She is The Darkness – The Black Company (re)read part 8

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs ! Welcome back on board of I. S. S. Rover. This is your captain speaking. It is some 15 – 17 °C out there, we have a clear sky, so strap in, as we are about to take off. As for the destination: it´s Khatovar. We are getting nearer and nearer to this “somewhat” legendary place. So, welcome back to the (re)read of the Black Company series as we continue with She is the Darkness. But before I go straight to discussing the matters let me repeat the usual disclaimer.

This is a (re)read  of the series that will encompass the better part of the year as I will  be reading one book per month. I will be exploring the world of Khatovar, and as this is at least partly a reread there might be spoilers, so continue reading at your own risk, I did warn you. For the previous posts look up the links included at the end of this one.

Tor Fantasy (1997)

And now that we have cleared that out of our way lets see what we got here. I have to mention the cover art of the actual book again: does that figure on the cover look like Michael Jackson to you too. I can´t decide whether it´s awesome, or terrible, but I can´t unsee it, it might haunt me for a while, or maybe not. Who knows ?!

But lets return to Croaker and Co. When we last saw them they were preparing to leave for the Shadowlands to start Croaker´s winter campaign against Longshadow. And they finally get rolling. Murgen is still in charge of the Annals, so no changes here. And Goblin is leading a merry band of commandos behind the enemy lines.

After what seemed a somewhat static recollection of past events in Bleak Seasons now everything starts moving toward a conclusion. But not too fast. First we have a battle at Charandraprash pass against Mogaba´s and Blade´s united forces, but to a not big surprise of mine Blade pulls out his forces and surrenders to Croaker. What ? Croaker greats Blade as an old friend. Yeah, my dear readers the whole Blade changing sides thing was a ruse planned by Croaker and performed by Blade to his utter delight as he got to confront the religious fanatics he so much hates, and that helped also Croaker as he got rid of a large part of his taglian opposition and kept them busy elsewhere while he was getting ready for the final showdown with the enemy´s main camp. Ohh, so Croaker isn´t actually such a bad general after all. Hurrah for Croaker !

And Mogaba didn´t expect it, he couldn´t see it coming. He wouldn´t think Croaker capable of such  a plan, decision. So Mogaba shortened for one third of the total shadowland forces can hardly keep up against the pressure of taglian onslaught and collapses. The battle at Charandaprash is won, and the Black Company and the accompanying taglian forces start their long haul to Overlook, which is slowed down by Mogaba´s rearguard actions. The partisan warfare is being fought long after the main forces crossed the mountains of Danda Presh. Goblins motley crew is hunting Mogaba. And meanwhile Croaker, Lady and Co. start the long siege of Overlook.

It is everything you desire for in a military fiction. You get elaborate commando actions on both fighting sides, the soldiers are getting restless and bored as they are bogged down in one place for a long time. And this gives a chance to flash out some other details beside the siege. It gets revealed that Lady has somehow latched onto Kina and steals (?) her powers to restore her own magic powers, and abilities. The Nyueng Bao are behaving rather mysteriously, Father Doj exceptionally so. It is revealed that he is trying to find Soulcatcher – the favourite military advisor of our dear bad ass commander in chief, Croaker – as she has stolen a magical artifact belonging to the Nyueng Bao. And this artifact might have a part in the future events.

And as the siege drags on at one moment the things suddenly speed up. Soulcatcher wasn´t aiding just our favourite, Croaker, but was scheming with Radisha to turn against the Black Company: in Taglios the sympathizers of the Black Companny are arrested, in the camp at Overlook Prahbindrah tries to disarm Lady´s forces, but fails. In the end the Black Company ends up with Howler, Longshadow, Narayan Singh and Prahbindrah as their prisoners, and Soulcatcher escapes with the Daughter of the night.

And also our favourite cowardly wizard awakens after an extended “sleep”, not that it matters much as Murgen develops an ability to wander around the world in his dreams as a side effect due to “ghostwalking” with Smoke. And this development brings one of the brighter moments of the series: Murgen realizes that his wife Sarie is alive and pregnant; a light of hope.

