The Wheel of Time(9): Winter's heart

 It's snowing... but the Wheel turns...

Perrin goes to the Prophet without Faile to save her from the danger, but while he's away Faile is attacked by the Shaido who take her along with Morgase.

Mat reappears alive with many bruises and a bad leg which he doesn't want to be healed with the One Power, the Seanchan rule there and he wants to scape.

Rand goes to a place like a Steading where the power cannot enter to kill the ashama'n that tried to kill him before trying to clean the Saidin with Nynaeve, and Cadsuane arrives to help him once he ask her to help.

Elayne has to prepare her claim to Andor's crown and manage the day by day which is not easy.

Wheel of Time(8): The path of daggers

 Where is Mat?

A wall felt over him in the last book and we've had no notice about him.

After taking the Illian crown, Rand knows the Seanchan are heading toward him so he attacks them before they can reach him.

After healing the weather with the Bowl of Winds, Elayne travels to Andor to claim her crown.

Egwene is stopped by the snow on her way to Caemlyn (why did they not travel?).

Perrin leads an army to reach the Prophet and submit him to Rand.

It seems at the end that Egwene decides to travel... and attack the White Tower!

Who won? We still don't know... I'll have to read the next book. 

The Wheel of Time: Crown of swords

 Life is complicated when you are Rand Al'Thor... and you make it more complicated...

The search of the bowl of winds continues with Mat, Eleyne and Nynaeve who finally mets Lan and they marry...

Moghedien escapes and finds Nynaeve and almost kills her, there's a new character which is a powerful myrdraal who is over the forsaken and gives them orders.

Perrin wants to know how Rand and Mat behave well with women... either do them...

Padan Fain almost kills Rand with the dagger that almost killed Mat.

And finally Rand attacks Sammael but the fight takes place in Shadath Logor... without having lunch after 2 days of sleep recovering from the dagger's poison.

The Wheel of Time: Lord of Chaos

 All the book waiting for Rand's attack to Sammael and... no attack and Rand is trapped in a box shielded by Aes Sedai...

Perrin returns to Rand from Two Rivers, Min returns to Rand from Altara. Egwene, Aviendha and Mat from Rand to Altara. Rand opening gates between Cahirien and Andor...

Nynaeve discovers how to un-still stilled people, and with Eleyne an artifact which can solve the drought brought by The Dark One, but the research is not completed in this book, will they find it in the next book?

The Wheel of Time: The fires of Heaven

 Well... The Waste, the Aiel, the return to the other side of the world, Telaranriod, travel, fight, game of houses...

I want more!

Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willlis

 Two books with one story: Time travel to WWII, the book is a good way to know more about the WWII seen by those who lived it in Great Britain, focusing on London, from the first bombings with planes to the V1 and V2 unmanned bombs sent from Germany.

How the people lived in the shelters, how the shops stayed opened defiant to Hitler, how the women took the responsabilities of everything at home while men were fighting in the front.

Really interesting, science fiction but based in real people who the writer interviewed to know more about what she was going to write about.

The Windup Girl

 This book won the Nebula 2010 award.

In the second year of COVID, it has been a good read to see how things can be in a few years if we are not awake enough.

The book tells the story of a corporation manager in Thailand, a "yellow card" who is a chinese refugee, a White Shirt(environment ministry police), ex tai-boxing champion who is the White Shirt's captain and a windup girl who is a new people(genetically improved human) used as sexual attraction in Bangkok.

The world by then has collapsed ecologically and plagues and virus have brought the world wars, famines and the domination of the Calory companies who control the plague resistant plants who feed the world, except in Thailand that closed it's borders and developed an internal program to feed their people successfully.

As always, political corruption leads to problems and the book is well written and you can see different points of view to understand the situation.

The Wheel of Time: The shadow rising

 Fourth book of The Wheel of Time, more action, adventures, new skills and the main characters gaining knowledge about themselves.

Rand, Moraine, Egwene and Mat go to the Three Fold Land, the aiel's homeland to check the prophecy and know if Rand is He Who comes with the dawn.

Nyeaeve and Elayne go to Tanchico trying to find the Black Ajah.

Perryn, Faile and Loial return to Two Rivers to try to save people there from the White Cloacks.

