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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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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
Thinking about Endings, and New Beginnings
August 16th, 2009
I’m perpetually a few minutes late arriving places, and I hate going to bed. I like to keep doing whatever I’m doing, because I’m usually doing something interesting. Still, things always end and you have to move on.
The International Astronomical Union General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro is over, and I’m back in Porto Alegre again (although just for a few days). For a lot of astronomers, meetings are a time to catch up on fields they’ve been too busy to follow in detail, and to catch up with old friends they’ve also been too busy to keep in touch with. We’re busy people. I always get scientifically energized by both things. A lot of times, the talks are reviews and I know many of the things that are in them already, but sometimes the things are way too new and I realized I’ve missed some key findings that would help me with my own research.
The main event I attended was the symposium on Evolution of Galaxies and Central Black Holes: Feeding and Feedback. It was about our progress understanding how black holes affect the evolution of the galaxies they live in, and how processes in galaxies regulate how black holes grow. My new discovery is Kevin Schawinski, who works with the ultraviolet space telescope GALEX, Galaxy Zoo, and understanding galaxy evolution in the context of star formation and nuclear activity. I need to read a lot of his papers. I’m also thinking about a Galaxy Zoo type project for classifying spectra, but this might have much less general interest.
I also need to follow up with several people for various reasons. A few are potential or past collaborators and I want to discuss new projects. One is the daughter of an astronaut now involved in physics teaching efforts, and I’m interested in inviting her mother (who helped refurbish Hubble in the past) as a potential Launch Pad guest instructor. [Any past Launch Pad attendees or interested applicants have an opinion about that? Better or worse than a big name hard science fiction writer?]
After a science meeting I’m very excited to get back to work on my research. After a science fiction convention, similarly, I’m always very excited to get back to my writing projects. Sometimes I get inspired in totally new ways (I have a video project in mind now, for instance). We’ll see what becomes of this.
The reality is when you get home you’ve lost time to the meeting/convention/whatever, and by the time you’ve got everything squared away the every day things have returned in full force and that energy seems to dissipate somewhat. Sometimes I hold on to a little. I always try.
My time in Brazil is also over. I have just a few days to take care of a lot of things following a year in this very interesting country. I have friends to see one last time. Accounts to close. Things to pack or dispose of (selling, trashing, or giving away). My to do list is totally ridiculous. Still, I wanted to jot down these ideas while they were fresh in my mind. The doing and the traveling is going to make some of them seem like a fading dream.
And I have another to do list for the United States. I have learned a lot of things about myself this past year, good and bad, and will use that information to try to improve some things about my life back in Wyoming, both personally and professionally. I know some things I can do to immediately help my productivity and happiness, and some longer term things to shoot for. I just have to hold on to some of that excitement to implement them.
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August 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Michael,
You come by the being perpetually a few minutes late (or as I call it almost on time) and hating to go to bed naturally. I can’t say what I am doing is always particularly interesting but is more interesting than sleeping.
The Papa