Mike Brotherton, "Star Dragon"

Star Dragon is an odd collection of funny-shaped bits that shouldn't fit together, and in fact have no business being thrown into the bag all together like that.  And yet, Brotherton somehow manages to make it work.  

Sadly, about a third of the way through the book, I suddenly realized that I have lost my taste for hard science fiction.  I used to really dig the "science" in science fiction, but it turns out that this is no longer true.  I ended up skimming the technical passages, my eyes glazing over like a college freshman thrown into, say, an advanced astronomy lecture.

Brotherton is a professional astronomer, and was long before he began publishing science fiction.  He is currently a tenured Professor of Astronomy, and his love for and in depth knowledge of the subject infuses Star Dragon.  If you have even a passing interest in astronomical concepts or in hard science fiction, then this is the book for you.  I'd be willing to bet that Brotherton got all the science correct.

The surprise, then, is the other bits that he got correct, as well.  Star Dragon is an odd assortment of longing, loss, nanotechnology, the transience of life, biological engineering, and Hemingway as an author, a man, and a philosophy of life.  

I know, right?

Star Dragon sends five people out an ungodly distance into the universe, to a double star where dragons swim through the plasma accretion disk.  The crew is composed of the captain and four subject matter experts, plus the AI of the ship itself.  Their goal is to capture one of the plasma dragons and bring it back to Earth.  

Part of me wants to say "six people, five of which are human."  This is probably because I have read every single Iain M. Banks book (although fewer Iain Banks books) and I'm accustomed to thinking of AIs as sovereign beings.  However, the ship's AI is not a sovereign being.  

In fact, although he seems to be as human as any of the rest of them, and his cognition is heavily centered in a biological matrix (a big chunk of meat that serves as his brain) he is clearly subjugated to their lives and commands.  Even his schtick, Papa Hemingway, has been programmed in by the ship's captain.

I kept getting distracted by these odd details.  Like the genetically engineered "chairbeasts," which have enough wit about them to bruise when struck, purr when stroked, and squeak when hurt.  The characters treat them like, well, furniture.  I can only think that Star Dragon represents a future without an SPCA in it, much less a PETA.

If we are left wanting more, more about what Biolathe will do with the dragons once they get them (if the Aliens movies have taught us anything, it's that this kind of thing is A Bad Idea), more about Henderson's bizarre plans for galactic domination of the female gender, more about what it will be like for the characters to return home knowing that 500 years have elapsed, then I can only count that as a resounding success.