Author: Fuzzysteve

Review: Bloodring – Faith Hunter

Fuzzysteve

[rating=5]

I won’t say this is without spoilers. However, those spoilers are not plot related. Only setting related.

While I have this tagged as urban fantasy, that’s not strictly accurate. This is after the end. Angels came, and most people died. However, it’s careful not to say ‘yes, this religion is right’. While it’s certainly suggestive that a monotheistic religion is right, and more so a Judeo-Christian one, it’s not explicit. God never shows up. Just the Angels. Commonly called Seraphs, or Seraphim.  Along with the Angels, you get demon spawn.

And then you get the Neo-mages. Human looking (mostly) and able to tap into the left over forces of creation. Meet our protagonist. Unlicensed magi are, well, Salem comes to mind.

The world seems internally consistent, though not over-detailed, with plenty of opportunity for expansion and discovery on the readers side. There are two sequels which I’ll probably be getting in the near future. The plot is twisty enough, without falling prey to Xanatos Roulette. Action, sacrifice, a little romance, it’s all there. 🙂

I enjoyed it. If you object to religion, derived from real world religion, in your fantasy, you might want to give it a body swerve.

Basic Tomato Sauce

Fuzzysteve
Basic Tomato Sauce
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author: Steve Anderson
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Total time: 40 mins
Serves: 4
Nothing complex here, just a very basic tomato sauce for use over pasta.
Ingredients
  • 1 medium onion. Finely chopped.
  • 2 cloves garlic. chopped or crushed.
  • Herbs. We’ll get back to this.
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes.
  • 100g of tomato purée.
  • 1tsp balsamic vinegar.
Instructions
  1. In a pan, heat a little olive oil (bare coating of the pan), then fry the onion and garlic until soft. Add everything else. get it simmering, then put the lid on. simmer for 30 minutes or so. Longer doesn’t hurt.
  2. Before serving, take a hand blender to it. Not trying to make it smooth, just less chunky. How many people it’ll serve, is entirely dependant on how much you want to put on the pasta.
Notes

You can add just about anything you want to this. Tonight, for example, I added meatballs. It’d work with tuna, ham, or so on. It can work on its own though.

Back to the herbs. As I mentioned in the meaty pasta sauce recipe, I use a mix from Just ingredients. Sesame seeds, sea salt, basil, thyme,oregano,pepper,rosemary. Pretty much any ‘Italian’ mix should work.

tomato sauce with meatballs

eBook availability and pricing

Fuzzysteve

Bah! A book by an author I like (John Scalzi)  has just been released in the US, but not the UK. Sure, it’s only a month different, but why? What makes people think this kind of split is a good idea?

And why don’t they immediately release the e-book at the same time as the paperback. I know some people might say it would cannibalize the sales, but that’s hardly a good reason. It’s not like the price for the e-book can’t be, initially, set to the same as the hardback, then dropped when the paperback is released. Yes, it will impact book stores. All I can say there is: buggy whip manufacturers. Some people will want books. That’s what print on demand is for.

I honestly don’t mind variable e-book pricing. Hell, I buy ARCs from Baen, where they’re more than double the final release price. Sure, it generally won’t be from an author I don’t know, but that’s the same with a hardback. Admittedly, a book that’s been out a few years? You’ve probably amortized the fixed costs. Drop the price (increasing the author percentage, of course.) You’ve paid for the editor’s time, the proof readers time and so on.

I can’t stand it, when an ebook is available in one country, but not another. It’s incredible annoying, especially when the first is, but the rest aren’t. Yes, I understand there are rights that people sold to publishers in other countries, but make sure it’s covered. It’s just sloppy looking. There’s no good reason for any book to be unavailable now.

Kinda Oriental Mince and Rice casserole

Fuzzysteve
Kinda Oriental Mince and Rice casserole
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author: Steve Anderson
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 4 hours
Total time: 4 hours 20 mins
Serves: 4
The kinda oriental comes from the two main flavors. Soy sauce and ginger. Other than that, it’s straight out of my head, and into the slow cooker.
Ingredients
  • Turkey mince – 900g . It would probably would work ok with pork mince, but I suspect beef mince would be, umm, off, flavor wise. Might work though.
  • 2 and a half tablespoons dark soy sauce. I’ve got these neat wee measuring cups that make that kind of measure easy. and as they’re a lot bigger, they don’t spill.
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger. kinda. I’m using ‘really lazy’ ginger. pre-chopped. 😀
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder.
  • 2 cups easy cook rice
  • 1ltr chicken or vegetable stock.
Instructions
  1. Fry off the mince with the ginger, garlic and chili.
  2. Once it’s at least mostly browned, add to the slow cooker along with everything else.
  3. Mix well. Cook on high for 2 hours, or low for around 4.
Notes

It’ll serve around 4 people, depending on how hungry they are. If you want to bulk it out more, try shredded cabbage, or peas.
If you’re adding a lot more bulk, I’d suggest you up the ginger and soy a little.

 

Review: Hanna

Fuzzysteve

[rating=4]

 

Cate Blanchett, Eric Banna. So many bad accents. 😀

 

While there’s on sci-fi element in the film, it’s not an important one. Part of the set up that you find out about later. Techno-thriller is probably accurate.

Anyway, take one teenage girl who’s been trained in the woods for her whole life. Add one CIA conspiracy. Sit back and enjoy.

It’s actually a pretty low-key film, with bits being grim and gritty. Don’t go expecting Bond levels of explosions or gunplay. Do go expecting brutal hand to hand. Casino Royale, not Gold Finger.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed it. Worth seeing, though if you get motion sick, you might want to give it a pass. There are a lot of spinny bits.

