And then there was war.

And so it came to pass, that mankind did wage war on the rest of the Universe for a billion years

The end (victorious as it was) was abrupt and as the philosophers had predicted, shocked the social order of mankind to its roots.

The first 5 years were easy enough for very one

The Soldiers just pretended that the war was still going on and that they had just a moment of peace, like if they were on leave.

The Technicians muttered to them selves that it didn’t mater if there was a war or not the machines still needed repairs as always.

The  Workers were affected even less as nothing changed for them, they still had their fields to work, mines to dig and cattle to worry about; there was nought but a faint glimmer of hope in their mind that maybe the could catch a break if help came from the other castes. Help never did come.

Ten years after the end of the war, mankind broke. Older concepts of ruling were brought to light and the absolute rule of the council was defied; riots broke across sectors occupied by the Worker caste but those were quickly put out by Soldiers eager for a fight.

At the end of the twelfth year the council that ruled longer than any other form of government anywhere was dismantled and each sector made its own ruling caste.

At the Fourteenth year the fires of war were rekindled; now mankind faced its oldest enemy: its own self. Somehow, it felt right. Some were puzzled why the old adversary didn’t choose this moment to attack. It iss my opinion that he foresaw the events that were to follow and chose to conserve his strength. After all, any blow that he would land- no mater how powerful that blow might have been- it would only reunite his enemies against him as it had so long ago.

Then the hundred darkest years followed, a war much more savage than anyone could  have ever imagined; men fought each other like beasts, all the experience at the art of war that was gathered over the past, the one bought with blood of trillions, the very own experience that led to their victory, was now a weapon that mankind against itself.

At the end of those years mankind decided to stop the battles, the end was abrupt (once again) the soldiers simply didn’t go to the battlefield. The technicians didn’t maintain the machines, the workers didn’t send food to the units.

Any leader that disagreed with the decision was rejected and driven away. A new council arouse but its role was loosely defined at best.

The Worker caste finally had the reprieve it needed and their numbers swelled as never before. A new war broke out, unlike any other.

Now the enemy was the land and victory was to shape it. Water fell over her and sweat and blood but it was not malignly spilled.

Men took pride at the fruit of their labors and the beauty of their work and art slowly found a way to resurface.

A new era began and the world felt a terror for man had made the impossible; he had changed its nature.

Armies weren’t trained like before, all the men were taught war in case it was needed but it was a different kind of war taught by different means. Treaties were signed and the old adversary became the new friend. It would take aeons for the old wound to heal but it what else were there to do.

So the last age began the age of man and his ascension to godhood, as it had been prophesied trillions year ago by an old man at Alpha Centauri long before the first airship left Old Earth’s atmosphere “The race of man will be the race of gods and they will make god of us all”.

Review of “The Redemption of Althalus”

Hi to all of you out there.

Today I present you a book that managed to give me a pleasant surprise.

When I picked that book a few years back from its shelf it was mostly out of curiosity for its cover.

Who said covers doesn’t mater?

I checked the back and took in consideration two factors before I purchase it.

1. It was a number 1 Bestseller.

2. (And most importantly) it was huge.

The Size (of the book) Ladies and Gents does mater.

The think with me is that I don’t read books, as a friend has put it “I sniff them”.

It’s frustrating when after a total of four hours of reading (some times less) I finish a book.

I feel cheated.

To increase my time of reading (and to save some money) I stop buying books in my native language(Greek) and started to read them in English a language that at the moment I wasn’t very good at (I have made an improvement since but as of many of you can see I have still a lot of ground to cover) 

Long story short, I have made a habit of buying big books or books that have a sequel or ten.

The Redemption of Althatlus as I said was a book like that, a big one. I started reading it and I sank in to that special time flow that we sink when we do something enjoyable. After I returned I discover that I hadn’t cover that much of the book one eighth perhaps but it had felt like I was reading it for ages.

That’s when I realized something about that timeline I was in a while ago.

