Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: Johannes Cabal The Necromancer by Jonathan L Howard

Johannes Cabal The Necromancer
Jonathan L Howard

Blurb
Johannes Cabal, a brilliant but reclusive scientist, has never pretended to be a hero. There is after all little heroic about robbing graves, being chased by torch-bearing mobs and selling your soul to the devil. All routine inconveniences, however, when your business is raising the dead.
But now Cabal wants his soul back and he descends to Hell to retrieve it. Satan, incredibly bored and hungry for a challenge, proposed a little wager: Johannes has one year to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will lose his own forever.
With little time to lose, Cabal raises a crew from the dead and enlists his vampire brother to help out. One the road, Cabal wields weird science and black magic with the moral conscience of anthrax, but are his tricks good enough to beat the Devil at his own game?

Publisher
Headline

ISBN
9780755347858

Rosy's scrawlings on Johannes Cabal The Necromancer

I picked up this book mainly for the awesome cover and curiosity as to how the story would be laid out, given that there are a 100 souls for Johannes to collect. It didn't at all hurt that this was a black comedy and there was likely to be a version of Satan in the story. The inclusion of the satanic usually makes for a good story as no one can resist writing in much chaos. And that's just what I found within Johannes Cabal The Necromancer.

Johannes Cabal is a man with a mission, one rarely in line with what he proclaims to be doing. He's a bit of a gentleman, a bit of a scumbag, a cutthroat and a pedantic. For the most part he's likeable enough, as long as he's at a distance, but there are times when you question whether he's the one you should be hoping comes out on top. He certainly isn't your average hero or even anti-hero as he can be both or neither, depending on what he needs to do. By his side, as he goes about collecting souls, is his undead brother who just happens to be more of a do-gooder than Johannes  This too is mostly unexpected behaviour from a vampire but you must keep in mind that Johannes is a necromancer, even if he doesn't tend to hang about in graveyards raising armies of the dead - as he puts it. There are a couple of other characters who reveal just how warped Johannes' personality is but for the most part Johannes is surrounded by the satanic and the dead, the types that tend to make anyone look good.

The book is nicely paced, full of gentlemanly and dastardly behaviour and a variety of perspectives. There's a few perspectives included that aren't Johannes' or his brother's, including some of Johannes' victims and potential victims and even Satan. This breaks up Johannes' obsession with his mission and shows a little more of the impact of his actions. The writing is also smooth and includes the occasional flourish one might expect when the story is from a smart, straight forward and somewhat sadistic man's perspective. In all, Johannes Cabal The Necromancer is a grand railway carnival adventure that spans life and death and life again.

I'd recommend this book to: those interested in morbid fantasy stories, black comedies as well as stories involving versions of Satan and the demonic.

Rosy's scrawled manga recommendation: Arago by Arai Takahiro

Arago
Arai Takahiro

Blurb

The story centers around two twins, Arago and Ewan, whose parents were slaughtered by monsters. Years later, the vengeful Arago crosses paths with Ewan, who has since become a police officer, just as blood begins to flow again in the streets of London.


Alternative names
AR∀GO
AR∀GO -ロンドン市警特殊犯罪捜査官-
AR∀GO - London Shikei Tokushu Hanzai Sousakan
Arago - 伦敦市警特殊犯罪搜查官
Arago - 魔都伦敦特殊犯罪搜查官
Arago - 魔都特殊犯罪侦查官
Arago - London Shikei Tokushu Hanzai Sōsakan
Arago - London Shikei Tokushu Hanzai Sousakan

Status
Completed

Manga reader sites (free)
Manga Fox, Manga Reader, Manga Here

Rosy's scrawlings on Arago
Arago is a manga filled with ghosts, fairies, goblins, leprechauns, horsemen (yes, those of the four), and a once man now monster named Patchman who resembles Frankenstein's monster in creation. The story is based around one of two brothers who believes himself the sole survivor of an attack by the Patchman. Believing he'd lost his brother while they were both young Arago sets out to be what his brother wanted to be, a policeman, almost as payment to the world for the loss of the better brother. While he does manage to become a policeman he doesn't behave as the others, being rougher and more brash. Arago also has a secret. He's got a power locked into his right hand and he's able to see and vanquish ghosts. Through a series of mysterious cases involving the supernatural Arago learns the mysterious Patchman has returned. Arago's desire for revenge takes him and several other friends and enemies further into the supernatural world than any of them would have liked. Then Ewan  the lost brother, appears.
This manga is a full tilt fantasy adventure through London where spooks and supernaturals freely live or exist alongside humans. Added to that are magical powers and suped-up abilities which are frequently displayed in fight scenes. There are a few beleaguered aspects to the writing, such as fight scenes are explained step by step, but there's little to annoy or stop one from enjoying the read. There are also a lot of male characters to females but at least there are some female main players about. The action is fast paced and the character list varied. There's also some mystery as to who the Patchman is and what he wants, which only becomes clearer towards the end of the manga. Overall, this is a manga that focuses both on supernatural action and tense relationships. It is a fun and light-hearted read and would serve well to entertain over a lazy weekend.
The art of Arago is both scratching, a little bubblish or blockish at times but also smooth and well-drawn. It has a style all its own thats a bit of am amalgamation of manga action styles, typical features like eye shapes and the comic strip style for illustrating the scenery and some of the other character features like builds and facial features. There's an easy flow to the actions scenes, unfortunately broken at times by the writing instead of the drawing, and a play to the use of darkness that reminds me at times of gothic art, especially concerning the floating ghost skull. The art of Arago is one of the most appealing features of the manga purely for the freedom and play involved.

