Author: Fuzzysteve

Review: Orphanage – Robert Buettner

Fuzzysteve

[rating=4]

I first got into this universe with the authors second series, starting with Overkill. Thankfully, it didn’t require any pre-knowledge, and didn’t provide any spoilers. (Undercurrents did, but nothing /that/significant)

Orphanage is the first of the Jason Wander series. It’s a definite homage to Starship Troopers (the book, not the film.) Not that it’s a bad thing. Starship troopers is a good book. It tells the story of Jason Wander (big surprise there 😉 ) And how he goes from being an orphan, to being one of the troopers about to drop-assault an alien base on Ganymede.

I didn’t really give you any big spoilers there, as it starts in medias res, before flashing back to cover all his training and so on. The training and reasons behind it are where the Starship Troopers homage really comes into play. It’s not play for play, but there are times it’s damn close. It works. It works damn well.

The series follows up pretty well too. I’d recommend them, if you like the first book. And if you like Starship Troopers, you should like the first book. If you’ve not read Starship Troopers, go read it now. It’s a sci-fi classic.

Mashy Spike Plate how to

Fuzzysteve

As I’ve seen some people hitting this site with the search term above:

  1. Keep looking in the direction of travel.
  2. A wall will come  in from your right, with a painted bit you can target.
  3. stick the portal the travel beam comes out of onto it. wait for it to stop moving before you do this.
  4. You’ll fall into the beam, avoiding the mashy spiky plate.

Someone else’s video. The wall is the one that the crosshairs are looking at, /right/ at the end.

Review: Portal 2

Fuzzysteve

[rating 5]

Short version: If you liked the first, you’ll almost certainly love this one. It’s a fair bit longer, excluding the co-op side (which I’ve not yet tried), skips the basic learning stuff, and gets right into the fun puzzles.If you didn’t like the first, stay away. Unless it’s just because of the length. If you’ve not played the first, go try it now. It’s only £7, and I’ll be waiting for you to get back.  If you want a description, it’s a first person platformer, where you have a gun that can create portals. Portals redirect your momentum. Fast thing goes in a portal, fast thing comes out the other one. Play the first one, as it trains you in how to think with portals.

 

Anyway, onto a mostly spoiler free review. Unfortunately, a lack of spoilers makes things a little difficult to describe 🙂 The voice acting is excellent, though as the guy that voices the AI Wheatley also does those Barclays adverts I keep expecting him to talk about banking. It’s fun. Portal 2 does a good job of flipping between the light and humorous, to the dark and psychotic. Just like the first one.

And the audio from Cave Johnson? It’s more of this:

Funny /and/ progressing the story. While the first the story seemed a little tacked on at the end of development, it’s not in this one. Learn more about Aperture Science, GladOS and Cave Johnson.

The game play is similar, though there are a few new options thrown in to mix things up. Keeps it from getting dull 😀

Spicy Chicken and Rice Casserole.

Fuzzysteve

I’ve come to like doing rice casseroles in the slow cooker. They’re easy and filling. And they reheat well in the microwave.

This one is a trifle more complex than the last, but only just. I’m not sure if the marinade made any difference, but it does mean you should start the day before.

Spicy Chicken and Rice Casserole.
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author: Steve Anderson
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 120 mins
Total time: 2 hours 20 mins
Serves: 5
Has an overnight marrinade, so watch out for that
Ingredients
  • 400g chicken. I used prediced chicken, but you could use just about anything else.
  • 2 tablespoons hot chilli powder
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/2 tablespoon cumin
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 2 cups rice
  • 1 litre chicken stock
  • 500ml passata
  • 150g tomato purée
  • 1 can kidney beans
  • onion. I used frozen, enough to cover the bottom of my 3.5litre slow cooker. probably 1 or 2 medium onions
  • Peppers. I used a couple of handfuls of frozen mixed peppers.
Instructions
  1. First, take the chicken, and chop it up into bite sized pieces. Stick them in a plastic bag, and add the chilli powder, paprika, cumin and cocoa. seal it, and make sure the chicken gets coated. You can manipulate it through the bag to do this, to keep your hands cleaner. Leave in the fridge overnight.
  2. On the day you’re making it, stick everything but the chicken in the slow cooker.
  3. Fry the chicken in a hot pan with a little oil. You don’t need to completely cook it, just seal it a bit. A crusty coating isn’t a bad thing 🙂 With the mix of flavourings, they’ll be pretty much black. Just discard the bag. Don’t worry about leaving any spices in it.
  4. Add them in to the slow cooker. Mix it all through, breaking up all the tomato purée. cover and cook on high for 2 hours.
Notes

This much will serve me for about 5 meals. It’s somewhat sloppier than the last, but it works.

 

Review: Side Jobs – Jim Butcher

Fuzzysteve

[rating=5]

If you’ve not read any of the Dresden Files, I wouldn’t recommend you read this collection of short stories. I would recommend you go and read Storm Front, before you go and read all the others, /then/ read this. While the stories aren’t all directly tied to the main plot arc, there’d be a bunch of spoilers, and you’d be a little lost in what’s going on. They’re good books. Go read them. If you’re not completely up to date with the main novels, you want to get up to date before this, to avoid at least the massive spoiler in Aftermath (the last short story).

On the other hand, if you have read them, get this collection and read it. Many of the stories within have already been published in other collections (Aftermath is the only one that’s exclusive), but I know I didn’t have them all. The stories are all covering smaller incidents, generally between the main novels, and showcase Harry Dresden pretty well.

For those that haven’t had the pleasure of reading any of the Dresden files yet, Harry Dresden is a PI in Chicago. He also happens to be a wizard. The only Wizard in the yellow pages. There’s a definite Noir feeling to the novels, all in first person. He’s pretty genre savvy too, though he suffers from a mile wide streak of goodness. There’s plenty he just won’t stand for, and damn the consequences. From some of the author forewords in Side Jobs, Jim Butcher is gleeful about making Harry suffer. If you see a happy Harry, it’s probably a setup for a later fall.  It’s a world of wizards, vampires (three types!), werewolves, trolls, powerful criminals, underfunded cops, the fae, and pretty much everything else. And everyone keeps mundane people in the dark. Harry gets the weird cases.

There’s been a tv show, which isn’t /too/ bad. but it’s not that faithful to the source material. Read the books first.

Sci-fi as a genre

Fuzzysteve

It’s always annoyed me somewhat, in a bookshop, that sci-fi hasn’t been more sub-divided. And having fantasy thrown in as well just really screws things up.

The reason behind this, is that science fiction isn’t a genre, in the way that ‘thrillers’ is. It speaks about the setting, and not about the story. Ditto with Fantasy. Of course, these days, you also get urban fantasy, which is often separated off. Probably can thank Twilight for that, much as I’d hate to give it any credit.

I guess, really, this is where the internet can come into its own, in a way that bricks and mortar stores would find really difficult to compete with. At least not without a card index 😉

Tags are perfect for this kind of thing. You can instantly create any subdivisions of a genre, and go cross genres with ease, allowing for an easy listing of, say, #military, and #scifi. I guess I should probably go and properly tag the few reviews I’ve done.

I do wish, however, that Amazon has a decent tag cloud on its books. I guess the problem would be populating it. maybe a few meta-tags too. like #popular

Review: Overkill

Fuzzysteve2 Comments

Overkill – Robert Buettner – [rating=4]

When I started reading this novel, I didn’t realise it was part of a larger universe. Pretty much all the way through, too. It’s that good at dropping information on you gently. I’m planning on picking up the first series at some point soon. This novel is the first in a new series.

It’s not, at first at least, a novel with a grand scope. You know a bit about the universe in which it’s set, but it has a fairly tight focus on three characters; one of them in  first person with a second being narrated. The third is from omniscient view point, which fits well with them.

As always, I really don’t want to get into spoilers. Spoilers are a bad thing. And as such, what I can say is limited. But it is a well defined universe, with a fairly hard sci-fi setting. The softest thing would be the jump drive, but it’s a point to point drive. And no huge screeds of physics. It’s just there. 🙂

Worth reading. My biggest complaint? The first series doesn’t appear to be available in an ebook format.

Tuna and Rice Casserole

Fuzzysteve

Just a little something, to prove to my mother that I don’t just eat red meat 😉

Recipe: Tuna and Rice Casserole
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author: Steve Anderson
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 2 hours
Total time: 2 hours 10 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of uncooked, easy cook rice. (1 cup = 250ml)
  • 4 cups of chicken stock.
  • 2 185g cans of tuna in brine
  • 2 medium onions. I used frozen
  • 1 300g tub of Philly (a cream cheese). I used the low fat one with garlic.
  • Salt and pepper to taste.
Instructions
  1. Easy to make. Take everything. Stick it in a slow cooker. Make sure it’s well mixed. Cook on high for 2 hours. Serve.
Notes

If you want more in the way of instructions than that, I’d suggest making the stock (I used a stock cube) with boiling water, then mixing the Philly into it. Or at least some of it. Means it blends better.

 

Review: Heirs of Mars – Joseph Robert Lewis

Fuzzysteve

Disclaimer: Review given in return for a copy of the ebook.

Heirs of Mars: Joseph Robert Lewis

While I’m obliged to give a review, don’t think that I’m doing this at all under protest. I enjoyed reading this novel immensely. The setting is well described, slotting you into a somewhat broken down world, Mars, part way through the terraforming cycle.

Too often in science fiction, you’re info dumped on. Where the author tries to get the entire setting described quickly. Not here. While you have a basic understanding pretty quickly, it’s continually expanded as the story progresses. Bits and pieces of what people say and do, filling in the gaps, expanding on what was already described. It’s a natural way for it to happen, and doesn’t feel at all forced. And as the viewpoint changes, following one character or group, before moving on to another (and back) you get to see more than any one person knows, in story.

