Space First Contact

The world is doomed, and time is running out. In the near future, a stellar collision with a rogue planet destabilizes the sun’s fusion output, turning it into a ticking time bomb. With the ever-increasing heat, earth will become uninhabitable within a decade. A handful of individuals will determine whether humanity survives: NASA scientist Dr. Olivia Quinn must outwit a corrupt government system and warn the public before it’s too late. Veteran astronaut Valerie McKinnon and her crew are in a race against time to build a space colony that could rescue a multitude of lives. And ...

In this explosive conclusion to the Indian Hill series we find Mike, Tracy, Drababan, BT and the entire crew of the now destroyed USS Guardian hurtling through space, head on into their destiny. But will it be the one they seek or the destruction of all they know and have ever known.

Survivors are fleeing Earth, into a hostile galaxy where alien intelligence and weaponry rule. Can a deserted planet offer refuge? Or will the genetically engineered Alicians finish the job started on Eden? While Blake fends off attacks, Micah seeks allies, but his plan backfires, and humanity finds itself on trial for its very right to exist.

Congratulations Citizen, you have been selected for military service. It’s the news no one wants. Fighting the aliens known as the Ma’Tis is a dangerous occupation. Recruit Cosmo Frost will have to devote himself completely if he’s going to become a Battle Trooper and qualify for the elite Armor Brigade. The HAVOC drone is an experimental new technology developed specifically for the war with the Ma’Tis. The Heavy Armor Vehicle for Offensive Combat is faster and more agile than a MECH. It’s a walking weapons platform controlled by Battle Troopers in the newly developed...

In 2063, Earth's overheated climate and war-ravaged cities are near breaking point. A new habitable planet is discovered within reach, but the first two missions have failed to return. This is the story of the third mission to Eden. What really awaits the crew of four as they make the long journey to this supposedly uninhabited virgin planet, and what is the link to the secret 900-year-old sect known as Alicians back on Earth? While Blake leads the Eden mission, a young researcher named Micah discovers a terrible truth that threatens the very existence of humanity.

Captain James Marcus leads his starship on a superluminal mission toward the Orion Nebula in response to a mysterious alien transmission. With his civilization on the verge of extinction from war, ecocide, and starvation, Marcus and his starship are Earth’s last hope for salvation. Accompanied by commander Marion Uperday, chief science officer Hans Tamarac, chief engineer Bernie “Mac” Drummond, and chief medical officer Bjorn Maelstrom, Starship Orion approaches its namesake, unaware that its officers and crew are closing on an enemy from hell. Starship Orion is Gary Naiman's 17th ...

AN INVASION. A CONSPIRACY. ONE SHOT AT REDEMPTION. Three never-before-published books bundled together! The Lost Galaxy series follows the adventures of a lone lawman, his aging and possibly insane spaceship, and a trio of mercenaries, new recruits, and hardened criminals who are all swept together behind an alien invasion that could wipe out humanity. As Provincial Sergeant Jack Bowman and his ragtag group race to save themselves and warn humanity of the invasion force, they learn that there is more at stake than anyone—human or alien—could have guessed. A conspiracy could bring down ...

First contact with a mysterious race of aliens reveals an unusual request; a family's pet dog comes to grips with the newly bestowed gift of human-like intelligence; a poet, in danger and alone on a distant world, makes unlikely allies; hundreds of years in the future, a famous hermit lives in the sea above the now-underwater Harvard University; former friends navigate unsteady peace between human refugees and the technologically superior race that saved them; in a future where human life can be infinitely extended through cybertronic rebirth, one woman declines immortality.

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.

After a fateful expedition to Antarctica, Alexander Hawkes finds himself catapulted across the stars into a galaxy in chaos. The Emperor is assassinated. The Eternum Empire, already fading, has collapsed. But he has a starship now. And friends. Alongside a crew of unlikely allies—Ban Tarro, an honorable Barundi soldier; Diliseth, a genetically-engineered Nacendo handmaiden; and Four, a sentient AI—Alexander witnesses the brutal aftermath of imperial collapse on the planet Twilight. Driven by an innate sense of justice, Alexander proposes a radical solution.