It was relative to what happened in the book. Or to be more precise how many actions had happen.

I have read big book that dragged on and on and found my self skipping pages to get to a place that something actually happens or something relative to the story is being said.

Examples: The genealogies at the books of Tolkin, usually every third sex scene at the books of Anita Blake, various other things that are currently at the trashcan of my memory and I want go there to retrieve them.

There is a trashcan in there. It must be below that Hentai pile at the left.

Fun fact: the books of Anita Blake aren’t that big to begin with.

Those are extreme examples but it think they get the point thru.

While I read “The Redemption of Althalus” I never skipped a page, something was always going on. Be it action, or an interesting dialog, nice scenery or a good joke. Also known as those things that make a book look great.

Some words for the book now.

Writer/es

 David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings.

 

Main Characters

Althalus: a thief, a liar and occasional murderer. Also the most lucky person ever to be born. He solves his problems with quick wits and a occasionally a quick dagger in the ribs. Deep down he is a honourable person with no delusions about his self or his job, devoted to his friend, his luck and his cat.

Emerald more often called Emmy or Em: Em is the pet cat of Althalus… no, no, she isn’t. Let me rephrase that. Althalus is the pet of Em, he meets her at the House at the end of the world and he loves her as she loves him. She isn’t really a cat. She teaches him to read the Book of Deiwos and makes him a nice civilized person. They have a bet going on, she will try to teach him to be honest and work hard, he will teach her how to lie and steal. Who will win?

The rest of the Family: I want spoil you that but they are interesting characters.

The world:

 

Yeap its big.

The Antagonist: The evil man that we see is Ghend and his crew but the real enemy though is the God Daeva that wants to bring the world back to the primal Chaos that it came from.

Things that I liked:

1. Really interesting and fast moving story, nothing really boring happens. That doesn’t mean that is action all the time, but that the time between the action is really interesting and it’s the to contribute to the story not just fill the space.
2. Excellent Jokes. That is relative to the each persons sense of humour but I really laughed at Althalus jokes and stories.
3. Great plot twists
4. Interesting characters. From Althalus, to Gosty Big Belly, From Em to the Leader of the Order of the Black Robes and the shepherds of Wekti all of them are unique.   

Thinks that I disliked:

1. Some lines are repeated. I know that this cant be avoided and there is a great space between those lines  and that it even add some realism to the dialogue (we do tend to repeat our self’s with the persons that we spent a lot of time don’t we? Is it just me?) but I cant really like it even then.

To sum it up.

Buy it now. NOW! Why are you still reading this? Nothing funny is going to happen so go and get the book NOW!

Still here? Ok you worth it. Funny fact that I got from wikipedia.

David Eddings referring to The Lord of the Ring "Is this old turkey still floating around?".

Cya around.

Books I don’t like and some that I do.

I have said before that I don’t like to criticize some one that is better than me in writing on his own job.

That said I cant hold my self back from the books that follow.

It maybe that I have scruples to criticize only authors that I like, or that I am hypocrite that blatantly lies. I don’t know, but here it is, a list with books that I don’t really like or simple annoy the shit out of me.

Bitten from Kelly Armstrong

See it and weep!!

It was some years back when I picked up that book.

At the time I was going through a vampire/werewolf/occult period (in retrospect that sounds incredible gay), you know, anything that has big teeth is cool.

I had read some books that picked my interest as Anita Blake, Succubus Blues and some others so a werewolf book was a pleasant challenge. It wasn’t pleasant it was a mistake, and a big one at that.

Bitten follows the only female werewolf at the world as she tries to make a life out of her twisted little world. The story isn’t bad, it’s actually a quite good in introducing the characters.

The world was given with enough details so that you could make out an image but just enough, the sex was nice but as a book it had one big flow (as I see it).

Unlikable characters, how unlikable you ask?

Before the end I was rooting for the bad guys.