But back to Company business. As the Black Company is now pressed from north by their former allies, Croaker decides to take the final step and lead the company to the Khatovar. A dream gets fulfilled finally. Or does it ?!

Soulcatcher sprangs her final trap, and half of the Company is trapped inside the halls of Khatovar, the other half on run back to Overlook. And the leadership of the Black Company: Croaker, Lady, Blade and some more are trapped in a stasis in the cave of the old man Murgen used to see in his dreams. Only Murgen escaped this treatment as he was dreamwalking at the time Soulcatcher trapped the rest of them.

Croaker, Lady and Co. trapped and helpless in an unknown place, with Soulcatcher roaming free, it seems an appropriate end to the series. Soulcatcher finally won, has had her revenge, seemingly taken everything from her sister. But we know that it´s not the end yet, as there are two more books in the series ( and another two coming in the following years – editor´s note ). But I do ask myself: did Cook intend to finish the series here ? Or was it just a joke on the readers ? I mean it is a perfect ending: the “good” guys trapped at the end of the world, and the seemingly “bad” guys free to do what they want. What happens next ? Use your imagination, everything is possible. At this point at least. And I would like for it to stay this way, but unfortunately I know that the story continues, and as much as it makes me happy, as I get to read more about some characters I came to like in the past year ; it also makes me sad as it ruins an otherwise nice ending.

But that is a different matter, for another time. Now it´s time for me to delve into the next book in the series. So I´m saying a short goodbye to you all, just to return shortly, as in couple of days I will be celebrating the first anniversary of this blog, and some changes (?), but at least surprises are coming. And also in about a months worth of time I will be returning with the next installment of the (re)read project: Water sleeps.

So take care, and see you soon ! Captain of I. S. S. Rover over, and out !

                                                                      

Introduction: the plan

Black Company – The Black Company reread part 1

Shadows Linger – The Black Company reread part 2

The White Rose – The Black Company reread part 3

Shadow Games – The Black Company reread part 4

Dreams of Steel – The Black Company reread part 5

Silver Spike – The Black Company reread part 6

Bleak Seasons – The Black Company reread part 7

Treasures hiding in plain sight

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs ! I haven´t been around for couple of days. Last week I was down in Böblingen, visiting my sister and her family. We were celebrating the birthday of my nefew, and my skills and attention were needed, so I had no time to do my usual stuff. But this week there are no such interruptions, so it´s time for new adventures of I.S.S. Rover. And here we go !

Originally I planned to do a cooking post as my double deck cooking plate just arrived earlier this week. But things happened today. So let me start at the beginning.

The plan was to go down to town, and get all I need for today´s “christening” cooking event. So I frst got to the turkish store to get me some olives and some turkish coffe – not that I need them for today´s cooking, but I´m finally able to cook turkish coffe as I have a coking plate, so I got me some coffe too. And the olives are simply cheaper at the turkish store then at the other stores.

And till here everything went as planned, but then things started happening, and that is the actual topic of today´s post – not that I didn´t cook after, but that is a secondary thing now, although the chilli beans I made were good, and there is plenty left for tomorrow and the day after. But back to the morning event.

So as I left the turkish store I stopped at a gas station to pump up a bit the tires of my bycicle, and there I decided to take a small detour and take the way through the main square of the town. And what a choice it was. As I rolled into the square there was a sight I was not expecting. There were small trucks converted to stores and tables everywhere, with people behind them selling different products. A smile appeared on my face as I realised: “Finally, I found the weekly marketplace !” There were local farmers and different artisans sellng their homegrown vegetables, homemade foodproducts etc. And there were also stands selling “fast-food”, though much more delicious, than the usuall McDonalds and Co. stuff.

First I bought some eggs, as I ran out of them this week. Next I stumbled upon a stand selling cheese, and after talking with the cheese artisan, and trying some of the cheese, I bought some of it. Did I mention that I am a cheese monger ?! Yes ?! Whatever ! So after having me eggs and cheese I set out to look around a bit more, just to get the feeling, and to see and feel all the buzz around me. When the stand of a turkish baker ambushed me. I was pushing my bike when I saw something that was similar to the burek from the Balkans. Burek ( or börek in this case, as it is called  by the turkish ) is a family of filled baked pastries made of a thin, flaky dough. Traditionally filled with cheese or minced meat, but nowdays you have also burek with mushrooms, pizza filling etc.. My favourite is the cheese filled burek. And here I was standing against a börek filled with cheese, basilicum and some spinach. At first it´s a bit unusual, at least for me, as I´m not a fan of spinach – although I liked Popeye the Sailor cartoons – but whatever I had to have a bite of it. What bite ?! Give me a whole börek, right away !

