Hard Contact

A quite different science fiction saga with a very special heroine After a starship accident, eleven-year-old Tanit is lost among the stars, fifteen thousand light-years from home. Although she is a genius, she cannot repair the ship, and her only hope is to find an alien civilization that could help her out. For the first time in history, humans will meet aliens, but the girl will soon discover that the aliens don't really care about humans, and much less about her troubles. And Tanit will then face a real problem: It's called survival. Second episode of the Spanish science fiction series ...

The gods have landed, and the world will never be the same. Toby Merckx and Charles Hudson were once part of the most far-reaching expedition in history, but the alien organism transformed them into something not quite human. Both possess terrifying new powers, and they will battle it out to see who rules the world. As the remnants of humanity turns against each other, nations start to fall. In this chaotic maelstrom, one individual holds the key to victory: Cassie Voges. But which side will she choose?

In 2018, Canadian archaeologist Ron Jackson makes a mind-boggling discovery in Antarctica - right before disappearing without a trace, leaving behind only his controversial theory that humans have lived on Earth far, far longer than we think they have. Decades later, in 2042, when Jackson's wife dies under mysterious circumstances, an unlikely pair of investigators, Agatha Devenworth and Pano Hofer, begin investigating whether her death might be connected to Jackson's disappearance.

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. There are two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches.

In the year 2103, humanity ventures deeper into the cosmos, driven by the insatiable thirst for discovery and the promise of unimaginable wealth from outer space mining. Among them is Wren, a solitary scout aboard the semi-sentient spacecraft Lone Star, exploring the outer reaches for anomalies and opportunities. What begins as a routine mission turns into an extraordinary encounter when a mysterious planet materializes where no planet should exist. The world is pristine yet eerily silent, its cities untouched by time, its secrets buried beneath its surface. As Wren delves deeper into the ...

A novella set in the hard-scrabble world of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series, Strange Dogs follows a family of colonists on Laconia where a new generation of humanity struggles with the profound changes that come with making a home on an alien world. Like many before them, Cara and her family ventured through the gates as scientists and researchers, driven to carve out a new life and uncover the endless possibilities of the unexplored alien worlds now within reach.

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....

Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology–and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself.

Los Angeles lies in ruins. While the city is sealed off to contain an unknown contamination, the survivors battle strange anomalies under the toxic dust cloud. Among the survivors are Lee and Branson. The astronaut must find a way out in order not to miss his flight to Cassandra, and the captain is faced with a terrible truth that he can no longer deny.

The Ultimate Science Fiction Mega Collection contains 24 of the greatest science-fiction works ever written.

From bestselling author Saxon Andrew comes Defending Eden. Humans were forced for the second time to flee their planet due to an imminent attack from an aggressive civilization. They decided the only way to avoid fleeing again was to find a planet where they could hide and not be found. They chose a world without oceans covered in forests with giant trees; they named it Eden because of the abundance of life and biodiversity. The climate above the trees was hot year-round and the predators that inhabited Eden were out of a horrific nightmare. Giant meat-eating carnivores, pack hunting ...

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force. But the watershed networks that rose up to save the planet from corporate devastation aren't ready to give up on Earth.

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.

It is the year 12,020 GE and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, 40 billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall - those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Living among aliens. Humans are lightyears away. Will a field agent recruit find her self-confidence? Belle Machado is all alone. The young aspiring field agent lives among non-human strangers, receiving training from the best minds of the Quynh Federation. But the diligent woman’s aspirations are threatened when she unwittingly causes civil strife between her host faction and an extremist faction. Cutoff from friends and family by an uncooperative human government, Belle fears ighakan society is unraveling around her. But discovering her self-worth, she fears the chaos will force her to ...

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

He'd had so many names over the centuries, so many new identities that he could scarcely remember who he had originally been. Now his name was Daetrin, a name given by the alien conquerors of humankind, the Tyr. Three hundred years had passed since the Tyr conquered the people of Earth as they had previously overcome numerous races throughout the galaxy.

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them - and among the humans - who seek power. And no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization....

For years, Filio Amorosa has had one goal, and only one goal: getting back to Mars. All that matters is finding out what happened on her mission there, and why she can’t remember any of it. But when she finally discovers the truth, it blows her whole world apart. Meanwhile, on Earth, Agatha Devenworth and Pano Hofer have a new mission: Travel from the Human Foundation’s secret underground base to New York to uncover what the enemy is plotting.

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind. Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.