The protagonist of the book Elena Michaels is a woman that annoys the shit out of me, she is psychotic twelve year old with makeup, any attempt made to make the character more likeable meets an epical fail. At one part she admits murder because of shear stupidity and at another she admits that she planed and executed another, oh but she shows some regrets for that one! ONLY ONE of them! The rest of the cast doesn’t go better, shallow characters upon which they were made attempts to improve them, but also failed, oh no wait I actually liked two of them, one that dies two to three pages after he is mentioned and one of the big bad wolfs of the story.

Times I read the book: Two (2). One to learn the story and one to confirm that it was as bad as I remembered.

Overall rating on my absurd system: 5/10

The sword of Truth by Tery Goodkind

All of it, bathed in its glory.

The series “The Sword of Truth” is a frustrating subject to me. On one hand we have a fresh and interesting world with great characters and a really, really nice story, it gives you something nice to compare with this world as it touches some interesting ideas, like politics, racism and prosecution among other things  

Yeah, among many many other things.

I liked the books I really did, especially the “Soul of the Fire” which I have read three to four times.

I have only one objection.

The fucking Deus Ex Machina that the writer has decide to keep permanently on the stage.

For those of you two out there that don’t know what a Deus Ex is, there is always Google.

The main character is nice enough and he struggles to stay nice all the way, he doesn’t fall to the dark side, he doesn’t give in to temptations, he is a perfect hero. Also he is the most like character ever put down on paper, he gets free passes at anything, we need a spell that has been lost for years, he comes and cast it without knowing how, we need a strong warrior? Bah the sword gives him the knowledge of his previous owners… all of them… over a hundred years of  battles and experience just got in to his head and not just sword fight, any style that they knew! When he needs it he shows us his talent in art, or politics, or battle, or magic, or sports, or anything ever.

It’s explained in the books how he does what he does (always, no dark spots there, that’s another the thing that I liked) but it gets frustrating from one point on.

There is a saying in my country “λακωνίζειν εστί φιλοσοφείν” it roughly translates to “Saying few thinks equals to philosophy” meaning that saying few things makes you look smart, why? Because if you say a lot of things you are bound to say something stupid. That applies to Deus Ex Machina to, use them once or twice? A semi passable explanation will do, use them constantly and no amount of explanation will ever save you.

Times I read the book: The first four, two to three, the fifth three to four and the rest… you know what doesn’t mater gust read them.

Overall rating on my absurd system: 7/10

The Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling.

Can you feel it in the air? A shitstorm I coming.

Some of you expected it, some of you feared it and some of you have left before reaching to the middle of the sentence.

As absurd as it seams I will not talk about the usual points of stupidity that lay in those books, for once the subject is beaten to death by the motivational posters only and second I didn’t really cared for most of them while I read (there I said it, I read them, its out now and nothing can take it back) the books, what really annoyed me was the idiot that was forced to our throats as a hero and also the completely unrelated to him fact that I couldn’t picture the scenery at all (keep in mind that I read the book in my languish so there weren’t any words that I couldn’t understand). You might argue about my hero argument and my incapability to pout a picture in my head but I don’t really care, those were the honest problems I had while I read the books. At the time I had thought that this would be a great script for a movie because then I would have a background image for the whole action. After I saw the first movie my hopes of that were lost. Notice that I don’t complain about the story or the other character beyond Potter, that is because I actually liked them, at the time, I guess the only real reason that I am angry at the Potter universe is that is worth a lot more, it could me so much more. It is worth an author that can write the books so that they don’t give the impression of a first draft.

Times I read the books : One and final each.

 Overall rating on my absurd system: 4/10

Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson

Here we are Ladies and Gentleman! The fuck you book of the year. I stumble upon it while I was searching the internet for good books toy read, I googled “top 10 fantasy”, “top 100 fantasy” etc, I found a list with many, many good suggestions, among them was this book. I started reading it and it was refreshing at the start, some think new.

Then the main hero rapes a fifteen year old girl.

