What is your opinion?
Thank you Manuel
"Manuel Alfonseca has achieved the goal one more time: telling a good, inelligent, elegant and well documented historic novel full of everlasting values. I enjoyed it very much and I trully recomend it to every kind of readers. I am looking forwar to reading another Manuel's book!"
Innovative book
"I am agreeably surprised with this story. The author is able to introduce with mastership sentiments and some human passions on virtual characters . In every chapter the mystery is just discovered when it is needed to perfectly follow the plot.. Luis and Lydia are adorable characters and one finish loving them. Mr. Manuel Alfonseca, being an Spanish writer, has a fantastic dominion of the English language. One thing I would like to indicate, which probably is only one impression of me: I didn´t understand well the transference process of Lydia from her real world to the virtual world. But still the fiction story is very original. I recommend to whom is interested in such type of fiction stories that don´t forget to read it. Ernesto Cubero"
Angel Llopis
"After reading the first paragraphs I got caught by the plot, captivated by the freshness of the characters, and couldn't resist to go on through the end of the story. Alfonseca's mastery of both history and technology come together into a surprising and breathtaking story that kept me breathless until I read the very end. The plot is brilliantly built upon realistic characters you rapidly grow fond of, solidly grounded on historic facts and highlighted by the fancy plot behind (or should I say above?) It will bring to your mind favors of Plato's analogy of the cave, Asimov plots and, inevitably, The Matrix. This short story is to be recommended if you are are looking to have a really good time. My congratulations to Alfonseca for this unexpected present."
very interesting
"A very interesting book, easy to read, which holds the readars interest to the end . A historic and science fiction novel."
Imaginative and thought-provoking
"The book starts as a historical novel, placed at the time of the Napoleonic wars. A strange amulet that accompanied Napoleon during his campaigns to victory has been missing, resulting in the tables being turned. Napoleon starts losing wars, and decides to recover the amulet, sending some of his trusted men to recover it. This is where the story begins, and it soon starts unfolding in unpredictable ways. A strength of the novel is the blending of three genres in one: historical novel, science fiction and philosophical novel. It raises questions about the nature of the world, our existence and its creator, and ethical responsibilities over artificial intelligence beings. All this is done in an engaging manner. All in all, a very recommended novel."
A very exciting book
"A very good book. Exciting, surprising, and you read it in one sitting. I would definitely recommend it."
Ingenious and gripping
"I thoroughly enjoyed this ingenious and gripping tale, which leaves the reader with some fascinating historical facts (and fictions!) but opens his mind to questions of the creation of our universe,,how we perceive it and how supernatural powers could possibly make their influence felt.. The author writes in his native Spanish and translates into English himself. To my mind his English, though excellent, would benefit from the attention of a native English-speaking copy-editor, to give it that final polish, but the story is no less gripping for that.. Highly recommended."
Jacob's ladder
"Jacob’s Ladder is an interesting story which poses fundamental questions about the nature of our existence as humans, our relation with the real world (or what we think is real, because we can perceive it through our senses), and with the imaginary worlds and characters invented by novelists, playwrights, and nowadays virtual reality engineers. And it does so in an entertaining way, immersing us in a historical novel set in several European countries during the Napoleonic wars, which is interwoven with a science fiction story that looks at the historical events from a different perspective and allows the author to frame such questions in the context of artificial intelligence, avatars and virtual reality. Characters such as Don Quixote outlive their creators, exist in the minds of millions of readers, influence their way of thinking, their readers’ real lives, even the existence of other characters inhabiting other minds and other novels. Should we consider their existence less important than ours? Are virtual characters just a product we can create, destroy and manipulate at will? Or should we acknowledge that, once they come into existence, they have an independent life of us humans (their creators), a different form of free will; or that they closely resemble us in many ways, not only because they are our creations, but also because we ourselves might be the creations of another Writer at the top of the ladder?"
Jacob's ladder
"Jacob's ladder is an outstanding piece of work in several aspects. On one hand the action is interesting from a historical point of view since it takes place at one of the critical moments of the Napoleonic era, which had a big influence on the world as we know it today. On the other hand the way the action is presented and the way it evolves is very attractive and it keeps the interest of the reader on the main issues that are posed at each moment. Finally, the book addresses important and appealing ethical questions, some of them related to an experiment in Artificial Intelligence that is progressively intertwined with the main action. The result is a completely innovative history that keeps the readers attention until the end and makes reading the book a unique experience."
