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Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an alien race, a race gone for hundreds of thousands of years. But then an archeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon: a weapon that will destroy the entire colony, and its star, if they cannot deactivate it.
Evidence at the site suggests that the weapon was created for the ancient Argonauts by another race, a race of traders. And within that evidence are a map of their interstellar trading empire, and the coordinates of their main trading station. Although the information is a hundred thousand years out of date, the only hope for Argo is to send a ship and crew into the unknown, to try to negotiate for a way to shut down the weapon.
Evidence at the site suggests that the weapon was created for the ancient Argonauts by another race, a race of traders. And within that evidence are a map of their interstellar trading empire, and the coordinates of their main trading station. Although the information is a hundred thousand years out of date, the only hope for Argo is to send a ship and crew into the unknown, to try to negotiate for a way to shut down the weapon.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2008
1 person is currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Mike Brotherton
12 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mike Brotherton writes hard science-fiction stories with well developed characters.
For a living, Mike is an observational astronomer, researching quasars and active galactic nuclei.
Combining his interest in science fiction writing and astronomy, Mike organizes the yearly Launch Pad workshop, which teaches astronomy to writers of science fiction and fantasy.
About Mike
ASTRONOMY:
When I was six, I wanted to be an astronomer or a paleontologist. When I was twelve I wanted to be a science fiction writer. I went to college at Rice University intending to get a degree in electrical engineering and work for JPL or NASA. I ended up double majoring in EE and space physics and went on to the University of Texas at Austin to study astronomy. After getting my PhD in 1996, I worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory. I am now an assistant professor in the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Wyoming. My specialty is quasars. I’ve actually used the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Keck Telescope and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. You can find out more here .
WRITING:
Writing starts with reading. I don’t remember learning to read and don’t remember ever having difficulty with reading with one exception in the form of a nasty school librarian who told me in first grade that I “didn’t read that book.” You see, I’d taken a book from the “big stacks” and first graders weren’t supposed to be able to read those. Bitch. I started writing my first novel — something really terrible inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars books — in sixth grade. For the most part I let the writing bug idle until I was in college. I got to write a short story for a Space Colonies course my freshmen year, then did some writing on my own and also for an advanced fiction writing course my junior year. I didn’t sell anything I wrote in college but I did start learning to be professional and submitting my stories. Graduate school slowed me down for a few years but I did join a local SF/F writing group (”The Slugtribe”) and started getting serious about writing. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in the summer of 1994.
Clarion West was a wonderful experience for me though not everyone fares so well. It’s basically boot camp for writers for six weeks, writing 5-6 stories, reading and critiquing over 100 stories, living and learning intensely. I’m still in contact with many of my classmates now nearly a decade later and a rather large percentage of us have become successful writers. We’ve produced over a dozen books and had dozens of short stories published in professional anthologies and magazines. At least half of us are still in there slugging. While the craft acquired at something like Clarion is not to be underestimated, the most important legacy to me has been the friends and professional contacts I made there. Beth Meacham, my editor at Tor, was one of my Clarion instructors and gave me a thumbs-up on the novel synopsis I wrote there. It took me another six or seven years to finish my PhD, hone my craft, and get the actual novel, STAR DRAGON, on her desk.
Other stuff
Mike’s Favorite SF/F Novels in no particular order:
◦Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
◦Hyperion by Dan Simmons
◦Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
◦The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
◦Gateway by Frederick Pohl
◦Replay by Ken Grimwood
◦Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
◦Startide Rising by David Brin
◦The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
◦Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinle
Mike Brotherton writes hard science-fiction stories with well developed characters.
For a living, Mike is an observational astronomer, researching quasars and active galactic nuclei.
Combining his interest in science fiction writing and astronomy, Mike organizes the yearly Launch Pad workshop, which teaches astronomy to writers of science fiction and fantasy.
About Mike
ASTRONOMY:
When I was six, I wanted to be an astronomer or a paleontologist. When I was twelve I wanted to be a science fiction writer. I went to college at Rice University intending to get a degree in electrical engineering and work for JPL or NASA. I ended up double majoring in EE and space physics and went on to the University of Texas at Austin to study astronomy. After getting my PhD in 1996, I worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory. I am now an assistant professor in the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Wyoming. My specialty is quasars. I’ve actually used the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Keck Telescope and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. You can find out more here .