At that point I closed the book and never opened again. I don’t care if this where one of the greatest masterpieces ever produced by the human race, I still wouldn’t pick it up again. The hero rapes a fifteen year old girl.

I think that up to this point you have noticed a common theme on the books I dislike. They all have an asshole as a protagonist. A guess that’s just me but I just cant stand a book with a weak hero, I don’t care if he is smart (Fitz at the Farseer Trilogy isn’t), or strong (that’s the point with the hero’s, they don’t start strong , they become strong), or likeable (I still don’t like the Punisher of Garth Enis but I love the shit out of the series) what I do expect from him though is to be something to look up to, to be an example, you don’t admire the Punisher for his actions, but for his spirit for his tenacity to never give up that you can and must admire.

 Overall rating on my absurd system: I don’t know haven’t read it but if I have to rate it 1/10

 

Does any from the above make sense to you? Yes? No? why don’t you leave a comment?

Until next time people.

Review on Wolf Totem

   
Hi to all!

Its been a while since my last review.

I will make it up to you by giving you my review on one of the greatest books in the world.

 Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong.

As you can read in the wikipedia page that I linked below the picture the book is a part autobiography and another part research and fiction.

The first time that I read it was about 3-4 years ago. I was riding the metro, minding my own business, when I saw a news stand at the station with comics, magazines and some books (paradoxically, it also had various other stuff to eat and drink even though we are reminded that eating and drinking in the subway is prohibited every couple of minutes), I went to take a look at the place hoping to buy something simple and mindless like say, an issue of PC Master, when I noticed it:

Behold its beauty!

There it was, sitting on a self among the rest of the books, just asking me to buy it.

The saying “You cant judge a book buy its cover” is absolutely right: you can’t; but a cover helps to create a good first impression. In my case it attracted my attention long enough to get me to read its synopsis on the back and give a quick look at the first pages. Then I paid for it, read it and had my mind blown across its six hundred and eighty one pages.

There were three reasons for that.

First.

The narrative was like nothing I had read before and I have read a lot of writing styles. I had never before read something from a culture so different than mine, so it made a strong impression on me.

Second.

The story and character development were great.

Third.

It gave me a whole new perspective of the world. Allow me to elaborate:

Since I was young, I knew that some things were connected, even things that seemed radically different to one another. I thought they shared common roots or pathways, the greatest example of which (for me at least) came from the book “The Eight” by Katherine Neville; in it, a chess master, a musician and mathematician find connections between their fields, the chess master provides a solution to a problem, the mathematician represents that solution to a mathematic formula and the musician takes that formula and creates a music piece based on it. For me, this was an eye opener; it made me think what other fields have connections that we don’t know? Do economics interact with biology? Can biology solve problems in the field of electronics? Is it chance that led some of the greatest minds in history to study in more than one field of science? These thoughts plagued me, until a Chinese man living in Mongolia shows me the connections between the animals and the people of the steppes. These weren’t simple, straightfoward connections. They were an intricate web of lives that spanned in every direction, infinitely.

Ah this! Kid’s stuff, I totally got the underlying message and everything!

I knew that there was balance in the nature but I always considered Nature as cruel, you know? We could take all the fruit from the tree and as long as we didn’t completely kill every animal in the forest everything would be ok, which why we have hunting seasons after all, right? To give them a chance to breed and increase their numbers, but wolves and bears? What do they provide us with? Their fur? We don’t live in caves anymore and yes they are nice to look in their natural environment so let’s protect them when we have time to spare.

This is what I used to think.

I didn’t get how the predators helped keep the population of the other animals in balance and didn’t get how much trouble is to deal with other animals on your own either.

