Fantasy First Contact

The space-faring Yherajk have come to Earth to meet us and to begin humanity's first interstellar friendship. There's just one problem: They're hideously ugly and they smell like rotting fish. So getting humanity's trust is a challenge. The Yherajk need someone who can help them close the deal. Enter Thomas Stein, who knows something about closing deals. He's one of Hollywood's hottest young agents.

Following his mission on Cappa, Colonel Carl Butler returns to a mixed reception. To some, he is a do-or-die war hero. To the other half of the galaxy, he’s a pariah. Forced into retirement, he has resettled on Talca Four where he’s now Deputy VP of Corporate Security, protecting a high-tech military company on the corporate battlefield - at least, that’s what the job description says. Really, he’s just there to impress clients and investors. It’s all relatively low risk - until he’s entrusted with new orders.

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them. Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.

Beks Bridgett’s mission in life is to try everything at least once. Some call her fearless. Others, reckless. While her bucket list includes things like skydiving and kissing random strangers, getting kidnapped by aliens and sold to an intergalactic fight club definitely isn’t. That is, until a fierce, intimidating, and hot alien warrior springs her from her caged prison.

From the rich imagination of science-fiction great Alan Dean Foster comes the story of Midworld, a Humanx Commonwealth planet that's equally fragile and hostile. Covered by a lush rainforest, Midworld is home to a primitive society that lives in harmony with the natural world. But the arrival of an exploitative human company, whose workers know nothing of Midworld's delicate ecosystem, sparks a conflict. Should Midworld's villagers aid the humans or stand against them?

Not long ago, Morgan Hall was a simple maintenance tech on a spacecraft bound for Tau Ceti. Then he and his shipmates found themselves unwillingly transplanted to Fanwath, where magic is real, danger abounds, and the almighty “System” grants levels, points, and powers based on one’s individual triumphs. Now, Morgan and his native Ardeni mate, Issa, have founded a growing colony for both their peoples, and they’re able to draw ever more tribes and lifeforms—even some of their former Urghat enemies—into trade and warfare alliances.

Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award-finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth....

Former Marine Will Hawthorne has revealed himself to the alien world of Taitala as the Makalang, a legendary creature who is expected to reverse the world's decline into senescence and extinction. With his first wives already pregnant, tensions between the city's clans begin stretching to the breaking point as the demand for new children intensifies. But Will's attempts to mediate the dispute are upended by a campaign of bombings by the shadowy Black Sky group and suspicions that the mysterious nocturnal panikang are behind it.

In a ravaged world, a former Army Ranger and his loyal golden retriever lead a desperate mission against an alien overlord, testing the bond between humanity… and their best friends.

Humanity has reached an uneasy truce with the Empire—but unless the allies bring the fight to the enemy, extinction is all but assured. In preparation for the inevitable next war, Commander Stephen Michaels is at the helm of the Archangel Squadron, and his orders are simple: go rogue. Disguised as mercenaries, Commander Michaels and the Archangels seek valuable intelligence on their imposing foe. Their mission takes them deep into uncharted territory, where they make inroads with the Empire, fiercely guarding their true identities and purpose.

♥ Aliens meet wild west Ranchers in this 1950s Retro Sci-Fi steamy Alien Contact romance! ♥ My parents expect me to marry the well-to-do rancher's son. I can hardly tell them, or anyone else, that the strange ranch hand is the one who makes my insides melt. I don't care that under his cowboy hat and shirt beats the heart of a ravaging blue alien. The man I've known most of my life, however, the cowboy who works at the peculiar ranch next door, is the one I want. And I'm willing to go against all the prejudices of my friends, my parents, and the whole town to follow my heart. But Calvin ...

The beautiful woman called The Rowan was the most powerful telepath on all the planets of the Alliance - until the birth of her daughter, Damia. Damia and her husband, Afra Lyon, were the most extraordinary team of telepaths the Alliance had ever seen - until the powers of their children began to emerge. Now the combined power of all these generations, especially the unique abilities of the younger Lyon clan, is needed to face once and for all the threat of the alien Hivers.

Raised from birth to be a soldier, Kace Tameron is a disciplined, military-trained gladiator. He is on contract to the Kor Magna Arena to hone his fighting skills on the blood-soaked arena sand and then return to the military. He lives for one thing: To protect his planet, and on his world, love is forbidden. But then he collides with a feisty redhead from Earth who threatens to shatter his legendary control.

Astronaut Lee Rifkin's life is about to change. NASA has done the math. The space object named Cassandra 22007 is not behaving as expected. He will lead a team on a cutting-edge ship to get a closer look. But another group wants to get there first. Who is this shadow organization that seems to be one step ahead of them? Agent Jenna Haynes works to put together the pieces that will pull the veil off those who seem to have known about Cassandra's arrival since long before NASA spotted it. What is their goal?

Belle prayed for the day she would meet her Beast. As a proud monster lover, she signs up with the Prime Mating Agency for a chance to be paired with an exotic alien. The one she’s matched with exceeds her wildest fantasies.

A debt of honor: One brave woman ventures alone into a parallel universe to save her old shipmates exiled there decades earlier by a mysterious device called the Transfer Key. She soon learns the alternate universe harbors not just an alien invasion force but a secret that underpins its very existence. A mission of peace: A long-awaited Klingon-Federation peace conference convenes, led by Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan and Councillor Gorkon of Qo'noS. But both sides have enemies who would prefer the two great powers remain at war.

In a far corner of space, on the very borders between humanity’s Polity worlds and the kingdom of the vicious crab-like prador, is an immediate threat to all sentient life: an accretion disc, a solar system designed by the long-dead Jain race and swarming with living technology powerful enough to destroy entire civilizations. Neither the Polity or the prador want the other in full control of the disc, so they’ve placed an impartial third party in charge of the weapons platform guarding the technology from escaping into the galaxy: Orlandine, a part-human, part-AI haiman.

Elim Garak has ascended to Castellan of the Cardassian Union...but despite his soaring popularity, the imminent publication of a report exposing his peoples' war crimes during the occupation on Bajor looks likely to set the military against him. Into this tense situation come Dr. Katherine Pulaski - visiting Cardassia Prime to accept an award on behalf of the team that solved the Andorian genetic crisis - and Dr. Peter Alden, formerly of Starfleet Intelligence.

In the far future, the human race is divided into two groups striving for power. The Patternmaster rules over all, the leader of the telepathic Patternist race whose thoughts can destroy or heal at his whim. The only threat to his power are the Clayarks, mutant humans created by an alien pandemic, who now live either enslaved by the Patternists or in the wild. Coransee, son of the ruling Patternmaster, wants the throne and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means venturing into the wild mutant-infested hills to destroy a young apprentice—his equal and his brother.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.