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
Recently I highlighted an astronomical blunder by literary giant Ernest Hemingway in The Old Man and the Sea. He is far from unique. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Dickens, James Thurber, Edgar Allen Poe, and others of similar literary greatness, have all similarly blundered. A lot of the mistakes involve the moon: “Till clomb above the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>First, I participated in a Mind-Meld at sfsignal.com this week about our introduction reading genre. Interesting illustration of astronomical size scales. Special relativity for dummies (aka writers). Kentucky cuts education funding, but keeps tax breaks for a creationist theme park. Ugh. Really?! Republicans turn their backs on the enlightenment. Chris Mooney tells us why. Or [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>Thanks to my friend Jessica Goldman for font help, as folks correctly pointed out my inexperience with handling fonts and made some good suggestions a few weeks ago when I posted my original cover concepts. These new covers have text and art that are much more integrated and are still clear to read. I’m getting [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Some starlinks for this week. I have a load more on another machine, mostly science/politics/education, and may post those later this week. In the meantime, lots of interesting things: An old friend of mine now has a nice gig at Forbes.com and reports that NASA is relenting about releasing Richard Garriot’s science fiction film made [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>Here’s a link to an article describing the new DC comics line-up as relying on sex and violence to sell. I thought to myself, maybe that’s true. For the last 30+ years comics having been getting more adult. This reflects some symbiotic relationship involving the suppliers offering more complex material and older/more sophisticated readers. The [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Here’s one link, months old, to the story: So, it’s high time someone made a sequel to it, and now someone is! In partnership with Sagan’s colleagues Ann Druyan (who is also his widow) and Steven Soter, Seth MacFarlane — yes, that Seth MacFarlane — is going to produce a new 13-part series to serve [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Here’s the example I came across last week: Thousands of Mini-Black Holes Bombard the Earth Every Day, an article at the Mother Nature Network. I read that and said to myself, “WTF?” As an astronomer who studies black holes, teaches cosmology, and is generally well informed about science fictional news, I was surprised. I continued [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>I had a busy couple of days, and tonight I’m observing at the Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO). I’m not sure I’ve blogged about observing before. I know haven’t recently. I thought I’d share a little bit of what it’s like, at least until we get closer to astronomical twilight here on Jelm Mountain. WIRO has [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Working from the feedback and mock-ups from a couple of weeks ago…I’ve got one cover I’m mostly happy with: Thanks for the helpful feedback, especially about the fonts. I tried to make the letters here a little nebulous and fit in with the background more explicitly. I could perhaps do better yet, but it’s in [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>There’s a fun, literary homework problem in the textbook I’m using this semester (Foundations of Astrophysics by Ryden and Peterson). It’s a pretty good textbook overall, although it’s a bit calculus heavy for when some of our students take my course and it’s short on example problems. One thing I do like is that the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »>Well, it was my first class of the spring semester this morning. It’s a relatively big class for intro astronomy for majors: 22 students. But that’s not a problem since they seem enthusiastic, motivated, and totally awesome. I had a few standouts last time I taught this class, but I think there’s going to be [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>I’ve let these pile up too high, given the holidays, and some personal issues that have taken a lot of time and induced too much stress (I love my wife, but I don’t love the immigration process!). Let’s start with Phil Plait and Six Reasons Aliens would never Invade Earth. Still, some scientists say we [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>