WRITING:
Writing starts with reading. I don’t remember learning to read and don’t remember ever having difficulty with reading with one exception in the form of a nasty school librarian who told me in first grade that I “didn’t read that book.” You see, I’d taken a book from the “big stacks” and first graders weren’t supposed to be able to read those. Bitch. I started writing my first novel — something really terrible inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars books — in sixth grade. For the most part I let the writing bug idle until I was in college. I got to write a short story for a Space Colonies course my freshmen year, then did some writing on my own and also for an advanced fiction writing course my junior year. I didn’t sell anything I wrote in college but I did start learning to be professional and submitting my stories. Graduate school slowed me down for a few years but I did join a local SF/F writing group (”The Slugtribe”) and started getting serious about writing. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in the summer of 1994.
Clarion West was a wonderful experience for me though not everyone fares so well. It’s basically boot camp for writers for six weeks, writing 5-6 stories, reading and critiquing over 100 stories, living and learning intensely. I’m still in contact with many of my classmates now nearly a decade later and a rather large percentage of us have become successful writers. We’ve produced over a dozen books and had dozens of short stories published in professional anthologies and magazines. At least half of us are still in there slugging. While the craft acquired at something like Clarion is not to be underestimated, the most important legacy to me has been the friends and professional contacts I made there. Beth Meacham, my editor at Tor, was one of my Clarion instructors and gave me a thumbs-up on the novel synopsis I wrote there. It took me another six or seven years to finish my PhD, hone my craft, and get the actual novel, STAR DRAGON, on her desk.
Other stuff
Mike’s Favorite SF/F Novels in no particular order:
◦Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
◦Hyperion by Dan Simmons
◦Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
◦The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
◦Gateway by Frederick Pohl
◦Replay by Ken Grimwood
◦Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
◦Startide Rising by David Brin
◦The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
◦Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinle
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
September 13, 2015
Mike Brotherton’s novel Spider Star embodies what I really like and what I do not like in a story all in one book. The first half of the book symbolizes what is best about science fiction story telling but the second half of the book falls apart and is unable to deliver on it’s opening premise.
The story essentially follows two characters. The first is Commander Manual Rusk who is an archeologist that belongs to organization known as Special Operations. He is routinely sent on dangerous missions to explore and uncover technology from dead alien civilizations. The second main character is Frank Klingtson and he is a just your average ordinary beer maker. Actually, he is a hero from times past as he made first contact with an alien species and was able to procure a dark engine drive which allowed humans to travel further into space. But, he has since retired into family life and resigned himself to running a homemade brewery.
Both live on a human colony planet named Pollux in the system Argo. Pollux used to be the home planet of an alien species known as the Argonauts. The Argonauts are believed to have died out long ago through some kind of devastating event but they left their technology behind. Pollux was settled by humans and they are free to explore the Argo system for the Argonaut’s treasures.
The story begins with Manual Rusk on regular mission searching the moon Charybis. Rusk accidentally discovers some old ruins left by the Argonaut and decides to investigate it to see if it has a cache of technology. When Rusk innocently knocks on the main entrance door it causes horrific consequences. The door has an alarm system that sends out a neutrino signal to the nearest sun which triggers a plasma stream to be shot at the moon base. Eventually, more and more plasma streams are launched at the moon and the planet Pollux. The streams will keep coming until either Pollux is destroyed or they find a way to disable the weapon.
Manual Rusk and Frank Klingtson team up to undertake a mission to locate the power source of this doomsday weapon. Their journey leads them to a dark matter world known as the Spider Star. For me this is where the story began to fall apart. Soon after they begin exploring the interior of the Spider Star both men run into problems that causes one to be captured and the other running from machine like species called the Hydras. There are way too many pages dedicated to description of the characters while in custody that it quickly became uninteresting.
The conclusion of the story ends on an uninspiring whimper. For me, it did not jive with the first half of the book.
What I liked: The first half of the book is excellent. It is built upon imaginative ideas and provides a great set up for the rest of the novel. I am always a sucker for novels that explore the great unknown and involve first contact with alien races. This should have lead into a creative story line that develops into an interesting alien exploration adventure.
