Space Exploration Fiction

For the first time ever, Van has to deliver the remains of fallen comrades. At the Starsmith, he's presented with an opportunity to change the face of the war, even as Torina and Van begin planning for the ultimate shift in their galaxy: Parenthood. But first, the crew must prepare for an unexpected gift—a new, unknown fleet of ships, uncrewed and hidden deep out in the black. There's just one problem. They have the ships, but they need pilots and a secret base to create their fleet. For that job, they'll need an ally of unparalleled strength. The Schegith Protectorate.

Though she knows her brother holds her mother's favor, Ingrid is determined to at least be considered as heir to the family name. She hatches an audacious plan—free a thief from a prison planet from which no one has ever returned, and use them to help steal back a priceless artifact. But Ingray and her charge return to her home to find their planet in political turmoil, at the heart of an escalating interstellar conflict. Together, they must make a new plan to salvage Ingray's future and her world, before they are lost to her for good.

"The only one enjoying himself in there is the grim reaper." The Crossroad system is a battleground. The Keerah only want to conquer. The Ralnor want control. The Trixone want new eating grounds. All of them want what they think Jon Hunter has. Jon is fighting a war on seven fronts, while trying to stay out of politics and diplomacy at home. As the death toll mounts, Jon is confronted with options, all of which carry an unacceptable body count. And in the midst of it all, old choices suddenly have consequences. In the middle of everything, lies the Reaper's Crossroad. The Hunter Legacy ...

Paradise-1. Earth’s first deep space colony. For thousands of people, it was an opportunity for a new life. Until it went dark. No communication has been received from the colony for months. And it falls to Firewatch inspector Alexandra Petrova and the crew of the Artemis to investigate. What they find is more horrifying than anything they could have imagined.

No one has ever ventured deeper into space than the four astronauts of Shepherd-1. The aim of their mission is to witness the creation of the cosmos. Using the sun as a lens, they are to align a flock of probes in such a way that the moment of the Big Bang becomes visible. For astronomer Christine, this is a dream come true. So she is bitterly disappointed when the first images are obscured by a kind of veil that prevents any insight. She works obsessively to find a solution, but when she finally succeeds in lifting the veil, she sees something that would have been better kept hidden...

What truths will be revealed? After Erik Erickson, the last resident of Black Earth, arrived in 2024 he was greeted with a hero’s welcome by nearly all people on Earth. Some, however, questioned if he or planet Zenith were real or simply a lie. A fabrication by the United States Government, thought, many conspiracy theorists. As Erik toured planet Earth, telling everyone the truths of Zenith and all the riches that it held, some countries thought they could bypass a U.N. Resolution and go it alone to the black menace. Zenith closely trailed Earth by only seventy-five million miles and the...

Mostly, he's accomplished this antisocial feat by exterminating them because they posed a threat to galactic peace or common decency. As with any action, there can be an equal and opposite reaction. Now, a fundamental force of existence named Xyándor is after Jon. You see, Xyándor's sole purpose is to spawn chaos. So he's dead set on killing Jon because our hero snuffs out chaos on a routine basis. Most likely, this Xyándor character must've had a really troubled childhood, right?

Finally in English! A different kind of SF story, with a very special heroine. Only ten years old, Tanit is a genius and the youngest astrobiologist in history. For that reason she has been authorized to journey to the newly founded colony of Thuis, fifty light-years from Earth. There she will finally join her mother, who left for the colony two years before. But Tanit has no idea of the terrible events looming in her future that will force her to fend for herself in a hostile universe. First book of the popular Spanish science fiction series "In strange orbits". This episode is included in...

A ship full of colonists arrive on a seemingly hospitable planet, only to discover that it harbors a terrifying secret. Soon the settlers find themselves caught up in a desperate battle for survival against the fae, a natural force with the power to prey upon the human mind itself, bringing a person’s greatest fears and darkest nightmares to life. As Colony Commander Leon Case and Chief Medic Lise Perez struggle to find a way to control the fae before more people die, other settlers have ideas of their own…and they may prove more of a threat to colony than the fae itself.

In a past age, humanity fled a dying Earth in massive ark ships. These searched the galaxy to find a new home. Then one fleet found Centauri, a dense cluster of stars teeming with habitable planets. Now, thousands of years later, Centauri’s settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials – and their great houses rule vast star systems. As they vie for supremacy, Earth’s ark ships continue to arrive, and humans must serve these repressive masters. But is there a better life beyond the empire?

From the halls of power in Washington to the vastness of space, the Guild moves closer to outright war as shifting alliances force everyone—including Van—to pick a side, take up arms, and fight. But there are ghosts out there in the black, and some of them carry secrets that Mark Tudor and Petyr Groshenko refused to reveal. In the expanse of his memory, Perry finds an ancient ship, and an even older war—and neither of those things have truly gone away.

Ten thousand city-state habitats orbit the planet Yellowstone, forming a near-perfect democratic human paradise. But even utopia needs a police force. For the citizens of the Glitter Band that organization is Panoply, and the prefects are its operatives. Prefect Tom Dreyfus has a new emergency on his hands. Across the habitats and their hundred million citizens, people are dying suddenly and randomly, victims of a bizarre and unprecedented malfunction of their neural implants.

During a routine arrest, Van discovers a stolen spacecraft, its importance far greater than it first appears. Fast, sleek, and beautiful, the ship is a cultural relic from Linulla’s people, and returning their property will set off a chain of events that reveals a new adversary. Rising in the ranks, Van’s confrontation with a pirate leader isn’t just a case of theft, but something far more sinister. And Van’s going to take this case personally. He and his crew will chase the Salt Thieves and their leader in a game that can only have one winner.

Sucked through a wormhole, Charlie's spaceship crash landed on a distant world, yet somehow he survived. But survival was about to get a lot harder as he found himself not just stranded on a new planet, but in another galaxy entirely. One ruled not by the laws of technology, but by magic. A realm of space pirates, deadly assassins, alien gladiators, and even dragons. For the spaceman from Earth, it was enough to make his head spin.

Breq is a soldier who used to be a warship. Once a weapon of conquest controlling thousands of minds, now she has only a single body and serves the emperor. With a new ship and a troublesome crew, Breq is ordered to go to the only place in the galaxy she would agree to go: to Athoek Station to protect the family of a lieutenant she once knew—a lieutenant she murdered in cold blood.

After taking a Peacemaker job to find missing fuel, Perry finds something far more sinister than simple theft - a voice, crying out in a forge of heat and flame, and the discovery reveals a series of acts so vicious that nothing short of revenge will suffice. Following leads across the stars, Van, Perry, and Torina discover the wealthy elite are doing more than just taking fuel.

Dorian Hawke's daily routine was pretty straightforward. Wake up, pull his weight around the village, eat potatoes, go to bed. Not too shabby. Not very interesting, maybe, but it was honest work. Then a boat falls like a meteor from the sky. Next thing he knows, a gorgeous elf and stunning faun tell him that magical blood runs through his veins, and they need him to navigate their ship through space.

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.

Simon is the best delivery boy that Mr Edwards’s restaurant has ever had. He’s on time every time, and he’s gotten nothing but good reviews. But he needs more money. His mother’s medical treatment won’t pay for itself, and his father is already working three jobs to try to make ends meet. But it might just be his lucky day: Mr. Edwards has another job for him. It’s more delivery work, but not the usual kind. You might even say that it’s out of this world. Oh well. Beggars can’t be choosers, and the pay is fantastic.

Get ready to experience two more origin stories in the Backyard Starship universe.