Here’s a fun example:

Mice. In every city they flourish, grow fat and carry diseases around only because the don’t really have a natural enemy. How about cats, I hear you ask? Yeah cats are fine, but how many of them are there? They kill a mouse here and there but after that the mice just learn to avoid the place, so humans come along and use poisons to kill them and traps but how long can this go on? How long before the poison we use on the rats saturates the ground so much that it begins to pose a threat to the people living there as well? In the steppe the natural enemy for a mouse is the wolf (among many other animals), that hunts the mouse as a delicacy or a main course if he doesn’t have any other food options available, effectively keeping the population in check.

Oops, sidetracked.

Its true that the book makes a strong environmental point but that wasn’t the only side of it that I liked. The first time I read through it some of its issues flew over my head especially those referring to the Chinese (specifically) and Asian society (in general). During my second read, these issues made more of an impression. Here is why: the first time I read the book I knew near nothing about China or Japan, or any other Asian country in general; since then I have come across some interesting reads about them, some are book as the Zoo of Otsuichi, or even manga (not a good source to learn anything ever), but the most important of the was Traveling: China and Japan by Nikos Kazantzakis. Yes he is the writer of Zorbas the Greek. He travels through China and Japan at the year 1935 writing his impressions, the edition that I read had an afterword buy Helen Kazantzaki were she writes her impressions as she and Nikos were travelling together China and Japan twenty whole years later (1955 for those of you bad at math). Through this reads I was able to better grasp the importance of a book such as the Wolf Totem and its references to these societies.

In conclusion. Buy the Wolfs Totem and read it, and then give it to someone else to read it to and buy it again.

 My gratitude to Konstantine Paradias for the editing. Go ahead and check his blog here.

Review on The Wheel of Time series Of Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

Hello everyone! My vacations have come to an end (I hope yours haven’t) and here I am once again as the song goes

You know the one I am referring to, don’t say that you don’t.

Writing.

So with no further delay I give you “The Wheel of Time”

 

In Four glorious, oh so glorious wallpapers.

Yeah but what is “The Wheel of Time” you ask.

Good question I answer.

The Wheel of Time is a series of books that began back at 1990 with the publication of “The Eye of the World” written by Robert Jordan, Robert Jordan is a pen name for James Oliver Rigney, Jr.

That’s the one.

The series revolves around three farm boys and there friends and there escalating strangle to save the world from complete destruction.(more on that later)  

After the first eleven books were published Robert Jordan promised to end the series at the 12^th book. But unfortunately he died at September 16, 2007 due to a serius heart illness. He was alert of the possibility of his death and so he left enough notes and material for another writer to complete his series including how the series end. That man would turn to be Brandon Sanderson

an excellent author in his own merit and also a fan of The Wheel of Time.

The final book “A Memory of Light” turned out to be to big to be published in on go, so it was broken down in to three smaller “The Gathering Storm”, “Towers of Midnight” and the final “A Memory of Light”. The final book will be published on January 8, 2013 thus concluding this epic journey.

Info on Robert Jordan and his work you can find here and here.

Info on Brandon Sanderson and his work you can find here and here.

Now more about the story.

The books follows the travels of Rand al’ Thor, Martim Cauthon and Perrin Aybara. Three boys from a village in a corner of the world forgotten by almost everyone turn out to be very important. So to protect their loved ones they leave their village along with Moiraine Sedai and her Warden Lan Mandragoran, along come Thom Merilin a bard, Egwene al'Vere a girl that can be trained to be an Aes Sedai and Nynaeve al'Meara that comes along to keep an eye on the kids.

They travel long the get separate reunite and separate again, each walking his own path to Tarm Gai’don the final battle were everything will be decided, as the armies of men  along with Aes Sedai, Asha'man and heroes long dead all leaden by the Dragon Reborn fight the Dark One and his armies of Darkspawn and his champions the Forsaken.

All in on Word: EPIC.

What I like about The Wheel of Time:

1)      Great character development! We  actule see how this kids turn from naive boys, to confused men and finally to true heroes and not only them, I can remember a character in the series that was left unchanged in one way or another (if they died it doesn’t count).

2)      Supreme World development! The world is more than solid. We have history on it and not at just one point the history come back to haunt us, as the book them self begin “The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.”  Robert Jordan. And it doesn’t end at history, he gives us great cultures to explore each developed buy the land that surrounds them. We have also the world of dreams and we get hints about other completely different worlds that people can go.

3)      Great battles and confrontations: not just two people fighting (or armies) but why they fight and how each of them sees it (the reason of the fight), also great descriptions of the fight itself.

4)      Nice characters: They are characters you can get behind, be them on the side of the good or evil you cant but like or at least admire them.

5)      It’s a long read. It’s thirteen books so far and we wait the last, but each one of them is also big on its own merit, and you know what? I like that, I really do. I have previously point out that a story must have a beginning, middle and end part but Robert Jordan seems to have no problem to stretch that rule of mine to its very limits. I like when I have a lot of material to read, it gives me a feeling that the story isn’t going to end soon (it usually does after a day or two, regardless of the number of pages).

What I don’t like about The Wheel of Time:

1)      I cant really point my finger in any major by my opinion flow, it has some little boring parts but they are in every book out there and are in fact essential in the story, you cant give action all the time.

2)      The time flow is a little slow in the last books, around the tenth book it takes a book to describe two-three weeks, I get it that  the last battle is supposed to be close and you cant postpone the date for extra time but it stills kind of  bothers me. Still not destroying the overall Excellent flavour of the books.

 

In conclusion: Find them, buy them, read them, listen the song about them and/or read the comics, you will like it.

Vacation!

Hey people!

I want to inform you that I will be taking my vacation in the following weeks (2-3 weeks) so don’t expect an

update any time soon.

Thanks for your views.

Have a great summer!

Lost in the Gameline Part 7

It’s a rare occasion when people are gathered around a house for a pleasant reason.

That was he thoughts when wile returning from work he saw the whole neighborhood gathered around a house. Mr Flishbih’s house to be exact. The most ancient of his neighbors. The police was also there and an ambulance.

-      Whats going on? Whats all the commotion? Did anything happen to old man?

-       Yeah! It seams he was killed! Some one broke in to his house and killed him, he took some valuables and left, about half an hour ago the police came, it seems that he had an alarm system installed, but it was to late. The neighborhood has become dangerous, that isn’t nice at all.

he looked expressionless the scene in front of him, the police scattered inside and outside of the house, some of them bringing the body of the old man to the ambulance while others were asking questions the neighbors.

The came to his house forty minutes later, two officers in uniform.

Did he knew the man?

Did he had knowledge of anything valuable in the house?

Did he had any enemies?

Did anything strange happen in the last days?

Did he knew of any family the old man might have?

Yes, he knew him, as he was sharing the passion of the old mans for books and at older  times chess. He went there once or twice the week to talk about books, writers, and an occasional chess game.

Well he had some pretty valuable books, first editions, old and such.

Not that he knew of.

No, nothing, every thing was completely normal, he was supposed to go to visit him today.

No, strange as it was the old man never talked about family, ever.

When finally the cops left he went to take a shower. Later he sat in front of his pc not doing anything. He was supposed to se the old man today, they would talk about book and they even might have a chess game. How would it go?

He searched his files and found a chess program he used to train with. He set both players to be used by him and started.

1. e4    g5

2. Bc4  Bg7

That was a classic for the old man he loved to play the black in that opening.

3. d4    e6

4. Nd2 Bxd4

5.Nf3   Bg7

6. c3    g4

7. Nd4 d4

8. xd5  xd5

9. Bb3  Nf6

10. c4  c6

11. Ba4

he liked to put pressure on the opponent, make him think that there was a threat where there was none, or if there was it was minimal, that trick gave him the upper hand with inexperienced players but not with the old man.

11. …  Qe7+

12. Qe2 Qe2+

13. Ne2 xc4

14. Nxc4 b5

Yeap that had happened before. The old man could lay some traps.