What I didn’t like: Unfortunately, the second half runs out of gas quickly and basically delves into page after page of the essentially the same dialogue. The meeting with ancient alien races is uninteresting and cliche with the aliens basically asking, “what can you offer me?” Really? After all the build up, at the critical moment in story it all boiled down to making some kind of trade. It left me feeling indifferent and disappointed with the story telling.
Last word: Like many Hollywood Sci-Fi movies, this novel started out with an awe-inspiring premise and intelligence but the story ran out of ideas and retreated into well worn territories that leave you feeling that an yet another opportunity was missed.
The story essentially follows two characters. The first is Commander Manual Rusk who is an archeologist that belongs to organization known as Special Operations. He is routinely sent on dangerous missions to explore and uncover technology from dead alien civilizations. The second main character is Frank Klingtson and he is a just your average ordinary beer maker. Actually, he is a hero from times past as he made first contact with an alien species and was able to procure a dark engine drive which allowed humans to travel further into space. But, he has since retired into family life and resigned himself to running a homemade brewery.
Both live on a human colony planet named Pollux in the system Argo. Pollux used to be the home planet of an alien species known as the Argonauts. The Argonauts are believed to have died out long ago through some kind of devastating event but they left their technology behind. Pollux was settled by humans and they are free to explore the Argo system for the Argonaut’s treasures.
The story begins with Manual Rusk on regular mission searching the moon Charybis. Rusk accidentally discovers some old ruins left by the Argonaut and decides to investigate it to see if it has a cache of technology. When Rusk innocently knocks on the main entrance door it causes horrific consequences. The door has an alarm system that sends out a neutrino signal to the nearest sun which triggers a plasma stream to be shot at the moon base. Eventually, more and more plasma streams are launched at the moon and the planet Pollux. The streams will keep coming until either Pollux is destroyed or they find a way to disable the weapon.
Manual Rusk and Frank Klingtson team up to undertake a mission to locate the power source of this doomsday weapon. Their journey leads them to a dark matter world known as the Spider Star. For me this is where the story began to fall apart. Soon after they begin exploring the interior of the Spider Star both men run into problems that causes one to be captured and the other running from machine like species called the Hydras. There are way too many pages dedicated to description of the characters while in custody that it quickly became uninteresting.
The conclusion of the story ends on an uninspiring whimper. For me, it did not jive with the first half of the book.
What I liked: The first half of the book is excellent. It is built upon imaginative ideas and provides a great set up for the rest of the novel. I am always a sucker for novels that explore the great unknown and involve first contact with alien races. This should have lead into a creative story line that develops into an interesting alien exploration adventure.
What I didn’t like: Unfortunately, the second half runs out of gas quickly and basically delves into page after page of the essentially the same dialogue. The meeting with ancient alien races is uninteresting and cliche with the aliens basically asking, “what can you offer me?” Really? After all the build up, at the critical moment in story it all boiled down to making some kind of trade. It left me feeling indifferent and disappointed with the story telling.
Last word: Like many Hollywood Sci-Fi movies, this novel started out with an awe-inspiring premise and intelligence but the story ran out of ideas and retreated into well worn territories that leave you feeling that an yet another opportunity was missed.
Read
August 25, 2013Human colonists on a planet which once had an alien civilization accidentally trigger a weapon that over a period of years causes devastation at various places on and near the planet. Using archeological info, humans identify the location of another civilization (light-years away) from which the aliens got the weapon. A mission is sent to try to get help from this other civilization.
The concept behind the mission's destination is interesting: a celestial object made of dark matter - the gravity allowing the holding of an atmosphere and structures. However, this concept isn't explored that deeply. Once the destination is reached, much of the story is:
1) one group of humans being captured by savage-like aliens. When they find humans are poisonous to eat, they take the humans to a leader to find out what to do with this booty of limited value
2) another group is chased by huge automaton-like beings. Over a course of days or weeks, there's a game of cat and mouse through a complex network of structures.
Eventually, those running the destination are found and talked with. They're an unusual sort of alien.