Min arrives to the White Tower and sees one of her visions which will finish with a turmoil there.

It's been a good read in the beach this first holidays' week, I haven't bring the next book here, so I'll have to wait till october to start the fifth...

After a week with no bike riding... I tried this morning the Romanyà road, but I'm not fit enough, I know in the afternoons I have more power, but it was cloudy so I tried today, I'll try again this week.

To say nothing of the dog

Second book of the historian time travelers, I liked Doomsday Book so I read the second.

A time travel to the victorian age, looking for the Bishop bird stump... and the rescue of a cat, which are stinguished by the time the time travelers in this story lived.

Well, the bird stump is found and love is in the air.

I'll read the next two books. 

A fall of moondust by Arthur C. Clark

 In time of millionaires paying to be 3 minutes in space, I was reading a novel where millionaires payed to visit the moon and sail it in a ship...

The ship is eaten by a dust sea when an moonquake takes place, so what happens in the ship and the recovery tasks are the main subject of the book.

It's a good novel and it ends... well, it ends when the travellers are rescued.

The Wheel of time: The Dragon reborn

 Addicting, all the book with new things to know and action, I couldn't stop reading... 

Rand scapes from Moraine, Moraine, Perrin, Lan and Loial try to arrive to Tear ahead of him.

The way to Tar Valon with Nyaeve, Egwene, Eleyne and Mat, once in Tar Valon, they know the Black Ajah has attacked and fled, Mat is healed from his illness and Nyaeve, Egwene and Elayne have to investigate the Black Ajah, which leds them to... Tear, they send Mat, who finds Thom to travel with him, to give a letter to Morgase, and when he delivers the letter, he finds out someone is going to Tear to kill her three friends, so there he goes.

On the way to Tear, Perrin finds Feine(Zarina) and the three girls find some Aiel who are looking for The One Who'll arrive in the Dawn.

So... at the end all of them arrive to Tear and the climax happens, Rand finds Callandor the sword only the Dragon can touch, and one of the Forsaken is waiting for him.

I have the next book in my kindle, but I've started another book, so I won't eat all The Wheel of Time in a year... :-)

Blue Mars

 The end of the trilogy, as the previous books, science, politics and humanity.

Longevity treatments seemed to be the end of death, except by accident, but the quick decline hits the first hundred and science has to come to the rescue, will it succeed. We won't know....

In this book, Mars scientists invent a new propulsion system that allows travelling so fast that moving in the solar system becomes so quick that all the system is quickly settled, and makes the intergalaxy travels posible.

In Earth overpopulation is still a problem and they see Mars as the solution, but Mars ecosystem is weak and Mars settlers will defend their planet. Politics have to work hard to solve the different interests of both planets.

Was this book an inspiration to The Expanse? It remembers me some things in both.

Una historia de policías

 Per alguna raó, l'autor va anunciar a twitter que havia rebut pressions de la policia pel que havia escrit i que posava el llibre a amazon a 1 euro, així què, per solidaritat o curiositat el vaig comprar.

La veritat és que la història se sembla tant a la realitat del que imaginem que és la policia, que no tinc ni idea si l'autor és policia, ex-policia, vigilant de seguretat o fruiter, tampoc no em preocupa ni ho penso mirar.

El resum... ostres, no puc posar el que penso... doncs res, que al final resulta que el protagonista és un pringat, que només pensa amb l'entrecuix i que acaba fent el pasarell en mans d'un company de la poli i una noieta que està boníssima i que es folla a mig poble, clar estereotip pollacèntric on els bons són els pobres bons homes que van a la perdició per culpa de dones que no estimen els homes i que els utilitzen com a màquines de follar.

Així que em quedo amb Millenium, que com a mínim castiga els fills de puta que abusen de la seva superioritat física per sotmetre les dones.

La rueda del tiempo de Robert Jordan - El despertar de los héroes

 Segon llibre dels molts que vindran, com vaig dir, volia començar amb una col·lecció de llibres que estigués acabada, per no trobar-me esperant el següent llibre anys com a Joc de Trons o El nom del vent.

Aquest segon llibre també m'ha agradat, els personatges ha seguit evolucionant, l'enemic també sembla haver evolucionat i per molt que al primer llibre, sobretot, però també al segon l'obscur insisteix en què sempre es repeteix la història, sembla que aquest cop hi haurà novetats.

Curiós també a un capítol del llibre els personatges viuen diferents versions de les seves vides, com a moltes històries de ciència ficció quan parlen dels multiversos, però en aquest cas els personatges ho recorden...

I bé, desitjant començar el tercer, però entre mig, intentaré llegir un o dos llibres, si pot ser de diferent temàtica.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

 After some time I've read another Nebula winner which of course has surprised me for good.

Fiction in a world where the II World War finished different but not like the Man in the High Castle.

Chess, jews, indians, Alaska, the Mesiah... All in one book, is is a police novel? Perhaps, but well, I don't use to read police novels... since The girl with the dragon tatoo...

A jew policeman in Alaska, where the jews arrived after WW2 who is sad about his life as his wife left him some years ago, a murder in his hotel, the return of his ex-wife as his chief, his indian friend... well, I won't make the argument here, only to remember a little when I come back to this post someday.

La Rueda del tiempo de Robert Jordan: El ojo del mundo

 Si Brandon Sanderson ha escrito los últimos libros de la saga, será por algo... por lo tanto le he dado una oportunidad.

La historia de unos chicos de pueblo que se ven envueltos en una persecución por parte de semihombres, trollocs, juglares, amigos malignos, amigos benignos... en fin fantasía en estado puro.

Rand, Mat y Perrin, el maligno los ha marcado en su diana para obtener el poder que han heredado de alguna manera que no llegamos a saber al final del libro, la cuestión es que ellos vivían felices en su pueblo, pese a que el invierno de ese año parecía no acabar nunca y que cada vez las cosechas serían más escasas. Concretamente la historia comienza antes de la fiesta de Invierno que es como no un día especial para la gente del pueblo en que por un día olvidan la dura vida del campo para bailar y disfrutar con el resto de la gente del pueblo.

Pero la noche anterior a la fiesta, se presentan en la casa de Rand y en el pueblo un grupo de Trollocs y un Fado, que por poco los matan a todos, suerte que había aparecido en el pueblo una mujer muy elegante, que resulta que es una Aes Sedai con su Guardían, que salvan al pueblo de los Trollocs, Rand por su parte al ser sorprendido en casa, es salvado por su padre, que resulta que en su juventud parece que había sido un maestro espadachín, el padre queda herido, pero Rand lo consigue llevar al pueblo, donde la Aes Sedai, llamada Moreine lo salva con sus poderes, pero dice a los tres chicos que deben irse, para que los trollocs no vuelvan, y así empieza una apasionante aventura...

DiscWorld: Mort

 I can say this book has not been addictive so I took more than I expected reading it, the fact that it is the story of a boy who becomes Death's apprentice... perhaps makes it not so interesting as a magician book.

Generació Tap

 Era inevitable que com a lector de lapaginadefinitiva no em llegís aquest llibre.

Com a membre de la generació X, aquest llibre em representa i em documenta, amb coses que per haver-les viscut, les recordo i d'altres que per precisament ser la primera generació que vam tenir accés a internet mentre encara estudiàvem, no havia pogut saber perquè llavors encara la informació estava controlada pels que llavors i ara criticaven internet.

En qualsevol cas, un llibre imprescindible, ben documentat, i que com altres com el "Memorias de un ingeniero" fan veure que la nostra generació pot explicar coses que ni la generació anterior, per defecte, o la posterior, per excés, no han entés o no poden ni imaginar que fa 20 anys passaven.

Com que el tema m'agrada, aprofitaré les recomanacions que hi ha al final del llibre, per llegir més del tema.

Legion by Brandon Sanderson

 I saw my brother with this book so I thought... why not reading it?

So I started and as it is a little book, I red it quickly.

This book has an adventure but it seems an entertaining way to present the characters for a new series of books.

A man who sees imaginary people that allow him to know things he shouldn't know, he profits from the situation and lives in a big mansion. All kind of people approach him to know the source of his knowledge. In this book, he receives photos made in the past, past before the photograph machines existed, once he is interested, a woman who represents the enterprise where it was developed, visits him and tells him that the inventor of the machine has disappeared with the only working prototype with him.

So they have to discover where he has gone and then follow him to that place and find him...