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 Movie Villains of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
October 14th, 2009
I’m participating in another Mind-Meld over at sfsignal.com, this time on the best movie villains of sf/f/h. Many common choices (e.g., Heath Ledger’s Joker) yet still a lot of diversity. Here was my entry:
Science Fiction
- Terminator
- Alien
- Predator
- Darth Vader (in the original 3 films, not the prequels)
- The Borg (Queen)
- Martians from War of the Worlds
- Governmental Bureaucracy in Brazil
- Roy Batty in Blade Runner
Fantasy
- Sauron
- Queen from Narnia
- You Know Who!
- Joker in the new Batman
Horror
- Jason
- Freddy Kruger
- Michael Meyers
- Hannibal Lecter
- Dracula
- Shark from Jaws
Not unsurprisingly, horror films and sf/f with strong elements of horror lead to the most memorable villains. There are plenty of fine films that lack explicit villains and are more complex than simple good vs. evil stories, but a great villain can really steal the show. Hannibal Lecter was an important subplot of Red Dragon, but eventually emerged as his own franchise. Some are complex like Lecter, some mindless like the shark in Jaws, but there is a wide spectrum of possibilities to explore.
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DALEKS ! DALEKS ! DALEKS !
Don’t forget the uber-villain: Yahweh from Passion of the Christ
Demanding the brutal killing of the only innocent human or else you’ll send all of humanity to eternal suffering.
Hannibal Lecter’s got nothing on this guy.
Darth Vader is by far the most scary of the sci fi villians the sound of his heavy breathing,Dracula the scarists of the horror villians he can come right in your house if your bedroom window is open and suck your blood,Fantsy villians is is SAURON he can see anywhere you are in middle earth