The concept behind the mission's destination is interesting: a celestial object made of dark matter - the gravity allowing the holding of an atmosphere and structures. However, this concept isn't explored that deeply. Once the destination is reached, much of the story is:
1) one group of humans being captured by savage-like aliens. When they find humans are poisonous to eat, they take the humans to a leader to find out what to do with this booty of limited value
2) another group is chased by huge automaton-like beings. Over a course of days or weeks, there's a game of cat and mouse through a complex network of structures.
Eventually, those running the destination are found and talked with. They're an unusual sort of alien.
April 11, 2011
Despite being hard SF with interesting, and realistic, physics, I was unable to enjoy this book. My primary objection was with the characters. I did not like the style of their dialog, and most of their arcs seemed fairly superficial and shallow to me. The major characters each had an obvious character flaw, that was fixed over the course of the story in a simple and unsophisticated way.
I did like the science in this book, particularly the dark matter planet (more precisely a planet of WIMPs). It's clear that Brotherton did his homework regarding cosmology and the timescales required for interstellar travel. The good science is what elevates this from a one star review.
Read this book only if you don't care much about the characters and want to get some extremely rigorous science with some interesting conjectures.
I did like the science in this book, particularly the dark matter planet (more precisely a planet of WIMPs). It's clear that Brotherton did his homework regarding cosmology and the timescales required for interstellar travel. The good science is what elevates this from a one star review.
Read this book only if you don't care much about the characters and want to get some extremely rigorous science with some interesting conjectures.
January 6, 2010
First-rate science and good-enough fiction in this hard SF odyssey about a desperate expedition by human colonists threatened by an ancient doomsday weapon to an even-more-ancient, mysterious space station mentioned in an alien saga kept me turning the pages.
Suggested drinking game: shot every time some creature, human or otherwise, excretes--shot every time some creature, human or otherwise, loses a limb.
Suggested drinking game: shot every time some creature, human or otherwise, excretes--shot every time some creature, human or otherwise, loses a limb.
April 13, 2020
A good science fiction read. Full of good science and excellent characters.
December 6, 2020
Spider Star by Mike Brotherton is a throwback to the hard Sci-Fi of the 70s and 80s. In some ways, it reminds me of first contact and exploration books like Larry Niven's Ringworld. The downside of this is that character also felt like those of the 70s and 80s, even in a novel written in 2008.
The strong points of Spider Star are in the exploration. The basic idea here is that on an Earth-like world orbiting the star Pollux, humans have established a sizable colony on a world that used to hold an alien species (now assumed extinct) they called the Argonauts. One of the PoV characters, Manuel Rusk, accidentally sets off an alien super-weapon in the sun which is now shooting targeted solar flares at the planet and its moons. Humanity knows, thanks to records left behind by the Argonauts, of another alien space station a few dozen light years away where they might find help, so a group of contact specialists (thinks super-astronauts) including Manuel Rusk and Frank Klingston, who is the first human to have met an alien species (and returned with valuable technology) will go to the Spider Star to seek alien help.
The Spider Star itself is a huge alien structure build around a dark-matter planet. The exploration of this structure was interesting but the rest of the book drags badly. The first 140 or so pages of 440 (in hardback) are just a drag. It takes forever for anything to get going. I almost quit this one twice. Author Mike Brotherton has some real, no BS science credentials but I feel like he struggles to write dialogue and this shows up when characters say something, then we get 3-4 paragraphs of internal monologue about what they meant. There is, literally, a point where Rusk says "yeah" in response to a question then spends four paragraphs internally pontificating about why he said "yeah" instead of the more formal "yes."
Beyond that, Frank and Manuel just aren't very interesting characters and they are our PoV into this book 90% of the time. Manuel Rusk is the ultimate Lawful Neutral military man. Law and order all the time. He spends the entire book second guessing everything, including himself. There is zero character growth. Frank is a little more interesting but still sounds like a typical manly-man man written in the 70s by a 60 year old male smoking a pipe who likes that women are attractive but wishes they'd just shut up. it's hard not to side-eye the chauvinism. Uninteresting characters with weak dialogue led to a lot of "wall of text" pages and had me skimming paragraphs pretty steady towards the end of the book.
Those negative impacts are a shame too, because there's a good, interesting contact/exploration story here, it just gets buried by a slog of internal dialogue and characters constantly second guessing themselves and then spending pages "thinking" about those decisions to themselves.