15. Nd6+ Kf8

16. Bxb5 xb5

17. Nxc8

And there they go back on almost equal ground, almost equal.

17 …    Ke8

18. O-O Kd7

19. Bf4 Rc8

20. Rd1 Ke8

21. Bd6 Ne4

22. Ba3 Rc2

23. Ng3 Nf2

24. Re1+ Kd8

25. Nf5 Bf6

26. Nd6 Bd4

27. Re8 Kd7

28. Nb5 Nh3+

29. Kf1 Rf2+

30. Ke1 …

And it was there that the pc crashed. Not that it mattered the game was long lost for him.

But still anticlimactic.

Ο Ζάλοκ και ο κοντός μέρος 2ο.

Ένα καρβέλι, 2 λουκάνικα, μιάμιση κανάτα νερωμένο κρασί μετά βρεθήκαν να κάθονται στον στάβλο και να ανταλλάσουν ιστορίες. Κυρίως ο Βαρθολομαίος αντάλλαζε. Κάθε προσπάθεια του νεαρού να μιλήσει διακόπτονταν μετά από λίγο από τον νάνο (έμαθε τελικά ο Ζάλοκ την σωστή ορολογία για την φυλή του Βαρθολομαίου) όχι απότομα, καλλιτεχνικά, με τρόπο τέτοιο ώστε ο Ζάλοκ ούτε καταλάβανε καλά καλά τι είχε συμβεί.

            Έμαθε λοιπόν ότι ο Βαρθολομαίος, ένας σπουδαίος πολεμιστής των νάνων εκδιώχθηκε από την πατρίδα του μαζί με την οικογένεια του (ο λόγος δεν ήταν πολύ ξεκάθαρος για τον Ζάλοκ παρότι που ο νάνος προσπάθησε να του τον εξηγήσει) και τώρα γυρίζει τον κόσμο ψάχνοντας δόξα και φήμη καθώς και κάποιο πόλεμο. Επέμενε πολύ στον πόλεμο.

-                     Τα σημάδια είναι όλα εκεί αλλά κανείς δεν τα βλέπει! Παλιά, κάτω από το βουνό μου άρεσε να διαβάζω που και πού ιστορία και οι πόλεμοι ήταν εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέροντα θέματα για μένα. Έμαθα λοιπόν να βλέπω τα σημάδια που τους προαναγκέλουν.

Ο Ζάλοκ τον άκουγε μαγεμένος.

-           Για αρχή μια χώρα έχει πρόβλημα πχ ξηρασία ή κάποιος λιμός, οι γύρο χώρες την παρακολουθούν στενά, κυρίως όμως παρακολουθούν την ηγεσία, πώς χειρίζεται την κατάσταση, τη πιστεύει ο λαός τέτοια πράγματα και άμα δουν αδυναμία, μπαμ! (χτύπησε την γροθιά του στην παλάμη του) ορμούν με τον στρατό, εξαντλημένοι οι άλλοι δεν δίνουν πολύ αντίσταση και επιτιθέμενος παίρνει τα εδάφη και το θέμα τελειώνει εκή αμα είναι μόνο ένας, αλλά σπάνια είναι μόνο ένας που θα κάνει κίνηση, ένας δεύτερος ή και τρίτος στρατός θα φανούν σαν απελευθερωτές και η χώρα θα διαλιθεί από τους πολέμους ο νικητής άμα νιώθει αρκετά ισχυρός επιτίθεται και καταλαμβάνει και τα γειτονικά έθνη και έτσι χτίζονται οι αυτοκρατορίες, από ένα σημείο και μετά δεν χρειάζεται καν να περιμένει για κάποια αδυναμία! Απλά χτυπάει ανελέητα την ποιο αδύναμη χώρα μέχρι να την κατάκτηση. Όλα αυτά βέβαια παίρνουν καιρό και καλή προετοιμασία, το να συντηρείς κατακτητικό πόλεμο δεν είναι αστεία υπόθεση, θες τρόφιμα εξοπλισμό και κυρίως φρέσκους στρατιώτες. Οπότε πριν ξεκινήσει έναν πόλεμο μια χώρα προετοιμάζεται, αγοράζει τρόφιμα και μέταλλα, προμήθειες δηλαδή και όπλα και άλλα πράγματα, όπως άλογα και ξυλεία.

