Hard Contact

Jamie Hawkins became a swashbuckling space pirate to fight tyranny. When Jamie Hawkins saved the lives of women and children who were caught in the crossfire of war, he fell squarely in the crosshairs of avenging soldiers and was unfairly convicted of treason. Sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor in an infamous penal colony on a faraway planet, his courage won him the admiration of his fellow convicts. While plotting his escape, an enemy attacked the planet, giving this daring warrior his chance. Together with his fellow prisoners, he launched a bold assault and hijacked the enemy ...

Drunk, angry, abusive, and pathetic, Dan Gurlick exists at the very lowest level of human civilization, sleeping in junkyard cars and scrounging through garbage cans for his dinner. But his last rotting meal contains something unexpected: a spore that originated from a galaxy many light-years away. First, Dan eats the spore, then, the spore eats Dan; and the homeless alcoholic becomes a host for the Medusa. An insatiable alien hive mind, the Medusa has already consumed the life forms of a billion planets. Now, it hungers for the dominant species of Earth.

Onboard an ancient starship, Killeen and the Bishop tribe escape the mech-ruled world of Snowglade. Seeking refuge on a faraway planet, they discover vast wonders: an organic life-form as large as a world, a planet-coring cosmic string, a community of humans ruled by a brutal tyrant, and ultimately an alien race more awesome than any they have encountered. As they battle for survival against these myriad dangers, Killeen and his crew will gain an unforeseen ally - one that may determine humanity’s true destiny.

World War III is about to break out. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, the enigmatic extraterrestrials called the Flickers have returned with a warning: do not venture beyond the moon. Faced with the ultimate threat, can humanity put aside their differences and unite to face the common danger?

Earth's first interstellar mission arrives at the exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb, believing it to be uninhabitable, to discover the joys and horrors of near light-speed travel.

STAR WARS MEETS JURASSIC PARK. Dinosaurs return to Earth from space — Now humans are the endangered species! Wildlife biologist Chase Armstrong and Montana rancher's daughter Kit Daniels find themselves in the center of a battle between US military forces and intelligent dinosaurs returning to Earth after 66 million years of absence. This book is a tour de force of near-future military science fiction pitting current day tanks and helicopters against advanced alien invaders from Earth's past! A human-sized, intelligent species of dinosaur, the Kra, strikes from a moon base, devastating ...

Three years ago, an object 100 miles across was spotted on a trajectory for Earth's sun. Now, its journey is almost over. As it approaches, two competing manned vehicles race through almost half a million kilometers of space to reach it first. But when they both arrive on the entity, they learn that it has been sent toward Earth for a reason. An intelligent race is desperately attempting to communicate with our primitive species. And the message is: Help us.

An errant encounter with a passing star has flung Earth away from its old Solar System into the dark and cold of deep space. With the entire atmosphere frozen as chemical snow dozens of feet deep, one last family struggles to survive. But what are they to think when they see figures moving in the city ruins? Are Earth's dead coming back to life?

Few writers have successful blended hard science and speculation with fully realized characters as Gregory Benford has in his critically acclaimed novels. Now he draws us into a vortex of mystery and danger at the heart of the galaxy in his dazzling epic drama, Furious Gulf.

Collecting Heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse Call Center, Tales of the Zombie Apocalypse Call Center, Outlaws of the Zombie Apocalypse Call Center and The Zombie Apocalypse Militia The Zombie Apocalypse continues to rage on and the search for a cure seems further and further away, but Sam, Alisha, Michelle and all the others heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse Call Center are determined to find a cure for the zombie infection, no matter what the cost may be. But they also have Dmitri Eslinger, the shadowy CEO of Zombii Co. to contend with and he has his own reasons for starting the zombie ...

Im Jahre 2031 finden Forscher in den Signalen einer Roboter-Sonde, die den Saturnmond Enceladus studiert, eindeutige Spuren biologischer Aktivität. Beweise für außerirdisches Leben - eine Weltsensation. Fünfzehn Jahre später macht sich ein eilig dafür gebautes, bemanntes Raumschiff auf die weite Reise zum Ringplaneten. Der internationalen Crew stehen nicht nur schwierige siebenundzwanzig Monate bevor: Falls sie es ohne Zwischenfall bis zum Enceladus schafft, muss sie mit einem Bohrschiff den kilometerdicken Eispanzer des Mondes durchdringen.

In a universe where the laws of physics and the speed of light are completely alien to our own, the travelers on the ship Peerless have completed a generations-long struggle to develop advanced technology in a desperate attempt to save their home world. But as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: The prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.

Shifting alliances throw the diplomatic situation into chaos. In this second of a planned five-novel series, you will find out what's happened to the survivors of the expeditionary force, who's manipulating the Alliance, and, finally, what the true motivations of the frightening crabs are. Can Admiral Stokes and his naval commanders prevail against a rapidly shifting tapestry of potential foes?

In the final days of World War II, the Allies ransacked Berlin, but they failed to capture one of the most vital members of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Hans Kammler helped to engineer Auschwitz, but he was also a liaison with silent partners whose technological wonders nearly helped the Nazis win the war - the alien species the Germans called the Eidechse. More than seven decades later, US Navy SEAL Mark Hunter has witnessed the impossible, an unidentified flying object destroying a North Korean compound used to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Relationships get complicated when you don’t know who - or what - you really are. Esen must find a way to rescue a hapless group of chimeras, beings who are a new and unique blend of species she knows, when she can’t become one herself. When Evan Gooseberry tries to help, he is shattered to learn he himself isn’t entirely Human and begins to suspect his new friend Esen isn’t what she seems. Complicating matters, a mysterious contagion has killed the crew of the ship that brought the chimeras - and Evan - to Botharis.

The third book in the Web Shifter's Library series returns to the adventures of Esen, a shape-shifting alien who must navigate the perils of a hostile universe.

Kate Braddock, a sexually ambiguous ex-Spacer, isolates herself on Luna. After detecting a faster-than-light ship en route to Earth several years ago, she now conducts geophysical surveys for a mineral resources consortium. One day, she and a young intern, Mary Atteberry, discover an anomaly in the dust near the Mare Marginis that is clearly unnatural, and clearly alien.

Budrys's final novel opens with the report of a man found electrocuted on suburban train tracks in Shoreview, Illinois. Neville Sealman appeared to be just another commuter, but after his tragic death, no one comes forward to claim his body. And a routine autopsy reveals some disturbing physiological anomalies. Then a spaceship is unearthed in a New Jersey swamp. Its passengers, human in appearance, were forced to go their separate ways in an alien world after crash-landing. Now their cover could be blown.

What would you do if you discovered Earth’s oldest secret, but the very existence of that knowledge meant that you could not safely share it with anyone else? Where would you turn if you had uncovered something so shocking that it could force the entire world to readdress its views of humanity? Gada has always asked questions that no one has the answers for. Only through her studies has she met professors and teachers who are open-minded enough to consider her theories about the true history of humanity.

Ursula has lived twice the normal human lifespan, courtesy of the latest technology. But now she’s struggling to find excitement and purpose, so signs up to the Polity’s military. She excels in weapons development, and progresses rapidly up the ranks. But after botching a powerful new ammunition test, she’s dismissed from service. Hunting for a simpler, more meaningful existence, the ex-soldier heads for the stars. And after founding a colony on the hostile planet of Threpsis, Ursula finally feels alive.