The strong points of Spider Star are in the exploration. The basic idea here is that on an Earth-like world orbiting the star Pollux, humans have established a sizable colony on a world that used to hold an alien species (now assumed extinct) they called the Argonauts. One of the PoV characters, Manuel Rusk, accidentally sets off an alien super-weapon in the sun which is now shooting targeted solar flares at the planet and its moons. Humanity knows, thanks to records left behind by the Argonauts, of another alien space station a few dozen light years away where they might find help, so a group of contact specialists (thinks super-astronauts) including Manuel Rusk and Frank Klingston, who is the first human to have met an alien species (and returned with valuable technology) will go to the Spider Star to seek alien help.
The Spider Star itself is a huge alien structure build around a dark-matter planet. The exploration of this structure was interesting but the rest of the book drags badly. The first 140 or so pages of 440 (in hardback) are just a drag. It takes forever for anything to get going. I almost quit this one twice. Author Mike Brotherton has some real, no BS science credentials but I feel like he struggles to write dialogue and this shows up when characters say something, then we get 3-4 paragraphs of internal monologue about what they meant. There is, literally, a point where Rusk says "yeah" in response to a question then spends four paragraphs internally pontificating about why he said "yeah" instead of the more formal "yes."
Beyond that, Frank and Manuel just aren't very interesting characters and they are our PoV into this book 90% of the time. Manuel Rusk is the ultimate Lawful Neutral military man. Law and order all the time. He spends the entire book second guessing everything, including himself. There is zero character growth. Frank is a little more interesting but still sounds like a typical manly-man man written in the 70s by a 60 year old male smoking a pipe who likes that women are attractive but wishes they'd just shut up. it's hard not to side-eye the chauvinism. Uninteresting characters with weak dialogue led to a lot of "wall of text" pages and had me skimming paragraphs pretty steady towards the end of the book.
Those negative impacts are a shame too, because there's a good, interesting contact/exploration story here, it just gets buried by a slog of internal dialogue and characters constantly second guessing themselves and then spending pages "thinking" about those decisions to themselves.
July 5, 2020
Bad, unbelievably bad
Just when one thought that a good, hard science fiction book featuring ancient artifacts appeared, this novel disappoints and plumbs new depths of possibly the worst sci-fi prose to ever grace the Kindle store.
This is one looong, confused, ooozing, badly written tale that neither makes a good read nor lives up to the synopsis. High school level emotional conflicts are mixed with pseudoscience, and, just for a good measure, are garnished with action plots straight from “Land of the lost”. Sadly, without Mr. Farrell to provide a distraction from the banality of this prose, unsuspecting reader must face unpleasant dilemma: to power thru never ending literary disasters or just to quit and end the suffering. Unfortunately, I kept reading in futile hope that redemption would come, albeit in vain - no salvage waits for a stubborn reader intent on finishing this mess.
What a waste of time and money...
Just when one thought that a good, hard science fiction book featuring ancient artifacts appeared, this novel disappoints and plumbs new depths of possibly the worst sci-fi prose to ever grace the Kindle store.
This is one looong, confused, ooozing, badly written tale that neither makes a good read nor lives up to the synopsis. High school level emotional conflicts are mixed with pseudoscience, and, just for a good measure, are garnished with action plots straight from “Land of the lost”. Sadly, without Mr. Farrell to provide a distraction from the banality of this prose, unsuspecting reader must face unpleasant dilemma: to power thru never ending literary disasters or just to quit and end the suffering. Unfortunately, I kept reading in futile hope that redemption would come, albeit in vain - no salvage waits for a stubborn reader intent on finishing this mess.
What a waste of time and money...
November 11, 2021
Stars off real slow. Gathers speed 1/2 way thru. Some interesting action.
August 6, 2023
A good science fiction book.
