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...
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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
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International Science Fiction Writers?
April 16th, 2009
I got an email request for suggestions for hard science fiction writers who are “international.” That is, they’re not American (or British, Canadian, Austrailian, etc.), and write in a foreign language, but have been translated into English. Specifically:
But I would also like to explore science fiction from other countries like Germany, Japan, and Russia. Do you know of any authors who have translated their novels?
The short answer is, no, I don’t know writers of this type. There are a few famous historical science fiction writers like Stanislaw Lem (Poland). There do seem to be some webpages out there, like this one for Russian Science Fiction & Fantasy, as well as this compilation of science fiction in different countries (authors, magazines, etc.). Jay Lake just blogged about science fiction in China. Amazon.com apparently sells a collection of The Best Japanese Science Fiction Stories (translated into English). I’m also aware of some Brazilian science fiction writers and have seen some of the magazines in Portuguese.
And I’ve read none of it. I barely keep up with the English writers, and I wouldn’t say I do that well.
I can suggest one of the stories from my anthology Diamonds in the Sky, by a science fiction writer who is also an astronomer:
How I Saved the World (Valentin Ivanov)
The movies Armageddon and Deep Impact featured nuclear bombs to divert asteroids headed for Earth, but this is really not the best way to deal with this threat. This story was originally published in Bulgaria, in the annual almanac “Fantastikaâ€, the 2007 issue. Publisher: “Human Library Foundationâ€, Sofia. ISSN 1313-3632. Editors: Atanas P. Slavov and Kalin Nenov. Keywords: Killer asteroids
Are there some science fiction writers who write in languages other than English, available in translation? Stanislaw Lem comes to mind, and he’s not exactly contemporary these days. I also get the impression than a lot of native-speaking writers have a tough time in the marketplace because foreign publishers do buy a lot of American/British books and have them translated. I have some friends that couldn’t make livings as writers without the foreign sales.
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Tor published an English translation of German writer Andreas Eschbach’s Die Haarteppichknüpfer as The Carpet Makers. It’s definitely science fiction (intergalactic civilization, artificially extended life, etc.) but does not focus on the science. Well worth reading. It seems the main reason it got translated is that Orson Scott Card liked it and pushed it at Tor, but don’t let that scare you off.
There is an excellent “international” CF writer, from Uruguay, Juan Grompone.
He wrote a CF book, which i found it very interesting and funny. I think it fits under your considerations about CF. (http://www.itapebi.com.uy/libros/rosa.htm)
He also wrote a paper predicting the end of capitalism many years ago. I think it is CF or FC…you will see. (http://www.itapebi.com.uy/pdfs/ah.pdf)
As far as i know there is no translation of the book, but there is an english version oh the paper.
email of juan grompone: grompone@interfase.com.uy
Hope you can get in contact with him, you wont ´n regret it.
By the way: i can ´t be more delighted with your work. unfortunately there is no translation in spanish of your blog, I think it would be a nice start the interchange between you and Grompone. The translation problem can be resolved very fast, if it is not yet resolved.
See you,
Gabriel.-
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For Portuguese, you can try the Fantastic Metropolis website ( http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/ ), which includes a couple of authors (also featured in the paper edition anthology) – Joao Barreiros ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Barreiros ) and myself Luis Filipe Silva ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Filipe_Silva ).
Thanks
LFS
Thanks!