Ο Βαρθολομάιος σταμάτησε και τα μάτια του πλανήθηκαν στο κενό. Με μηχανικές κινήσεις έβγαλε καπνό και μια σκαλιστή πίπα, την ετοίμασε και τότε κοίταξε τον ως τότε σιωπηλό του ακροατήριο.

-           Καπνίζεις μικρέ;

-           Εε; Πως; Ε; Βασικά όχι;

-           Θες να δοκιμάσεις; Κάνει καλό; Σε προστατεύει από αρρώστιες και πονοκέφαλους, να πρέπει να έχω μια ακόμα πίπα. Ψάχτηκε λίγο και τράβηξε μια πίπα, απλή χωρίς σχέδια, την ετοίμασε και του την έδωσε.

-           Πως και έχεις καπνό και πίπες πάνω σου άμα σε ληστέψανε;

-           Χα, μικρέ πρώτα θα χάσω την ζωή μου και μετά τον καπνό μου.

-           Πίσω λοιπόν στον πόλεμο…

-           Ναι πίσω στον πόλεμο. Εγώ που με βλέπεις γυρίζω και όποιος γυρίζει βλέπει. Και αυτά που βλέπω με πείθουν όλο και περισσότερο, καραβάνια με τρόφιμα περνάνε από δρόμους που δεν χρησιμοποιούνται συχνά για να μην πολύ φαίνονται, οι νάνοι άκουσα ότι ξεπούλησαν για δεύτερη συνεχόμενη χρονιά όλα τους τα μέταλλα και σε πολύ καλή για αυτούς τιμή. Οι ομάδες μισθοφόρων είναι ανύσηχες και αυτοί όπως και εγώ μυρίζονται το αίμα στον αέρα.

Και οι δύο μείνανε να κοιτάνε σιωπηλοί την αυγή μια νέας μέρας ο καθένας χαμένος στις δικές του σκέψεις.

-                          εσύ μικρέ πως και είσαι εδώ; Δεν μου κάνεις για ταβερνιάρης όπως και να σε δω.

-                          Ναι, να κοίτα είναι λίγο ντροπιαστικώ, δεν είμαι ταβερνιάρης όπως λες, ήρθα έφυγα από το χωριό μου αναζητώντας περιπέτεια και φήμη, την πρώτη μου όμως βραδιά εδώ ξόδεψα περισσότερα από όσα είχα να πληρώσω και δουλεύω στον κάπελα για να τον ξεπληρώσω.

-                          Αλήθεια ε; πόσα του χρωστάς;

-                          Δύο ασημένια ή ένα φεγγάρι δουλειάς, δεν είναι και τόσο άσχημα και το μισό φεγγάρι έχει σχεδόν φύγει και… είσαι καλά;

Οι ωμοί του νάνου ανεβοκατέβαιναν έντονα και κοιτούσε το πάτωμα με τα χέρια του να κρύβουν το κεφάλι του. μόλις άκουσε τα τελευταία λόγια του νεαρού στηρίχτηκε στον τοίχο και σήκωσε το κεφάλι του, τα μάτια του λάμπανε με μια εσωτερική φωτιά και έδινε μια γενική αίσθηση θυμηδίας.

-                          Ναι, ε; 2 ασημένια για ένα φεγγάρι; Δίκαιο μου φαίνεται; Δεν μου λες πότε έρχεται ο κάπελας θα χρειαστώ το δωμάτιο μου τώρα.

-                          Πρέπει να έχει έρθει πάμε να τον βρούμε.