord Death that...

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction: My Must-Have Subscription

Thu, 29 May 2008 18:10:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Though there are over a dozen professional-level speculative fiction magazines and e-zines, Fantasy & Science Fiction is one of the "big three," along with Analog and Asimov's. Since its beginning in 1949 (only Analog is...

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future: "Anyone can be a writer," says the person who's never tried.

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:13:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Disclaimer: I've been a finalist and received a couple honorable mentions (they seem to hand them out like candy) in the Writers of the Future contest. I'm polishing up my next entry right now. So I'm coming at this collection not just as a reader,...

The Raman Rendezvous: Noodle Food for the Left-Brained

Thu, 22 May 2008 17:39:21 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Clarke's Science Fiction Is Hollow I first read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey in a Literature and Film class, where I also studied Stanley Kubrick's adaptation. Both seemed hollow compared to Stanislaw Lem's...

Andy Warhol Sucks a Big One

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:23:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - My cat can eat a whole watermelon. If there's one item of certainty in an inconstant universe, it's that cats love Gustav Mahler, and that dancing to the strains of Symphony 1 in D Major with your deceased feline's squeaky mouse toy is the best...

Gregor Samsa looks good in a dress, but I like him better as a bug.

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:49:40 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Pulp and Proud For someone considering abandoning library science for doctoral studies in English I have surprisingly plebian tastes. My genres of choice? Science fiction and fantasy. And we're not just talking...

Chewy Spree: Willy Wonka Goodness in a Sophisticated Package

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:32:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - My wife hates the way I eat candy. I can hear her curses when she stumbles upon another of my caches. Half a Butterfinger bar. A handful of Werther's Original. A single Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I tuck these away like a chipmunk, extending my...

Chewy Runts: Straight from Willy Wonka's orchards to my mouth.

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:09:42 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Few candies have the pluck and charm of Willy Wonka's Runts. In Chewy Runts the classic Wonka powder candy is chewified, making for a more vigorous and cultured candy eating experience. This wondrous chewy Wonka center is encased in the same thin,...

Willy Wonka leaves Panguitch gobsmacked with his Chewy Gobstoppers

Fri, 9 May 2008 13:31:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - gob, n.: north. dial. and slang. Of obscure origin; possibly a. Gael. and Irish gob beak, mouth, but cf. gab n. - The Oxford English Dictionary Gobstopper is East-of-the-Atlantic for jawbreaker, and Willy Wonka...

A Paean to Willy Wonka and his Giant Chewy SweeTARTS

Thu, 8 May 2008 14:44:04 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - To a child's mind they were a paradox. They didn't make economic sense. There were only four of them. But those four medallions were worth a dozen boxes of Nerds, a five-gallon bucket of Lik-M-Aid, and a long-stem bouquet of Pixy Stix. Willy...

Librarians are evil, and much cooler than dinosaurs.

Mon, 5 May 2008 16:33:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - As a professional librarian it is my duty to warn you about a pernicious and subversive novel that you may encounter in the juvenile area of your local library (all copies were to have been discarded; apparently there are some librarians who haven't been...

Loveliness Instead of Loneliness: Abbey's Elegy for the Desert

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:25:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Edward Abbey might get under your skin or he might make you want to dynamite a dam. For me it's both. But more than anything he makes me want to flee my office, drive away from the city as fast as my car will go, abandon it when it can't go any...

Can Amazon Kindle ignite the potential of ebooks?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:54:15 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - The short of it: Since some people don't like to read long reviews, here's the condensed version: The Amazon Kindle is a significant but not revolutionary improvement over previous ebook readers. It does some cool things. It's also...

Planet As Protagonist: Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars

Tue, 8 Apr 2008 14:07:25 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Red Mars is one of those books people talk about in a way that makes you feel like a bumpkin if you haven't read it. I may still be a bumpkin, but I've read it now, and I can understand the hype. The first volume of Kim Stanley Robinson's...