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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More International Science Fiction
April 19th, 2009
A few days ago I put out a call for information about non-English science fiction writers, perferably hard science fiction writers getting translated into English. There are a few suggestions there and in the comments. Valentin Ivanov wrote me a very informative email I wanted to share:
Here are a few more names of foreign writers, worthier than mine:
– Jules Verne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne). French, almost fully translated in English.
– Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, more or less from the same generation as Lem. They are considered (together with Ivan Efremov) the fathers of the modern Soviet/Russian SF. A few of their novels and stories were translated in English in the 70s and 80s but didn’t have a big commercial success, too heavy and culture dependent, I suppose (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkady_and_Boris_Strugatsky and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic). They are my personal favorites.
– Sergey Lukyanenko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Lukyanenko), the author of the Night Watch books. He writes in Russian, there are translations in English, German, Spanish, Japanese, etc. He is a former psychiatrist. In my opinion he alternates between books that pay the rent and books “for the soul”.
– Andreas Eschbach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Eschbach). He writes in German. Tor published The Carpet Makers in 2005, I liked it.
– Jetse de Vries – I think he is Dutch, writing in English. He is (or was?) an editor at Interzone. Very interesting character, see for example his editorial work: http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/
Generally, very few SF writers have made a successful translation from a foreign language to English. The only example I can think comes from the mainstream – Nabokov.
Well, I don’t know that I think of Nabokov as a science fiction writer. Certainly lots of foreign writers who write other types of speculative fiction and who have had success in translation. Paulo Cohelo, Borges, and others come to mind. The pure science fiction is much rarer and strikes me as quinissentially American in its roots and history, although non-Americans like Verne, Clarke, Lem, and others have played major roles.
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Yes, it seems that the Americans are real good at writing and creating science fiction, yet our culture has learned how to do so from the greats like Verne, who came before us!
EVERLASTING
Selling Planet Earth in Exchange for a Utopia? What’s the Catch?
Humans sold planet Earth for peace, but little did they know peace would come at such a high cost.
A long time ago, Humanity sold planet Earth to a group called the Evers in order to gain peace and a virtual utopia for themselves and for future generations. However, the cost of this paradise turns out to be too much for some to deal with and the humans soon find themselves ruled cruelly by the very beings who offered them salvation and at one point given them so much hope.
Humans that were originally treated with high regards, made to feels special, are now being treated as animals, some humiliated and shipped away to some unknown fate…each being told what they could or could not do, under the guise of it being in humanities best interest.
With a feeling of dread, a small group declares war on the more advanced Evers in hopes of returning things to the way they should be…to the way they had been. John and his make-shift crew of humans and hybrids (half human/half Ever) must not only find a way to break free of the mistakes of the past and find out the disturbing secrets that the Evers have hidden away, but they must also deal with their own personal issues and learn to live, grow, and deal with each others’ emotional issues of love, regret and fear.
Will man give up youth and perfect health to live in the past? And will John take the chance of restoring Earth to its former state even though there’s a good chance his life-threatening disease can return?
Publisher’s Web site: http://www.eloquentbooks.com/Everlasting.html
About the Author:
Myra Evans resides in Walterboro, South Carolina, a small town near Charleston. She is a C.N.A. for a large Veterans nursing home.
Vernes ? It’s old… One of the founding fathers, but really old though.
A good french scifi writer would be Serge Brussolo. I don’t know if he’s been translated. It’s not hard SF at all, but he’s a really interesting author.
He shares a lot with P.K.Dick : he’s insane, he writes bad pulp novels – and suddenly, after a few chapters, reality doesn’t make sense anymore, and you feel like you’re wandering through a landscape designed by Escher under mescaline. He has a real genius to imagine weird, impossible alternate realities, where childish SF suddenly turns into a nightmare.
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Nabokov as a SF writer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_a_Beheading
Of course, his fame is rooted in the mainstream.
Thanks for the tip on the Nabokov. Sounds Dickian for sure.
Seriously, Japan shows most of the oddest ads. Might it be because it’s a cultural thing, or could it be something else altogether? Sorry for ranting, I’m not trying to take away from a nicely crafted post!