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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Mermaids: The Body Not Found
May 30th, 2012
I believe I posted a link about Mermaids: The Body Found a few weeks ago. It’s a show airing this week on Animal Planet, the finale for their “monster week.” I’m a fan of monster weeks, and I’m a fan of cryptozoology. But this is just an unconvincing faux documentary about a government conspiracy to cover up the existence of mermaids and the evidence that they exist.
It just doesn’t come across like it’s real. They have actors playing real scientists who aren’t good enough actors, or bad enough actors, if you know what I mean. They’re all Hollywood attractive, too smoothly spoken, shot doing confessionals against a gray screen…it’s just like the Hollywood idea of how to tell this story if it were real, rather than how it would actually be told.
Disappointing.
I liked a few bits, how they inserted fake historical evidence. Some of the interviews with old sailors on location worked better. But overall, that was not enough. I couldn’t keep my suspension of disbelief enough to make it work.
When you do this sort of obviously fake “true story,” you’ve got take make it actually somewhat convincing (e.g. “Alien Autopsy” of years back), because it’s going to be judged by different standards than either a clearly fictional effort, or a clearly straightforward documentary not claiming anything new and startling.
As I said, there are a few nice bits and if you love this subject area, check it out. Otherwise there are better ways to spend a couple of hours.
The above video is one of the pieces of “evidence.” It’s obviously shot dramatically, Hollywood style. This is not how any kid just documenting dead whales on the beach would shoot anything with their camera phone…I mean, doing a smooth running shot? It would be slow, shaky, with the kid saying stupid stuff while he was doing it. Just an example of the clumsy spot between fiction and reality this show finds itself in.
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