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
Search
Why, primarily, do you read science fiction?
October 26th, 2008
The poll the other day on the Mars stuff was so overwhelmingly one-sided, even for science fiction readers and fans of science, that I wonder about my audience here. Let’s take a poll and please leave comments, too.
Loading ...Personally, I read science fiction for a glimpse into a different world that is based in reality. The here and now doesn’t have to be the way we experience it here today on Earth. Science let’s us see many other possibilities. I want to see the other. How about you?
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
You said to leave comments, so here I am! Definitely I read sci-fi to be entertained, but what is it about sci-fi that entertains me? pretty much everything else that you mentioned on the list, to varying degrees. I don’t think you can enjoy sci-fi without it speaking to you on a human level (though there doesn’t necessarily have to be any humans!)but I love the escape of reading about other worlds, understanding the way they work, how they differ and how they’re the same. That sorta thing!
I read SF for many reasons. I chose to respons “entertainment”, because if I am not entertained, I stop reading. But I also read it to be challenged about all the sciences (hard and soft), including philosophy and religion. And I write it, in part to try to envision a positive future.
And I read it because I grew up with it.
I read it mainly to be entertained and to get some level of escape from my normal life. I also read it because as a historian, science fiction seems like the other side of the coin, even if it does not do a very good job of actually predicting the future.
Come to think of it, I write it for the same reasons.
For the record, I do not read it to be preached to about politics. Chances are very high that I have probably heard whatever pet political theory a writer has thousands of times over the course of my college education. If I want to work, I’ll pick up a copy of E. P. Thompson or Eric Foner, both of whom are professionals at their craft and far more stimulating on an intellectual level than someone who is at best, regurging political talking points.
Crunchy hard science thrown in helps as well.
Respects,
S. F. Murphy
My primary reason for preferring science fiction (and fantasy) to other types of fiction is simply that SF/F is usually better written.
Entertainment in science fiction (no namby, pamby “SF” for me!) is the artificial-cherry-flavored syrup in which the ideas are suspended. Characterization simply provides three dimensional spokesthings for these ideas and action demonstrates the consequences.
You need an “all of the above” option there, Mike.
Seriously, though, I agree with Mr. Hughes and Mr. Allen, though–in well-written science fiction, I can suspend my worries and concerns and delve into a completely different world. Whether Eric Nylund, Larry Niven, Isaac Asimov, or someone completely unheard of, I like to read one book twice over–once to drink in the story, and again to consider the themes and ideas that are (or are not) there.
Ever since I took your class, I’ve also tried to analyze the science behind the story and see if it holds true with the laws of physics as I understand them. (Needless to say, I visit sites like Wikipedia quite a lot!) It’s really quite thought-provoking for me–I’ve actually considered toying with the idea of changing majors a couple of times!
Any way, that’s a lot of blather, but I hope I answered the “something else” question.
I personally think SF is the ultimate in creativity. I am not so rigid as Mike is with hard SF, but view SF as an opportunity to explore the creativity of another, or explore one’s own cretivity. In fact I sometimes feel that hard SF can sometimes inhibit the creativity of a writer. For me it is not so much that the science is correct, but that the world created is intriguing and and well thought out.