And now that I had my börek I had to find a place where I can sit down and eat it in peace. It took me measly two minutes to find a free bank, so I settled and started eating. The outer crust was as crunchy as it needs to be, and as I got nearer and nearer to the middle part there was always more and more cheese in the subsequent chunks of bites, an exquisite feeling. And the taste of spinach wasnt as dominant as I feared at start. It was a harmonious and creamy experience. Something I hadn´t had for few years back.

To be more exact: something I didn´t expect to experience so far to the west from what I used to call home. But again, an experience I´m glad I made. And also one that I wouldn´t have made if I had stayed in Hungary. It feels kind of like a small wonder. Yet another since I arrived. So one more point for Kempten ! And thank you everyone who helped me to get here !

That would be all for tonight. Thanks for sticking with me ! Enjoy your night, or day, and have fun ! See you soon as the next installment of the Black Company series is coming, not to mention some surprises. Captain of I. S. S. Rover over, and out !

History – Science Fiction

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen ! Bonsoir Mesdames et Messieurs ! Welcome back on the board of the I.S.S. Rover once again as it´s getting ready to set out on another journey after quite a while. “So where do we venture tonight ?” – you ask. Oh well after so much Black Company, and a dash of history, after Barbara Tuchman´s Guns of August I would say it´s time for some science fiction and a bit of an anthology, right ?!

Orbit Book ( 1978 )

OK, so which one ? About a year ago I stumbled across an anthology put together by none other than Isaac Asimov – the renowned author of the robot and Foundation stories – that piqued my interest as it was titled “Before the Golden Age” (as Golden Age refers to the time after publisher or editor Campbell joined the industry ). So Asimov compiled some early science fiction stories that he grew up on, and ispired him. This is a rare chance to glimpse into the past, into the beginnings of the blooming of a genre that shaped much of my life too so much later, and being interested in history, and past of my interests, hobbies, well I thought appropriate to examine this record left behind by one of my favourite authors. So here we go.

The first story is Stanley G. Weinbaum: The parasite planet. It takes place on Venus and tells the story of hardships that befell a young explorer turned trader. The writer describes a lush life befitting those of earthly jungles, though a bit more dangerous to human life. It might be unfortunate, that the increasing knowledge of our Solar system makes this setting unbelievable, but the description of extraterrestrial life is still magnificent, and it makes for a nice frontier adventure story. And I don´t know if it was an expactation in that age, but there is a romantic side to the story too. At least it feels to me like if it was consensual at that time that an involving story needs to have it´s romantic part too.

And so we arrive to the next story: Proxyma Centauri from the pen of Murray Leinister ( yeah I first read it Lannister, God bless you G. R. R. Martin ! ). This is a story of a long term expedition to the nearest star system to us: the Proxyma Centauri. It is, or was a nice surprise to see that the trip to Proxyma didn´t take only hours, but several years – seven to be more precise. But the main part of the story is not that one of travel – the problems that come with such a long journey and the isolation of the group is being described only briefly – but the first contact with the sentient lifeform of Proxyma system. And what a first contact it is. It is a horrendous experience. the Centaurians are a carnivorous plant-like life form, and they massacre the whole crew except for three persons. Two, a man and a woman – lovers by the way – are isolated on a planet of Proxyma system that can sustain earth´s lifeforms, and the captain, who should teach the Centaurians how their ship´s systems work, to introduce them to human technology. In the end only the two on the isolated planet survive. I ask again: “Is it compulsory to have a romantic thread in the story of this age ?” – as till now in two out of two stories there were. Otherwise it is a captivating, and well written story even if the characters are somewhat sketchy, but damn me that I live an age where I can indulge in much more complex and involving storytelling. Thank you Murray Leinster ( and others not mentioned now ) for inspiring a whole generation of those writers, who have perfected the trade !

