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...
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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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Ten of the Most Classic Science Fiction Movie Scenes
June 8th, 2009
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 actor post, from Blade Runner:
9. This is the opening from 2001, and it always makes my special bits tingle:
8.The Terminator will be back.
7. E. T. levitating bikes edges out phoning home:
6. Klaatu Barada Nikto!
5. Close Encounters after climbing a giant pile of potatoes:
4. Kahn!!!!! What about revenge?
3. Morpheus asks Neo to take a pill in The Matrix:
2. From Empire Strikes back, an important scene between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader:
1. We finish with the ultimate, the “John Hurt moment” that forever changed where you can go with film:
Don’t watch if you’re eating. Hell, don’t watch it at all. It isn’t good for healthy, well-adjusted people!
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Oh, THANK you for that. The ET scene has always been a favourite – it’s iconic of a whole age of my life, that bike with the boy and the critter in the basket outlined against the moon…
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun, and nostalgia, and more to revisit these. Some are like old friends. Some were just so amazing that my life froze when I saw them. Science fiction memories many of us share.
Triple-Olympic-gold-winning cyclist at Beijing Sir Chris Hoy credits ET for starting him off: “As a kid I loved bikes: that scene in ET when they’re on BMX bikes is what inspired me to ride.” (Though probably it was the riding bit rather than the flying bit.)
For my top ten SF movie scenes, I’d make the Roy Batty scene my #1 favorite, and the red pill blue pill scene from the Matrix my #2 favorite. After that I need to go track down 8 other favorite scenes. My #3 scene could be the fairwell speech that Klaatu gives warning us Earthmen. Now that I think of it, I might find a scene from Gattaca that would be my #2 scene, but I need to dig out my DVD. And I’ve always liked some scenes from the 1953 version of Invaders From Mars. Wait, wait, wait. The closing speech from Things To Come is right up there with the Roy Batty speech. Well Mike, maybe I need to go off and start gathering my own clips for my blog. What a fun blog idea. I wonder how people get scene clips to put on YouTube? And there was this movie from down under that I’ve forgotten the name of, that was about the last people on Earth after everyone else disappears, and the guy walks out on the beach to see a giant Saturn rising above the ocean. Now that was pretty damn impressive sense of wonder.
Jim
[…] Does Bruce Willis really deserve to be included on any list of the Top Ten Science Fiction Movie Actors? I’d give that one a big “Hell no,” by Mike Brotherton disagrees. He does, however, do a fantastic job choosing Ten of the Most Classic Science Fiction Movie Scenes. […]
Jim, I think that was THIS QUIET EARTH.
And I think that there’s something about watching movies when they come out in a theater and having that shared emotional reaction that makes a scene classic, so fewer old movies on my list. Still, I might have made room for the Planet of the Apes ending if I had remembered. I watched that on TV as a kid and was floored…
Gattaca is an excellent movie, but not too many parts stood out for me the ways these do. Probably the bit I remember best is the two brothers swimming in the ocean and the revelation that he never didn’t save anything for the return.
[…] to a child or teenager to inspire them about space exploration?”)1,001 Science Fiction Story IdeasTen of the Most Classic Science Fiction Movie ScenesStar Trek (“How plausible does SF have to be? Not in terms of “ideas,” but in terms of human […]
Great List! I watched and remember them like they were yesterday. I loved the Star Wars “Luke, I am your father” clip. Who hasn’t said that line in Darth Vader’s voice before.
Of course, the ET scene is one of my favorite scenes of all time and it must be for many. THe Alien clip is just too disgusting.