Epinions Recent Reviews for panguitch

An encounter with the opposite sex that elevates.

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:55:07 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - An Introductory Tirade The evolution of digital animation overshadowed the real reason why Pixar brought Disney to its knees: Pixar's willingness to inject intelligence into their films. Disney at least shows intelligence when it comes...

Maybe more books should be built like escalators.

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:35:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - Happy Discoveries My favorite story from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction so far this year has been Dean Whitlock's "Changeling." I was so struck...

A multicultural steampunk air pirate science fiction quest fantasy adventure. Why not?

Wed, 2 Sep 2009 18:33:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - For most of its history Science Fiction was deservedly criticized for its vision of a future where white men cruised the galaxy in chrome-plated ships, rescuing women with the personalities of robots from salacious bug-eyed aliens. Villains have since...

"The swordsmen, the damned stupid swordsmen, will win after all."

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:11:47 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - "A natural antipathy exists between swordsmen and sorcerers, as between cats and small birds, or between rats and men. Usually the swordsman lost, and humanity's average intelligence rose some trifling fraction. Sometimes the swordsman won, and...

Chicken said, "Yum!"

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:35:05 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - We have taught all our children to read using Siegfried Engelmann's Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which isn't perfect but works amazingly well if you apply it with diligence. My four year old son still has a few lessons left, but...

Taking Harry Potter to School

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:44:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author panguitch - I was 27 before I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Five years later I'm wishing I could be something else. Life would be simpler if there weren't decisions to make. But even then you'd have to decide how to deal with those decisions that...

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,...