January 3, 2013
The story begins with a seemingly insignificant archeological discovery on another planet. One of the main characters has found a box of alien childrens toys. The aliens in this case are the Argonauts, a violent and technologically advanced civilization that existed on the planet before the humans found it. When jostled by accident, an artifact inside begins to tell a Argonautian childrens story of the Spider Star, an object which is described as “...no star, and ...no planet, but it is a place anyway. Its golden heart is the source of all good and evil. But mostly evil. For what comes last, colors all of which is to come before”. According to legend, the Argonauts went there to first shrink an expanding sun which threatened their planet, and the second time, on an evil voyage, to gain control of the sun shrinking technology and turn into a weapon with which to destroy their enemies. This tale is the tale of the second voyage, and inspires interest when an ancient military base is discovered on a nearby moon, and an ancient trap triggers a horrible, ancient weapon capable of destroying everything in the solar system, especially the planet on which the original Argonauts resided, and on which the colonists currently call home. The sun fires on the moons and planet with superheated beams of something, the humans are not sure what, that sounds exactly like the technology the Argonauts speak of in the legend of the Spider Star. The colonists set off on an expedition to the Spider Star to try and stop the sun from destroying everything they have worked hard to preserve. On this mission are 12 Specialists, who have been training for a mission such as this their entire lives, and Frank Klingston, the only man who has ever met an alien species.
This book would be good for all science fiction fans, as well as most fantasy fans, as it has the air of a Greek epic, and is compared to the story of Jason and the Argonauts throughout the entire book. The author combines the two well, and gives the book the impression of a legend of an epic journey to save the world, while still using sensible quantum physics to rationalize everything that happens, which I quite like. Some books that I have read have done a horrible job with the actual science behind everything, and that distracts the reader from the story.
The one problem with the book is that it doesnt truly get going until the last third of the book. The first two-thirds were well done, but they were all exposition, even when they reach the Spider Star, which happens about halfway through the book. After that there is some more mucking about with setting up the plot and the new setting, and then gets amazing really quickly.
There is no other books to compare this too, as there is really nothing like it. The best way to describe it would be a sobered up version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with murderous spider aliens instead of Vogons. And no central government to the galaxy.
All in all, the book was a good read, definitely worth your while, if you can understand the physics behind it.
This book would be good for all science fiction fans, as well as most fantasy fans, as it has the air of a Greek epic, and is compared to the story of Jason and the Argonauts throughout the entire book. The author combines the two well, and gives the book the impression of a legend of an epic journey to save the world, while still using sensible quantum physics to rationalize everything that happens, which I quite like. Some books that I have read have done a horrible job with the actual science behind everything, and that distracts the reader from the story.
The one problem with the book is that it doesnt truly get going until the last third of the book. The first two-thirds were well done, but they were all exposition, even when they reach the Spider Star, which happens about halfway through the book. After that there is some more mucking about with setting up the plot and the new setting, and then gets amazing really quickly.
There is no other books to compare this too, as there is really nothing like it. The best way to describe it would be a sobered up version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, with murderous spider aliens instead of Vogons. And no central government to the galaxy.
All in all, the book was a good read, definitely worth your while, if you can understand the physics behind it.
October 2, 2009
Brotherton writes hard science fiction, SF that doesn't violate known laws of physics (unknown laws and edge cases are fair game). You will not find faster-than-light travel in his books, and his extraterrestrial settings are based on what we know of astronomy.
It's the 25th century, and humanity has a colony on a world around Pollux, named Argo. There used to be a civilization there, but they seem to have destroyed themselves in war, a theory that gets support when an archeological team triggers a weapon that bombards the planet and its moons with jets of plasma emitted from Pollux.
From the archeological records they know that the natives have made a trip to a location known as the Spider Star, and that they acquired a dangerous weapon there. It follows then that there might be someone to appeal to for the knowledge of how to turn it off, and preparations are made to go.
From there we have a journey to an unusual structure and encounter interesting aliens, and in general have an interesting story. The only negative are the viewpoint characters themselves, who are rather bland and uninteresting. Each are given backgrounds that could have led to conflict with each other, or which may have let them perform less than ably, but which instead don't affect the plot very much at all. Only the character of Frank Klingston (famous for being the only human to have encountered an intelligent alien being) has any depth, and it is probably not a coincidence that he is the only one with a family.
The setting of the Spider Star on the other hand is complex, well-thought out, and designed with a futuristic technology in mind. The aliens that live there are interesting, more so than the humans, and carry the story.