I'd recommend this manga to: those who love London ghost stories, supernatural action, fantasy adventure and good old revenge plots.

Notes on manga reader sites
The quality of manga readers can vary. The uploads are often done cheaply or as a serious hobby by a collective. Be aware that sometimes licence hasn't been given but the sites noted above, Manga Fox in particular, are extremely careful about adding and pulling mangas according to license agreements. So you shouldn't have to worry too much about the material being pirated. There are also translated works and non-translated. Amongst the translated works you will find that the quality of translation may vary according to the skills of the translators. Usually the works are perfectly readable anyway, with only a few added or dropped words or a word in the incorrect tense or with/out plurals. But sometimes the text becomes gobbledygook. In which case, either seek another version or give up and buy an official copy once a printed translation comes out. The other issue of note is you may need to expand the screen to read the text easily as sometimes the scans are minimised a little.
I find that if a page doesn't download properly or some other issue occurs (too slow or someone ordered the pages incorrectly etc.) with one reader then skipping across to another reader and picking up where I was is quite easy and rarely annoying.
Otherwise, enjoy and watch out you don't get too addicted you forget about the necessary things in life.

Allergy free pumpkin and feta bread bites recipe

My experiment worked and yet it didn't. For pull aparts I need to work more but for bread bites this is perfect so I've adjusted the recipe below to make prettier versions of those pictured above. Despite the experiment fail, these taste so nice I can't not post this recipe. Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 400g butternut pumpkin, peeled, cubed
• 2½-3 cups Orgran self raising flour
• ⅓ cup Orgran gluten free gluten
• 2 tsps caster sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp olive oil plus extra for brushing
• 100g goat’s feta cheese, cut into 1cm cubes
• 12 fresh sage or basil leaves

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Place the pumpkin on the prepared tray.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until tender.
• Allow the pumpkin to cool.
• Grease a wide baking tray with olive oil cooking spray or olive oil.
• Sift flour and gluten free gluten into a large bowl.
• Stir in salt, sugar, water and olive oil.
• Mix to form soft dough.
• Roll and press in the bowl until smooth. Do not over do this stage.
• Turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
• Roll the dough out to a 15cm x 25cm rectangle.
• Scatter the top with pumpkin, basil and feta.
• Starting from one long side, roll the dough up like a Swiss roll.
• Press down any cracks to trap the pumpkin and cheese.
• Cut the roll into 12 slices.
• Gently shape the slices into balls.
• Place the balls upon the baking tray.
• Heat the oven to 180°C.
• Lightly brush or spray the tops of the balls with olive oil.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through.
• Turn the bread bites onto a wire rack to cool.
• Serve at room temperature.

Allergy free banana muffins recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups Orgran self-raising flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1¼ goat’s cups milk
• 1 tsp Orgran No Egg whisked with 60mls water until thick
• 90g Nuttlex, melted
• 2 small bananas, peeled, mashed

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Place muffin patties in a large muffin pan.
• Sift the flour into a large bowl.
• Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and stir to combine.
• Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture.
• Combine the goat’s milk, No Egg and Nuttlex in a separate bowl.
• Add the mashed banana with the goat’s milk mixture.
• Pour the goat’s milk mixture into the flour mixture.
• Using a large metal spoon, stir until the muffin batter is just combined.
• Spoon the batter into the muffin patties.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 1 minute.
• Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Fun fictional bands

Dethklok from Metalocalypse

Spinal Tap from This Is Spinal Tap

The cantina band Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes from Star Wars

Bill & Ted's Wyld Stallyns from the Bill & Ted series

The Be Sharps from The Simpsons: Homer's Barbershop Quartet

Bleeding Gums Murphy from The Simpsons: Moaning Lisa

The Blues Brothers from The Blues Brothers

School Of Rock from The School Of Rock

Marvin Berry and The Starlighters from Back To The Future

Sex Bob-omb from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Creme Brulèe from The League of Gentlemen

Cylon and Garfunkel from Futurama

Smeg And The Heads from Red Dwarf

Unnamed band that sings Tongue Tied from Red Dwarf

Soggy Bottom Boys from O, Brother, Where Art Thou?

