Hard Contact

You can't militarize space. This one rule has led to decades of peaceful development of space programs worldwide. However, increasing resource scarcity and a changing climate on Earth's surface is causing some interested parties - namely India, the North American Union, and the Sinese Federation - to militarize. The discovery of a strange artifact by Dr. Alayna Wong precipitates a crisis. What appears to be a hitherto undiscovered comet is soon revealed to be an alien structure on a cometary trajectory toward the sun.

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them - and among the humans - who seek power. And no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization....

Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life - but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time. Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth. But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed. And it's been waiting for them.

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.

Anomaly examines the prospect of an alien intelligence discovering life on Earth. The technological gulf between humanity and the alien species is measured in terms of millions of years. The only way to communicate is using science, but not everyone is so patient. Humanity's first contact with an alien intelligence is far more radical than anyone has ever dared imagine. With a technological gap of millions of years, mankind is barely able to recognize the arrival of an alien space craft outside the gates of the United Nations in New York.

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.

In the year 2103, humanity ventures deeper into the cosmos, driven by the insatiable thirst for discovery and the promise of unimaginable wealth from outer space mining. Among them is Wren, a solitary scout aboard the semi-sentient spacecraft Lone Star, exploring the outer reaches for anomalies and opportunities. What begins as a routine mission turns into an extraordinary encounter when a mysterious planet materializes where no planet should exist. The world is pristine yet eerily silent, its cities untouched by time, its secrets buried beneath its surface. As Wren delves deeper into the ...

A novella set in the hard-scrabble world of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series, Strange Dogs follows a family of colonists on Laconia where a new generation of humanity struggles with the profound changes that come with making a home on an alien world. Like many before them, Cara and her family ventured through the gates as scientists and researchers, driven to carve out a new life and uncover the endless possibilities of the unexplored alien worlds now within reach.

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. There are two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches.

Carrie Faulkner is now in command of the Milky Way Alliance while Luke Blackburn is absent. Her orders? Destroy as many of the murderous Bakkui as possible! Her latest mission results in over three hundred million kills! Unfortunately, they were all friendly. After such a spectacular failure, the Warlord relieves her of duty. But still, the war goes on, and someone needs to investigate the source of the unstoppable Bakkui menace. GOING DEEP BEHIND ENEMY LINES IS A SUICIDAL MISSION AT BEST. Devastated by her failure, Carrie decides she’s the perfect fit for the job. With help from Sadie, ...

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.

New planets are fair game to asset strippers and interplanetary opportunists – and a commercial mission to a distant star system discovers a moon that is pitch black, but alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is anathema to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud. Under no circumstances should a human end up on Shroud’s inhospitable surface. Except a catastrophic accident sees Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne doing just that.

Disaster strikes the luxurious space liner, Solar Princess, and strands Gus on a deserted island on an uncharted planet. His only hope for survival is to partner with an alien Artificial Intelligence named Alyssa. She is the brain of the most improbable star ship Gus has ever seen, part ancient sailing ship, part incredible star-faring vessel. But there is a catch. Alyssa’s first priority is to finish an epic yacht race that started twenty-eight thousand years ago. THE WORLD IS CAPTIVATED BY THE ALIEN DRAMA Every day Gus sends a video love letter to his wife via the lifeboat’s one-way ...

Astronaut Frank Borman is alone and stranded on the surface of the moon. His radio is dead. He can't remember how he got there. It's early 1969 — Armstrong and Aldrin's lunar landing is still months away. The last thing Borman can remember is standing in the desert and hurriedly pulling on a spacesuit. After that… everything is a blank. At best, his portable life support system has a half an hour of air left. He'd scream in frustration, but nobody will hear and he'll only burn through his air supply more quickly. Whoever conspired to leave him here, it can't have been NASA — he knows ...

Contact with aliens was the last thing on Alice's mind when she heads for Mars with her cat (Book 1 of 10). Two worlds are about to collide when apprehensive aliens enter our solar system in the 25th century. Interview with the aliens is a difficult request. Can Alice convince the Major, she can do it? After she survives a tunnel accident, her cat escapes into the air ducts, and a body is discovered. Can she prove the suspect is innocent before the soldiers make their arrest? Who is the killer and will they find him in time before the next murder? Updated 5/11/24. Look for the prequel, ...

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force. But the watershed networks that rose up to save the planet from corporate devastation aren't ready to give up 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 ...

In John Scalzi's re-imagining of H. Beam Piper's 1962 sci-fi classic Little Fuzzy, written with the full cooperation of the Piper Estate, Jack Holloway works alone for reasons he doesnt care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorps headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporations headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, thats not up for discussion.

A woman having a psychotic episode, talking with her oldest friend from college who’s calming her, sees Earth devoid of humans is populated with monsters and discovers two secrets, he’s her “father” and…

Frederik Pohl was on a streak when this Hugo Award-finalist novel was published in 1980. Now back in print after an absence of nearly a decade, this unique science fiction novel is as fresh and entertaining as ever. The story begins when the hero of Gateway finances an expedition to a distant alien spaceship that may end famine forever. On the ship, the explorers find a human boy, and evidence that reveals a powerful alien civilization is thriving on a transport ship headed right for Earth....