It's the 25th century, and humanity has a colony on a world around Pollux, named Argo. There used to be a civilization there, but they seem to have destroyed themselves in war, a theory that gets support when an archeological team triggers a weapon that bombards the planet and its moons with jets of plasma emitted from Pollux.
From the archeological records they know that the natives have made a trip to a location known as the Spider Star, and that they acquired a dangerous weapon there. It follows then that there might be someone to appeal to for the knowledge of how to turn it off, and preparations are made to go.
From there we have a journey to an unusual structure and encounter interesting aliens, and in general have an interesting story. The only negative are the viewpoint characters themselves, who are rather bland and uninteresting. Each are given backgrounds that could have led to conflict with each other, or which may have let them perform less than ably, but which instead don't affect the plot very much at all. Only the character of Frank Klingston (famous for being the only human to have encountered an intelligent alien being) has any depth, and it is probably not a coincidence that he is the only one with a family.
The setting of the Spider Star on the other hand is complex, well-thought out, and designed with a futuristic technology in mind. The aliens that live there are interesting, more so than the humans, and carry the story.
March 31, 2016
A reasonably fun romp through Arthur Clarke/ Larry Niven territory by the author of
Star Dragon
. Like that book, this one is chock full of Big-SF concepts, many of which are interesting enough that I'd hate to spoil them in a review. There are also aliens this time around, although most of them come across as unpleasant and one-dimensional. Brotherton's human protagonists are more relateable than the misanthropes he wrote about in Star Dragon, though sometimes they come across more like caricatures from a Personnel Management textbook instead of a novel. The action is fast enough and the mysteries intriguing so that occasionally weak characterizations don't get in the way.
The one thing that did rub me a little wrong was the unusual amount of ... shall we say ... elimination in the book. I realize that "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" is a legitimate engineering problem that, unpleasant as it is, needs to be addressed (see also: Packing for Mars ), but so much of it goes on in this book that it borders on the fetishistic. Yuck.
The one thing that did rub me a little wrong was the unusual amount of ... shall we say ... elimination in the book. I realize that "how do you go to the bathroom in space?" is a legitimate engineering problem that, unpleasant as it is, needs to be addressed (see also: Packing for Mars ), but so much of it goes on in this book that it borders on the fetishistic. Yuck.
June 28, 2009
"Two of the most important things ever to happen to Virginia Denton occurred on the same day, almost at the same moment. At the time, she was unaware of the importance of either event."
So begins "Spider Star", a science heavy, hardcore science fiction novel by Mike Brotherton that I picked up on impulse at the library last week.
There were things I liked about the book. I liked that the author did not attempt to "cabbage head" everything. These characters did not turn to the audience at any point and explain things that they took for granted. It annoys me when stories do that. I liked how events that were referred to unrolled naturally, through conversations as they might in the real world.
At one point, the action split into three distinct narrative tracks and I enjoyed following each story, eager to see if and how they would weave back together again.
Some of the plot points were hard for me to follow (but that could be MY problem). I did not care for the ending of the story.
If you like "heavier" science fiction then this might be for you. I do not think it is my cup of tea...
So begins "Spider Star", a science heavy, hardcore science fiction novel by Mike Brotherton that I picked up on impulse at the library last week.
There were things I liked about the book. I liked that the author did not attempt to "cabbage head" everything. These characters did not turn to the audience at any point and explain things that they took for granted. It annoys me when stories do that. I liked how events that were referred to unrolled naturally, through conversations as they might in the real world.
At one point, the action split into three distinct narrative tracks and I enjoyed following each story, eager to see if and how they would weave back together again.
Some of the plot points were hard for me to follow (but that could be MY problem). I did not care for the ending of the story.
If you like "heavier" science fiction then this might be for you. I do not think it is my cup of tea...
July 20, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It weaves several fairly unusual (for *Hard* SF) ideas together to make a fun story. Mike seemed to instinctively know how to strike a balance between character development, relationships, plot, and awe-inspiring alien settings.
We have:
* A Marriage - torn apart, but later
* A man who's also a robot octopus.
* A friend and lover, only not really because *idiot*!
* Ancient technology, because obvious plot device
* Floaty home-maker spiders because, not really.
* Gorillas are cool
* Bigger Gorillas are not cool.
* Since when did people become like sexy bears?
