Fantasy First Contact Science Fiction

When the aliens came down and told us they’d enslave all of the human race if we didn’t send our bigliest warrior to participate in their arena death games, I laughed at them. It was really funny because they obviously didn’t know who they were dealing with. Know what I mean? Then they said they would pick the greatest warrior, and they picked Marc Havak. He seemed like such an average guy, but he was a true-blue American. He even worked as a truck driver! That’s the kind of good guy we want defending us from aliens.

I’ve broken free and I’ve also freed the human who was held captive with me. But I don’t know where we are, and I don’t know where my home is. The local wildlife may be smaller than I am, and maybe they don't have fangs near as large as mine, but I’m still terrified. My issues with germs—and my uncompromising avoidance of all the things that I’m afraid of coming into contact with—is going to get me killed in this wilderness. Thankfully, Aurora lets me follow her. Thankfully, she seems to know the way out of this endless and inhospitable woodland and desert biome.

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.

I've spent most of my time on this alien planet alone in the wrecked human ship. Now that I'm living with the other girls and the barbarian warriors at the Cliffs of Uruzai, I'm finding it hard to adjust. These Sea Sand guys are just so... alien. They're nothing compared to the beast that comes stalking out of the shadows of the cliffs one night. He has a snout, claws, and a massive spiked tail. He's more monster than a man, and even worse than that, he claims he has a human mate. When his dark eyes settle on me, I know with a sinking feeling exactly who it is he's been looking for.

Paolo Bacigalupi's debut collection demonstrates the power and reach of the science-fiction short story. Social criticism, political parable, and environmental advocacy lie at the center of Paolo's work. Each of the stories herein is at once a warning and a celebration of the tragic comedy of the human experience.

After escaping from the Progerian Alien vessel, Michael Talbot is now given the opportunity to hide in obscurity with the rest of the human race or rise to the occasion and once again find himself immersed in a battle that he wants nothing to do with. Mike goes home and while reconnecting with a family that believed him dead he decides to join whatever resistance force can be mustered to repel the oncoming invasion. As the world of man gets thrust towards the abyss of extinction, two women in love with the same man make a desperate bid to travel across the country to reunite with him.

Caleb Hanson assumed the most exciting part of his field trip scouting in Northern Minnesota would be a rare bird sighting. Instead, he was abducted by hive-minded hexapods and forced to be their children's teacher. Not the worst way to ride out the end of the world. Two years later, the apocalypse has finally come for Caleb. His savior-captors are murdered, leaving him as the last line of defense for the alien kids he's grown to know and love. Now, he'll have to bend his values or watch his students die.

Captain James T. Kirk and the Enterprise crew race to save a missing Federation scientist, only to become trapped between the Klingons’s infamous Captain Kang and Starfleet’s mysterious Operation Vanguard.

Nathan Myers and the crew of the Legacy have fought several of the predatory races wreaking havoc on our galaxy. Over the years their enemies have given them many names. Most are born out of spite and fear, but some are out of respect. Now that Nathan and his strike team find themselves battling the invasive Bio-machines of Andromeda, the enemies of all biological life have labeled Nathan and his crew with a new moniker. They call them the Apex Warriors.

John W. Campbell Jr.’s Who Goes There? is a chilling and masterfully crafted science fiction classic that delves into themes of paranoia, survival, and the unknown. Set in the frozen isolation of Antarctica, the story follows a group of scientists who uncover a mysterious alien organism buried in the ice. What begins as a groundbreaking discovery quickly spirals into terror when the creature reveals its horrifying ability to mimic any living being perfectly.

Contains books 5-8 of the sci-fi survival horror series Reality Bleed, written by best-selling authors J.Z. Foster and Justin M. Woodward.

