Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
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Mars Forever?
October 24th, 2008
Buzz Aldrin is at it again.
He’s making the case that we should send people to Mars, but not bring them home. He thinks we should go into space for good, for real, for the duration. Well, maybe they could return at retirement age if it’s feasible by then.
I am sympathetic to this idea. With Apollo, we went to the moon a few times, and then that was it. We haven’t sent people out of Earth orbit since then. The moon race was a cold war stunt. With the Chinese and the Indians getting into space recently, we could see another race and more stunts, but stunts do not constitute a long-term program working toward serious long-term goals.
I have no doubt that there would be highly qualified volunteers to go live on Mars. That would be a cool thing to do, and many people have the correct temperament to do so. There are great risks about whether we could in fact do it successfully.
Stephen Hawking is in favor of space exploration with the long-term goal of getting our eggs out of a single basket. He’s worried that something could occur to wipe us out on Earth — asteroid, biowarfare, something else. I think he’s right, but I don’t know that we have the will yet to put the resources into colonizing Mars in any serious way. The economic crisis right in particular probably makes a lot of people see a manned Mars mission of any kind as an expensive waste of money.
What do you think?
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Earth doesn’t suck, but I’d go.
Fair enough! I don’t think it sucks either, on the whole, most of the time.
I’m with Steve-Earth is fine-but don’t get between me and the spaceport!
I have cried real tears over the fact that we are not bursting out of the Solar System in seven different directions. My 10 year old self thought I was going to be living on the Lunar Colony by the age I am now.
How depressing. I’m going to go pound about three
generous shots of ouzo & cheer up. Great blog, Mike!!