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
What’s wrong with giant bugs? Or human bodies exploding in the vacuum of space? Or the answers to any of a bunch of other questions science fiction writers need to know to craft their story? I’ve written blog posts about some of these in the past, but started noticing videos with similar explanations and thought [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »>This is the short story collection that has stories with settings based on confirmed exoplanets discovered by NASA’s Kepler Mission. Table of Contents Middle Ground by Mike Brotherton Turtle Soup by Laura Givens The Gloom of Tartarus by Gene Mederos A Glint off the Glass by Rick Novy Omega Shadows by Carol Hightshoe Daniel and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>I have been busy and stressed, and the blogging has taken a hit. One of the things I’ve been busy with and stressed about is Launch Pad. I have some news about the workshop, but first, in case you don’t know what it is… Launch Pad is a week-long workshop held every summer since 2007 [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>One of two relatively nearby solitary sun-like stars I like to use in my science fiction to host alien worlds is Tau Ceti (the other is Epsilon Eridani). Recently we had news of Alpha Centauri B hosting a terrestrial world, and now on the heels of that news comes Tau Ceti: Astronomers estimate the Tau [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>Internet coverage was non-existent or stupid expensive at the con, and I was likely too busy to blog anyway…I’ll have some pictures and tell some stories about it this week. Let me say that the astronomy workshop was a success, although one day is sooooo short for such a big universe. Two days would have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>The website about the workshop isn’t quite updated just yet, but the plan is to drop the price to FREE for people attending Dragoncon and to make it only a single day event on Saturday, September 1. We’ve still got a core set of instructors, slightly smaller than before, but still including Kevin Grazier, science [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>This is passed on from a friend of a friend, who is a Spanish teacher using a science fiction novel (I don’t know which one) in her class, and had this question: I’m working on a sci fi novel to use in class and there is a reference to (translated): the reflection point of the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I have enjoyed the last decade of plentiful, quality superhero movies very much, and the few winners from earlier than that. After watching The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man recently, both of which I enjoyed, I was reminded of some things I see too often in such movies that is starting to annoy me whenever [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>I mentioned it recently, but here’s a reminder about the details: I will be running a free two-hour workshop titled: Science Fiction + Science? Writing Facts into Fiction with Mike Brotherton. Date & Time: Tuesday, June 26th, 2013, 6:30 to 8:30PM Location: Laramie County Library, Cottonwood Room, Cheyenne, WY I don’t know what kind of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>Encyclopedia Brown is a fictional boy detective in a series of stories by Donald J. Sobol, and one of my heroes, who uses facts and logic to solve mysteries. The stories about him always ended with him telling you the solution to the mystery, with a note to turn to the back of the book [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>I will be running a free two-hour workshop titled: Science Fiction + Science? Writing Facts into Fiction with Mike Brotherton. Date & Time: Tuesday, June 26th, 2013, 6:30 to 8:30PM Location: Laramie County Library, Cottonwood Room, Cheyenne, WY I was originally approached by the Laramie County Library System (which is not associated with the city [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>The Voice had it’s finale tonight. It’s an example of the reality show that gives talented amateurs/young professionals a chance to be recognized and nurtured into stars. There’s a million of these on tv now, from American Idol to Top Chef to Work of Art. A couple of my favorites are directly genre-related: Scream Queens [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »>