+ LozBlog

2026

Last couple of months (years!) my book reading has been largely substituted by short article / news reading.

In my defense, I can claim I was toping the charts on the app “Pocket” (formerly Read it Later) every year! I was a top 1% reader, sometimes 5% on the platform. So I did lots of reading, but as I said, it was mainly news and other type of format and content.

By the way, I’m not at the top of the charts any more, cause the app was laid down by Mozilla, the company who owned it. I switched to Instapaper, for similar functionality.

Anyway, my fiction/larger format reading suffered. But (hopefully) no more! I’m trying to keep up with my list.

Warning! Spoilers ahead... proceed with caution.

• Ciudad de Hueso: Cazadores de sombras: 1

  Cassandra Clare

  2026-04-01 /
  2026-05-09

  Amazon Kindle

  I had the intention of reading since I bought this book, in october 2021. Yeah, finally caught up with it. Can’t recall exaclty when i started it, probably around march or april. 

  I picked it up because the synopsys reminded me of some of the original stories I’m working on, and I wanted to see what it was about, what had in common with my own work, to try to avoid similarities. 

  So about the text, early on I figured it was a kind of teen romance story, spinning around the super natural. It’s all well and fine, I don’t have anything against it, I did enjoy it, yet I was expecting something different, less romance and more fantasy.

  That’s probably why it left me a bit with a bad taste, out of my expectation, I wasn’t looking for that kind of reading and probably disrupted the whole experience. Maybe if I had better read the synopsys or genre, I would have known exactly what I was getting into, but I must say, I don’t like to over read synopsys (or even watch trailers) of stories I want to experience, because even a small teaser trailer may have spoilers. 

  Anyway, this is the first part of a larger group of works, which exist in the same universe, and further develop the story and characters. And, as I just found a few days ago, this title even has it’s own movie (a sequel was being planned out but it got cancelled). 

  Even as I didn’t fully like the mixing of romance with adventuring, I did wanted to finish it and know where it all was heading. And I do want to see the movie, too. 

  I did find a few things that made me say “ah, come on, that wouldn’t really happen”, not because of the super natural or fantastical things, but maybe character decisions? I’m still evaluating it all from the distance. Hopefully I’ll update this after watching the movie.

• Metro 2033

  Dmitry Glukhovsky

  2026-05-09 /
  2026-05-19

  Amazon Kindle

  Metro. Bought the eBook in december 2023, but only recently put myself to read it. I was surprised to learn how this book came to be: the author, a russian who is now exiled of his home country because of antagonizing the stablishment, tried to get editors to publish it but after failing, he published online himself, where it went viral, though probably the term wasn´t used as such back then. After this, publishers came in, and the book became a best seller. 

  Remember, there’s spoilers ahead! So if you don’t want any, stop reading.

  The story is about a post apocalyptic future where Muscovites took shelter in the metro below the city after the chemical/nuclear war made the surface unwelcoming for humans, to say the least. It deals with a lot of dangers under and above ground, and not just radiation or mutants, but “normal” people and sects. They’ve referred to the fictional stations as micro nations, which deal in trading and politics (sometimes war) among them, having passports and checkpoints and whatnot.

  I must reckon there were moments I didnt fully understand parts of chapters because of words I didn’t translate, but sometimes it was also the rush, I was so excited, I sometimes skipped whole pharses or words for faster reading. I did! 

  I do recommend. 

  Learned of a friend who got into it because of a game, which also got very popular, though I couldn’t tell which sold/sells more copies, the book, or the game. Actually, there are several games, including a VR one, which I recently came across in a Humble Bundle.

  I loved how sometimes the protagonist starts dreaming but you can never tell until he actually wakes, it lets reality mix into the dream. Also, there are a lot of things that, as you go along in the protagonist’ view, and he never fully aknowledges, understands or identifies all of the surrounding beings or situations, you as a reader are also left in the dark. You saw a glimpse of something, which is never clarified (at least not on this book), and are left wondering, sometimes dreadfully, about the horrors deep below Moscow.

  Not sure if I liked the actual ending, which is a total cliff hanger. I like them cliff hangers, but between chapters, not at the ending of a book. I mean, I do like that there’s a sequel, but wish it wasn’t so obvious, so that you feel like the book is fully complete on its own, don’t know if you get what I mean. 

  Yet overall, if you like sci fi and maybe horror or terror, this one’s for you.

• Metro 2034

  Dmitry Glukhovsky

  2026-05-19 /
  2026-05-31

  Amazon Kindle

  I bought and started reading the second part on the Metro series the same day I finished the last one. This one switches the main character, although we do find again Artyom, our prot (may I call it prot?) from the last Metro messing around on the plot.

  I must say that the marvel, the dread, the fascination for the story and its horrors, kinda faded away a little bit for me, the reason for which I try to explain as follows: I already know there are crazy things in the depths of Metro, I already saw some of them, experienced, or ran away from, so I think I need a higher dose of crazyness to keep up the excitement, the awe, the enchantment. And I am not sure I found them in Metro ’34. I mean, I was still hooked and was eager to finish, but I don’t know if it was because of my obsession to not let go of an unfinished story (wether novel, film, series or game), or the amazement of the read. Maybe a bit both?

  Metro 2034 continues after the story of 2033, but as I said, we follow another character, Homer, which we didn’t see on the last novel, and we also see a lot of Hunter, wich Homer follows througout the book. Hunter is a returning character though. 

  So this story I feel deals more with a quest to remain human, or maybe to preserve the humanity of the people on the Metro (which may or may not be the last human beings on the world) I would say, more than the first one, which may also be an obvious topic too (like probably all postapocalyptic dystopias) but, to me, Metro 2033 felt more like a quest (for Artyom) to remain alive, besides the literal mission given to him by Hunter, which had to do with getting rid of some crazy mutants.

  Interesting choices, both changing the protagonist and kind of the main topic, I do respect and praise both. But I did expect more dread, perhaps on a second reading?

  I would still recommend, because I love this dystopian world created by Dmitry, one that has led me to dream of writing a fan fic of my own of Metro in another context, another system, another country… 

• Metro 2035

  Dmitry Glukhovsky

  2026-05-31 /
  

  Amazon Kindle

  Ongoing read. Took me longer than the former 2. Also bought and started reading on the same day when I finished Metro 2034.