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...
Read More.Praise for Star Dragon
"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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The Best and Worst Science Fiction
October 2nd, 2008
New Scientist says the best sf film is Blade Runner. Runners up are 2001, Solaris, and Serenity. The worst? And other categories?
Worst sci-fi films:
The Blob, the 1958 sci-fi/horror film starring Steve McQueen. “I saw The Blob when I was about seven years old and haven’t eaten jelly since,” said one of our staff. Others noted that The Blob has one of the most implausible theme tunes of any sci-fi film.
Dune, the 1984 film directed by David Lynch, must rank as one of the most unsuccessful adaptations of all time, at least according to New Scientist staffers: the novel by Frank Herbert on which it was based was voted one of the best books in the in-house poll.
Most gratuitously scantily-clad female character:
The gold went to The Fifth Element‘s Leeloo, played by Milla Jovovitch, for her half-unwrapped-mummy outfit. Silver went to Jane Fonda’s Barbarella, heroine of the eponymous film – although one editor defended her negligible outfits: “Barbarella is actually about sex and love and all that, so it makes sense that she hardly wears anything.” Bronze went to Jeri Ryan, she of the nothing-to-the-imagination catsuit featured in Star Trek: Voyager.
Most incomprehensible:
Primer, the 2004 low-budget film directed by Shane Carruth. “Well worth watching,” said one of our editors, “though you might be excused for wondering if it makes any sense at all.”
Both ardently loved and fervently loathed:
The New Scientist staff are a contradictory bunch: Dune, The Matrix, Blade Runner and Event Horizon all featured on both the most loved and most hated lists.
They’ve got open voting for both films and books. Check it out and weigh in.
A few comments. I need to watch Primer again. I liked it, but was drinking and the ending got…confusing. I’m sure I can sort it out, but I should be totally sober at the time. I like a smart movie.
I also like a little cheesecake. Leeloo and Barbarella were sexy and had style.
I kind of like the Dune movie, too, if only for the look. The sandworms looked like sandworms.
I also love The Blob. When you see a movie when you’re eight or nine and love it, it’s hard to shake.
Myself and others have made posts about sf movies in the past. I have my lists of the best science-based sf movies, the worst movie, and then there are others, too. I have my own top ten list, and in that post I also summarize several others from the internet.
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I’ve watched Primer three times. It’s a great film, and actually does make sense – if you’re pedantic enough to say, create a timeline for the film to follow [http://www.cs.montana.edu/~arnone/pics/primer_timeline.jpg].
Carruth did purposefully leave a scene missing from the film so you never have ‘quite’ the complete picture of events, which is one of the things that really made it excellent in my eyes.
When people ask me about great Sci-fi films, I always make sure to mention Contact and Primer for their *actual science*. Everything after that is of course aliens, guns and explosions.
The (original) Blob scared the heck out of me as a kid. I don’t care how “plausible” it is, it works, as a flick.
Unlike the remake, which was just (like so many other remakes) a SFX showcase that missed the point of the original.
(Which is why I’m not looking forward to the remake of another classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still!)
Well Fred, there’s the old saying that the golden age of science fiction is when you’re twelve. I remember vividly that old man with the blob on his arm and how scary it was as it started to consume him. Totally chilling.
Tucker, I’d add 2001 to that very short list of Contact and Primer.
Actually it was more like five. By the time I was twelve, I was reading “Chip” Delany, Gene Wolfe and a lot of other stuff that twisted my mentality!
God knows what I’ll be reading next year. Maybe some Hard SF by some guy named Mike?
Definitely be reading some hard sf by guys named Mike, please!
I know have a book by some hard SF guy named Mike in hand and another on order. What we need is more books by a hard SF guy named Mike!
😉
Great! And I know! It’s too slow…