There are a few themes touched on, the main one being the nature of what makes someone human. It’s far from the first time it’s been done, but this is a fairly good example of it.

The characters are, in most part, nicely three dimensional, as are the masses of people.

Probably a 4 on the Moh scale of hardness. No FTL, but it does have neural mapping, and synthetic intelligence.

 

I highly recommend this book. And as it’s a cheap kindle ebook, you’ve got little to lose.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heirs-of-Mars/dp/B0049H94G6

Meaty Pasta Sauce

Fuzzysteve

Served!

I’ve been meaning to write this up for a while, but I only make it once every few weeks, and I’ve forgotten each time before now.

I’d call it a Bolognese, but from what I’ve heard, it’s not particularly close to authentic. And don’t expect a detailed recipe. I cook by the seat of my pants. 😉

Anyway:

Meaty Pasta Sauce
Recipe Type: Dinner
Author: Steve Anderson
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 2 hours
Total time: 2 hours 30 mins
Serves: 8
A kinda bolognese sauce. Heavy on the meat. Light on other stuff.
Ingredients
  • Beef/steak mince. I normally use an 800 gram pack, though I’ve used 500g-1kg before now. I far prefer lean steak mince. For Americans, mince = hamburger, I believe. Or maybe ground beef.
  • Pork Mince. 500 gram pack. Normally the healthy living one, which is lower fat.
  • Unsmoked streaky bacon. 1 pack. I guess you could use pancetta. I never have.
  • Tomato passata. 1 500gram pack
  • Tomato Puree. Half a jar. About 150grams, but I just dollop it out with a spoon.
  • Balsamic Vinegar. 2 tablespoons. – optional. I like the flavor, but I can see how some might not. You can always throw some into a single serving, to see how it is. Though make sure to boil it off a bit if you do.
  • Red wine. About a third of a bottle. I don’t measure it.
  • Worcestershire sauce. about a teaspoonful. I just glug in what feels right.
  • Herbs. I’ve got a mix that works well from Just ingredients. A light handful. Sesame seeds, sea salt, basil, thyme,oregano,pepper,rosemary mostly. Before I used the mix from Tescos, and it’s pretty similar. Picture 6
  • Beef Stock cube.
  • Olive oil for frying stuff. A glug, to give the big pot a light coating on the bottom.
  • 2 medium onions. Or a similar amount of frozen if you’re lazy like me.
  • 2 teaspoons chopped garlic. Maybe 2 cloves or so if you only have fresh. Or aren’t lazy.
Instructions
  1. Start heating the oil in a big pot. I use a stock pot for this. Mostly so I don’t slop it everywhere. Generally a 4 or so, out of 6 on my hob.
  2. Chop up the bacon. I use a food processor for this, because I’m lazy.
  3. Fry the bacon. You want it all to be cooked. Picture 13, as long as the ordering isn’t screwed up.
  4. Add the garlic and onion. Picture 12
  5. Cook for a while, till the onion’s softened and begun to go translucent. Add the herbs, the vinegar and the Worcestershire sauce. You’re adding the vinegar now to boil off the acidic edge. Cook it a while longer. Picture 9
  6. At this point, I put the mince through my food processor. I don’t like stringy mince and have yet to master not getting it. It works best if it’s a little frozen, so it chips up. But not straight out the freezer either. Today, it was totally defrosted. Hence picture 3. That’s a mix of the two meats. I found it works better to deal with both at the same time. Did it in two batches.
  7. Add the mince to the mix. Work it round (I use a wooden spatula) to break it up. You don’t want meatballs.
  8. After it’s mostly browned, add the wine. It doesn’t matter if you still have uncooked mince in there. It’ll have plenty of time to finish off, and the additional liquid speeds it up. Picture 7.
  9. Leave to cook for a while. Maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Picture 6 is after this time. That liquid is about 2 cm deep. depends on how much wine gets used. I only had a quarter bottle this time.
  10. Add the passata. Add the tomato puree. Add the stock cube, crumbled. I actually used 2 oxo cubes. Not so good for salt (bit under 2 grams), but it does serve 9. Mix well. Picture 1.
  11. Cover on the hob, turn down (I put it at 2 out of 6) and leave to simmer gently for an hour and a half or so. Probably worth stirring every so often, but it doesn’t need constant watching. Every 30 minutes should be more than enough. And if you need to leave it longer? It’ll be just fine. I normally end up sticking on pasta after the timer’s gone off. A couple of hours cooking time won’t hurt. (with the lid on. Lid off, you’ll lose too much liquid) Picture 14 😀
Serving size: 300ml
Notes

It freezes well, and makes 8-9 portions. Picture 16 🙂 Remember, I ate a portion.

 

After this, serve on pasta. Add a topping of grated parmesan if you want 🙂 Picture 15

It freezes well, and makes 8-9 portions. Picture 16 🙂 Remember, I ate a portion.

 

Yes, the gallery isn’t exactly in a good order, but that’s a side effect of how I uploaded it. 🙂 You get the idea.

[nggallery id=1]