Showing titles in Hard Science Fiction

A crescent moon set against a jeweled field of stars gracefully slid into view. The thin arc of its crater-filled landscape drew Jack’s mind in. His eyes followed the long, inky shadows cast by jagged crater walls as they cut sharply into the pockmarked ashen terrain. Deeper within the jet-black lunar night-side were the lonely peaks of a smattering of mountain tops, catching a few last rays of sunlight. All Jack felt was a desire to escape; to be down there exploring...perhaps uncovering some new detail in the history of Earth’s nearest neighbor.

Star humans were engineered to exist within the mantle of a star, mere tools of their Earth-evolved makers in a war against the Xeelee, owners of the universe. Stephen Baxter's third novel in his magnificent Xeelee Sequence is an exotic and endearing story of an abandoned people. Abandoned to...

Kibou-daini is a planet obsessed with cheating death. Barrayaran Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan can hardly disapprove—he’s been cheating death his whole life, on the theory that turnabout is fair play. But when a Kibou-daini cryocorp—an immortal company whose job it is to shepherd its all-too-mortal frozen patrons into an unknown future—attempts to expand its franchise into the Barrayaran Empire, Emperor Gregor dispatches his top troubleshooter, Miles, to check it out.

Tesla and the Pyramid is a propulsive, action-packed technothriller that reveals undisclosed frontier science and real-world hidden archaeology, blurring the line between fact and fiction like never before.

Now, as Turek readies an all-out attack on the Nexus system - a key conquest that could seal the rest of the galaxy's doom - Ky must rally to the challenge, draw upon every last reserve of her strategic skills, and reach deep if she is to tear from the ashes of tragedy her most decisive victory.

“Narrators Caitlin Davies and Daniel Thomas May reprise their roles, and between them, they’ve once more captured the essence behind the voices of multiple characters, and even more impressively, this time there are non-humans thrown into the mix.” — Bibliosanctum Sue Burke's sweeping...

The popular adventures of Miles Vorkosigan, a clever and outlandish science fiction hero for the modern era, continue in these three tales. In The Mountains of Mourning, Miles is dispatched to a back-country region of Barrayar, where he must act as detective, judge, and executioner in a controversial murder case. In Labyrinth, Miles adopts his alternate persona as Dendarii Mercenary Admiral Naismith for an undercover mission to rescue an important research geneticist from Jackson’s Whole. And in the title story, Miles infiltrates an escape-proof Cetagandan POW camp.

With The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Six, award-winning editor Neil Clarke provides a year-in-review and 33 of the best stories published by both new and established authors in 2020. 

George Galen is a brilliant scientist, a pioneer in gene therapy. But Galen is dangerously insane. He has created a method to alter human DNA, not just to heal diseases, but also to "improve" people - make them stronger, make them able to heal more quickly...and make them compliant to his will.

Survival hangs in the balance for Renton Hicks and his fellow colonists at Moon Base Delta. With a tight blockade being imposed by the Xilinex Corporation, their supplies are running dangerously low. Hope emerges in the form of a Martian evacuation ship carrying genetic engineering technology that could potentially secure their future. However, getting their hands on it demands not just outwitting Xilinex but also securing assistance from the last vestiges of the SINO power block.

Daniel Rice is a government science investigator whose specialty is solving seemingly intractable problems through scientific inquiry. But Daniel's intellectual strength is sorely tested by the bizarre realities he finds in the quantum world. Extra dimensions of space trap the unwary, probability replaces cause and effect, and time isn't what anyone imagined. The other side of the mirror is a place full of dangers, but it's also somewhere a dedicated scientist can uncover secrets that connect humans with something greater.

Merritt Alder is done with Earth. The planet is polluted and overpopulated, and its people are hungry. Earth's first colony, Galena, is a pioneer world 10,000 light years away. It has clean air, unpolluted water, and continents of arable land. Anyone can start a new life…if they can get there. For Merritt, the journey is only the beginning. Obstacles arise every step of the way, forcing compromise and sacrifice. And not everyone on his ship is pure of heart. The bonds he forges on the journey will be the key to surviving on another world—a world anyone has yet to fully explore.

An original collection of interwoven short stories set in the Wild Cards universe, created by the globally bestselling author of A Game of Thrones 'A complex, intricately imagined universe' Telegraph An alien virus ravages the world, with effects as random as a hand of cards. Those infected...

In DNA, Ell’s five-year-old son Zage has become interested in the effects of certain genes on obesity. He’s obtained permission to do research in a university lab where he hopes to test some of his ideas. Work is being done to evaluate the possibility of terraforming the planet Mars by using Ell’s port technology to bring in water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen from various other worlds in the solar system.

When Streaker - the first starship designed and crewed by dolphins - discovers a derelict ancient armada with evidence of the first sentient species ever, she sets off a war between dozens of galactic races eager to use the information for their own advancement.

Wanted is the 10th of a series of near future scifi/thrillers whose young heroine Ell Donsaii’s nerve mutation makes her a genius. It also provides astonishing athletic abilities. In Wanted, President Stockton continues her efforts to imprison Ell in order to protect the world from some of Ell’s dangerous new technology. While the President rightfully wants this technology to be restricted, she wants it to be controlled by the government.

Lost Town is being rebuilt in the wake of tragedy. With no connection to Earth for three months, Caesar has the chance to regroup and determine the threat level from Lithos. John can't shake the sensation that the worst is yet to come, and it's confirmed when Anders and Haley leave to investigate a potential second alien tower on Arcadia. While Harrison takes a step back, Amelia must keep the peace between the rogue agents who are putting their mission in danger. Meanwhile, on Earth, Summer is contacted by a mysterious stranger who predicts a looming invasion.

All life on Earth is about to be terminated by an entity as old as the galaxy itself. To make matters worse, Simon has broken everything already. In a future world that is run by computer systems and that is without want, how can a man find his role? Then, if the very computers he works on to try to make them more human suddenly try to kill him, revealing a secret so vast that it affects every living soul on the planet, can that man be a hero?

On June 30, 1908 an object fell from the sky releasing more energy than a thousand Hiroshima bombs. A Siberian forest was flattened, but the strike left no significant crater. The anomaly came to be known as the Tunguska Event, and scientists have never agreed whether it was the largest meteor strike in recorded history - or something else. Alien Artifacts have been uncovered since the 1908 event, and a new star drive is discovered.

From New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant comes the final book in the terrifying Parasitology series. The outbreak has spread, tearing apart the foundations of society, as implanted tapeworms have turned their human hosts into a seemingly mindless mob. Sal and her family are trapped...