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 »>So I just succumbed to one of those facebook memes: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen short stories (or novelettes or novellas) you’ve read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>Apparently Margaret Atwood, the author of the Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake, doesn’t believe that men walked on the moon. Maybe it’s worse than that — she’s trying to hedge her bets because she’s a “smart” person who knows being skeptical about this is idiotic and doesn’t want to admit to herself that she’s […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments »>An author friend of mine sent an email to a list I’m on: I’m about to start teaching an Honors science and lit class and I have a whole bunch of various definitions of what science fiction is, but many of those are from academics or dead people (I have some who are still alive […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »>When I was in Manila last month, I was happy to be able to meet fellow speculative fiction writer and blogger Charles Tan. Something he said resonated with thoughts I’d had over the years. Basically it’s this idea: if writers are paid a certain amount per book that depends on the market and their audience […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>Inspired by this list of the scariest foods (many of which I’ve eaten, including balot and rocky mountain oysters), I was thinking about scary science fiction foods like those live worms that the Klingons eat and decided to try to think of the really distinctive foods and drinks I’ve come across in science fiction. Not […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>Shelly Li is about the most talented teen I’ve ever known in my life, and I’m proud to call her a friend. She’s 17 and just sold her first novel and has been regularly selling science fiction to high-profile professional markets like the Futures section of Nature. I want to do two things here with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 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 »>Both science fiction fans and the general public complain about the failure of predictions of future technology. Where are the flying cars? Colonies on the moon? Jet packs? And food in pill form? Well, the last one is probably the least plausible of the above, and it could be argued that we have the other […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>Does Captain Kirk follow the Prime Directive — not to interfere with a developing alien species, or does he choose to do the right thing as he sees it? Does the team on Stargate: SG1 let the people on an alien world follow their own laws, or try to impose their own moral sensibilities upon […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>