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
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 »>Shelly Li is about the most talented teen I’ve ever known in my life, and I’m proud to call her a friend. She’s 17 and just sold her first novel and has been regularly selling science fiction to high-profile professional markets like the Futures section of Nature. I want to do two things here with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>A few days ago I blogged about mainstream stories that I thought could be categorized as light versions of fantasy or science fiction. To qualify, the stories had to fail to reflect reality in some fundamental way without being obviously science fiction or fantasy. When that failure was over-the-top and great liberties are taken with […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »>I was thinking about the movie 300, Nnedi Okorafor’a detractors, and this recent blog post and comments therein. Thoughtful people get upset by art, whether it is a book, movie, or just about anything. I think there are good reasons and bad reasons to get upset. A good reason is when you’re disappointed because something had […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »>I’m not big on poetry as a rule. It’s a taste I think. I like rock and roll, but not country. I like colas, but not coffee. And I prefer novels to short stories, and short stories to poetry. I think I’ve always been more enamored of the idea of something than its presentation, although […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »>I do about 10-12 hours of lecture during Launch Pad. Here’s one of them. Enjoy! Share/Bookmark
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>No, Seth Shostak is not a Predator, although that would be a cool book… Seth is a radio astronomer who works for the SETI Institute hunting for alien signals from space, and he has a book out called Confessions of an Alien Hunter which is about SETI and his personal experiences with the project. You […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »>I’ve been thinking about how hard it is to sell stories, to make a living as an artist, and how there are parallels with how hard it is to publish papers and to secure grants in science. There are some key differences, of course, but there’s something powerful in common, too. As an artist, a […]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »>I’m not exactly talking about ebooks or transitions of technology. I’m talking about Larry McMurtry’s contention that we may be living in the twilight of the novel. (Note that he happens to be giving his talk on this topic, ironically perhaps, at Rice University where I literally read hundreds of novels as an undergraduate in […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »>The other day I linked to this story from the Economist called “Publish and Be Wrong.” They were making the criticism that scientists may be overselling their results to get into the most prestigious journals, and hence the top journals were more likely to be publishing “wrong” results. Well, I have been thinking more about […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>I was talking to Mike Resnick at a convention and he remarked about the print run of his first book, which was close to six figures. Now, he’s a good, big name writer, but new writers in SF today as opposed to decades past rarely have print runs at that level and the average is much […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments »>Earlier this week, award-winning sf writer Nancy Kress (who is attending Launch Pad next week, by the way) wrote a short post about “the point of fiction.” I agree with her that a primary point is indeed “to decide what matters.” Last night, I was starting to reread Robert McKee’s excellent book, Story: Substance, Structure, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »>