Space Exploration Fiction

Some people are convinced they can do anything; Evan Orgell is one of them. So when his company president sends him off-world to investigate a breakdown in communications from a small research station on a newly discovered planet, he's all in. The planet's resources could mean massive profits for the company-and a successful mission could mean massive advancement for Evan. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A nuclear attack in the Persian Gulf wrongly implicates Jake Bayard. Everyone seems to be hunting for him. Bayard flees to Garm, an ice-age world full of sabertooths, dire wolves, mammoths, and Neanderthals. Unfortunately, Institute Homo habilises are also there: extraterrestrial, crafty, small, and deadly hominids. They've enslaved the Neanderthals to mine for dreaded alibite.

Hex Thorn, a hard-bitten veteran of the elite Special Operations Unit of the Dominion Empire, was content with retirement. He’d seen his share of firefights and bloodshed in a bitter war that ripped the galaxy apart. But when an enigmatic stranger makes him an offer he can’t refuse–a chance to own a legendary Lancer ship–Hex is thrust back into the fray.

The Sol Federation Marine Corps vessel S&R Black was sent to recover an ancient derelict from the farthest edge of the Sol system. What they found could spell the end of humanity. Days after escaping the derelict ship Mira and Pluto’s destruction, Black Company is pulled from stasis hours at Trident Station, only to discover the solar system has gone silent. Nearly empty on both ammunition and fuel reserves, taking refuge at the silent, apparently dead station is their only choice.

John Riley is a physicist who achieves his lifelong dream of unraveling the mysteries of anti-gravity, but along the way, also unwittingly discovers the secret of interstellar communication. When he and a small group of coworkers attempt to respond to an unexpected message, believing it to have originated from somewhere on Earth, they find more than they anticipate. The message is from deep space.

Harnessing planetary forces, Terramancers shape landscapes and avert natural disasters. But not this one. He collects rocks. Out of a job and on the run from his rainbow-haired adversary, the Terramancer is ready to jump to the next system and start again. Again. It’s not his fault he’s made more enemies than friends. Cutthroat pirates, ruthless socialites, and the ancient and powerful Terramantic Order all stand between him and escape. When he finds the most sought-after rock in the universe, it’s one problem he can’t get away from—the rock, it seems, has been waiting for him.

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.

Aliens ripped a hole above Earth, arriving with a massive space station. I sorta figured we'd be enslaved to fight in their wars or exterminated for our resources. Nope. The hip-high Iglax were merchants with ugly squished faces and thick blue fur. While they weren't much to look at, they sure did have some wonderous technology.

Following the events of Artifact Space, the galaxy continues to change and expand. Frontiers are challenged and what was once a safe space becomes contested, hostile, and unpredictable. From normal people caught up in the unstoppable machinations of politics and war, to spies faced with making the ultimate sacrifice for their nations, these stories follow the DHC as it faces a challenge to everything it holds dear - human rights, fairness and equality. When a rogue system questions their values and power, how can they stay true to their beliefs and protect their citizens?

He'd fight an empire to save his family! When his father and crewmates are attacked and killed by a ruthless alien commander, young Galen Bray becomes the new captain of the GHOST STAR, a notorious smuggling vessel. Barely escaping capture, Galen sets out to rescue the only other survivor of the vicious attack, his sister Trem. Along the way, he discovers a mysterious people thought wiped out long ago, his family's surprising origins, and a destiny he never imagined...

I thought the hard part of helping the Helta defeat the rampaging Tevynians would be the fighting. How wrong I was. To the Helta, we Earthers look just like the Tevynians, their mortal enemies. And convincing their government to ally with humans may be even beyond the crew of the starship James Bowie. But the clock is ticking, because the Tevynian fleet is bearing down on the Helta homeworld. If we can’t talk the Helta into accepting our help to fight them off, then Helta Prime will fall.... And Earth will be next.

The bounty for bringing down a major crime syndicate may have removed Captain Evridiki “EB” Bardacki’s immediate financial needs, but no freighter captain wants to fly empty between the stars. A cargo mission to run a blockade seems within his crew’s unique mix of talents, and he agrees to supply weapons to one side of a stalemated civil war in the Estutmost star system.

Captain Brian Royce brings Hadad to his home planet, which shows obvious signs of battle. Did any of his family survive? Where are all the children; did the Zodarks take them? Admiral Miles Hunt finds himself appointed to a new position beyond his current skill set. He now has to become more than just a ship captain and fleet commander: he must become the Viceroy of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Capt. Ben Dailey's Nova Rangers rush into situations in which angels fear to tread. Soldiers without peer, combat ready at all times, they achieve victories on behalf of the Federation at any cost. That makes them the perfect team to investigate Teras, a toxic world in the far reaches of the galaxy that's been devastated by an unknown force. It appears they were sent there by accident—but maybe not.

Ryo is one of the Thranx, a race of social arthropods. From his larval years to now, his life has been normal, though his love of learning and insatiable curiosity set him apart. He has settled into his work as an agriculture specialist and is premated to a lovely female. Yet Ryo still feels something is missing from his life, and when he heroically defends his colony from the Thranx's reptilian nemesis, Ryo gets a taste of excitement that's hard to forget.

Temperance Reed, banished from the wealthy and dangerous Fifteen Families, just wants to keep her crew together after their feckless captain ran off with the intern. But she’s drowning in debt and revolutionary new engine technology is about to make her beloved ship obsolete. Enter Arcadio Escajeda. Second child of the terrifying Escajeda Family, he’s the thorn in Temper’s side as they’re sent off on a scouting mission on the backwater desert planet of Herschel 2. They throw sparks every time they meet but Temper’s suspicions of his ulterior motives only serve to fuel the flames between them.

Lucas Ramsay, a visionary scientist, believed his groundbreaking reactor would unlock the secrets of deep space and propel humanity into a new era of exploration. Little did he know that his anti-gravity device would unleash a cataclysmic wave of destruction, engulfing the planet in chaos and devastation. But the true terror awaits beyond the stars.

Former Marine Raider Max Ahlgren has spent years hunting the four men who killed his family. One target remains: Burt Jarvis, the infamous Accident Man, mastermind behind the murders. After losing Jarvis in the jungles of Brazil, Max is contacted by a mysterious tech billionaire who claims to know the elusive killer’s whereabouts. To receive the information, Max must secure a quantum research facility taken over by a rogue engineer named Rhodes. When Rhodes escapes into the past, Max finds himself in a chase across time to prevent the present from being catastrophically altered.

All eyes fall on the closing stages of a colony-defining isolation test within Terradox’s least hospitable zone—the man-made hellscape of Little Venus, where six astronauts-in-training have survived 51 weeks surrounded by an almost impossibly hostile atmosphere. But while the astronauts of tomorrow count down their final few days until freedom, the gravest threat of all might already be on the wrong side of their Isolation Kompound’s impenetrable walls....

Nicholas Briggs reads the brand-new novelisation of the spectacular 50th anniversary TV episode. When the entire universe is at stake, three different Doctors will unite to save it. The Tenth Doctor is hunting shape-shifting Zygons in Elizabethan England. The Eleventh is investigating a rift in space-time in the present day. And one other - the man they used to be but never speak of - is fighting the Daleks in the darkest days of the Time War.