Must see: Grendel's Children

When it comes to impressive builds in Second Life , one of the more impressive ones is actually actually not a strictly an architectural showcase, role-playing setting, or corporate-funded park. It's a shopping mall.

Undeniably attractive, this floating mercantile behemoth is actually part park/recreation and part mall - it is the home of Grendel's Children, featuring a wide range of some of the best non-human avatars and accessories to be found in Second Life.

You need a headcrab to perch on your noggin (or to jump around at people), a low cost dragon's lair, or an undead pirate? They've got all that.

Every time we've visited Grendel's Children, it's grown and changed since the last visit. Apparently they're doing very well off a steady stream of sales of low-cost, high-quality avatars. If having a non-human avatar appeals to you, or you just adore the fantastic, this is one of those must-see places.

I've never been disappointed by a visit (just by my account balance after I leave), and the place just gets more and more visually impressive. There are things on sale here from Thrulls and Liches to Medusae and genetic horrors - and things I don't even know enough about to name.

(There are dragons, gryphons, drakes, spiders, scorpions, birds (legendary, mundane, gigantic, or plush), necromancers, shadow-mancers, plague monks, incubi, succubi, assorted demons and devils, trolls, fae, angels, imps (elemental, and paralegal), treants (all seasons), dryads, myconids, chelonians, molluscs, a certain famous yellow submarine, mermaids, goldfish, therapods, dinosaurs and mammoths, aliens, and lord only knows what else. Lots and lots of what else)

Even if you don't intend to buy something, it's worth just taking a look around the place. It's gorgeous, and so full of possibilities. A recommended visit, but you'll have to keep a firm hand on your sales-resistance.