Hard Contact

A mysterious object crests the Sun during a total solar eclipse. Cryptic radio-frequency noise jams TVs and radios worldwide. Sinister alien artifacts inexplicably appear in the capitals of the world's powers. Paralyzed with fear, society begins to crumble. Former NASA scientist Jasmine Evans is the first to spot the object and sound the alarm. Recalled to investigate the mystery, her team makes a critical discovery. But nothing is what it appears to be.

Get the Earth's Last Gambit bundle, featuring all four books in this first-contact series blending hard sci-fi and edge-of-your-seat action.

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.

The UN warship Magellan is twelve light-years from Earth, exploring a cold eye, a tidally locked super-Earth called Bee. At least two advanced intelligent species evolved on the planet, but the crew's attempts at radio communication result in garbled replies. No one is waiting for them in orbit. The crew has to figure out why. Any misunderstandings could lead to war.

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 ...

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?

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry, and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

From the moment Sam Newman and fourteen others awaken inside metal coffins next to the burning wreckage of a spacecraft, they face a constant struggle to stay alive on a seemingly uninhabited planet light-years from home. Worse, the last any of them remember, they were back home on Earth—at a time when interstellar travel was little more than a distant pipe dream. Survival means finding out who-or what-brought them to this place. Yet what few answers they find amidst the steaming jungles and the ruins of that distant world defy all logic or sanity.

A watch commander at the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Operational Center finds himself at the heart of a first contact situation with an alien species and desperately working to prevent a war between humans and the aliens over the same benign assumption about one another.

Three days have passed since the Xenos spaceship departed Earth, and Emissary Lee Ping moved to the virtual world of Planet Asbeth. But even as normalcy returns, a new threat emerges. Alien marauders have intercepted critical supplies required to complete the shield. From bestselling author D. Ward Cornell comes a tale of two worlds bound by a mutual adversary.

Cassandra 22007 continues to hold the world in its grip. After the destruction of large parts of Los Angeles, the remaining inhabitants fight for their survival. Among them are Lee Rifkin, who must not miss the most important rocket launch of his career, and Branson, who is confronted with a truth that will change his life forever.

When a stranger with a high-tech implant is found in the remote Finnish wilderness, neurosurgeon Bill and his computer scientist friend Steve see an opportunity. But they don't know what powers they're up against. They soon must ask themselves what moral boundaries they're willing to cross in order to succeed. Ten years later, the world has changed. Airships roam the skies, strange plants grow in the forests, and entire swaths of land are deserted.

Particle physics was always an unlikely path to the stars, but with the discovery that space could be compressed, the entire galaxy had come within reach. The technology was astonishing, yet nothing compared to what humans encountered 4,000 light-years from home. Now, with an invitation from a mysterious gatekeeper, the people of Earth must decide if they're ready to participate in the galactic conversation.

Jenny Baker thought that life was all mapped out for her. A junior in college, she studies physics and lives at home in the fictional college town of Long Lake, West Virginia. She and her boyfriend, Jake, have been together since they were freshmen in high school, and everyone assumes that they will get married when they graduate. On October 1, her life is shattered. Tragedy strikes and, depressed, Jenny drops out of school to take an internship at the university’s observatory, which is located in the Appalachian Mountains. There, she discovers a comet destined to end all life on Earth. ...

“First contact is an intriguing hook…” Kirkus Reviews In 2045, radio waves surge from the M13 nebula. Amid impeachment threats, President Rex Horn funds a project to decipher them. Darien and Carly, students at NM State, believe ESP is the key to decoding the message, and they locate traces of the elusive phenomenon in twins–including monkeys, dogs, and people, all born in Alamogordo. They also discover Darien possesses ESP, though he was born in the jungles of Panama. Convinced he has a twin still living there, they conduct a search for him. In an isolated village, they discover ...

Eric Snow's last memory is of a blinding light streaking across the New Mexico night sky. The next thing he knows, he's being rescued by alien soldiers—The Legionnaires—from the clutches of the sinister Syergs, an extraterrestrial terrorist group. Unexpectedly whisked away to Akashon Prime, the crowning jewel of the galaxy, Eric is offered a fresh start alongside other human abductees. However, he soon discovers that this alien haven is far from paradise. The human refugees are second-class citizens, vulnerable and disenfranchised. Teaming up with astrophysicist Devon Marley, Eric's ...

When Simon and Katherine Hawke stumble upon an alien shuttle that has landed on earth, it’ll not only change the course of their lives, but of the entire world. Taking the shuttle into orbit, they discover a much larger ship left adrift with no one on board. Commandeering it, they confirm that we’re not alone in the universe and must prepare the human race for what is about to come. Recruiting from all over the world, they begin to expand their fleet and build a federation to give humans a foothold in the galaxy.

The Boy Who Would Live Forever has a sense of wonder and excitement that will satisfy those who loved Gateway and will delight new listeners as well. In Gateway, long after the alien Heechee abandoned their space-station, Gateway (as humans dubbed it) allowed humans to explore new worlds. The Heechee, alarmed by the alien Kugel whose goal was to destroy all organic lifeforms, had already retreated to the galactic core, where they now lived in peace.

Two years have passed since comet Anduru skimmed the clouds of Saturn on its way to Earth. Kath and Nolan are looking for answers, trying to find ways to protect Earth from the possibility of an invasive alien species overrunning the planet.

Nearly a year has passed since Kyle and Alex Wimberly's daughter, Kayla, was born. She has already begun manifesting the gift of the mist. After two years of silence, the Dominion launch a devastating attack on planet Aarde, killing over one hundred thousand Katswiri, the native population. As Kai and Alex retaliate by destroying a Dominion core world, a metal sphere plows through Earth's atmosphere, making a fiery entry and sending a message: Kyle Wimberly. We know who you are. We know where you live. We are coming for you, but we will take your wife and your daughter first.