We don't know when it happened. But somewhere an alien species built a strong artificial intelligence. The A.I. became independent, powerful, and it started killing biological infestations - life - any life, all life. It grew into a vast armada of death. Jon Hawkins and his team captured the A.I. destroyer invading the solar system. The genocidal assault should have been over, but it's not. An alien A.I. strand from the cybership survived in the distant Kuiper Belt. The strand has been multiplying and taking over by turning people into robots in order to build another supership.

After crash-landing on an unfamiliar desert planet, an all-female bounty hunter crew is rescued by a gorgeous, telepathic alien race of barbarians. And while the natives of the sand planet vow to help the females return to space, the barbarians can’t fight their attraction to the fascinating women. Marooned on a sand planet, injured, and separated from her crew, Captain Danica Miller is not having a good day. When she’s rescued from the desert by a huge, gold-skinned alien, she doesn’t know whether to be relieved or to panic.

Scarlet Alien slavers took me off the street as I was walking my dog. I cried like a baby when I realized I would never see him again. Other aliens rescued us before we were sold at auction. Our hopes of going home were dashed when we learned no one knew how to find Earth. On a ship tour, I met Lieutenant Commander Pyrron Advantu, who told me he was mine as he shook my hand. It happened so fast, but he was gorgeous, and our attraction was strong. My simple life had turned to chaos. It wasn’t love at first sight, but I wanted him. Pyrr Scarlet is my soulmate, and I wouldn’t deny her even...

Venture, a direct rival to the Weyland-Yutani corporation, will accept any risk to crush the competition. Thus, when a corporate spy "acquires" a bizarre, leathery egg from a hijacked vessel, she takes it directly to the Venture testing facility on Jericho 3. Though unaware of the danger it poses, the scientists there recognize their prize's immeasurable value. Early tests reveal little, however, and they come to an inevitable conclusion. They need a human test subject.... Enter Zula Hendricks.

On August 25, 2012, the Voyager 1 probe crossed into interstellar space. It contained a "golden record" with sounds, pictures, and greetings from Earth. On March 15, 2013, NASA received a transmission from the spacecraft that said: "Hello. We received your golden record. Let's meet." Now, internationally best-selling author B.C. Chase invites you on a daring first contact mission into deep space with five intrepid astronauts, one spunky cosmonaut, and a 75-year-old truck driver.

Combat is literally her middle name. Chimeric Adaptive Enhanced Combat Operator - but now Caeco Jensen - works for the FBI, building a new life and trying to learn from a painful past. It’s hard to fit in when you are one of a kind, but maybe, just maybe, there’s a place for her in this world. That is, if threats from off planet don’t ruin it first. Forging and protecting a new future with a her unique skillset won’t be easy, maybe almost as hard as making new friends.

In the final days of World War II, the Allies ransacked Berlin. Third Reich scientists were highly sought-out prizes for Americans and Russians desperate to possess Nazi nuclear knowledge. But they failed to capture one of the most vital members of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle, Hans Kammler, a liaison with the Nazis’ silent partners whose technological wonders nearly helped the Axis win the war - the alien species the Germans called the Eidechse. More than seven decades later, US Navy SEAL Mark Hunter witnesses the impossible in North Korea....

Arriving home after a harrowing tour of duty on a hostile alien world, USC Sergeant Matt Reeves has just learned the enemy - an insidious humanoid species known as the Wraith - may be preparing to attack Earth again. With much of Earth still in ruins, and its military forces stretched beyond capacity fighting an interstellar war, there is no way mankind could survive another invasion. Enter The Emissary Program. Matt learns the USC have been secretly experimenting with time travel....

Humanity lurches into an uncertain future, dismissive of warning signs. Only the most naïve believe humanity will step back from the brink. Yet in a place that doesn’t exist, a riddle, a puzzle, hope, fear, danger, salvation - all come together. Zach Marjek has faced death in the far corners of the Earth and survived where others have failed. Now, he's thrust into an unimaginable situation where mercenaries, an Inuit wanderer, a murderous Yupik, a young mother, a video game designer, a retired general, a president, a Chinese marine, and mathematics prodigies must come together.