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 was thinking today about the “Reals” of the Heroes Network and what superpowers are now within the reach of our science and technology. Most superpowers are ridiculously unphysical, as described in the really fun book, Physics of Superheroes, which the author James Kakalios fashioned after a class he teaches at the University of Minnesota. […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 107 Comments »>Last month I wrote about the ten best science-based science fiction movies, which was fun and made me think a lot about all the average to decent movies that still fail to make the science grade in one or more ways. It’s too easy to make a list of dozens of movies with the worst […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the drug store, but that’s just peanuts to space.” — Douglas Adams There’s not a lot of science in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but it’s a […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>As we transitioned in class last night from properties of light to size scales, light-speed and how its finite velocity gives us distances (in light years) seemed a natural course for the lesson plan. One of the things we did that I thought resonated with last week’s “Cold Equations” stuff was looking at two versions […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Contact lenses are under development that will allow wearers to watch video and maps beamed directly into their eyes similar to the overlays from the Terminator movies. Maybe I need to add those movies to my science-based sf films….naw. I had similar technology in my first novel, and my pro-scitech stance led me to have […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>Jim Kelly’s essay in Asimov’s this month is about “mundane science fiction.” Mundane science fiction is, according to wiki: Mundane Science Fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction. Inspired by an idea of Julian Todd, the Mundane SF movement was founded in 2004 by novelist Geoff Ryman among others.[1] It focuses on stories set on […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »>So there’s a new movie coming out next month, Jumper, based on an sf novel by Steven Gould, whose writing I’ve admired over the years (“Peaches for Mad Molly” is a truly original story). I just came across this story about the director Doug Liman and lead actor Hayden Christensen of Star Wars infamy visiting […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »>From time to time I’ll write about the courses I’m teaching, at least when I think it’s interesting behind the scenes. It should be this semester. Last year and this year both I’ve started my Science and Science Fiction class with “The Cold Equations,” a famous proto-hard sf story by Tom Godwin. My course is […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>I posted this originally at www.sfnovelists.com, but decided that I’d like it in my own archives, too, and it would make a good filler for a lazy Sunday (which isn’t really because I have to write a self-assessment and run for three hours today, but that’s my problem). Anyway, here it is in case you […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>So yesterday I had a post about what I thought were the ten best science fiction movies in terms of the physical science. I’ve been convinced to make a couple of substitutions and will do that over at www.sfnovelists.com tomorrow with a link from here. One reaction I often get when I become critical about […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>Every top ten list is biased, and so is this one. My particular biases are that the movies have to strive for, and achieve most of the time, scientific accuracy. At least nothing too grossly wrong, and some instances of, “yeah, that’s not intuitive but that’s how it would work!” I’ll limit my list to […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 59 Comments »>“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.†— Albert Einstein This is going to be a call for reason to the smart people out there who do stupid things too often, too consistently, or too loudly. All smart people do stupid things. I’m a really smart guy, and I’ve been […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »>