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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I’m giving a university talk today “Science in the Movies.” I decided I wanted to be able to leave the audience with a list of good science-based movies to watch, whether science fiction or not. I not only want the science as good as possible, I want to see a realistic and generally positive portrayal […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »>Better than Star Wars? Better than Blade Runner? Better than Back to the Future? Better than Alien? Better than the Matrix? Better than 2001? I don’t think so, even though I enjoyed the movie very much, but the reviewers at IMDB disagree. Top Rated “Sci-Fi” Titles Rank Rating Title Votes 1. 9.0 Inception (2010) 200,923 […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>A few days ago I blogged about mainstream stories that I thought could be categorized as light versions of fantasy or science fiction. To qualify, the stories had to fail to reflect reality in some fundamental way without being obviously science fiction or fantasy. When that failure was over-the-top and great liberties are taken with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I was thinking about the movie 300, Nnedi Okorafor’a detractors, and this recent blog post and comments therein. Thoughtful people get upset by art, whether it is a book, movie, or just about anything. I think there are good reasons and bad reasons to get upset. A good reason is when you’re disappointed because something had […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »>Maybe this is in bad taste. I don’t know. I don’t care too much. There are some weird looking actors out there who have gotten a lot of work over the years. They’re not ugly. They’re “Hollywood Ugly” which means you don’t scream when you see them and there’s something about the way they look […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 22 Comments »>I’m participating in another Mind-Meld over at sfsignal.com, this time on the best movie villains of sf/f/h. Many common choices (e.g., Heath Ledger’s Joker) yet still a lot of diversity. Here was my entry: Science Fiction Terminator Alien Predator Darth Vader (in the original 3 films, not the prequels) The Borg (Queen) Martians from War […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I’m not really sure how to categorize these films except as “silly,” but they’re all very good and quite fun. Some are comedies, but others are action films. The science is usually wrong or non-existent, but it’s clear from context that this is not an important point and that’s fine, even by me! I really […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments »>I’ve always been a fan of horror. I loved monster movies — the old Universal movie classics — as far back as Star Trek at least. Maybe longer. A lot of my early science fiction sales were stories with horror elements. Even today I like horror movies and my favorites tend to be science fiction […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments »>I’ve been involved in a few discussions recently where some instances of really dumb things in science fiction movies came up. I’m not talking science here so much (my usual issue to harp on) as just things that are so astoundingly dumb you got to wonder what people were thinking, or if they were thinking […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 20 Comments »>I went looking online for lists of science movies. I found one from a chemist at about.com: 1. Weird Science 2. Dr. Strangelove 3. Real Genius 4. The Atomic Cafe 5. The Absent-Minded Professor 6. The Andromeda Strain 7. Love Potion #9 8. Prince of Darkness 9. Project X 10. Manhattan Project Now, a few of these are good choices and I will keep them, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>I feel bad I didn’t put any of these into the top ten classic science fiction scenes. At least two of them should arguably be there. Big spoilers in these as they are toward the end, so don’t watch if you haven’t seen the movies and don’t want to spoil them. Enjoy! Astronaut Charleton Heston […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>More movie scenes today. The ten that I consider the most famous and iconic for science fiction. While some of these are iconic, some are revelations and can be considered spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie. So, be careful. Otherwise, enjoy reliving these with me. 10. I’ll start off with one from the top […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »>