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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
Three Simple Rules to Save Heroes
December 22nd, 2008
Forget about saving the cheeleader, or the world.
Let’s start with how to save the TV show Heroes.
Although I have really enjoyed superheroes and this show in the past, earlier I ranted about all the problems with consistency this past season. The writers can’t seem to deal with so many superpowers even though they’re all simple ripoffs from characters that have been around for decades, and it only gets worse with people with a mix of powers. So, we begin our rules:
1. One power per character. Kill off or alter characters with multiple powers like Sylar, Peter, and Arthur Petrelli. At least stop the madness where it is.
2. No powers involving time travel or telling the future. The writers haven’t handled the time travel stuff well at all and it needs to stop before everything is a hopeless mess. Hiro is noble — let him decide it’s too dangerous and to stop. Teleporting and stopping time are plenty powerful enough. Otherwise every single episode should be like the scene in the police station in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Hiro can just goes back in time to give himself what he needs to win in every situation.
3. No more powers that affect other powers. No power boosters giving speedsters the ability to time travel. No power swapping, power damping, or other weirdness. This should include magic eclipses that steal powers because apparently twilight saps one’s strength. I’m reminded how Magic the Gathering used to be fun and understandable, and then card interactions made the whole thing a ridiculous exercise involving too much rules lawyering.
Isn’t enough to deal with the basic human questions about how people deal with power, how people deal with being different, how governments deal with minorities, and all the other moral dilemmas that power entails?
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December 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
A friend on LJ suggested to add “Stop sucking.” Heh.
December 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
^LOL I have all the episodes DVR’d waiting to be watched from this last season. I like the idea of Syler being a good character (the whole thing with the powers being stolen is frustrating and handled weird.. if you can be in the presence of a power/memory thief why is it inconsistently used?? Plot hole, IMHO).
I’m looking forward to sitting down and watching all the episodes from this Season, but I’m nervous about it too.. I’ve heard it’s a mess.. and yes about the whole “it sucks” thing. It had a LOT of potential. Seems like it’s gone the way of “Lost” (which I used to like a lot before it became one big romance soap). Hopefully both these shows will get their act together.. with or without the possible SAG strike.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
[...] so. Maybe if there are more complaints about the ridiculousness of the time travel in things like Heroes and Back to the Future, they’ll happen a little less often and be a little less appreciated, [...]