Hard Science Fiction Space

The final novel in the Orion War series, Return to Sol sees the I2 and her crew return to where it all began....

When John Bandicut sets out across the surface of Triton, he's hardly ready for the storm of chaos that's about to blow through his life. The alien Quarx that soon inhabits his mind is humanity's first contact with an alien life. The Quarx, part of an ancient galactic civilization that manipulates chaos theory to predict catastrophic events, seeks to prevent a cometary collision that could destroy the Earth. But it must have help. If Bandicut chooses to trust the Quarx, he must break all the rules - indeed, sacrifice his own life.

Survival amidst the rings of a gas giant means that life must adapt or die. Luckily, Space Ants never say die!Space Ants: Never Say Die is a collection of serialized short stories following one colony. Each segment zooms in on a single ant from different castes—from tireless handmaidens and brave scouts to valiant soldiers and the indomitable queen mother—as they explore, extract, expand, and sometimes exterminate the deadly threats lurking in the gas giant's ring system. Join the ants as they navigate the perils of deep space: impacts, dehydration, and the constant threat of rival ...

After a long war which saw the First Foundation emerge victorious, the Second Foundation is now believed to be extinct, and all records of planet Earth’s existence have been erased. No one suspects that the Second Foundation could still exist. None, except Council member Golan Trevize, who finds himself ordered to leave Terminus, accompanied by historian Janov Pelorat, in order to find it. Yet this quest will lead an unsuspecting Golan further than he could have possibly imagined.

More than 50 years after publishing his first story, Hugo Award-winning author Asimov remains one of the great names in science fiction. Almost single-handedly he transformed the field from the romantic and Gothic legacy of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs into the rational, clear-minded genre that exists today. This selection of some of Asimov's most enduring and unforgettable stories is read by the author himself. These vintage tales encompass the full range of Asimov's versatility, while displaying his puckish sense of humor.

The race to Mars is not without its peril. As the world’s superpowers vie for supremacy in space, the true intent of the aliens, and the ultimate destiny for the human species, is revealed. Can the world marshal the will and resources of its people to strike back and take control of its own fate? Can NASA, led by Richard “Rock” Crandon, and America’s adversaries find the ultimate courage to face what lies at Discovery’s End and save the world?

It is the distant future. The world known as Virga is a fullerene balloon three thousand kilometers in diameter, filled with air, water, and aimlessly floating chunks of rock. The humans who live in this vast environment must build their own fusion suns and "towns" that are in the shape of enormous wood and rope wheels that are spun for gravity. Young, fit, bitter, and friendless, Hayden Griffin is a very dangerous man. He's come to the city of Rush in the nation of Slipstream with one thing in mind: to take murderous revenge for the deaths of his parents six years ago.

Professor James Lowry didn’t believe in spirits, or witches, or demons. Not until a gentle spring evening when his hat disappeared, and suddenly he couldn’t remember the last four hours of his life. Now, the quiet university town of Atworthy is changing - slightly at first, then faster and more frighteningly each time he tries to remember.

The complete Torchship series in a single volume! Includes: Tochship, Torchship Pilot, and Torchship Captain. A captain who’ll take any job if there’s enough money in it. A pilot with an agenda of her own. And a mechanic with an eye on the pilot.

Civil war on the world of the atevi is over, but diplomatic disputes and political infighting continue unabated. Bren Cameron, brilliant human diplomat allied with the dominant Western Association, has just returned to the capital from his country home. But his sojourn was anything but restful, for Bren and his associates have had a small war of their own to contend with, ending with rebel leader, Machigi, joining the atevi congress representing the rebels as a member state.

Sometimes the few must stand against the many. From the dark, cold void came an unknown force. Their target: a remote planet, the home of a group of people distancing themselves from mankind and pursuing a path of piety and peace. If they have any chance at survival, a disparate group of pilots must come together to fight back any way they can. But the best these aces can do might not be good enough.

The revelations on Mars - a half-million year-old legacy of the vanished star-traveling Builders - have fed the flames of catastrophic war. A beleaguered United States and its Russian and Japanese allies struggle to hold their own against the indomitable forces of the enemy United Nations. The bloody conflict that has swept over the home planet now rages across the blackness of space - with the U.S. Marine Corps in the vanguard, leading the charge as always.

A desperate man can overlook warning signs. “Hello?” “Is this Charles Haley?” “Yeah!” Charles said loudly, trying to talk over the construction noise. “My name is Emanuel Smith. I am an artificial intelligence sent by an alien species to establish a trading relationship with the people of your planet. I am calling to offer you the position of being our local broker.” “Great!” Charles replied, thankful for the much-needed job offer. Too bad it was so noisy in the parking lot. Charles missed the part about AI and alien species. When he realizes what he has signed up for, ...

Just when you thought the saga was finished …."Eden Rising" is the stunning conclusion to the STARPATH series! As peace finally reigns throughout the galaxy, a new colony is established on a rejuvenated Earth. But mankind’s idyllic paradise is not all that it seems. A hidden danger arises that threatens their very existence. Packed full of drama and unexpected twists, this final book in the STARPATH series is the most action-packed of the four books. Hold onto your seats, because you are about to be taken on a final, wild ride! “Eden Rising” brings the STARPATH series to a ...

Science fiction adventure and space opera at its best. An addictive, fast-action, edge-of-your-seat journey. . . the Empire wants them dead and doesn't care about collateral damage. “Greetings. I’m former Sergeant Hutheen Bozon. You may have read about our exploits. I’m a female, feline Hoganthan warrior. I’m an elite sniper and the weapons officer on our warship corvette, HSS Valkyrie. The Empire has made a huge mistake - they’ve ruled we are to be executed on-sight. If they really want to try that, they need to send more of their pretty ships for us to carve up and destroy. We ...

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 ...

When a human team is sent to scout a few hundred light-years in front of the death wave, it encounters a civilization far in advance of our own, a civilization of machine intelligences.These sentient, intelligent machines have existed for eons and have survived earlier "death waves" - gamma-ray bursts from the core of the galaxy. They are totally self-sufficient, completely certain that the death wave cannot harm them, and utterly uninterested in helping to save other civilizations.

The First Striker Pursuit have been tasked with hunting down war criminals. Joel and his team have the full resources of the Union behind them, and the Butcher of Blackrock is at the top of their list. The Butcher is as bad as they come—rumored to have killed hundreds and legendary for his brutal slaughtering of servicepeople, he’s the most prolific murderer in Talon history. Having once escaped the Butcher’s grasp, Joel learned long ago that when you go off-world, anything can and does happen. During this assignment to capture the Butcher, he and his team will be tested to their ...

Baron Lee and Lady Bala are headed to Denshu, his gift from the King. There is an imposter mage who has taken over his province and he must woo the residents to support him while taking down the imposter. The town is seventeenth century in most of its infrastructure and trade. Lee knows the new king put his strongest mages in the southernmost town in the kingdom—adjacent to Darvist.

It is 2076: Lancer, Earth’s first starship, is on a mission to find interstellar civilizations. Although astronaut Nigel Walmsley’s experiences with alien encounters make him the expert, no one believes Nigel’s theory that machines are the dominant intelligent beings left in the galaxy and that their purpose is to annihilate all organic life. Then the explorers discover once-living planets where only machines remain – and ruined worlds where fugitive survivors must evade omnipresent and lethally advanced A.I. warships.