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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A few years ago I compiled a list of online astronomy resources for writers following that year’s Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers. Every year there are new links we pass around and discuss, so I wanted to do an addendum, if you will, adding more links to the ones I’ve previously posted (and which […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>This is a true story. It’s kind of funny, kind of stupid, but it’s true and that’s the important thing. I was a smart kid growing up, usually at the top of my class, always fiddling with one project or another. I was into the stars, dinosaurs, chemistry, science fiction, making movies, writing stories, chess, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>Last night I caught the much discussed Discovery Channel episode of Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking dealing with aliens. The initial clip on the website is “Fear the Aliens” which is the controversial bit. Hawking, unlike Carl Sagan, apparently thinks that we would have much to fear from technologically advanced aliens and that we […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments »>I’m teaching the last week of my astronomy class, and the last topic I’m covering is exoplanets: how we find them and their properties as we currently understand them. The textbook I’m using is brand new, Foundations of Astrophysics by Ryden and Peterson, and covers some aspects of this hot subtopic pretty well, but it […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>A friend of mine in Brazil is giving a public talk today. She was charged with talking about “Journeys Through the Universe” and asked me to come up with some videos she could use. I’ll embed the videos I suggested to her below, but I wanted to add one link first to a really nifty […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>There are spoilers ahead concerning the story “Neutron Star” by Larry Niven. Be warned. If you want to download and read the story for under a dollar, check it out on fictionwise.com. If you’re not going to jump out and read the story any time soon, you can familiarize or remind yourself about it at […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>I’ve discussed some world building before, and this has traditionally been an important topic in science fiction and fantasy. I want to get a little more specific where it comes to space-based interstellar science fiction. These days I think it’s becoming necessary to be very specific in any human-based, Earth-oriented future to use real astronomy […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>I missed our astronomy journal club today, so I thought I could take some of that time I “saved” and invest it here in talking about what is journal club. In the sciences, you generally finish classes in your second year of graduate school, and are not likely to take more. Teach more yes, but […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »>My friend and fellow astronomer/science fiction writer Valentin Ivanov pointed me at these abstracts saying they reminded him of Star Dragon (which has creatures living in an accretion disk): Title: Accretion disk civilization 1: Habitable zone around accretion disks at galactic nuclei. Authors: Fukue, J. Publication: Astron. Her., Vol. 88, No. 5, p. 199 – 205 […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Passing on some news about an educational project I contributed to: Science educators Stephanie Slater (University of Wyoming), Janelle Bailey (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and Michael Gibbs (Capitol College) have compiled and edited a coherent set of IYA2009 educational materials that provide both content knowledge for classroom teachers and classroom-ready materials suitable for use, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>I used to think I didn’t have heroes. Not in the sense that most people mean, and not being allowed to count superheroes. But I realized I did, and had had a lot of them growing up through college. Mine are biased toward physics and astronomy. Here they are, in no particular order. Einstein. Sort […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>OK, I’m not crazy about this topic because I’m a realist and deal with reality, and calling Pluto a planet or not is semantics. The astronomical and cultural classification is not important to reality and doesn’t have any physical effect on Pluto whatsoever. In general, I’m happy with the IAU’s definition of a planet and […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>