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
This is worth the six minutes if you care to know what’s up with dark matter and don’t want to read a serious article. Dark Matters from PHD Comics on Vimeo. Share/Bookmark
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>I just finished redecorating my student computer lab, replacing my old Demotivator posters from despair.com (great but have been up for 8+ years) with science fiction movie posters: It occurs to me I should have used the power of the internet to get some other ideas, although I like my choices. I’ve still got a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>I thought this was interesting and the kind of thing I love to talk about. Featuring a person or I two I know from science fiction and have a connection to via Rice University (my alma mater). I was pretty happy with the level of the conversation and thoughts in general. Worth a look [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Another week to the end of the semester, to the time beyond the marathon and marathon training, and the priority of blogging will creep back up. I had a technical glitch and the last post was only 1/6 of what I’d actually written. Stupid technical glitch. Also the time and thinking that I often put [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Here is an interesting article by Chris Mooney on this topic. Mooney hasn’t always endeared himself to me, and I think he’s guilty of bias as much as the people he describes, but I do like the opening quote and much that follows: “A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Back in college I had the privilege of meeting Eric Idle of Monty Python fame when he came through Houston doing a show, and I was observing at the local observatory. He was a gentleman and charismatic. He is a fan of astronomy, and gets his astronomy right when it comes up. I had a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I’m still swamped with a number of deadlines and matters of urgency, but I wanted to take the time to pass on some information from the American Astronomical Society about the budget. There look to be cuts, and I have several grant proposals funding, with a big group of undersupported graduate students. Not the best [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>It’s been a week since the last blog post. I have a list of things I want to write about, but a longer list of things to do that seems to get longer every day, including a number of high priority things. I’ve got an article due Friday, two papers by colleagues to review on [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright One of the threads I was reading on facebook was about how potentially creepy Shirley Temple movies might be seen to be today. OK, maybe. I have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>I didn’t quite get caught up over the weekend (Ann and had to spend some quality time together before she continued her speaking tour, after all). A Mind-Meld from SFsignal asking, how important is it for the science to be plausible in science fiction. I’d say it’s essential, or it isn’t science fiction, it’s fantasy. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>So, as you may recall, I posted earlier this week about Ann Coulter (AKA “The Devil”) coming to speak here at the University of Wyoming last night. I couldn’t bring myself to actually go to the event because I was afraid my head would explode. I happened to be out at one of the smaller [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments »>I’ve got a pile of these on a couple of different computers and have been procrastinating about posting them. Time to get moving again, so here’s a batch with some commentary. Brian Malow, Science Comedian, let me know he’s going to be on NPR’s Science Friday this week…but I’m wondering if it is an April [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>