The Monkees from The Monkees

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Stillwater from Almost Famous

Sadgasm from The Simpsons

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem from The Muppet Show

The Archies from The Archie Show

Josie & The Pussycats from Josie & The Pussycats

Disaster Area from Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Allergy free Thai ginger chicken stir fry recipe

Ingredients

• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 double chicken breast, sliced
• 2 tbsps fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 6cm fresh ginger, peeled, cut into matchsticks
• 1 red capsicum, sliced
• 200g fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 4 shallots, cut into 5cm pieces
• ½ tsp Thai red curry paste, or to taste
• 2 tbsps chicken stock made from a Massel vegetarian chicken ultracube
• Pinch of salt
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsps fresh coriander leaves (optional)

Method

• Heat a wok over a medium-high heat.
• Add the oil and swirl to spread the oil around the wok base.
• Add the garlic and chicken, cooking until the chicken begins to whiten.
• Add the fish sauce, sugar, ginger, capsicum, mushrooms and shallots.
• Cook, stirring, until the chicken is no longer pink and the vegetables are nearly tender.
• In a small bowl, dissolve the curry paste in the chicken stock.
• Add the curry mixture to the wok.
• Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Serve with the jasmine rice and sprinkle with coriander leaves.

Rosy's scrawled book recommendation: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons

Blurb
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. 

Publisher

Longmans in 1932

ISBN

N/A

Rosy's scrawlings on Cold Comfort Farm

Dystopian writing is usually rather serious, encompasses nations or the world and sees the main character come to some kind of disaster. In Cold Comfort Farm, though, the dystopia is located only upon the farm, the mood is rather comedic and the main character decides to forgo all the doom and gloom and clean up the farm and its inhabitants. Flora Poste, while pushy and more than a little overbearing, is the whirl of light, hope sophistication that everyone on the farm needs, whether they agree or not.
Cold Comfort Farm is a place where everyone's minds have stagnated, their hopes have been eroded by monotony and the tight control of Aunt Ada Doom and all but the faintest of possibility remains for a better life. Day in and day out, season upon season, the family toils in the same way they have since Aunt Ada took control. All because Aunt Ada once saw something nasty in one of the sheds, presumably the woodshed, and has wielded the psychological shock and trauma as a weapon of control ever since. She simply doesn't want her family to up and leave her alone but she can't seem to say this and as the years wear on her attitude and control over her family become heavier and heavier. It is on the farm that Flora Poste, a newly orphaned relative, decides to stay for she likes the idea of being able to impose upon them freely. Once there, though, she see the state of the inhabitants with their emotional problems and the decaying state of the farm and decides to rescue them all and the farm along with them by applying common sense and a splash of sophistication.
It all reads rather like a busy-body housewife entering a dingy house and deciding that it just won't do. There's also a tinge of Mary Poppins' biting wit and headlong drive to fix any problem. Sometimes you cringe for what Flora has to endure and sometimes for those she's trying to fix. She's not a person you'd want about if you were happy with the way things are, as Aunt Ada seems to be at the beginning, but she is one to stir up a much needed whirl-wind of change which makes you appreciate her character at least somewhat. Aside from a distorted dystopian novel this also reads like a reverse comedy of errors and the popular at the time romantic adventure where civilisation and sophistication is spread. Overall, the comedy comes from looking into the fishbowl that is the farm more than by identifying with any of the characters, including Flora, and watching as Flora's actions bring chaos to everyone and everything about her.

I'd recommend this book to: anyone in need of a good laugh.

Allergy free sweet potato scones recipe

Ingredients

• 2½ cups Orgran self-raising flour
• ⅓ cup Orgran gluten free gluten
• ⅓ cup caster sugar (optional)
• 125g Nuttlex
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled, boiled and mashed
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Method

• Cream together the Nuttlex and sugar.
• In a separate bowl, add the mashed sweet potato and stir through the cinnamon.
• Combine both mixtures evenly.
• Fold through the flour and gluten free gluten.
• Gently mix into dough, using your hands.
• Hand roll small handfuls of dough to make the scones.
• Place them on a foiled and greased baking tray.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 210°C for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through (cook time may vary according to how big you rolled the scones).

Allergy free coconut apricot slice recipe

Ingredients

• Melted Nuttlex or spray olive oil, to grease
• Orgran all purpose flour, to dust
• ¾ cup Nuttlex
• 1 cup caster sugar, divided
• 2 tsps Orgran No Egg whisked with 80mls water until thick
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ¾ cup Orgran self-raising flour
• ¾ cup Orgran all purpose flour
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• 410g can apricot halves in natural syrup

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Brush a square slice tin with melted Nuttlex.
• Dust the tin with flour.
• Using an electric beater, beat the Nuttlex and ¾ of the sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add the No Egg mixture, beating until well combined.
• Stir in the vanilla essence.
• Sift the combined flour into a separate bowl.
• Gently fold the flour into the Nuttlex mixture.
• Spread the mixture evenly over the base of the prepared slice tin.
• Sprinkle the mixture with the coconut and gently pat into place.
• Drain the apricot halves, reserving a ½ cup of syrup.
• Pat the apricot halves dry with a paper towel.
• Arrange the apricot halves, cut-side facing up, over the slice mixture.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Set the slice aside to cool in the tin.
• Place the remaining sugar and reserved syrup in a small saucepan.
• Bring to the boil over a medium-high heat then reduce the heat to medium.
• Simmer the mixture for 6-10 minutes or until the syrup thickens.
• Pour the syrup over apricots and set the slice aside to cool.