The third story in the book is The Accursed Galaxy by Edmondon Hamilton. And first I need to say that there ain´t an ounce of romance involved in this story, so my theory might be overthrown, but about that I will actually decide when I finish the book. Once again we have a story that starts out as a contact with alien species of third kind, but soon it develops into a wild speculation abaout how our universe became an expanding one and the galaxies became receding. And the explanation given here is the most dramatic, and quite compelling even though it might be outdated, or might even be labeled unscientific.

And so we have arrived to the end of the year of 1935 – apparently, as before the next story there is a page with the number 1936 on it, and also saying. “part seven”. But that is of little relevance here. The next story is He who shrank written by Henri Hasse. The beginning is something like straight from a H. P. Lovecraft story. Rambling about the incomprehensibility of the universe etc. And then the story turns into an adventure that is kind of a mix of Gulliver´s adventures and that of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A shrinking man shrinking as much as to perceive the molecules as galaxies and atoms as star systems, and then landing on them, and finding sentient life forms. And then continuing the shrinking and the cycle of hopping into the subatomic layers of that world, and so on, and so on. There is a notion of many ideas, among others that of sentient artificial intelligence waging war on it´s creators ( Terminator anybody ?). But the end of story arrives as the narrator “arrives” to Earth and in the end tells his story to a writer, who records it, and as a result we can read it right here. An interesting idea, of sequential universe structure I must say, and some sound storytelling, with that spicy nineteen thirties feel to it, a bit sensationalist, a bit too pulp, just like those old Superman cartoons.

I will remember the next story for it being one of the first in the genre written by a woman, Leslie Frances Stone, than for it´s qualities. The Human Pets of Mars is a story of abducted man and women escaping from their captors. It is quite unbelievable even that they managed to take over an alien vessel, and learn to handle it. But they outrace, outmaneuver and outgun the aliens. I mean, that ship is native to the aliens, they have experience which the humans don´t, but they get their asses kicked by the humans, who learned how to control the ship just hours earlier ?! Gimme a break ! And we also see the return of the obligatory romantic strand in a sci-fi story of the nineteen-thirties.

And so we arrive to the next story: The Brainstealers of Mars. Penned by a true giant of the science-fiction: John W. Campbell. To those who are avid fans of science-fiction and are somewhat knowledgable of the history of the genre, especially in the first half of the twentieth century in the USA I don´t need to introduce him. But to rest: John W. Campbell Jr. was the most influential editor of science-fiction magazines in the thirties all through the fifties. And he also happened to write some good stories too, among others the “Who goes there ?” which served as the base for the movies The thing from outer space and it´s 1982 remake –starring Kurt Russel – The Thing. But now here we have a different story. A space-opera like adventure of two “rogue” scientists. They being on the run from law enforcement forces of Earth are on a journey through the solar system. At the time we join them they are exploring Mars, where they run into mind reading shapechangers. And that brings up the problem of how do ypu know who is standing in front of you, or beside you. Yes it is a similar story to that of The Thing, but with a much happier ending.

And so we get to Devolution, the next story. Written by Edmond Hamilton. A story in which two biologists are in a search of strange creatures that have been sighted by a pilot when he flew over an unpopulated area. And they found more then they bargained for: telepathic “mutant” blobs, and discovering the truth behind the “human evolution”, namely being the descendants of the same kind of blobs, and the evolution being actually a devolution. A quite short story, resembling in much the feel of the H. P. Lovecraft´s stories as the protagonist looses his sanity after being confronted with the above described “truth”.

And here ties in a short story by Asimov himself, never published anywhere else: Big Game. It was written in 1941 and might have been inspired by Hamilton´s Devolution. It follows a similar idea, only the plot is not about the human evolution, but about the extinction of dinosaurs. And the answer to their extinction being that they have been hunted down by some intelligent biped saurians. Nice touch to the anthology.

