Space First Contact

Contains books one and two of The Acheron series: The Acheron and The Prodigal. Sandi and Ash never set out to be heroes. She joined the Fleet to please her mother, the Admiral. He signed up to escape the grinding poverty of the Housing Blocks. And the unlikely friends envisioned boring, peacetime careers as shuttle pilots. The Tahni Imperium had other ideas.

Albert Birnbaum was once one of the biggest political talk show hosts around, but these days he’s watching his career enter a death spiral. A stranger offers a solution to his woes, promising to put him back on top. It’s everything Birnbaum wants, but is there a catch? And does Birnbaum actually care if there is? "A Voice in the Wilderness" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

As a horrific war with the ruthless Berrillians heats up, a new, more deadly threat arises - a mythical race known as the Last Nightmare, intent on destroying the universe. Once more, fate calls upon Jon Ryan. An alliance is made between old friends and bitter enemies. Cooperation is the only thing that might just save them all. But all the fighting, all the death, and all the suffering are changing Jon. With each passing crisis, his humanity ebbs further and further away.

Zack Quick has been on the move for 10 years, hacking big corporations and exposing their secrets. Then he stumbles upon one of the biggest discoveries that will forever change the world - and possibly get him killed. Kaylan Farrow is the pilot for Earth's most advanced spaceship, whose maiden voyage is supposed to take her crew to Titan, but newly released images from a deep space probe threaten to cancel the mission.

In an effort to improve relations with the Earth, the Colonial Union has invited a contingent of diplomats from that planet to observe Ambassador Abumwe negotiate a trade deal with an alien species. Then something very bad happens to one of the Earthings, and with that, the relationship between humanity’s two factions is on the cusp of disruption once more. It’s a race to find out what really happened, and who is to blame. "The Observers" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

The year is 2650. Seventy-five years ago, an alien fleet attacked Earth. Without warning. Without mercy. We were not prepared. Hundreds of millions perished. Dozens of cities burned. We nearly lost everything. Then the aliens abruptly left. We rebuilt. We armed ourselves. We swore: never again. But the aliens never came back. Until now. With overwhelming force the aliens have returned, striking deep into our territory, sending Earth into a panic.

In the far future, humankind has made contact with numerous other species - and has helped to form the ConSentiency to govern between the species. After suffering under a tyrannous pure democracy that had the power to create laws so fast that no thought could be given to the effects, the sentients of the galaxy found a need for the Bureau of Sabotage (BuSab) to slow the wheels of government, thereby preventing it from legislating recklessly.

Defying NASA, Jane Holloway, the linguist of the Providence expedition, commandeers the alien ship that crew explored. She sets off to return that ship's navigator to his home world, determined to discover who was behind the genocide that destroyed his original crew. But when she gets there, she finds his world devastated by the same plague. The remaining members of his race, uniquely gifted at navigating the stars, are stranded across the galaxy. And someone doesn't want those lost navigators found.

Starting a war with an enemy 100 times stronger is insane. It’s desperate. And it’s Earth’s only hope. A massive alien power looms over humanity, claiming Earth as its territory and humanity as its slaves. The Hegemony has already taken over one colony, yoking hundreds of thousands under their brutal rule. Every tactical exercise, every war game, and every simulation gives humanity zero chance in a defensive campaign.

Down on Alfheim, the situation was dire. Some brave men and women had to be left behind for the greater good. Viceroy Miles Hunt, gutted by the losses, needed to stay focused. A Titan-class warship, the Freedom, could be the key to victory, if it were fully operational with a trained crew. It was not. Sam, the medical Synth, faced something the programmers never expected: a moment where the only option was to break free of the code. The battle was fierce and there didn't seem to be a way out, until Sam came up with a plan. Would it save them?

After the triumphs of the Battles of the Forts, with Serenea now firmly under Allied control, Brigadier General Spartacus Varinius set his sights upon the Pharaonis home world. The Allies used a tactic reminiscent of Earth's Second World War—however, instead of island hopping, they began planet-hopping, bypassing Pharaonis strongholds as they zeroed in on the planet Eurysa.

The Clay family struggle to find a way to stop the corporation before all hope is lost. Daniel Clay and General Fastal launch a secret and dangerous mission to steal the only weapon that can turn the tide. Sarah Clay, surrounded by a faction she can’t trust, must win over the Hidden cabal to infiltrate behind enemy lines. Their son, Michael, fights to survive amidst a sea of refugees and to keep his true identity secret. The ordeal of the human invasion continues. The Clay family are beset by enemies and threats on all sides as they search for a way to save the Tyr…and to save their family.

For millennia, the Shaa have subjugated the universe, forcing the myriad sentient races to bow to their joyless tyranny. But the Shaa will soon be no more. The Dread Empire is in its rapidly fading twilight, and with its impending fall comes the promise of a new galactic order...and bloody chaos. A young Terran naval officer marked by his lowly birth, Lt. Gareth Martinez is the first to recognize the insidious plot of the Naxid - the powerful, warlike insectoid society that was enslaved before all others - to replace the masters’ despotic rule with their own.

For years, the Zodarks plotted their revenge against the Republic. Spies infiltrated their colonies and eventually found their seat of power—Earth, located in a previously unknown system. A plan was hatched, a force made ready. The Zodarks would unveil a superweapon that was sure to tip the balance of power back in their favor. Then the Zodarks learned of Murphy's Law—and their plans were never the same.

After initial contact with an alien entity leaves Kaylan unconscious, she wakes up to discover that she's now in command of the Athena mission stranded in a star system far from Earth. The ship's computer is malfunctioning, and former hacker and astronaut trainee Zack Quick is the only one who can fix it. If he can't figure out what's wrong, they have no hope of getting back home. In order to survive, the crew of the Athena must explore an alien star system to find the species that summoned them.

Lucian must do what no mage has ever done before: Escape the Mad Moon. But between frayed mages, violent monsters, and the hostile environment, that may prove impossible. Wandering the brutal surface, every breath is a fight for survival. And things only get worse when Lucian receives visions from the so-called Sorceress-Queen of Psyche, whose Psionic Magic is second to none. Teaming up with a dedicated captain, a frayed mage, and a former Mage-Knight of Dara, Lucian sets off on a quest across Psyche. He needs a way off the moon for good.

This work is not meant for the average person as it has profound affect on your outlook on life.

Albert Jenkins would like nothing more than to putter around his junkyard, selling parts and working on old cars. When an alien spacecraft is shot down by US Air Defense and crash-lands on his newly rebuilt home, he’s dragged back into the fight of his life. Light years away, a war for the control of Earth looms, and humanity’s freedom hangs in the balance. Previously kicked off Earth, the Korgul are back, and they are willing to destroy any who stand in their way.

Former Marine Arthur Holland’s destiny begins when an aircraft crashes on his property in the mountains of Colorado. He moves to investigate and to help any survivors, but the closer he gets the less control he has of his movements. An unknown force urges him to open the door of the mysterious craft, discovering the secret that lies within: a dead, alien pilot and a peculiar, otherworldly crystal. If that wasn’t enough, the crystal feels like it is alive. That’s when he hears a single word inside his mind: run.

After first contact, humanity learns that the galaxy is a place of ancient and far-reaching authorities. The Earth has not emerged as an autonomous peer into a community of sovereign worlds, but as an involuntary entrant into a galactic society whose demands are not light. John Riley, the physicist who inadvertently touched off first contact with his research into gravitation, now sees that the implications of his discoveries lead to more than technical frontiers. The galaxy, the nature of the Universe itself, is not what humanity has believed it to be.