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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Praising Sean Carroll’s Rules for Time Travelers
June 3rd, 2009
I had meant to link to physicist Sean Carroll’s excellent Rules for Time Travelers that he posted a couple of weeks ago. Sean is a world expert on time and knows his stuff. Awesome post.
I made a very similar post last year called Science and Science Fiction: Time Travel. A lot of the basic issues and complaints are the same as Sean’s, which makes me feel good (I’m an astrophysicist but far from a “world expert on time”). I think his article is a little clearer and direct, although we do talk about some different things and provide some different resources.
I have complained many times about time travel handled badly in science fiction, and expect I will continue to do so. Maybe if there are more complaints about the ridiculousness of the time travel in things like Heroes and Back to the Future, they’ll happen a little less often and be a little less appreciated, and eventually, in the distant future, let movies and TV evolve into something smarter.
Sorry, I think I slipped from science fiction into fantasy with that last bit above…but we can travel into the future together, one second per second, and see!
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Sean does pretty good in that article but totally dropped the ball on the latest “New Rules for Time Travelers” being hyped by Discover. I saw this paper on it by an engineer, Marshall Barnes, that was probably the best thing I’ve read about a time travel subject. Carroll has nothing on this guy. He’s talking physics and not sci fi, but many of the issues you complain about in stories would seem to irk Marshall as well. The detail that he put into the article about Sean using a time gate to create a CTC, borders on brilliant. You have to read it to believe so I suggest you do that and form your own opinion.
Ooops! I forgot to provide the links.
Here’s the one to Sean’s new article – http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/02-the-real-rules-for-time-travelers
Here’s the one to Marshall’s paper – http://www.scientificblogging.com/temporal_mechanic/blog/“new_rules_time_travel_â€_and_sean_carroll’s_gate_2
Enjoy!
Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out soon. Sounds very nice!