Space Exploration Fiction

Mary Robinette Kowal continues the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars. Of course the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but there’s a lot riding on whoever the International Aerospace Coalition decides to send on this historic - but potentially very dangerous - mission. Could Elma really leave behind her husband and the chance to start a family to spend several years traveling to Mars?

The Tantalus 13 survey expedition went off the rails as soon as Mary Ketch and the crew of the Diamelen learned that the thing beneath their feet wasn’t a planet. An impossibly vast and ancient artificial structure lies below, hidden from the universe under a façade of cratered stone. SCARAB arrived on Tantalus 13 two years ago. An artificially intelligent, self-constructing factory, it was supposed to aid the crew in their mission, to meet their every need.

What if the blood that binds us is the same that will tear us apart? Desperate for refuge from a dying Earth, humanity sought survival on an inhabited planet named Vencus. But when Solace awakens on its surface, he discovers that Vencus is anything but paradise. Now determined to find the only other survivor from Earth, Solace must survive the unknown terrain. When a mysterious enemy hunts him down, he realizes his mission may be over before it begins.

According to Sumerian scholar Zecharia Sitchin, a superior race of beings once inhabited our world. In The 12th Planet—the product of 30 years of intensive research—Sitchin persuasively argues that humanity sprang from extraterrestrial forebears. In this remarkable account, you'll hear the story of how these ancient visitors traveled to Earth from the stars and planted the genetic seed that would ultimately blossom into a remarkable species—the human being.

Equipped with the entirety of human knowledge, a sentient ship is launched on a last-ditch journey to find a new home for civilization. Trillions of miles. Tens of thousands of years. In the space between, the AI has plenty of time to think about life, the vastness of the universe, everything it was meant to do, and—with a perspective created but not limited by humans—what it should do.

When Ben Murdock receives a text message offering a fully operational starship for sale, he’s certain it has to be a joke. Already trapped in the worst day of his life and desperate for a way out, he decides to play along. Except there is no joke. The starship is real. And Ben’s life is going to change in ways he never dreamed possible. All he has to do is sign the contract. Joined by his streetwise best friend and a bizarre tenant with an unseverable lease, he’ll soon discover that the universe is more volatile, treacherous, and awesome than he ever imagined.

The star cluster is awash with the blood of those whose lives have been spent by two men maneuvering fleets like pieces across a chessboard. Only one man can come out on top: Thatcher or Moll.

Jens needed to get off the planet in a hurry so he took the first job on an interstellar freighter he found—part of a convoy to a far-flung mining colony three Steps and almost three thousand lightyears away. Only the desperate went so far—colonists willing to trade a life on Earth for a new start on a rock somewhere across the galaxy, or spacers one step ahead of the law. But as each Step takes him farther from home, Jens learns that the job isn’t exactly what he was told, the cargo not as legitimate, and his situation even more precarious. Jens finds himself being groomed for a role...

We, humans, have always assumed that only aliens could pose an extraterrestrial threat to our existence on Earth. We were wrong. Totally wrong.

At the edge of Milky Way Galaxy, along the great unexplored rim, in the area known as ‘Empty Space’, an exploratory ship from the Rhell, members of the Terran Union, discover an unknown, damaged alien vessel. Rescuing the lone survivor, they unknowingly bring aboard an infection that swiftly overcomes them. Lone survivors, abandoned and thought dead on a desolate world, send out a desperate cry for help. Responding to their SOS is the TU Cruiser, Boudica. The crew must stop the infection before it can doom the union! FIRST IN THE TERRAN UNION SERIES.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn’t hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship’s detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

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 When the Proxy entered the solar system, they ushered in a new era of peace, prosperity, and health that altered humanity forever. A century later—with the average human living three times longer than ...

Twenty years after the elemental conflict that nearly tore apart the cosmos in The Saga of Seven Suns, a new threat emerges from the darkness. The human race must set aside its own inner conflicts to rebuild their alliance with the Ildiran Empire for the survival of the galaxy. In Kevin J. Anderson's The Dark Between the Stars, galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and factions of humanity are pitted against one another.

Mysterious gateways are appearing throughout the universe, bridging violent civilizations, leading to war, and sowing chaos. While some species succumb to the pandemonium, the Chut’un forge an unholy symbiotic relationship—The Order—with red Europhids, a vast hive intelligence populating the universe’s far reaches. Desiring structure and fearing the unknown, they cull everything opposed to their plan, including the Europhids’ blue counterparts, carrying out a galactic genocide until only one blue Europhid remains...inside Moses Montgomery, a.k.a. "Dark Horse".

Naval Officer Jack Samson thought a posting to the frontier of human-inhabited space was the death blow to his career. He couldn't have been more wrong. A routine inspection of a small merchant vessel leads to devastating loss and the discovery of strange, fascinating objects. As astonishing discoveries unfold, a mysterious and hostile ship proves that Samson has a competitor in unlocking the secrets of an ancient alien civilization and that humanity might not be alone in the galaxy after all.

When Carson Napier's giant rocket crash-lands on the planet Venus, he knows that there will be no return to Earth for him. His only option: find a way to survive until other Earth rockets can reach him—if they can! Beneath the eternal clouds, contrary to everything science predicted, Carson finds a race of strange people inhabiting trees that make the giant redwoods of California look like mere saplings.

In the darkness of a hot, Ohio summer night, Nora Dawson realizes her ex-husband plans to make good on his threat to kill her. Timid and weak, she almost welcomes the end of years of fear and intimidation. But the universe has other plans for Nora and her friends. They are rescued by space males on a cosmic mission to study human female sexuality. Nora is selected by Eros, a commanding but gentle master. With Eros guiding her on an exploration of her sexual self, the real Nora, written deep in her DNA, surfaces. Perhaps submission to a master is not something to dread, but to desire, in ...

It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars. Fassin Taak, a Slow Seer at the Court of the Nasqueron Dwellers, will be fortunate if he makes it to the end of the year.

"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 ...

Christopher Ecclestone has lived in the dark for a long time. As a fighter pilot on the old Ark Royal, on the very day all his wishes came true, fate took them away again. Seven years later, all he can do is listen, as a galactic core wide war begins. Only the brand new Imperium had space fighters, and they were a liability, not an asset. Now the Trixone have them, they've swept their frontier clean, and invaded Ralnor and Keerah space. The Ralnor asked the fledgling Imperium for help. But the Imperium only has a small number of fighter pilots, with nearly half being rookies without a ...