What Are You Reading?

[Sheliek]

Yeah, I bought it on sale one day. I wanted to force myself to be a bit more concerned with individual thoughts and emotions. Never could make the switch since I prefer larger scope problems (like in science fiction or cyberpunk) and it's still on my backlog. One day maybe ....

I hear its one of the works of fiction though.

That's why I'm interested. I've gone through some of the sci-fi classics, and they're good. It'd be nice to read something realistic without it being non-fiction, for once. Realistic fiction is a rarity this day. It's all urban fantasy to a degree when it resembles real-life at all. That said, I'm probably not looking near as hard as I should.

EDIT: I know this isn't standard reading-fare, but it's just so beautiful. As one website described this news article, '[w]hen a crazed gunman went on a rampage in Ottawa, and came within ten meters of over 200 members of Parliament as well as the Prime Minister and both Opposition Leaders, Stephen Harper—the Prime Minister—hid in a closet. By contrast, the Members of Parliament grabbed flagpoles, transformed them into spears, and held them at the ready within their offices; waiting for the gunman to show up so they could impale him like Ancient Greeks in a phalanx formation. We are dead serious.'

[sandwich_bird]

EDIT: I know this isn't standard reading-fare, but it's just so beautiful. As one website described this news article, '[w]hen a crazed gunman went on a rampage in Ottawa, and came within ten meters of over 200 members of Parliament as well as the Prime Minister and both Opposition Leaders, Stephen Harper—the Prime Minister—hid in a closet. By contrast, the Members of Parliament grabbed flagpoles, transformed them into spears, and held them at the ready within their offices; waiting for the gunman to show up so they could impale him like Ancient Greeks in a phalanx formation. We are dead serious.'

Side note on this: I used to work on the hill but I was off that day. My colleagues took some pretty cool pictures of the events though(snipers on the roofs and everything). In any case, this description is accurate according to what I heard in the office the following day.

[TheEconomist]

Timothy Zahn is going to be writing StarCraft books? But, he's like, a real science fiction writer. Hmmmmm ... +1 for the future?

[Visions of Khas]

Timothy Zahn will be exploring the aftermath of the Legacy of the Void campaign.

SO much HYPE.

[Gradius]

I've heard about this Timothy Zahn. I eagerly await his work.

Wonder what happened to heir of Adun or the other books they were working on.

[TheEconomist]

He's done some decent work in the Star Wars and military scifi genres, from what I hear. Either way, he's better than what we've had. Even if for no other reason that it's better to have an established, respectable military scifi author in a universe like StarCraft than the romance and epic fantasy secondhands we've had.

[Visions of Khas]

I've read Zahn's Star Wars books and others. While he's a good writer, his delivery tends to be clinical and reserved, while the more human aspects of his characters feel forced, and romance is practically non-existent (which, for those Raynor/Kerrigan haters, might be a good thing).

[TheEconomist]

Basically, he's not the guy to go to for nonsenset, but he's good enough for conflicts and battles. Hallelujah!

[Visions of Khas]

Yup. You'll also be glad to know he rarely, if ever, uses Cartoon Villains, but rather intelligent opponents in varying shades of grey. His plots frequently unfold like a chess game. I'll admit, his Green and the Grey wasn't the best, but his Conqueror's Trilogy was pretty good.

[TheEconomist]

So, for some reason, I feel the need to talk to myself again. Welcome to TheEconomist's Reading Blog!

I just finished Blindsight. Also known as quite possibly the greatest science fiction novel of the 21st century. This book explores consciousness and the meaning(lessness) of life more thoroughly and thought-provokingly than anything I've encountered before. I don't really know how to explain it, but this is the book I've been looking for for long time. I've read a lot of the sci fi greats which explore these concepts, but they also seemed to be a bit lacking in some way or another, not really capturing the complexities of the topic. However, I think Peter Watt's Blindsight comes about as close as can be done in a fictional, non-holy text. I could continue to write, but no one will read this, so I'll just post a review by a top science fiction writer who appears to be as impressed by the book as I was.

http://www.tor.com/2011/03/03/best-s...of-blindsight/

I highly recommend this book for science fiction fans, thinkers, void observers, and consciousness contemplators, and even Lovecraftian worshippers.