Hard Space Opera

Senior co-administrator of the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility, Dr. Mackenzie Connor was a biologist who studied the spawning habits of salmon. Then, last season, just as she and Dr. Emily Mamani were starting their research, they were interrupted by the arrival of Brymm, the first Dhryn to set foot on Earth. And suddenly everything changed for Mac, Emily, Brymn, the human race, and all the member races of the Interspecies Union. Base was attacked, Em was kidnapped by the mysterious Ro, and Mac and brymn had to flee for their lives to the Dhryn home world.

Hannah Sawyer is the spiritual descendant of Stephanie Kinsella. She has many special and unique abilities, but courage maybe isn't among them. Alas, she is caught up in a monstrous war, a war that requires the best efforts of everyone. When you think you have lost something, you find it the last place you look!

Kas is a junior researcher on a fact-finding mission to old Earth. But when a con-artist tricks her into wagering a large sum of money belonging to her university on the outcome of a manned robot arena battle, she becomes drawn into the seedy underworld of old Earth politics and state-sponsored battle-droid prizefights.

When Carson Flint traded his Commonwealth military badge for the quiet life, he thought he'd left his battles behind. Two years of running a saloon called the Bulwark, a volatile hub for refugees, smugglers, and the occasional war-weary soldier, was the peace he'd been looking for. He's never had it easier, or been so bored. But when a fugitive Commonwealth operative arrives with dangerous secrets and a war criminal on his tail, Carson's sanctuary quickly becomes a target.

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.

Humanity has taken to the stars, using faster-than-light travel to reach distant planets and new worlds. But in the far reaches of the galaxy, John Grant will discover a planet of humans who believe he has travelled not only through space to find them, but time. On Apis, the mysterious Fermi appear to have vanished, taking with them knowledge of the universe that humanity desires. But Marcus Owen, the robot AI now plagued with sentience, knows that the Fermi would not easily abandon the native life of Apis.

In the aftermath of the cold-blooded assassinations that killed her parents and shattered the Vatta intersteller shipping empire, Kylara Vatta sets out to avenge the killings and salvage the family business. Ky soon discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness. The only hope against such powerful evil is for all the space merchants to band together.

"Pellucidar" is a fantasy novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, part of his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar. David Innes and his captive, a member of the reptilian Mahar master race of the interior world of Pellucidar, return from the surface world in the Iron Mole invented by his friend and companion in adventure Abner Perry. Emerging in Pellucidar at an unknown location, David frees his captive.

Cindy Rhodes is a young woman with little understanding of the world, the universe -- certainly not the war she is caught up in. As she learns, stupidity is incurable but ignorance can be treated with education. A little education or a great deal of education depending on where you start at the beginning of your journey. Sometimes the road be flinty and the way be long.

Are you ready for a thrilling journey through the depths of space? Then look no further than "Shackled in Space" by Alexander Hawthorne. In this pulse-pounding science fiction adventure, you'll be transported to a distant galaxy where a group of prisoners have been exiled to an inhospitable planet. With no hope of escape and a hostile environment to contend with, they must band together if they have any chance of survival. But as tensions rise and alliances are tested, the prisoners quickly realize that the greatest threat to their survival may come from within. Will they be able to ...

Kylara had to leave a bright future as a military cadet and was thrown into the brutal world of off-world trading. This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny, and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed - their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets.

Eagle and Kat are two of the worst sort of economic exploiters: pioneers. Like pioneers they are a young married couple, but the frontier they are settling is the "Final Frontier." Space is a frontier different than any that came before. It is less forgiving, the cavalry will have a longer way to come. At least their neighbors will be rocket scientists! Well maybe "rocket" is the wrong word...

Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, is dying, and Spock returns to the planet Vulcan where he and Sarek enjoy a rare moment of rapprochement. But just as his wife's illness grows worse, duty calls Sarek away, once again sowing the seeds of conflict between father and son. Yet soon Sarek and Spock must put aside their differences and work together to foil a far-reaching plot to destroy the Federation, a plot that Sarek has seen in the making for nearly his entire career.

On the barren surface of an asteroid, located deep in the galaxy beneath the unbearable light of the Kefahuchi Tract, lie three objects: an abandoned spacecraft, a pair of bone dice covered with strange symbols, and a human skeleton. What they are and what they mean are the mysteries explored and unwrapped in Light, M. John Harrison's triumphant novel.

The first eight novellas of Blaze Ward's Science Officer series collected together for the first time!

Revolution threatens a longstanding peace.... Thirty years after the Syndicate Corporation saved Earth from climate-change extinction, SynCorp’s Five Factions rule the solar system with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. Food, entertainment, safety, security - SynCorp provides it all. In return, the Company requires complete loyalty and obedience to corporate law.

Gita Chithra, the captain of the intergalactic ship The Tempest, is used to leading her crew on simple retrieval and assistance missions. But when she receives a frantic distress call from Ri, the AI she trained from inception—making her like a daughter to Gita—she knows she’s in for something much more dangerous. Ri is trapped in the depths of Loki’s Ring, an artificial alien-made solar system, and says everyone in the vicinity has been infected and killed by a mysterious contagion. Gita and her team investigate, only to discover horrors at every turn.

A strange alien calling himself the Prophet has appeared in orbit above Earth, and the planet's most powerful weapons have proven useless against his ship's defenses. To make matters worse, the Prophet tells mankind that Earth will soon be invaded and destroyed if the Earth's nations don't learn how to live in peace and start building to meet the coming enemy. Failure to change humanity's warlike ways will lead to its destruction.

The Klikiss, a now-extinct alien civilization, left behind vast technological information that has been discovered by two xenoarchaeologists. One discovery, a device that converts gas planets into life-giving suns is quickly put to the test with unimaginable results. Arising out of the test is a new alien species that threatens every human. Mankind is left with the dim reality - either fight the new alien life form or face humiliation, death and extinction. This riveting adventure swings you from one wondrous realm to another as the Hidden Empire is sought after and exposed.

The Argus Space Station looks down on a nightmarish Earth. And from this safe distance, the Committee enforces its despotic rule. There are too many people and too few resources, and they need 12 billion to die before Earth can be stabilized. So corruption is rife, people starve, and the poor are policed by mechanized overseers and identity-reader guns. Citizens already fear the brutal Inspectorate with its pain inducers. But to reach its goals, the Committee will unleash satellite laser weaponry, taking carnage to a new level.