I really like the style of this author, and the stories he creates
"I have read several books of this author, and I found all of them really interesting. All these books are about stories that tell many good things!! In this 'Jacob's Ladder', I also find it amusing the way the author mixes several genres, like historical, science-fiction, and adventures. I think that the author enjoys so much writing his stories, I feel his stories so round and complete! :-) Talking about 'Jacob's Ladder', I find it interesting too the environment where it happens: Napoleon's wars, and how the author uses this time to tell a story about artificial intelligence. These are the main reasons why I give this book the best scores. I would like to thank the author for writing such a good books."
The Jacob´s ladder
"It is a very interested story that arises an overgrowing interest in the reader when he advances in its reading... It mixes adventures and data available about them. The possibility to analyse reality from different levels, getting different interpretations is rightly showed.."
Jacob's ladder
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What if...
"The book is full of surprises and keeps reader's attention at a very high level. It is a historic novel that makes use of "what if" to make the point. I read the book in Spanish and found a new word "histopronosticador" whose meaning is not written anywhere but one understands it inmediately. The historic context, the author's ability to handle the action in four different levels and the ethical questions he raises along the book make it a jewel that should be read by teens and adults."
Couldn't leave it
"Original science-fiction novel, mixed with historical, which lets you learn a little history and at the same time offers several important moral issues about possible future Artificial Intelligence."
A ladder with many steps
"*This review contains spoilers* This novel has a very ingenious plot. As the title indicates, different parts of the plot happen on different levels, and nothing is what it seems at first sight. The novel starts as a historical story set in Napoleon's time. We realize something is off when Napoleon wins the battle of Waterloo, and strange non-historical characters start to take a main role in the action. But this is not just an alternative history novel: somebody is recreating and trying to manipulate history. Who and why are revealed towards the end of the book."
Original
"A diferent story mixing Artificial Inteligence and Napoleon. Good wr. Apropiated for kids and adults. Action and thinking. A fighting bwt good and evil. A diferent story mixing Artificial Inteligence and Napoleon. Good wr. Apropiated for kids and adults. Action and thinking. A fighting bwt good and evil."
Imaginative Story of Subcreation.
". I am going to say a few words of the novel The Jacob`s Ladder. I am going to give several clues. This novel it is not seem it. I speak with the writers and I try to persuade to include this novel in the shelve of Alternate History. This story happens during the Napoleonic Wars. The beginning caught to the reader since the start of the story until the end of the story (the story make short to the reader). There are an interesting dialogue between José Gutiérrez who support the French troops, and Charles Houy the Chuan (who seem of a Balzac`s novel). This novel has two fantastic characters Luis and Lydia in different levels. A part the novel has excellent supporting characters. Napoleon is the villain and he search and object who gave the victory, but it is not the villain of the story. His privilege has Blatsov who drinks a lot of the Nazgul. One of the scenes remembers to the readers to the attack of the Nazgul against the Prancing Poney in Bree. This is not the only literary effect to Manuel Alfonseca. Gerard the especial agent of Napoleon is inspired in the SM Brigadier Gerard created by Arthur Conan Doyle. The author describes fantastically the European cities who passed Luis Salamanca, Lisbon, Brussels, the field of Waterloo, Aachen and the castle-prison of Montsegur. This novel has very much ingredients of the Hitchcock movies, and the spy novels, where the Jacob Ladder`s played the role of Macguffin with adventures in several stairs. The novel passed the category of historical novel, alternate history, to something near to the science fiction but that I have never seen in the literature genres. Where, the author appears victorious. One of the author take a decision that in the future can affect to the real world. Novel innovate, original the author cannot miss fortunately the author translate to English in Kokobooks . Other of the strong points of the novel is the use who did the author of the scholasticism in this case who uses Boethius and Saint Thomas Aquinas. The best in my opinion are the final chapters about all, the prologue. Nobody wrote a brilliant allegory like this I invite to the readers let to be guided by the wise narrative of Manuel Alfonseca."
Jacob's ladder
"So far the story is quite intriguing. Lets see how things unfold"
Jacob's Ladder
"It is not often when one re-writes history, and does it in a masterful manner. What if Napoleon had won the battle of Waterloo? And did it by mystical means? Or what he thought was mystical means, but really was from interference from without? And instead, it was virtual reality, much like the Matrix movies. Suspense, the sense of Sensucht, kept me reading, and following the many twists and turns. I have read several 'what if' stories, such as MacKinlay Kantor's "If the South had Won the Civil War," and this outshines them all. Well done, Alfonseca!"
Jacob's ladder
"Nice and easy reading book, good for learning and for entretainment. I can recommed it for young readers but also will interest elder people. The style is friendly and english is not complicate also good for non-native speakers."