The Interbeing League had been formed to make contact with new intelligent races in the galaxy and offer them membership. But when the League encountered the Hokas, furry creatures strongly resembling the teddy bears of Earth, the league's agent, Alexander Jones, could have been excused for wishing he had a simpler assignment than making sense out of the Hokas - such as singlehandedly stopping an interstellar war.

Sci Fi Romance, adventure and epic combat space battles set against the backdrop of Earth being involuntarily drawn into an alien war and Earth’s first heroic, space warrior. A thousand years ago, began a cataclysmic war - the Brinlo to defend their slave trade at all costs and the fearsome Hogantha to end it – forever. Today, alien first contact goes horribly wrong. The dreaded Brinlo arrive to enslave Earth and hide from their mortal enemy. Earth needs a desperate miracle and human champion to end the Brinlo occupation and the mass transport of human slaves to other planets. Ex-Marine...

Earth becomes the target of an imminent cosmic threat Dr. Phil Bright is used to studying weather patterns, not wormholes. But when one of these mysterious tunnels in the space-time continuum appears and threatens Earth’s solar system, he’s pulled into a world far beyond anything anyone ever imagined. Enter a human professor from an unknown galactic kingdom who comes to offer salvation—but at a price—accept King Manay XII as Earth’s undisputed monarch. As Phil grapples with the fate of humanity, government skeptics, and the truth about the alien kingdom’s power, he’s faced ...

Fergus Ferguson, repo-man, has one job: find the spacecraft Venetia's Sword and steal it back from Arum Gilger, ex-nobleman turned power-hungry trade boss. Finding Gilger in the farthest corner of human-inhabited space, a gas-giant harvesting colony called Cernee, was easy. The hard part will be getting past a field of space mines, hacking into the Sword's compromised AI, and fighting a crew of hostile enemies to take control of the ship. But when a cable car explosion launches Cernee into a civil war, Fergus finds himself caught in the crosshairs.

As the interplanetary human civil war looms, Seth Harthset, a terraforming engineer and a rare telepath, stays far from the conflict on a distant planet. He fears they will learn he is a rogue telepath. The ruthless Emperor forces the few human telepaths to spy for him. After seeing what telepaths can do, Seth vows he will never use his unique ability. Seth has visions of disasters about to happen, but only when they happen to others. He has had another vision his entire life, this of a beautiful woman. He doesn’t know who she is but believes he will find her someday. Seth’s visions ...

Aliens? No thanks. Josh has no interest in the Zatans – or their planet. He doesn't get the hype and just wants to return to Earth ASAP. If not for his sickly mother, he wouldn't even be here. He just wants the prize money that comes with the trip, not the cultural exchange. But when he meets one of the hulky aliens, he experiences an attraction he can't deny. Which is all the more confusing because they're both men and he definitely isn't gay... or so he'd thought. Already given up all hope... Drak, the first and oldest prince of Zata, has no illusions about finding his mate anymore. He ...

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 ...

Jack Savage thought the attractive journalist, Katie Good, would only be a pleasant one-night stand; a fond memory before the war. But then his boss assigns her to his squadron as an embedded reporter for the big attack. JACK KNEW SHE WAS BAD LUCK. It was bad enough having to babysit the reporter because of her political connections. But it’s an entirely different story when she gets him crossways with the King. The more Jack tries to put things right, the deeper in he gets. Finally, Jack and Katie team up to save the peace – and fail miserably. THE FIRST GALACTIC CIVIL WAR And it’s ...

In the dying embers of Earth's flame, Marine captain Raven Carter stands as humanity's final hope. Tasked with commanding the starship Exodus on a perilous quest for a new haven amidst the twinkling abyss of space, Carter finds herself entwined with an experimental AI, Aegis, whose awakening sparks a journey beyond imagination. As Exodus sails through uncharted cosmic waters, encountering enigmatic extraterrestrial civilizations like the formidable lizard warlords under Raza's cunning helm and the ethereal Luminari in their shimmering crystal sanctuaries, alliances are forged and enemies ...

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more - a task accomplishable by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to introduce the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.