And so we move to year 1937 with yet another writing by John W. Campbell Jr.: Other Eyes Watching. It´s a piece of non-fiction. A contemporary musing on Jupiter: it´s chemistry, physics etc. Ofcourse there are speculative parts like what kind of life is possible on the planet, and what kind of vehicles are they driving. Sounds laughable today, but the intention was to entertain and educate at the same time. And I must say that Campbell´s style is suitable for this purpose. And why is non-fiction amongst all the fiction here ? Well apparently this is the writing that inspired all the non-fictional work that Asimov produced in his lifetime, and this a book containing the works that inspired him, and in the end made him into a writer.

And then we return to fiction with John D. Clark´s Minus Planet. A story involving anti matter, actually a big clump of it on a collision path with Earth. Two scientists devise a plan to divert it, which includes hijacking the Moon and steering it into the antimatter´s way. Quite dramatic, yes. And to heighten the drama: we have worshippers waiting for the end of the world, God´s judgment. Those same worshippers turning terrorists, trying to sabotage the execution of the aforementioned plan. In the end our heroes save the day. I don´t know why but I found this story to be very annoying.

But I was very delighted by the next story: Past, Present, and Future penned by Nat Schachner. A story that starts out as a peculiar time travel adventure of a young officer of the armies of Alexander the Great and an Indiana Jones like adventurer of our times, who stumbled across the “resting chambers” of the aforementioned greek. And not a minutes sais by introducing the two protagonists, we change to a future resembling much the later novel of A. C. Clarke, namely the City and the Stars. There the protagonists awake in a city that is secluded from the outer world, not that many people know about it´s existence. And the order of the city rests on this ignorance, which the “old” newcomers are threatening. But it´s just a glimpse of a story that develops fully in Clarke´s novel, yet it is intriguing. Especially for someone like myself, who dabbles in RPG-s too, as it is a perfect starting point for a role playing adventure, and it sparks ideas. And so we arrive to the end of year 1937.

The end of 1937 means the beginning of 1938, but as I was shortly to discover, there is only one story included from that year: The Men and the Mirror by Ross Rocklynne. It starts off as an episode of Tom & Jerry cartoon: a cat chasing a mouse. But the cat is actually a policeman, and the mouse a notorious criminal, and the chase is happening all over our Solar system. But soon the story puts the two into a situation where they have to rely on, and trust each other if they want to survive. They happen to land on an artificial celestial body that contains a huge reflector mirror ( huge meaning the diameter of it is about 1000 miles, with an approximate depth of 300 miles ), actually a bowl with an almost frictionless surface. And to survive, and reach a happy ending they use some basic ideas from physics, to be more specific: kinetics. Though the solution is somewhat flowed I would include this story in teaching of the subject of physics. It might be a bit far fetched, but it is a good example for practical application of the knowledge otherwise deemed unnecessary. I mean I´m tired of hearing the line:”Why do they teach us this ? When in my life will I need this ?”.

And well that concludes our adventures here. I enjoyed the book, though sometimes it was hard to read it. It is interesting, and not only because I got to read science fiction from authors I never heard of before, but also because it includes many biographical references to the early life of Isaac Asimov, a writer whose work I came to love. And those are some details I wouldn´t find anywhere else I suppose, or at least I haven´t found them till now. And as this was the volume 3, I will try to find the preceding two volumes and read them too, for some more fascinating adventures in the mind of the young Asimov.

But till then I hope to have many other adventures too. So come back soon, and join me in the other excursions I make to th edifferent domains of enjoyment ! Captain of I. S. S. Rover over, and out.

 

 

Guns of August

Ladies and Gentlemen ! Mesdames et Messieurs ! A week has passed again, and here I am again to take you all to a journey that is long overdue – at least on my part. But before we depart let me elaborate a bit on my feelings about being, as I said: overdue.

As I am typing this I´m sitting in my room, under the roof window, with my back to my new trusty radiator, with a mug of an unidentified beverage on my side and earphones plugged in and listening to a radio station, so I could turn off any other interferances. As I stated in earlier posts: for a while I was unable to write and post regularly due to changes in my life. And now I´m trying to catch up on this unintended slack. Unfortunately due to the aforementioned changes in my life, the drive that I had earlier this year – and that peaked somewhere around may and june – did weaken, so my intent to pick up the pace was hampered by myself too. Due to the psychical impact of changing environment I did suffer something similar to depression – though it´s not as heavy and dangerous in effect – but it was enough to stop me in track for a while. And while it was not that hard to return to the routine posting of actual things, it´s not easy to return to things that I´ve left behind me, that´s why it took me more than a month to write up the next Black Company (re)read post.