* Falling hasn't been this much fun since my last jet-pack failed
* And who wants tea with vent dwelling critters that hide from squid?
It might sound like I'm making light of this book, but really things *like* all the above are in this book and there's still room for evolving plots, personalities, terrible and wonderful acts, even an ending of sorts.
A good, good read.
We have:
* A Marriage - torn apart, but later
* A man who's also a robot octopus.
* A friend and lover, only not really because *idiot*!
* Ancient technology, because obvious plot device
* Floaty home-maker spiders because, not really.
* Gorillas are cool
* Bigger Gorillas are not cool.
* Since when did people become like sexy bears?
* Falling hasn't been this much fun since my last jet-pack failed
* And who wants tea with vent dwelling critters that hide from squid?
It might sound like I'm making light of this book, but really things *like* all the above are in this book and there's still room for evolving plots, personalities, terrible and wonderful acts, even an ending of sorts.
A good, good read.
May 7, 2013
The inhabitants of an extrasolar colony accidentally triggers a weapon system built into the star they orbit. With the help of archaeological records evidence, they can trace its creation back to an ancient race that inhabited the system. An expedition is sent to the mythical “Spider Star” in order to find a solution. The journey itself takes years, and when they arrive, everything is so very alien.
The premise is intriguing and fascinating. The plot itself is not half bad. Unfortunately the characters are uninspired cardboard cutouts and the read itself is fantastically dull. I really wanted to like this book but after about reading about two thirds of it I couldn’t bring myself to continue.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1632
The premise is intriguing and fascinating. The plot itself is not half bad. Unfortunately the characters are uninspired cardboard cutouts and the read itself is fantastically dull. I really wanted to like this book but after about reading about two thirds of it I couldn’t bring myself to continue.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1632
February 8, 2010
A “Dark-Matter” science fiction book heavy in science and adventure, I found it an exciting read. The people and place are detailed and the adventure worth following. The book moves along at just the right pace and is divided into smaller sized chapters, giving the reader places to pause, making the book easier to read. The amount of science is higher than many other sci-fi books (something that I like very much) but is not too overwhelming, giving just enough to allow the reader to believe that it is real. Don’t worry, I won’t give anything away but I hope that author Mike Brotherton does a follow up book covering “the search!”
February 23, 2014
Spider Star has a fascinating premise: alien technology used millions of years ago to move a terrestrial planet outwards when its star became a red giant now threatens the human colony on that planet. Humans must follow archeological clues to find the Spider Star, in hopes of turning off this ancient tool turned weapon. Adventures in all the ways first contact can go wrong are mixed with intriguing astrophysics. An enjoyable hard science fiction tale.
August 16, 2015
A human colony in another system formerly home to an extinct civilization accidentally triggers a doomsday weapon, and must send an expedition to an alien space station to figure out how to save themselves. Characters are flat, although the action is well enough written. Plot seems a tad implausible. Decent beach read.
January 23, 2016
An exceptional follow-up to "Star Dragon", his first novel. IMO even better. This book is not a sequel, which is kind of a surprise, in this day of trilogies. It is extremely well written, with fully developed characters, that you really care about, and a strong plot line. I suspect that even people who don't particularly care for science fiction would like this book.
June 10, 2011
The book has an interesting plot line and thought-provoking science going for it. Characterization is a weakness that challenged my completing it. I wanted to know how the story ended in spite of, not because of, the main characters.
March 27, 2008
The most deeply weird thing in this book was the characterization. The last few chapters were, as well.
November 15, 2008
Firmly in the tradition of Vernor Vinge and Arthur C. Clarke.
The full review is at Suite101
The full review is at Suite101
December 18, 2008
This is another story that I suspect would appeal more to someone who understood and was interested in the science.
March 6, 2009
I really liked this book. It doesn't have as much swearing as his other book and I think that it is a fascinating story line.
March 21, 2011
just sucked!
August 12, 2011
Deus ex machina; too-easy characterization.
March 31, 2013
Too technical, plot bogged down with endless explanations of tech. Couldn't finish.
March 1, 2016
There were moments I wasn't sure if I'd like this book, but I'm glad I hung in. The ending is not what I expected.
May 27, 2009
This book is kibble.
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