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
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Launch Pad Day One and Some Links

August 1st, 2008

So far, so good. Launch Pad is off to a fast start. I wanted to summarize what we did and why for each day of the workshop. In addition, we’ll posting some of our materials on the web as soon as possible (likely over the weekend when I’ve scheduled a little downtime).

We started with introductions all around and then had a questionnaire about the math/science background and expectations of attendees and an astronomy pre-test to provide baseline knowledge about where we were at. I do this with all my classes in order to figure out where to pitch material. Not too much advanced math in the group, and those who had had calculus had had it a long, long time ago. Not abnormal at all for a pretty smart group. Most were pretty wide open about their expectations. The pre-tests got graded, but I haven’t seen the distribution, only been told it’s fairly uniform with scores both low and high. Again, not abnormal. We just have to make sure the folks who know the basics learn some new things and get challenged to think (not hard with astronomy as even the fundamentals are mind-blowing), and make sure that the people with less experience don’t get lost.

I like to start where our text book (HORIZONS by Michael Seeds, which we provide for free to attendees) starts: size scales. One of the things that a lot of science fiction gets wrong is just how BIG the universe is. Understanding the relative sizes of things and the distances between them is basic to visualizing things and a bedrock knowledge system for checking your facts.

After lunch, Jim Verley discussed phases of the moon and the seasons, especially the misconceptions that people hold. If you’re going to teach people something new, you’ve got to address those head on or they’ll likely pop up again like a hydra’s head.

Jerry Oltion gave us a grand tour of the solar system at the end of the day.

After dinner, with a small crew of die-hards not quite as exhausted as everyone else, we watched the 1980s Twilight Zone adaptations of Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star” and Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations.” A little bit of interesting discussion afterwards.

Solved some logistical/comfort issues like replacing the sucky dorm pillows. Tomorrow morning I start off talking about light and telescopes.

Some attendees blogging about Launch Pad:

Mary Robinette Kowal in particular is immediately blogging her raw notes into her journal. Probably a more thorough and less biased perspective about the experience than I’ll be providing here! If you want one-stop shopping for the immediate experience, check out her blog.

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