Science [Fiction]

"To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me"

-Isaac Newton

One of my favorite quotes about science, the pursuit of knowledge, and exploration.  No, I'm not back into EVE yet.  I've had the opportunity over the last month to do a looot of reading and listening, particularly reading science fiction and graphic novels and listening to Dr. Tyson as well as audio books.  I figure if you're an EVE fan, you've gotta enjoy some Sci-Fi and science.  So here's what I've read/listened to/am reading at the moment.  Behold, the Smitty Reading List of Enlightenment:

Children of Dune: the third book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert.  You've been living under a rock if you haven't at least heard of Dune.  THE Sci-Fi classic.  I won't say too much about it because just giving the premise would give some pretty big Dune Messiah spoilers.  But it is a nice change from the heaviness and complexity of Dune and Dune Messiah; I'm about 1/3 of the way in, and there's shorter chapters, more palace intrigue, and less insane mind-rattling monologues that came with Paul's prescience abilities.  It's a faster read, simple, and enjoyable...so far.

Leviathan Wakes:  the first book in the series called The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey (a pen name, who is actually two dudes, one of which worked closely with George R.R. Martin).  Leviathan Wakes qualifies as a space opera, meaning it's got some drama and a little too much useless dialogue and tears in parts for my liking.  But it's worth the read; it's a fast one.  Essentially, we've moved on to colonize pretty much our entire solar system-- you've got Earth and Mars as two military super-powers, then you've got the "Belters", people who grew up in the asteroid belt.  You've got the politics and racism among those groups, some cool small-scale space combat, some love affairs, and some shit that goes down beyond the scope of our solar systems (spoilers averted).  I'm about to start the second book in the series called Caliban's War, and it looks to involve conflict on the moons of Jupiter to say the least.  Should be fun.

Before Watchmen:  These are awesome prequel comics to Watchmen, what I consider the greatest graphic novel of all time and am not alone in thinking so.  Although Alan Moore was very vocally opposed to prequels, I think the various authors and artists did an awesome job fleshing out the background of the characters.  I found Ozymandias' life especially fascinating.  And the Comedian. Hell, it was all great.  Highly recommend.  And if you haven't read Watchmen yet, please go pick up a copy.  Actually I think B&N is having a DC Comics special later this week. DO IT.

V for Vendetta: Currently reading this, it's another well-known comic by Alan Moore.  Masked vigilante in dystopian England, wears a Guy Fawkes mask.  Good stuff.  I'm only a few episodes in.

StarTalk:  Dr. Tyson's radio show, which is now also on the National Geographic Channel.  I've caught up with them and they're great to listen to during workouts on SoundCloud.  Expand your horizonssssss 

The Great Courses: The Inexplicable Universe:  Check it out on Netflix or on Audible.com.  It's a series of 30 minute lectures by Dr. Tyson that will blow your mind.

30-Second Quantum Theory:  When Dr. Tyson gets to the quantum theory and ultimately the cosmology side of things, he sometime loses me.  So I decided to do some studying on it and this was on the bargain shelf at B&N.  Should help.

The Year's Best Science Fiction:  This is a compilation of 2014's best short sci-fi stories, edited by Caroner Dozois.  The first story is called The Fifth Dragon by Ian McDonald, it's about two lesbian lovers who work on the moon who face the decision of returning to Earth before their bones become too brittle or committing to moon life and building a life there.  It was very very good.  Looking forward to more stories.

Pride of  Baghdad:  spotted this graphic novel in B&N and the Arabic title caught my eye (K'breea Baghdad).  It's very interesting.  It's about a pride of lions who escape the Baghdad zoo after an air strike levels their area. I've just started getting into it, but I love the art and the setting.  Should be awesome.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes: listened to the first story, A Study In Scarlet, which is the first story that introduces Watson and Holmes as characters and their first detective case as partners.  I was pleasantly surprised how the author managed to give an amusing history lesson concerning the founding of Salt Lake City, Utah, and the early corrupt Mormon church, which managed to have a connection with the London murder under investigation.  Looking forward to listening to more mysteries. By the way, it's an excellent audio book.  The voice actor is great, and listening to old English is a lottttt better than reading it.  Reading old English makes me want to kill myself, but this is great.

So that's about it.  I shouldn't comment on EVE happenings, because I've only been following Alliance mails and the like.  But it looks like we had an eviction attempt which could have turned out better, but Balcora's still home.  I'm looking forward to seeing the new patches.  Should be able to log in during the beginning of August.  Best case scenario.

Aim High and Question Everything,

=@= Smitty =@=