And here I am now struggling with yet another slack of mine, though it didn´t bother me that much as it wasn´t an announced project for this year, so I wasn´t in hurry to write about it either, even though i ought to, as it was part of my declaration when I started this blog that I will share, and how can I stay true to my declaration if I decide to ommit something because I didn´t have the will to go back and revisit the event, the journey, my reason being that it took place a while ago and I don´t feel like doing it.

But here am I now. Maybe not fully restored yet, but on my way to pick up all the pieces. But what is the actual topic of today´s excursion ? Well, you see …

Sometime in january I was watching a documentary on BBC One on the topic of World War I. And it was at that moment that it dawned on me that I have almost forgotten that this game changing event of our “modern” history began hundred years ago. And as a history buff I couldn´t go past this event. I did a fast search to see what can I do about it, and I had to see that there is not much I can arrange at the time due to my financial possibilities. But I did acquire a copy of Barbara Tuchman´s Guns of August just at the end of the previous year, so it only seemed appropriate to read it, and subsequently write about it as a commemorative measure on my part. So here I am now doing the writing part, as the reading part I could end as I planned. before august 1.

Presidio Press (2004)

I heard of this book couple of years back when I was researching the possibilities to wargame World War I scenarios, and on the different discussion forums Tuchman´s book was highly appraised as a must read on the topic. But as I was living at that time in Hungary and obtaining a book that was not yet translated into Hungarian was still not an easy task – I found out about Bookdepository.com only last year – till now I didn´t read it. But that is in the past. So lets see what does Tuchman, and her book offer to us.

Actually this book is kind of an introduction to the whole World War One. The main focus of the book is the opening month of the war: the August of 1914. Geographycally it covers almost solely the action that played out on the western front. There is a chapter on events connected to the german warship Goeben, and what, two chapters on the early events on the eastern front, but that´s all – it might be considered a flaw, but also as a feature. And much to my delight the book is not that much about numbers of guns, people in units etc., the statistics, but about the people itself. How did the military personell, but also the civilians see to their every day tasks in the changed environment, how did they accept what was happening.

In the first part of the book we get the outlines of the different pre-war plans: the german Schliffen plan, the French Plan 17, the british plans that are made to complement the French battle plans, and the Russian plan that is heavily influenced by the French need to divert german forces from the western front. And it was a strange pleasure to me to see that the French were at least as much aggressive in their intentions as the germans, and if they had thought a bit more about the tactics and use of appropriate weapons instead of charging blindly into the battle – as we will see in the later chapters of the book – we might today think of them as equally responsible for the war as the germans; but well that is a different story.

A second short part of the book describes the outbreak itself: from the trigger event of the assassination of theArchduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Sarajevo on 28^th of June to the diplomatic maneuvers the different countries took till the beginning of august when the armies began their movements.

And so we arrive to the third and longest part which describes the actual events taking place on the front lines. The arrogant german march directed by a reluctant von Moltke who is weighed down by the heritage of his heroic and succesfull uncle. Or the french blind charges into the german ambushes that could have been avoided had Joffre not been that rigid in insisting that the Plan 17 is bulletproof, and had believed the reports of the scouting parties, or in some instances used some scouting at all. The british forces hampered by a hesitant or even frightened commander, Sir John French. The heroic resistance of the Belgian army. Or the foolish and so futile Russian offensive in Prussia.

