A COLUMN OF FIRE by Ken Follett - Review

The pillars of the Earth was published in 1989, and had worldwide success; actually it was the book that made Ken Follett famous. The continuation of The pillars of the Earth is called World Without end, published in 2007, and the third delivery of the storyline is called A column of fire, and it was published in 2017. All three books are historical novels which mix real characters with fictitious ones to give the reader a wide comprehension of one historical moment.

A column of fire, according to Ken Follet's style, is about the story of some influential families, this time of the XVI century.Those families get involved into important affairs (political, military or religious), key moments that changed the world. This time, the scenario is even wider than World Without end: Kingsbridge is the main settlement of the story, but some important sequencies happen in America, in Spain or in Paris. The plot blends personal affairs with the historical facts, and most of those historical facts are related with the change of religion on the Europe of the XVI century, from catholic to protestant and vice versa, depending on the king/queen of the moment. One of the main characters, Ned, spends his lifetime working for Elizabeth I as an spy building the first complex intelligence service in history, with the objective of discovering catholic conspiracies. As usual on Ken Follet's books, love has an important role on the storyline.

Opinion

Usually I like Ken Follet books, and this one is not an exception. Furthermore, I think that this one is my favourite until now. I like historical novel in general, and A column of fire is amazing, historically talking. The baackground comprises fro the religious wars to incredibly complex political conspiracies and the illegal market of slaves. In conclusion, it's an amazing and breathtaking book, I highly recommend it. 

For me reading historical books is so interesting  basically because I don't know a lot about history, so for me almost all the information is new. And if it's writen by Ken Follet... What else can I ask for?

Snowden - film review

The film Snowden is a kind of biographic film of Edward Snowden. It starts on 2013, when Snowden made contact with reporters while he was hid to explain to the world his experience. He starts to explain his career, how he reached his different posts and how he decided to publish NSA's secret and illegal information, mainly the control that the NSA had over the US (for example access to the mobile phone's or computer's cameras and microphones). Then, the movie shows how he escaped and took exile in Russia.

The film is based on the book  "The Snowden files. The inside story of the world's most wanted man", writed by Snowden's lawyer in Russia.

I have to say that for me Snowden is a great film. First of all because the main character: I admire what he did and what he fights for. Then, I like the films that make me think, and in this one you have to, because all the film goes by in security centrals and when two characters talk it's hard to know what they're telling with a clear meaning and what they are telling in figurative meaning. I liked it too because on it there are elements that attract me, for example the world of computers, the laws and how to evoid them, and the real and covered facts.

What I don't like at all is that the film just introduces the story of Snowden, without taking risks or expressing directly what Snowden wants.

There's people who says that the film doesn't show nothing new of the story and that it's just like Laura Poitras' work but shown as a film. I haven't seen Poitras' documents, so I can't say nothing about that.

I raccomand the film to everybody who doesn't knows about Snowden, specially to the people that likes the computing world. It's a good film, it worths the two hours that it lasts.

More information about the film.