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...
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"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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This is passed on from a friend of a friend, who is a Spanish teacher using a science fiction novel (I don’t know which one) in her class, and had this question: I’m working on a sci fi novel to use in class and there is a reference to (translated): the reflection point of the […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I like to write stories set in outer space on space ships, and I think a lot about stupid things like what is the necessary crew size and their expertise. There are some guides based on long duration seafaring, but those are somewhat imperfect in the space environment. So far, we haven’t had space missions […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>I have enjoyed the last decade of plentiful, quality superhero movies very much, and the few winners from earlier than that. After watching The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man recently, both of which I enjoyed, I was reminded of some things I see too often in such movies that is starting to annoy me whenever […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>In my opinion, anyway. Here’s the poem, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (and “heard” does rhyme with “Learn’d” better than “listened to”), from Leaves of Grass. WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer; When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me; When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>Encyclopedia Brown is a fictional boy detective in a series of stories by Donald J. Sobol, and one of my heroes, who uses facts and logic to solve mysteries. The stories about him always ended with him telling you the solution to the mystery, with a note to turn to the back of the book […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>It’s too late now, but it was possible, so let me explain how. Before I do that, let me note that some people loved Prometheus, like Roger Ebert, even though he takes issue with Creationist commenters who think the movie is pro Intelligent Design. There are some who are willing to ignore the bad science, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 73 Comments »>Real life. We’re already living in a science fiction future, but we’ve still got too many things that suck. I spent three hours waiting for tires today. I spent four hours on this task a few weeks ago. I don’t mind waiting as long as I have something constructive to do — some work, reading, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>My personal feeling is that religion is incompatible with science, but there have certainly been religious scientists capable of doing good science. People compartmentalize and turn off their critical brains when it comes to certain topics. I don’t see the difference between being critical about astrology and being critical about any supernatural claims. Still, a […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »>I’ve seen this on facebook recently, and another friend just emailed it to me, so let me post it here to launch a couple of points for discussion: So how about if I knew all that already? And could even make some minor corrections? Do I get to be certain? A quick google fails […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>My perfect SF novel, the kind I love to read, and that I’ll probably always be struggling to write, contains: -One or more heroes who use, primarily, their intelligence to reach toward their goals. -Spaceships in space. -Aliens, usually to serve as a mirror for ourselves. -Big stakes, at least life and death, and some […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »>I’ve seen a bunch of these lists on the heels of the success of the Avengers movie. Forbes has their top twenty (which dips into some bad ones in my opinion). io9 has their top ten comic book movies, which is unfortunately not restricted to superheroes (comparisons are apples and oranges too often). IGN has […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>I’ve written in the past about peer review (and links therein), particularly my annoyances with how some referees don’t seem to be constructive about it, and in fact can be condescending assholes. I made my suggestions about improving it while keeping it anonymous. Another option is to remove anonymity, which I think does have drawbacks, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>