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Winner of the Literary Titan Gold Book Award and the PenCraft Seasonal Book Award for Best Book Spring 2025 One daring mission could be her salvation—or her end. In a galaxy where stability is a luxury few can afford, young Sev dreams of a home she can call her own. Roaming the cosmos with her distant father, they drift from one perilous job to the next, barely scraping by in a universe full of danger and adventure. But when their last big job on a treacherous planet doesn't go as planned, their lives are forever altered. Join Sev on a thrilling journey through danger and discovery as she...

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

A colony survives among the icy rings of a planet, hiding from alien robots determined to destroy them … at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers, and physicians gather to gamble humanity’s future on one last-ditch experiment … a man who can’t feel pain has been bioengineered to be a killing machine, but he refuses to give in to his fate … a man is contacted by three future versions of himself, each trying to save their world from destruction.

Alien visitors devastate a remote farm in Lovecraft’s first and best venture into science fiction.

An alien spacecraft four times the size of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier enters the solar system. Tensions run hot within the UN, but the alien vessel doesn't approach Earth. Instead, it sits off at L4, over a hundred million miles from Earth, baffling scientists around the world. Chris "Crash" Williams leads an international crew to investigate the appearance of this ghost ship, but he quickly learns that the spacecraft isn't as dead as it seems.

The Confederacy/Council Conflict (The Big C3) rages on, the Orion-Cygnus Galactic Arm Spur is wracked by fighting with entire planets burning. The Precursor Autonomous War Machines are back with new tricks, the Atrekna are making more moves and displaying more of a presence than the Confederacy suspected, and the Lanaktallan Great Herd has invaded the home worlds of the prime species of the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems. The Sol System is awash with fire and flame as the Lanaktallan discover that the millions of ships they brought are nothing more than chaff before Fortress Sol. The...

Note: This book was previously published as Hunter Bound and has been revised. Ricka Daniels wants nothing more than to return to her home on Earth. Her plans to leave the desolate mining colony on Rivean change when she’s targeted by alien slavers. After a Tarron Hunter intervenes and prevents her abduction, Ricka believes she is safe. She soon discovers the handsome law enforcer with intoxicating catlike eyes has a different view of what a rescue should entail. Ideas that include trapping her aboard his spaceship and taking her to his home planet. Tarron Hunter Synge Varlik has sworn to...

Earth Stands on the precipice of an alien invasion. With fourteen mysterious crafts looming, the world plunges into chaos. Governments around the globe are on high alert and have activated their missile defense systems. People panic. Looting and burning spread through cities around the globe. All efforts to de-escalate the situation have failed. Amidst this turmoil, Luke and Louise, united by a shared fascination with the ancient alien race known as the Guardians, embark on a quest to uncover truths that could alter humanity's fate. Armed with historical evidence and ancestral tales, Luke ...

For two years in deep space, the freighter Demeter and a small crew have collected botanical life from other planets. It's a lesson in patience and hell. Mechanics Ensign Raina is ready to jump ship, if only because her abusive ex is also aboard, as well as her overbearing boss. It's only after a foreign biological creature sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc on the ship and crew that Raina must find her grit - and maybe create a gadget or two - to survive...that is, if the crew members don't lose their sanity and turn on each other in the process.

WHEN IN DOUBT, WING IT. The Stellar Thief collects together the first four books in the Emberling series, a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-fueled space opera that will have you clinging to the edge of your seat! Slim Taggart has stolen plenty of things in his short life. That's what happens when you come from a family of planet-hopping thieves. But when he somehow finds himself in possession of a shard from an ancient alien tech known as the Emberling, the heat is suddenly cranked up to scorching levels. Before Taggart knows it, a half-dozen criminal syndicates are on his tail, desperate for ...

A portal to a new world, or a hole in space itself? Private Cosmo Frost and his HAVOC drone are sent to investigate… But he isn’t the only one looking to pass through the portal… And humanity isn’t ready for what’s coming for them. War is a way of life on Fiona Grand. Comso Frost is a commando in the newly developed Armor Brigade. He uses specialized armor and commands a heavy weapons assault drone in combat. His girlfriend Allura Pressley is a highly decorated Bombardier in the FGAF. But no one has ever seen an enemy like the one they’ll soon be facing. And it isn’t just ...

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.

A Dying Earth. A New World. A Fight for Survival. Earth is collapsing—its air poisoned, its lands scorched, its oceans rising. With extinction looming, humanity’s last hope lies light-years away on an uncharted alien planet. Thousands of desperate colonists take the leap into the unknown, risking everything for a second chance. But survival won’t come easy. Captain Brian “Finn” Finnegan leads the expedition, only to find a world as ruthless as the one they left behind. Savage predators, treacherous terrain, and a planet that seems determined to expel its new inhabitants. But ...

Pyre's humans suffer multiple cultural shocks. They discovered the Messinants dome, an ancient construction that houses a quantum-coupled gate. More shocking, they find that sentient alien races utilize a network of these domes to journey between their far distant worlds in pursuit of alliance matters. If humans wish to join this elite collection of sentients, they must contribute significantly in trade, tech, or something of equal value.

Ten years after the aliens left Earth, humanity has succeeded in building a ship, Friendship, in which to follow them home to Kindred. Aboard are a crew of scientists, diplomats, and a squad of Rangers to protect them. But when the Friendship arrives, they find nothing they expected: no interplanetary culture, no industrial base, and no cure for the spore disease. A timeslip in the apparently instantaneous travel between worlds has occurred, and far more than 10 years have passed.

Jake’s commute home takes an unexpected detour, leaving him stranded on a completely different planet. He soon finds himself in a high-tech hospital in a world populated by strange alien races. However, the new world is not your standard Isekai story. These are not the cliché cute monster girls or the generic characters that look like they were borrowed from a video game. In this world, he is the primitive, has no magic or cheat abilities, and has no clue what will happen. Jake tries to learn to live in the new world but discovers that not everything is what it seems.

Congratulations Citizen, you have been selected for military service. It’s the news no one wants. Fighting the aliens known as the Ma’Tis is a dangerous occupation. Recruit Cosmo Frost will have to devote himself completely if he’s going to become a Battle Trooper and qualify for the elite Armor Brigade. The HAVOC drone is an experimental new technology developed specifically for the war with the Ma’Tis. The Heavy Armor Vehicle for Offensive Combat is faster and more agile than a MECH. It’s a walking weapons platform controlled by Battle Troopers in the newly developed...

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

Years have passed since Earth encountered its first known interstellar object: Oumuamua. Now an even larger one has been discovered, following the exact same trajectory as its predecessor. Scientists around the world theorize that this can no longer be passed off as mere coincidence - the new contact must be an artificial construct of some kind.

Transported to another world with purple alien barbarians who don’t even speak English?! Strange storms have been raging all over the world for the past months. Some say the end of the world is coming, but for Ella, life goes on as always: stressing about work, her health problems, and now a broken car to top it all off. She tries to make her way home in the stormy weather when a lightning suddenly strikes her. She loses consciousness and when she wakes up, she finds herself in the middle of a TV production. Because giant purple aliens just can’t be real, right? Especially not when they...