Review: Priest

Fuzzysteve

[rating=4]

The 3D seems to be post production. It adds nothing of value on the balance of things. It’s not bad perse, it’s just not worth it.

On to the film. It’s sci-fi, set in an alternate reality where humanity has been fighting vampires for a very long time. With the formation of an order of warrior priests, the vampires are finally defeated, and stuck in reservations, while most of humanity lives in polluted walled cities. The Priests are disbanded as an order, and made to reintegrate.

There are serious hints of alienation and PTSD there, which is nice to see. Unsurprisingly, the Priests are not as respected as they should be, feared by the people, and by those that trained and commanded them.

If you think I just dropped a spoiler bomb, that’s all in an exposition dump, just a few minutes in.

Visually, aside from the 3D, it’s a good looking film. The plot is fairly linear, on rails even, but it works. And the vampires don’t sparkle. They look like they escaped from the Doom movie. 😉 Massive physical changes.

Not a stunning film, but enjoyable to watch, none the less.

Review: Son of Heaven – David Wingrove

Fuzzysteve

[rating=3]

Yes, that is a low rating for me. It’s because the book was written as the first in a series, and it knows it. It’s not so bad in the second book of a series, but in the first, you have to be careful.

It’s self indulgently long, leaving things not particularly resolved at the end. It’s not like star wars A New Hope, for example, where they still have to defeat the Empire, but have defeated the death star (Can’t say that’ a spoiler 😉 ). There’s completion there. Son of Heaven doesn’t do tha. It feels like it ended in the middle. Like I said, that’s fine for the second in a series. Not so much for the first.

There’s a great deal of character development in the book, but little in the way of plot development. It’s set after the fall of civilization, with the middle part of the book detailing that fall. That bit was good. I liked it a lot. The first section, however, could have been cut down dramatically. Especially as it seems that the setting that’s been detailed, in that first section, isn’t going to be that important, long-term.

Well written, but the pacing needs work. In my humble opinion, of course 😉

Review: Fast 5

Fuzzysteve

[Rating=4]

Bear in mind that I’m rating this as a brainless summer action movie. Within that category this film deserves that rating.

If you liked any of the preceeding films, this should do just fine for you. I enjoy this kind of film as an opportunity to sit back, relax, and let my brain unwind. Don’t expect anything else and you’ll do just fine. Nothing crept in to break by suspension of disbelief, the plot hung together well enough to hang the action scenes on. There wouldn’t be any Oscars for the acting, but it wasn’t painful.

As for the action? Appropriate levels of explosions and gun play; with more fast cars than you can shake a stick at. I got everything I expected out of it.

If you go to see it, stick around for the mid credits stinger 😉

Review: Semper Mars – Ian Douglas

Fuzzysteve

[rating=4]

Arrrgh! When a book is over 10 years old, there’s no reason for only the first book to be available as an e-book (kindle e-book in this case) Now I have to wait for the paper copy of the sequel to arrive. I guess that’s a huge benefit for published authors; having a reader finish a book, then immediately getting the sequel. I’m a fairly quick reader, and if there’s nothing stopping me (like needing to wait for a physical book, say) I can chew through a novel or two in a day without too much trouble. Or more. Depends on the thickness 😉 But no. I have to wait. Grrr. Until the 28th. Double Grr.

Getting past that little diversion,and still waiting for the paper copy of the sequel grr, I enjoyed Semper Mars. If you’re not from the US, Russia or the UK, you might be a little insulted by it. The only sovereign nations left, with an increasingly jingoistic UN pushing for control of everything.  Throw in Mars, ancient alien ruins and a US marine contingent on its way there, shake well and serve.

For all that it’s military Sci-Fi, it doesn’t linger over-long on the action scenes, which is good in a book. Like all good fiction, it’s about the people. The setting is just a backdrop to put stress on them.The characters are developed enough when they’re mentioned by name, and appropriately faceless when they’re background.

It’s the first book in a trilogy, of trilogies. And I’m still waiting for the second book to arrive. As you might have guessed, it left me wanting to know what happens next.   That’s not to say that it didn’t tie up the main plot of the novel, but there’s more than enough left going on to carry it forwards.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why my ratings tend to be high? I don’t bother rating books I don’t like. And I’ve had a fair run of luck with picking books I’d enjoy. There have been some I’d rate at one; I don’t want to advertise them. The only time I’ve reviewed one is when I had to (I got it through library thing)

Review: Thor

Fuzzysteve1 Comment

[rating=4]

Maybe it was just a bad 3D set-up – the credits were a bit out of focus – but you may want to just watch this in 2D. Though IMAX would likely be substantially better.

Onto the review. Space Vikings! Hammy space Vikings! Well, I liked it a lot. Like all spoiler light reviews (nothing more than the trailer) I can’t go into much detail, but it works. Anthony Hopkins did a wonderful job of being Odin AllFather, bringing a great deal of presence to the roll. Thor was well depicted as first the headstrong, arrogant youth and then growing wiser. Well I guess that could be a spoiler, but if you didn’t see it coming, you need to read more. It’s far from an uncommon trope.

Good film, with what was probably a good 3D implementation, unfortunately damaged by, I suspect, poor implementation at the theatre. It avoided gimmicky ‘throw stuff at you’ shots, and generally let you know where to focus. Not too many ‘spinny what the hell is going on’ shots either, which can be really disconcerting.

 

And yes, there’s a stinger after the credits.