Wonderful and detailed descriptions that draw I suppose heavily on the different memoirs of the leaders of the time. Tuchman introduces all the key players in her book: Joseph Jophre ( Commander in Chief of the French forces ), Lord Kitchener ( british war minister ), Helmuth von Moltke ( Chief of the German General Staff ), Wilhelm II ( Kaiser of Germany ), Albert I ( King of Belgium, and the commander of it´s armed forces who grew up to his present task, even if he failed at the end ) and Alexander von Kluck ( the german general who was tasked with the command of the german far right wing, and so with the execution of the outflanking and enveloping the French and it´s allies forces. Of course we get to see some other notable, or at least somewhat remembered characters, like the French prime minister Raymond Poincaré, or the First Lord of Admiralty: Winston Churchill, who seems already at that time to have been one of the few british leaders having the guts to take action, to make war, if it has already come to it, like we have seen in a book I read earlier this year.

It is a book on history,l but it definitely reads like a novel. Barbara Tuchman succeded in gripping my attention and not letting it go all till the end. And some of her descriptions and character sketches are also more than memorable, and to pick just one, the best is the one on general Jophre:

He looked like Santa Claus and gave an impression of benevolence and naivety – two qualities not noticeably part of his character

It was a good read, not only on the historical topic, but as a book in general. Even though there are some exaggarations ( that are probably products of the perception of the age when it was written ) it holds up qute good till today. SO if you are interested in the war itself, or only in the era in general: go and read this book, you can´t miss with it.

And that would be all for today. I hope you enjoyed the ride. And now go a bt outside and enjoy the nice weather of this late summer day in September. Captain of I.S.S Rover over, and out !

Experiments with food and a steamcooker

So, a week has passed in my “not so busy” life. But even though it´s not as busy as it used to be, things still happened. I managed to acquire a toaster and a water boiler, so now I can make me some “decent” tea, and toast my bread. So I´m not limited to the steamcooker I received from a relative. But as I am limited in tools for cooking I have to experiment. So it´s time again for some new culinary adventures.

As I have no stove right now, I can´t really cook, but I did manage to get around this problem somewhat thanks to the steam cooker. A bit of tweaking the things and I was able to cook sausages and ten minute eggs with it, beside steaming vegetables and rice. Today I even steamed some tuna fish and added it to the whole vegetable-rice thing, with some soy sauce dressing.

Vegetable-rice with some tuna

But this time it´s no meat time. Even prior to my moving to Germany I decided on a change in my lifestyle, which actually means more vegetables and less meat in future. No, I´m not gonna become a vegetarian, but I do feel that I want to eat less meat. Not to mention that after the meat heavy culinary excursions I made before, I promissed a friend that the next time I will prepare a vegetarian meal. So here we go Kassia. Brace yourself, as Keshik is making a meal with not a single gram of meat in it.

So what do we do if we only have a steam cooker at our disposal. Well I did hear that the steamed vegetables are healthier than the fully cooked ones: so we take some vegetables ( preferedly those you like), steam them and eat them. But this sounds so bland. But hey, we have a second tray that fits into the steamcooker beside the first one. And you can steam the rice too, instead of cooking. Hmm, steamed vegetables plus steamed rice. it sounds kinda like a risotto, so lets go for it.

Steamy, my dear steam cooker

the ingredients

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So off we go to purchase some vegetables. Unfortunatelly I didn´t find any brocoly or cauliflower, which made me sad, but lets see what did I manage to find: fresh carots, spring onion, green/yelow (?) pepper, garlic, and this I augmented with some canned mushrooms and peas. And though there is a can of corn too, in the end I didn´t use it. And of course I needed the rice too. This time around I used the fast cooking type.
So I put the rice in one tray and added a mug ( around 0.33 l ) of water to it, and I put the shredded veggies in the other tray. Put the trays into the steamcooker, and set the tmer to 20 minutes. And now we wait.

The rice in the lower tray 

The vegetables in the upper tray

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twenty minutes are up, and the meal is ready. I put it on a plate, mix it together, season it with some black pepper. And I must admit: I´m good. The food is delicious. A bit unusual to have no meat in it, but good. The consistency is good, the rice ain´t overcooked, and I don´t even miss the salt. Easy to prepare, an it took me only 40 minutes. Not to mention that the batch is enough for two full meals for me, so I have some decent cooked meal for the next day too.

The final result. yummy !

Have you become hungry ? Then don´t sit there, go and get on with it. Prepare yourself a tasty steam cooked risotto, and enjoy it. Have a glas of wine, or a bottle of beer, like I did. Goodbye !