This week has been a holiday week. Our first abroad for some years -- pandemic and other factors getting in the way, but mainly cost and pandemic.
We came to Portugal, as the heading suggests! Not somewhere we've ever been but trying new places is what life is really about.
Whilst here I've done some reading and finished whole books something I've struggled with for a little while. However, it feels good to read and it's a necessary part of writing.
The first book is Tim Marshall's Future of Geography which I thoroughly enjoyed. It talks a lot about the cold War, space race, and need for laws in Space. It all makes a lot of sense. And there is discussion about the impact of SciFi too.
After this, I dived straight into Terry Pratchett's last and latest book. I did think the last one was the last one, but it is this new one thats the last one and that may be the last word on the matter. Or not. Its hard to tell.
Anyway, you can see in this collection of short stories the development of DiscWorld and the quintessential Pratchett style. Those characters and turns of phrase that are only his. There's a proto-dibbler in there too! I finished it in a day.
And onto my last book of the holiday. Stephen Aryan's The Warrior. A direct sequel to The Coward and like before takes us from our comfortable fantasy lands into the wierd lands of his imagination where every beast, even sheep, are dangerous. I'm halfway at the moment and really being carried along with the characters, returning and new - each with their secrets and ploys!
Tomorrow we return to the UK - tired, a little burned by the sun, and ready to read some more.